“Shit, Lachlan, you look like you’re about to pass out.” Mac’s voice sounded far away even though the man was right beside him.
He cut him a look. Mac’s features were taut, his own face peaky. “I’m all right,” Lachlan managed. “Just keep driving.”
All his life, he’d worried his family was cursed, and when Thane’s wife died, that was it. Lachlan was sure of it. Adair men were doomed to watch the women they loved die. His grandfather was the only one in generations to escape that fate, but Lachlan found it hard to imagine he’d ever be that lucky. Perhaps it was punishment for the sins of his ancestors who, from all accounts, were ruthless, self-involved bastards. Many of the landed gentry were back then.
If Robyn died—
A harsh lurch of nausea had him rearing back in the passenger seat. He slammed his eyes closed and took a couple deep breaths. Man up, Lachlan! he yelled inwardly. If Robyn … Mac would need him.
Tears of fury clogged his throat.
Who was he kidding?
If Robyn died, he’d want to die with her.
It was true.
He was just like his emotionally weak father after all.
“She’s not dead,” Mac bit out angrily, and for a moment, Lachlan wondered if he’d spoken out loud. “My daughter is not dead, so stop looking like you’re going to her funeral.”
Lachlan nodded sharply and tried to mask his feelings.
All he kept hearing over and over was Eredine’s voice.
“Ada and I were worried, so we followed her. She’d swerved off the road. Hit a tree. The paramedics just got her out. She’s unconscious. They’re taking her to Inverness. Lachlan … we passed a truck on the road, couldn’t miss him on those tracks … he was wearing a mask. That’s what alerted us—”
The fucker.
“Coward couldn’t fight her … so he drove her off the road,” he muttered darkly to himself.
“We don’t know that yet.” Mac heard him. “We’ll find out when Robyn tells us. And she will tell us. I feel it in my gut, Lachlan. My girl is fine.”
Please let his bloody gut be right.
When they pulled into a space at the hospital, Lachlan jumped out before the engine was off and then swayed against the car as the world tilted.
Jesus Christ.
“Lachlan, you all right?” Mac was at his side, bristling with concern and impatience.
Lachlan waved him off and pushed him toward the hospital main entrance. Attempting to shake off his debilitating dread, he followed Mac in, ignoring the nurse at the reception and her wide-eyed stare when he appeared at his friend’s back.
“Uh …” She reluctantly dragged her eyes off Lachlan. “Let me check.” She typed into the computer. “Robyn Penhaligon. Yes, she was brought in forty minutes ago and is currently in diagnostics.” She gestured to double doors to their right. “Just give your name at reception and they’ll let you know when you can see her.”
“Diagnostics,” Mac said as they marched toward the doors. “That’s good. They’re just checking her over.”
Lachlan wouldn’t get his hopes up until he saw her for himself.
They didn’t need to give her name at reception. As soon as they walked into the waiting area, Eredine hurried across the room and threw her arms around him.
He squeezed her tight, grateful she was okay and that she’d had the sense to follow Robyn.
Eredine hugged Mac next, and one of his security team, Ada Renshaw, crossed the room to join them. “Sir, Ms. Penhaligon regained consciousness in the ambulance. They’re just testing her vitals and have taken her in for an MRI.”
Mac sagged at his side. “She’s okay.”
“Miraculously, it looks that way.”
His friend slumped into a free chair next to Eredine, and Lachlan couldn’t help but do the same. Limbs still trembling, he didn’t feel a hundred percent.
A bag of salted peanuts appeared in front of his face at some point as they waited. He looked up and saw Mac holding it out to him, expression grim.
Lachlan scowled.
Mac waved the bag at him determinedly. “You had a shock. And you’re shaking. Your blood pressure more than likely dropped. Eat.”
The thought of eating nauseated him, but he took the nuts because he knew Mac might force-feed him otherwise. A few minutes after demolishing the bag, he realized the bastard had been right when he started to feel less light-headed.
“Robyn Penhaligon’s family?” a nurse said as she approached the waiting room.
Lachlan and Mac shot to their feet.
“I’m her dad.” Mac moved toward the nurse.
She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Her father?”
Jaw muscle ticking with annoyance, he nodded. “Teen dad, at your service. Now can I see my bloody daughter?”
The nurse nodded, expression apologetic, then looked beyond him to Lachlan. “Lachlan Adair.” She recognized him. “Oh. Well, are you related to Ms. Penhaligon?”
“She’s my better half,” he uttered hoarsely.
It was just a saying, something people usually called their spouses.
That’s what the nurse took it to mean, unable to hide her shock that Lachlan Adair was seriously involved with someone and it hadn’t been splashed all over the Scottish tabloids.
But he’d said those words because he meant them.
Robyn wasn’t just under his skin. She made him whole in a way he hadn’t been since he was a boy.
As the realization sunk deep into his soul, he followed the nurse and Mac, listening intently as the nurse said, “Your wife and daughter is recovering from a concussion, most likely caused by impact with the car’s airbag. She’s complained of tenderness in her neck and shoulders, her ribs, and there’s some bruising on her shins from the impact with the dashboard, but otherwise she’s in good health. The MRI showed no signs of intracranial bleeding, so all we need to do is keep an eye on her concussion. We advise an overnight stay for observation.”
Robyn was alive and well.
He exhaled heavily, relief making his knees shake as they strode onto a ward.
“I’d like her moved to a private room.” He found his voice.
“I’ll need to check if we have any available.”
“I’ll pay extra.”
The nurse grimaced over her shoulder. “Mr. Adair, this is an NHS hospital. If we need the private room for a sicker patient, they’re prioritized regardless of who you are or what you’re willing to pay.”
Well, that was him told. “Give her the room, I’ll pay for it, even if you have to move her out of it for someone else.”
She nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” Stopping at the last bed on the ward, the nurse pulled back the surrounding curtain, and there she was.
Robyn.
She looked up at them from the bed, no sign of damage except for a paleness to her skin and shadows under her eyes.
His knees almost gave out.
And then she opened her mouth and announced angrily, “That fucker drove me off the road!”
It seemed to take hours for everyone to disperse from the private room he’d acquired for Robyn. While they waited for the police to arrive, Eredine and Ada were allowed in to see her so she could thank them for rescuing her.