30. Ian

Ian cursed as the call went to Maddie's voicemail. Again. He had called her earlier, and she hadn't answered, so he'd sent her a text. She still hadn't responded and now, it was nearly seven in the evening. He was starting to freak out. He called her three times in a row without an answer. Hanging up before the voicemail beeped, Ian knew that something must be wrong, but he had no idea what it could be.

Opening his laptop, he pulled up the camera feed for his house. He had cameras all around the front and back of the house as well as the garage. He looked through the footage and saw that the Range Rover and his Audi were both parked in the garage, and he didn't see anyone come or go from the house since he'd left for the airport.

At first, he'd thought that maybe she had just taken a nap and didn't hear her phone ring since she was a deep sleeper, but she wouldn't likely sleep for over four hours. And if she had been napping for that long, there was something wrong.

Picking up his phone, he called Damian.

"Yeah?"

"I need an urgent favor. I'm in California, and Maddie isn't answering her phone. I need you to go to my house and make sure she's okay and see what's going on."

"When is the last time you talked to her? Is there a reason you're worried that I should know about?" he asked.

Ian sighed, "I talked to her on the phone at one. I tried calling her around three, and she didn't answer, so I texted her, but no response. I just called her three times in a row, and no answer. She hasn't left the house since I left for the airport."

He could hear movement on the other side of the phone, and then it sounded like Damian slammed his truck door shut and started the engine.

"I'm on my way. I'm about twenty minutes out. I'll call you back."

Damian ended the call before Ian could say anything more. He knew Damian was taking it as seriously as Ian, and that's why he had called him. It was in the man's nature to protect and do whatever it took to make sure the people in his care were safe. It's why he was as successful as he was. He would never be the almost-brother that Cameron had been, but he was a damn good friend.

Ian paced his hotel room and waited for a callback. He had half a mind to head to the airport and jump on the next plane, but he could be totally overreacting, and Maddie could be in Little space, completely oblivious to her phone, or she could be soaking in the tub or something. Not that she wouldn't be in trouble for not having her phone with her and answering it or responding to him within a respectable timeframe.

As soon as his phone started ringing and he saw Damian's name on the caller ID, he picked up.

"Is she okay?"

"No one is answering the door, and I'm not hearing any movement inside. Are you sure she's home?"

"I checked all my camera feeds, and there wasn't anything on any camera showing that she'd gone out. Both cars are still in the garage too. Go inside through the garage."

Ian opened the app for his garage and pressed the button to open the door for Damian automatically.

"Going in," Damian said in a low voice.

"Maddie? You here? It's Damian," he called out.

Ian listened, hoping to hear her voice respond to Damian calling out for her, but no response came.

"Search the house. Go in every fucking room," he demanded.

"On it."

"Maddie, it's Damian. If you're here, let me know, please," Damian said.

The longer Ian listened to the rustling of Damian moving around on the other end of the phone, the more his stomach tightened, and he felt as though he was going to explode.

"Fuck. Shit. Maddie! Fuck, honey, Maddie, can you hear me?" Damian said in a rush.

"What the fuck is going on?" Ian yelled into the phone.

"Maddie, wake up for me, honey. Maddie!"

"Damian, what the fuck is going on? What's wrong?"

He heard more rustling, and with each passing second of not knowing what was happening, Ian felt like he was losing control.

"Ian, she hit her head on the tub or something. She's unconscious and bleeding, but she still has a pulse. It's weak, though. Call an ambulance and tell them to hurry the fuck up. I need to put pressure on her wound."

Damian's sounded like a drill sergeant. Not that Ian cared. He was too busy calling 911 from the hotel room phone while listening to Damian try to talk to Maddie in the background of their call.

"Yeah, I need an ambulance sent to my house in Seattle, Washington immediately. My girlfriend fell and hit her head and is unconscious."

Ian rattled off his name and address and waited while the dispatch connected to Seattle. Meanwhile, Damian was talking softly to Maddie, trying to wake her up.

Fuck!

