Page 95 of Shelter for Morgan

"Get us the fuck out of here!"

The frame screeched again and the door tore off of the car.

Rhett pulled his jacket away from her and looked out into the face of the EMTs who had replaced the firefighters outside of the car.

"She was out when we found her. She regained consciousness. And was coherent and communicating. I heard wet sounds in her lungs and then... then she-"

"Lost consciousness?" Someone finished for him.

He nodded and a moment later, he was helping them lift her from the mangled heap of her car.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

RHETT

They let him ride in the ambulance to Sagebrush Hospital. The whole ride there he kept his mind off of whatever the EMT was transmitting to the hospital about Morgan. He concentrated on holding her hand and wiling her to wake up.

He just wanted her to know that he was there.

That he was holding onto her.

That he wasn’t going to let go.

It wasn’t until they were at the Emergency Room that he found himself casting about. The moment they took her into the trauma center and he was left standing alone, he found himself struggling to hold himself together.

The rock that everyone saw him as, was crumbling under the surface.

The others were coming in the truck if other calls didn’t come through.

And even if they didn’t have calls, they’d be on site cleaning up glass and metal for a bit before they could leave.

Deputy Hayden Hatcher had been called to the scene and he knew she was already putting out a call to every business along the route from the school to the scene of the accident looking for sources of security footage. That would take a bit to compile. And then they’d have to track down the man responsible.

Rhett wanted to track him down, too.

He’d never been a man of violence, more of a man who wanted to heal, but if something happened to Morgan that couldn’t be fixed, he couldn’t promise to remain the same man.

“Sir?”

He turned to look at the nurse. “Yes?”

“You came in with Miss Rafferty?”

He nodded.

“We have her things…” She looked a little uncomfortable when she lifted up the bag in her hand. “We can just leave it with her and transfer it to her room-”

“I’ll take it.” He put out his hand and took the bag, feeling how light it was. Rhett wasn’t sure what he expected when he took hold of it. It looked like it held the clothes that she’d been wearing when she’d left for work that morning. He remembered when she’d walked out the door wearing them, a smile on her face.

He looked at the nurse again, remembering his manners. “Thank you.”

The look she gave him was a tense one as if she was afraid to show her feelings too easily on her face. “Someone will be out as soon as we have any news.”

Rhett nodded, but that was all he could offer at the moment.

He moved to the side of the room and put his back to the wall and felt the weight of the bag as if it had doubled or tripled in a few moments.

It was then that his phone trilled in his pocket.

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