Page 50 of Rent Free

“What?” I squawked.

“A baby!” she repeated. “And do you want to know how he found out?”

I hurried to my purse, threw the cross-body strap over my shoulder, and asked, “How?”

I hurried to my car after locking up, thankful that everything was electronic now that we’d moved to the new place.

Once I was in my car the Bluetooth kicked in, momentarily stealing Maven’s explanation.

“…locked in a hot car!” Maven screeched.

I put it into drive and was halfway out into the lane when I nearly came to a stop at Maven’s words.

I had to force myself to go so I wouldn’t get hit, but my voice wasn’t anywhere near as calm when I said, “Repeat that.”

“Atlas got a call today while he was covering Quaid’s shift. He was across the street for an hour for his lunch break when he was about to go back on shift. He got a call about a child locked in a hot car,” she repeated.

My stomach sank.

A child locked in a car.

Every year dozens of children died because of that very thing.

It was the most miserable death in existence.

“How do you forget about your child?” I asked, aghast.

“I don’t know,” Maven said. “So he gets there, pulls the baby out, goes into the store and starts to cool him down, and he’s sick-sick. Vomiting. Chills. Clammy. Then his ex-girlfriend from a couple years ago walks up and says ‘my baby!’ and everything clicks for him.”

Holy shit.

“One of the officers who arrived on scene heard him make the connection. He clarified it, then called Quaid because he’s his sergeant and might want to know,” she explains.

I was halfway to the hospital now and driving fast.

I prayed that I didn’t get pulled over.

“I’m going to him now.”

I arrived at the hospital in half the time it should’ve taken me.

I was lucky that there wasn’t a single cop in sight.

Or, if they did see me, they chose to let me go because I was going that fast.

I’d pushed the limits of my car, weaving in and out of traffic.

I was in such a panic because I felt, so strongly, that Atlas needed me there or something bad was going to happen.

I just… I had to be there.

I couldn’t explain why.

I followed the commotion—a cop having a kid in the hospital after being the one to rescue him was a big damn deal—and found a few police officers lingering in the hallway outside of an exam room.

The moment I saw him, my heart stopped.

He looked broken. Like a shell of the man I knew him to be.

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