Chapter 39

The shrieks were lost at first in the sound of breaking glass. But the glasses and shards came to rest on the floor, and the screaming continued.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the woman in silver slinking out the front door, quietly. Why would anyone leave right now, when people clearly needed help?

Everyone was frozen for a moment. I sighed as I ran toward the scene. It would be great if someone besides me could leap into action, for once.

It seemed like three women had been injured, one seriously.

“Call an ambulance,” I yelled over my shoulder to Elle, as I reached the noblewoman whose injuries were clearly the most severe.

She was lying in the puddle of champagne and broken glass, and her arm was spurting blood from just above the elbow. I swallowed my nausea and placed my hand firmly on the spot, applying pressure.

“I need a tourniquet!” I shouted over my shoulder. “Can anyone find a first-aid kit?”

I heard nothing but tittering voices behind me. Surely someone could run and find it, but everyone seemed to be frozen.

“Oh, fuck it.” I said, ripping the pink satin belt off my dress. “Someone throw me a spoon, now!”

Elle ran up and held the spoon by my right shoulder. I could see her face, bone pale behind me when I reached up to grab it.

I put the belt around her arm and twisted the spoon into it, tightening it with quick turns. The bleeding slowed and stopped. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“How about that ambulance?” I shouted.

No one answered. Hunter ran up, going straight to Maya.

“What’s wrong, are you hurt?” he asked Maya.

“Hunter,” I said. “Can you make sure the ambulance is on its way and check on the other two injured women? I don’t want to leave her.” I looked down at the woman, who was blinking up at me, breathing shallowly but steadily. “It’s okay. I’ve got you,” I said softly.

“Is that necessary?” Hunter asked. He looked embarrassed, grasping for a way to save the evening. To save face for Maya.

I didn’t speak, just jerked my head down toward the blood around us and raised my eyebrows. He hung his head. He knew I was right. He ran off toward the door, presumably to check whether the ambulance was arriving or not.

“Five minutes,” he said when he came back.

He cleared his throat and walked around, checking the other two women for injuries and asking if anyone else was hurt. They seemed to have surface injuries that he was able to patch with gauze from the first aid kit that had eventually been found.

I looked down. No bleeding from the thin arm below me. My makeshift tourniquet seemed to be holding.

Maya had backed against the nearby wall and sunk down into a ball on the floor, looking shellshocked.

The ambulance crew arrived, and I updated them on the injuries in a calm voice.

“Lucky you were here,” one of the EMTs said to me. “Are you a doctor or something?”

“No,” I said. “Just have a little first aid training. Someone had to do something.”

“Well, she would have bled out if you hadn’t. Thanks for your help.”

I smiled, feeling validated. Of course Hunter didn’t hear. He was kneeling beside Maya, speaking softly to her.

Of course I was the one covered in blood, and she was the one being comforted.

I swayed, suddenly dizzy, then caught myself.

There was more to be done. I coordinated the venue staff, making sure this section of the room was cordoned off while they cleaned the broken glass and champagne from the floor.

I also suggested that the catering staff bring out the next course of appetizers and the band start playing again, as a distraction. A few minutes later, it was like nothing had happened. I breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn’t my event, but I wasn’t sure who was in charge. They didn’t seem to be managing all that well, whoever it was.

I looked up toward the door to meet Adrian’s eyes. I hadn’t seen him earlier. I wondered if he’d just arrived.

I lifted a hand into the air to wave in his direction.

The expression in his eyes was confusing in the situation. I knew this wasn’t the type of event he wanted to attend.

I wasn’t sure why he’d said he was going, though it did see that it was because of me.

But now, he was staring across at me with what looked like admiration. Or even affection.

He walked over, slowly, with a slight sparkle in his eyes.

“Sorry I’m late,” he said. “But in my defense, I didn’t expect ten minutes to make the difference between me arriving to my date covered in blood or not.”

I laughed, but was distracted by one word he’d said. Date. Is that what he thought this was?

Is that what I wanted it to be?

“You know how it goes at these things,” I said coyly.

“I’m sorry I missed it, when I could have helped. I parked just as the ambulances pulled out of the parking lot. Though, it doesn’t seem like you needed anyone’s help. Nicely handled.”

I blushed and smiled more broadly. It was disorienting how good it felt to be so appreciated.

He held out his blazer toward me in one hand.

My brow furrowed. Did he want me to take it to the coat check for him? Couldn’t he do that?

“Unless you have a change of clothes,” he said haltingly. He seemed to have noticed my strange expression. I cocked my head to the side, still not understanding. He continued:

“You do know you’re covered in blood, right?”

I looked down, and burst out with a loud laugh.

“Well, that’s a good look,” I said. To think that I’d been all annoyed earlier that I hadn’t been able to wear a dress in the style I wanted. Now I was a walking display of arterial bleeding.

I froze when I caught the expression on his face. It was earnest and serious, all joking gone.

“You do look good,” he said seriously. “And more importantly the paramedics said you saved that woman’s life.”

I blushed and didn’t answer, but I was then distracted by the voices behind us.

“And have you met Maya? She’s—”

I didn’t hear how Hunter finished introducing her, but did see the skeptical expressions on the faces of the noblewomen he was trying to introduce her to. It seemed that he was trying to distract from her extreme error in knocking over the champagne tower by introducing her to as many people as possible.

They didn’t seem interested.

He led her toward us as I shrugged into Adrian’s blazer and buttoned it up.

“I know that was bad,” Hunter said, “but it seems like people could give her more of a chance.” Neither Adrian nor I spoke. He continued: “Kares, remember how much of a disaster you were at your first event?”

I wasn’t sure if I was more annoyed at him mentioning that, or at the use of the old nickname. I opened my mouth to tell him off, but immediately realized I didn’t really need to.

Adrian’s thunderous face said it all for me.