Present

We pulled into the driveway of the estate that Jacques had given me the address to. I saw Sierra's Venom, and a hatchback parked in front of the mansion. I had already jumped out of Leigh's car before it even came to a full stop. Waiting for even another second could mean that she was dead. I couldn't wait any longer. As I ran to the front door of the mansion, I could hear the Venom still running.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who had been in a rush.

The second I made it through the open front doors, I started shouting.

"Sierra!" My voice was desperate since the mansion was dead silent. Silence was bad when I was trying to find the love of my life alive.

"Sierra!" I shouted again, and my entire brain seemed to falter in function. If she was unconscious then she wouldn't be able to respond and I was wasting time. I had to move now. Where would they be? If Queen had come here to feel safe, she probably ran to a bedroom, which according to the floor plan I found were all up the stairs.

"I'm coming." I said to myself, projecting the words to Sierra as if she would hear them. I checked each door, looking in each room that was both sparsely and expensively furnished. This place was haunting, being unlived in and too expansive. I kept running through the mansion of nightmares until I came across the right room.

There were two unmoving bodies, both with a lot of blood coming from them. I walked in slowly, not trusting the lack of movement from the closest body. The blonde hair was a giveaway that it was Queen, and I needed to make sure she was dead before I just walked directly in front of her. I kept my distance from her, my gun aimed at her skull just in case, but when I came around her front, I saw the lack of life in her open eyes. The massive pool of blood that had come from a wound in her neck.

She was dead. There was no mistaking it.

With that peace of mind, I turned around to the other unmoving body, sprinting to their side. The wound that all the blood was coming from was on her back... on her spine.

"Sierra." I whispered her name as I put my fingers against her veins in her throat, hoping to god there was a pulse. There was a faint one, and now I knew it was there. I could see her chest moving so slightly to show she was still breathing. I looked at the floor again, seeing the streaks of blood that lead to where she was now, from where I imagined she had been stabbed. Her hand was resting against the footboard of the bed, which was when I noticed the overhanging blanket. She had been trying to find something that she could use to stop her bleeding, or at least slow it.

I couldn't imagine the pain that she was in before she fell unconscious, and I didn't know how to move her without potentially making the injury worse.

"Shit." I swore, running a hand over my face, which made my skin feel wet... why did my face feel wet? I looked down at my hand, which was red from blood. Oh, that's why.

What the fuck was I supposed to do?

I heard footsteps echo around me in the room, and I looked up to see Leigh looking down at me with panic in his eyes.

"Is she alive?!" He shouted, and all I could do was nod. "We have to get her to a hospital."

"Her back..." I trailed off, my hand absentmindedly already back on her wound, placing pressure against it. But what if that made it worse? What if this was wrong? What is pressure against a spinal injury made that injury worse?

"Fuck... I..."

"We need to call an ambulance, get her to a hospital where we can pay them off for treating her and not putting her on the books." I heard a female voice say. Somewhere deep down, I knew it was Alexis, but her calm voice was all I needed to shut off completely. How could she be calm, though? Sierra might die. Or never walk again if she survived. "Esmond, keep the pressure on there." I heard her voice again. I nodded slowly, but my focus was on Sierra's pale face. How much of the blood on the floor was hers? I heard material ripping and felt a gentle hand touch my wrist, lifting my hand up before placing it back down with some material underneath it. Maybe Alexis had ripped up some of the sheets to use. That would make sense.

"Esmond..." Her voice was still calm. "Esmond, look at me." But even her voice wasn't enough to make me look away from Sierra. How much of this was my fault? "None of it is your fault, Esmond." Alexis said next. That was when I looked at her, because how did she know what I was thinking? Unless I actually spoke out loud. Maybe I had spoken out loud. I don't think I would know if I had at this point. It's as if I wasn't even in my body right now, but I knew I had to be. I was the one keeping the pressure on Sierra's wound.

"Esmond, she's going to be okay. I promise." Alexis said, holding my eyes.

"You can't... you can't promise that." I said, and I know I said it because her eyes flicked away from me towards Sierra for a second.

"I can, because I don't break my promises and Max said she would never leave me alone with the other three idiots again."

"How are you so calm?" I asked. I needed to know because I think the only thing keeping me from screaming and tearing apart this room was the fact I had to keep the pressure on Sierra's back. Maybe that's why Alexis kept me here, kept my hand on the wound, to keep me grounded and stop me from losing my sanity.

"Because I went through war, and I saw a lot worse than this." Alexis said, and I nodded slowly. "She's going to be okay." She said, her eyes finally breaking away from me as she looked down at Sierra's face and tucked the hair covering Sierra's cheek behind her ear. Even with her calmness, her familiarity with the situation at hand, I still heard her voice break as she spoke again.

"She has to be okay."