I turn my iPhone on and wait impatiently for it to wake up. When it finally does, I have twenty-two texts.

Twenty-two.

They’re all from Jill, Cara, and the guys. Nothing from Lauren, and my blood runs cold when I start from the beginning and begin to read them.

Jill: Lo didn’t come to coffee. Know where she is?

Cara: J and I are gonna go check on Lo. She’s 30 mins late.

Jill: We need you, Ty! Lo’s hurt. Going to hospital.

Josh: Man, check your phone. Come to the hospital ASAP.

I’m running toward my house now, cursing myself for walking to work today. I continue to check messages as I run, not paying attention to what’s happening around me.

It’s a wonder I don’t either get hit by a car or fall on my ass.

What the fuck has happened to Lo?

Jill: Call me! Now!

My phone rings in my hand. It’s Zack.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Thank God you’re out of court.” Zack’s voice is low and tight. “You need to come to the hospital, man. Lauren’s been hurt.”

“How bad?” I unlock the Jeep and throw my shit in the backseat, start it up, and peel out of my driveway.

“Bad. The girls found her. They went to her place to check on her when she didn’t show up for coffee. Since we’ve been at the hospital, they won’t let us back to see her because we’re not her family.” Zack’s voice is filled with frustration.

“They’ll let me in.”

“How?”

“I’ll lie and say she’s my fiancée.” It’s not much of a lie anyway, since I plan to make her exactly that as soon as she’ll say yes. “I’m almost there. Where are you?”

“ICU.”

I hang up and shove my phone in my pocket as I find parking and run into the hospital. The ICU is easy to find. This hospital isn’t that big, and I find the whole gang sitting in the waiting room.

“Ty!” Jill jumps up and runs to me, throws her arms around me, and lets loose with a long sob.

“Hold on, sweetheart.” I pass her off to Zack, who wraps his arm around her and pats her back as she cries into his chest and I turn to the receptionist. “Lauren Cunningham, please.”

“Are you family?”

“I’m Ty Sullivan, her fiancé.”

“I’ll call back to the doctor. He’ll come out to you in a few moments.”

I nod and back away, and Jill throws herself back into my arms.

“Hey, princess, I need you to calm down and tell me what happened.”

“Jack almost killed her,” she cries, dabbing at the tears coming out of her eyes.

“What?” I jerk my gaze up to Zack and Josh, who both nod.

“They’ve already arrested him,” Josh confirms. “He bragged all about it to Misty, and she may be a bitch, but she had the brains to call the cops.”

“When we got to Lo’s house,” Cara begins, her own eyes red from shedding tears, “her door was standing wide-open. When we went inside, we found her in her office, beaten bloody. The room was torn apart.”

“It was so much worse than anything Dad ever pulled, Ty. A hundred times worse,” Jill whispers, and clenches her eyes shut against horrible memories from our childhood.

“Where is the doctor?” I pace back and forth, watching for the man to come out of the door that leads to the patient rooms. I need to see her. I need to hold her, make sure she’s whole.

I need her.

“She was breathing, but she never woke up while we were with her,” Jill adds.

“What time was this?” I ask as I pull my phone out of my pocket and text a note to Cary, asking him to take care of court for me for the afternoon.

“Around eight,” Cara responds softly.

Shit, it’s noon now! “When did he . . . ?” I’m unable to complete the thought.

“We don’t know,” Cara replies. “The blood was dried on her face when we got there, so she’d been lying there for a while.”

My heart drops to my knees. Jesus, she was lying on the ground, hurt, and I wasn’t there to stop it.

To protect her.

“Stop it, man.” Zack plants his hand on my shoulder. “This isn’t your fault.”

I shake my head and walk away, shoving my hand through my hair. “I need to see her.”

A tall gray-haired man in a long white lab coat walks into the waiting room, holding a chart. “Mr. Sullivan?”

“Yes, that’s me. Call me Ty.”

“I’m Dr. Black. Would you like to come somewhere private to discuss your fiancée’s condition?”

“No.” I shake my head. “We can talk about it with this group of people. They’re our family.”

“Okay.” He nods. “Lauren has been severely beaten, Ty. Her eyes are both swollen shut and her nose is broken.”

My hands fist at my sides and blood rushes to my head. I drop into a seat, my legs unable to continue holding me, as the doctor continues.

“She was obviously kicked in her side and back, and she is lucky to just be bruised. He didn’t break her ribs. We were worried about her kidneys, but the MRI didn’t show any bleeding.” Dr. Black sighs and sits down next to me. “The most concerning injury is her head.”

“What happened to her head?” I whisper.

“I think he must have either hit her in the back of the head with something hard, like a bat, or he could have slammed her head against the floor.” The doctor swallows hard, obviously upset by Lo’s condition. “Her skull is fractured, and her brain is swollen. That’s why she hasn’t woken up. Her body’s automatic defense mechanism kicked in and shut down, trying to recover on its own.”