Page 98 of Jilted

Less than a minute later, they were carrying Sloane down three flights of stairs on a stretcher and loading her into the back of an ambulance. I went to climb in with them, but one of the guys held his hand out. “You’ll have to follow to the hospital in a car or taxi.”

The older fireman rolled his eyes. “It’s the captain’s little sister, jackass.”

“Oh… okay.” He put his hand down. “Right. Come on in.”

The older guy smiled as I hopped in. “You should’ve seen your face. I should’ve let you kick his ass just for fun.”

The hospital was a ten-minute drive with lights and sirens blaring. They took Sloane in through the ER, but wouldn’t let me go into the treatment area with her. So I found myself a seat in the waiting room and waited.

The nurse at the desk had told me they’d call me after the initial exam, but that was forty-five minutes ago now, and I was freaking out. I went up to ask if I could see Sloane for a third time.

“Sir, I still don’t have an update for you.”

I held up Sloane’s cell phone. “Could you at least give her this? It reads her insulin pump, and the doctors might need the history.”

The woman sighed, but slid the glass window open and took it. A few minutes later, she opened the actual door. “Mr. Hayes?”

I practically ran over.

“Follow me. Your friend is in bed eight.”

The emergency room was a big, open space with a nursing station in the middle and glass rooms around the perimeter with numbers on top. I spotted Sloane’s hair as we walked. The muscles in my neck loosened slightly, seeing her sitting up in bed. She was hooked up to an IV and a bunch of monitors, and she looked a little pale, but she was alive. I rushed to her side and took her hand.

The grumpy admitting clerk smiled and shut the door behind her.

“Are you okay?”

Sloane nodded. “My blood sugar went low. But I’m fine. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Is that why the alarm went off this morning?”

“I guess I shouldn’t have ignored it. But I’ve gotten so many false alarms lately, and it always just needs to be reset.”

I frowned. “Until it doesn’t.”

“Sorry.”

I lifted her hand and kissed it. “You scared the crap out of me. How’s your head?”

“It feels a little better. But they’re making me get X-rays and a CAT scan since I lost consciousness and don’t know how hard I hit my head. But the headache can be from the seizure itself, too.”

“Have you had seizures before?”

“A few times. But not in years.”

“I had no idea what to do. I felt so damn helpless.”

She smiled. “You did fine. You found me and got medical help. That’s always the safest bet.”

“I sort of broke your bathroom door lock.”

Her smile widened. “It’s okay.”

While Sloane seemed to think everything was back to normal, I couldn’t shake my worry. What if I hadn’t been there? She could’ve been in the bathtub instead of the shower and drowned.

I dragged a hand through my hair. “I can’t stay in London.”

“You mean when you go back on Monday?”

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