"Sir, I have an ambulance on their way, but they are about thirty minutes out. It's the closest available ambulance."

"She can't fucking wait that long!" he roared into the phone.

The dispatch started talking, but Ian slammed the phone down and put his cell phone up to his ear again.

"Damian, you need to get her to the hospital. The ambulance is too far out," he said as he began throwing all his belongings into his suitcase.

He needed to get home. He needed to get to Maddie. She needed him, and fuck; he needed her.

"Roger that. I'll call you back from the truck. I need to get her loaded up," Damian said before hanging up.

Ian called the lobby and asked for a car right away. The hotel was a luxurious ritz-type hotel with limousines and town cars lined up in the front for guests to get rides whenever they needed. They let him know there would be a car waiting for him as soon as he got downstairs. Grabbing his suitcase and the jewelry box off the desk, Ian left his room and ran down the fire exit stairs, two at a time.

As soon as he got into the back of a town car and gave the driver instructions to get to the airport as fast as fucking possible, his phone rang.

"How is she?" he demanded.

He could hear Damian let out a deep breath.

"She isn't waking up, but she moaned and whimpered a few times as I picked her up. She's still bleeding a lot though."

"I'm heading to the airport now. Which hospital are you taking her to?"

"Heading to Harborview Medical, but I don't think you should get on a plane just yet in case any decisions need to be made."

Ian exploded, "There aren't going to be any fucking decisions made because she is going to be just fine!"

"Look, I know you're upset, and I understand it, I understand how scared you are right now, but you need to think about this rationally. She has a head injury. They may need to ask for a decision on whether to put her into sedation or surgery or whatever. That means you need to be on the ground with phone availability."

He knew Damian was right, and he fucking hated it. He hated that he was so far away. One thing was for sure, she was never staying home again if he had to travel for work. She would be lucky if he even went into the office to work anymore. Maybe he would attach a leash to her to make sure she was always near him so he could watch over her. She would kick him in the balls if he tried to do something like that, but it was a small price to pay for keeping her safe.

He sighed, "Yeah. Fuck. I know. Fine. I'm going to the airport though and I'll wait there until it's figured out. Meanwhile, I'm going to see if I can get a private jet lined up so I can get there quicker once I can."

"Got it. I'm pulling up to the E.R. now, I'll call you back in a few."

The line went dead, and Ian felt completely helpless and at a loss. He could not lose Madison. She was his everything. How the fuck had she hit her head? Thoughts and questions swarmed his head as the car moved through the busy city streets toward LAX.

As soon as he got to the airport, he went to customer service and asked for a private business room and asked for them to find a private jet. The woman smiled politely and searched in her computer while trying to make conversation with him. He ignored her questions and kept checking his phone to make sure he didn't miss a call from Damian.

The woman gave him a key card for a private business suite in the airport and told him she would let him know as soon as she found a private jet for him. He smiled and gave her a sharp nod before going to find the suite. As soon as he was inside, he dropped his suitcase and began to pace. He hated waiting. It was torture, especially when it was about the wellbeing of his little girl.

It only took a few minutes before the customer service woman came and knocked on the door to let him know there was a private plane on standby for him whenever he was ready to go.

Forty minutes passed before his phone rang again. He snatched it up and answered it.

"Tell me she's okay."

Damian sighed, "She's as okay as she can be right now. They got the bleeding stopped, and she has been coming in and out of consciousness. They are working on getting her vitals back to normal and seeing if anything needs to be done besides stitches."

Thank God!

"Is she talking?"

"The doctor said that they gave her some light sedatives to keep her comfortable, so when she's awake, she is too out of it to speak. You get a plane lined up?"

"Yeah, it's on standby until I can leave. I'm going to go get boarded, and if nothing changes with Maddie by the time I'm on the plane, I'm flying home."

"Okay. They are making me wait in the emergency room until they are done examining her, but I'm not going anywhere."

"Thanks, Damian. I owe you my life."

"No, you don't. That's what friends do. And besides, I would do anything to help a Little in danger."