Page 69 of Sinner's Sacrifice

“I have a look that says that?”

“Yup.”

“Huh.”

The first cop gestured toward the paramedics, and Yvgeny carried Sam over to their vehicle. He climbed up into it with her still in his arms and laid her carefully down on the gurney. He sat next to her head and held one of her hands.

“Um, sir, can you wait outside until we’ve triaged her?” the female paramedic asked.

“No,” Sam said. “Where I go, he goes, or we walk.”

The woman’s mouth pressed tightly together.

“She was assaulted,” Yvgeny said. “I had to talk fast to get her to agree to even this much.”

“Ah,” the paramedic said, relaxing a bit. She looked between them a couple of times and seemed to see something that reassured her. “Okay.” She entered the ambulance and sat at Sam’s feet. “Can I take your vitals?”

“Yes.” Sam held out her arm, only then realizing she had to remove Yvgeny’s jacket for the paramedic to check her blood pressure. Yvgeny helped her with it, but she refused to let go of it, holding it to her chest like a blanket.

After taking her blood pressure, pulse, temperature, and listening to her heart, the paramedic asked, “Will you allow a rape kit to be taken?”

“What? Oh, you think...no. No, he didn’t, I mean,” Sam said. “He was trying to kill me, though I was doing my best to fight him off. Yvgeny got the backdoor open before he did more than this.” She angled her head up and away so the other woman could see the bruises already darkening there.

“Okay,” the paramedic said. “If you’re sure. You have some scrapes and bruises. Can we take you to a hospital to get those looked after?”

“No,” Sam said. “I have everything I need to take care of all that at...home.”

“You’re a nurse?” the paramedic asked.

“Paramedic,” Sam replied, with a tired smile.

The other woman nodded. “Okay, you’re good to go.”

Yvgeny helped Sam into his jacket again, and as soon as she was covered with it, he picked her up and walked out of the ambulance.

“Put me down,” she hissed at him.

“Don’t worry, darling, I’m quite comfortable.”

“Do you have to be irritating right now?” she asked.

“I’m trying very hard to be good. Having my hands busy is helping.”

She studied his face for a moment. “Okay. Fine. You do look a bit stabby still.”

“Stabby?”

She shrugged. “It’s probably a good thing you don’t have a knife handy.”

Quite a large crowd had gathered around the accident site. More police had arrived and a fire truck. Yvgeny scanned the crowd, looking for familiar faces, and spotted Mason heading toward him.

Yvgeny moved to meet him, but the original cop stepped in his way. “We need to get your statements,” he began.

“Of course, officer,” Yvgeny said. “As soon as I get my girlfriend to a safe location.”

“The precinct—”

“No,” Yvgeny began in a tone that started out tired. “I’m taking her home.” By the time he got to home, his tone had hardened into granite.

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