Page 88 of Safe With You

Someone called their names. She looked over to see Tom, Evelyn, and Becca rushing up to them. Despite the flurry of questions and exclamations, Katie’s mind reeled too much to respond. Somewhere in the chaos, another squad car had shown up. The second officer placed Christopher in his vehicle while Eric strode toward them.

He eyed Ethan. “I’ll call for an ambulance.”

But Tom held up his hand to stop him and turned to Evelyn. “It will be faster if you take him in. We’ll take care of things here and follow as soon as we can.”

Katie pointed Evelyn toward the cottage, her voice breaking loose. “We can take my car.” The sooner Ethan had medical help, the better. For all she knew, he could be bleeding internally.

She rushed ahead of them for her keys. In the kitchen, she yanked open a drawer and grabbed a couple of old hand towels.

Back outside, Evelyn helped Ethan into the passenger seat, and Katie handed her the towels. She pressed one to his stomach and used the other to cover his arm. “Try to keep pressure on the wounds as best you can to stop the bleeding.”

If she was worried, her calm voice didn’t reveal it. She shut the door and turned to Katie, her gaze doing a quick sweep. “Are you hurt?”

Only now did Katie take stock of herself. Her throat and chest still burned, and she was vaguely aware that her wrist throbbed, but she shook her head. “Not badly, no.”

“Good.” She touched Katie’s shoulder gently before rounding the car.

Katie opened the door to get into the back seat but paused, her gaze falling on Becca, Tom, and Eric. “Christopher was waiting for me in the cottage. I don’t know how he got in.” A flush of cold washed through her, pooling in her stomach. “I don’t know where O’Malley is.”

What if Christopher had hurt or killed him? There was no telling how long he’d been inside waiting for her.

Tom’s expression communicated understanding. “We’ll find him. You go.”

Katie nodded. No matter what had happened, she needed to stay with Ethan.

Inside the car, she slid to the middle to see him better as Evelyn pulled away from the cottage. He breathed raggedly, though she couldn’t tell if it was still the adrenaline over what had happened or from pain. She reached to put her hand on his arm.

He looked over his shoulder at her. “I’ll be all right.”

She squeezed his arm, praying that was true. Then she caught Evelyn’s gaze in the rearview mirror, her expression one of motherly understanding.

“He will be.”

Katie forced herself to nod. Surely, she would know. She’d seen much worse injuries in the ER. Still, tears bit at Katie’s eyes and burned the back of her throat. With effort, she swallowed them down. She had to keep it together for now, but the dam would break eventually. She just prayed Ethan would be all right and at her side when it did.

Though the ride to the hospital passed in a blur, it still felt like forever before they finally pulled in near the emergency room doors. Katie crawled out, and she and Evelyn helped Ethan out of the car. Blood had seeped through the towels, and Katie fought to keep the panicky sensation in her chest from growing.

Their entrance into the hospital set off a flurry in which Evelyn explained what had happened. Just before a nurse hurried Ethan to an examination room, he turned to his mom.

“Stay with Katie. Don’t leave her alone.”

“I won’t,” she assured him.

The tears almost came then as Katie watched him walk away. But that cold numbness crept over her again, and everything felt like too much to handle. She was a helpless little girl again, unable to stop bad things from happening.

An arm wrapped around her, and she flinched, realizing she’d just been staring at the closed door to the hall where Ethan had disappeared. Evelyn held her close, and somewhere in however many seconds or minutes had passed, another nurse approached them.

This time, they brought Katie to an examination room. Just like she’d promised Ethan, Evelyn didn’t leave her side. A doctor listened to her breathing, examined her throat, and X-rayed her wrist. It turned out to be only sprained and not broken. Another nurse brought Katie a pair of scrub pants and a sweatshirt to change out of her wet clothes, which she’d begun to shiver in.

When they finally let her return to the waiting room, Becca, Tom, and Eric were waiting there. Katie had hoped Ethan would be too, but they had not received word on his condition.

Stomach aching, she gulped and looked at Tom. “O’Malley?”

“Don’t worry, he’s all right.”

She released a huge breath, and he continued, “We found him hiding upstairs, unharmed.”

Thank God. Christopher could have done such awful things to him.

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