Page 96 of To Have and to Hold

Emme remained wrapped in my blazer, her bare legs hanging loosely over my forearm, her head buried in my collarbone. Her tangled raven hair obscured her face enough so she wouldn’t feel the invasion of flashing lights and targeted eyes as I made our way down the stoop and into the lawn.

For the second time that night, police vehicles were strewn about the road with an ambulance parked at the center, giving the neighbors a hell of a heart attack.

Two EMTs scurried over to us, one gesturing at me to let Emme go and release her into the stretcher he dragged behind him. One cutting glare from me and he retreated, pulling the stretcher in front of him so I could tenderly set her down. She resisted the release, the meager strength that remained anchoring me by the neck.

“You can let go,” I said into her ear. The small hairs there brushed against my lips. “I’m not leaving.”

Her arms slid down and she clenched the side of the stretcher with her uninjured hand, her head rising. Glimmering, crystal blue eyes held mine, but there were flaws underneath now, cracks against the diamonds. I wiped the wet shimmer away with my thumb. “I promise.”

Emme found my hand. “I need to…to hang on.”

I squeezed. “Hold as tight as you like.”

“Spence!” Knox ran up to us, about to finish his statement. Then he saw Emme and said to her, “I didn’t mean to grab you the way I did. You had the gun and…”

“Sorry, guys,” the EMT, a head smaller than both Knox and I, interceded. “We gotta take her to the hospital.”

“We can do this later,” I said to Knox.

“I did tackle you,” Emme said to Knox through a careful tilt of her lips. “Then kneed you in the balls.”

Knox’s mouth cracked wide. “Don’t be spreading that around.”

They wheeled her into the ambulance and I moved to follow. Knox’s hand stopped me. “They need us to stay behind for questioning.”

“Hell, no.”

“Spence, they have to get a statement from you.”

“Then they can take it at the hospital.” I added, before Knox could demand otherwise, “She is the priority, and she asked me not to leave her. I’m not going to do that to Emme.”

Knox appeared to want to say something, a twist of pessimism narrowing his gaze, but thought better of it. “I’ll send a detective to the hospital. A few will be there anyway, taking Emme’s statement when she’s ready.”

“Good,” I said. Then as an afterthought, “Thank you.”

The ambulance doors slammed shut behind us once I swooped in, and Knox watched our departure on the street, hands tucked in his pockets while silent blues and reds weaved circular patterns within the furtive scene around him.

The rustling inside the vehicle pulled me away from Knox. IVs and tubing were being pushed into Emme’s arm.

The smaller EMT noticed my concern. “For hydration,” he said. “They’ll give anything else she needs at the hospital.”

I nodded, but was drawn to Emme. She sat upright, staring unseeingly out the ambulance windows, her right arm crooked against her abdomen.

“I got away,” she murmured. The skinny EMT swooped an oxygen mask over her mouth and that was the last thing she said. I slid closer on the small bench, hunching so I’d be out of the way of the EMTs and their devices. Emme laid down on her back after some quiet coaxing, and I stroked her hair. With slow, unhurried sweetness, I eased her enough that her eyes fluttered closed.

“She’s in shock,” the EMT said next to me.

I tore my attention away from Emme long enough to answer dryly, “I’d never have noticed.”

#

The hospital met Emme’s arrival with a flurry and ushered her away the instant her stretcher’s wheels hit linoleum. I poked around at the sidelines until a rather shrewd nurse among many noticed and strong-armed me out into the hallway.

“Stay out here, sir. We’ll tell you any news.” She surveyed me head to toe. “If you’re family.”

“I am,” I said without thinking.

“I understand this is a trying time.” She guided me by the arm to a waiting room close by. “And it’s not easy. We will do everything we can to make her comfortable, okay?”

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