Page 183 of On The Rocks

She was fine.

She was okay.

Paramedics came in next as I held onto her. They uncuffed Irene and I tensed.

Intellectually, I knew she wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon. She was smaller than Lennon in weight so the drugs should keep her down, but the tiny voice in the back of my head that had watched too many horror movies was screaming,She’s going to get up!

The Sheriff handcuffed one of her hands to the stretcher.

“Is that necessary?” the female paramedic asked.

“Yes,” I said from the couch. “Definitely.”

The older officer glanced at me, then to the younger one. “You ride in the ambulance with them. I want her under watch at the hospital.”

“Are you sure, Hank?”

“I’ll get the details and meet you there, but we want this by the book.”

Then I realized it was the same man that I’d made the report with. At least he was taking our concerns more seriously now.

When the paramedic took Irene away, Hank took a seat and pulled out a small notebook. “Who’s going to tell me what went on here?”

I rocked Lennon. “Hope you’ve got more paper.”

Hank cleared his throat. “Maybe we should go with this instead.” He pulled out a recorder and set it on the coffee table in front of me. “Let’s start from the beginning.”

I recounted the night. Eventually, Baron got up and sat in the other chair near my record player. He added a few things until a picture formed.

Lennon slowly gave her own recount of what happened to her. I held her tighter when she told the cop how Irene had kidnapped her from the taproom parking lot.

God, I’d been right there.

“I should have walked you to your Jeep,” I whispered against her hair.

She gripped my shirt. “Not your fault.”

Baron steepled his fingers, touching his lips, simply staring straight ahead.

Kain stood guard behind the couch and squeezed my shoulder. Justin and Beckett were outside talking on phones. I imagined the news would be all over the orchard by sunrise.

Hank bent forward to stop the recorder. “I don’t even know what to say.”

“Me neither,” I said with a hollow laugh. “I need to get her to the hospital.”

“No way.” She sat up. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“You don’t know what she gave you.”

Hank checked his “evidence” bag. “It’s got quite the kick, but as long as she doesn’t have any allergies, this should be about out of her system. I’d still advise going to get checked out.”

“Advicenottaken.”

“We’ll be in touch, Mr. Ramos, Mr. St. James,” his voice softened, “Miss Hathaway.” Hank gave us a little salute.

I sighed and stood with her. She was a little wobbly, but she was upright.

“I’ll walk him out,ikaika.” Kain’s voice was gruff.

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