Page 2 of Calling All Angels
Emma reached for her phone.Oh no.Her phone was in her purse. Apparently, she’d left that, along with her brain, inside her missing car.
Starting to feel panicky, she spun back toward the two men watching the EMTs carry the woman up the hill. “Excuse me,” she called to them. “Excuse me. Can you help me? I seem to have misplaced my—”
“Yeah, this road has always been bad,” the older guy was saying to Sweatshirt Hoodie Guy. “My wife has appealed to the city for some streetlights out on this road, but nothin’. Claimed it was too rural. Wasn’t it just last month that motorcyclist ate it on this curve? Such a shame.”
“I’m sorry,” Emma began again, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but—”
“Tell me about it,” said the younger one. “I like motorcycles as much as the next guy, but you won’t catch me out here at night on one.”
Emma pressed her lips together and walked up practically between them. “Excuseme. I-I seem to have misplaced my car.”
“Even a car won’t protect you out here,” said the one with the paunchy belly. He nodded toward the EMTs carrying the woman up the hill. “Oh, look. Here they come. I suppose we should give ’em our names. In case she makes it. Jeez Louise. Looks bad.”
“I don’t think you should count her out just yet, do you?” Emma said, feeling a little indignant at being ignored. At least she hoped the woman would be—
“What kind of car is that anyway?” Paunch asked. “A Lexus SUV?”
Emma blinked. She turned her attention back to the battered, upside-down car.Hercar was a Lexus SUV.
“Hard to tell,” Hoodie mused. “It’s so messed up, but yeah. Might be.”
Cold seeped into her. Glancing down at her feet, she noticed one of her shoes was missing. She curled her bare toes into the muddy grass.
Okay, stop it now. This is just getting weird.
Something more than simple curiosity drew her haltingly toward the woman on the backboard the EMTs had struggled up the hill with and were now carrying across the road. Emma still couldn’t get a good look at her, circled as she was by emergency workers. Except for the glimpse of her right hand, the glint of silver on her fourth finger.
A simple silver band exactly like Emma’s own ring.
She froze. Her thoughts tilted.Wait. No.
That can’t be right. But—
“Looks like her name is…uh…Emma. Emma James,” said the EMT holding a wallet.Herwallet. Fromherpurse as the others moved toward the ambulance.
Emma sucked in a breath.No.She squeezed her eyes shut.No, no, no. This can’t be happening!
“Emma, can you hear me?” the female EMT asked, leaning over that other Emma. The one that wasn’t her.
“I can hear you! I’m Emma. I can hear you. I’m right here!” she practically shouted.
“Her pulse is—”
“Charge the defib.”
A strange whining sound cranked inside her head.Wait! This is all wrong. Am I—? I-Is she—?
“Charging!”
No. I don’t have time for this. My life is too full, too busy! We’re leaving first thing in the morning for Turks and Caicos. The whole team. This is ridiculous—
“Stay with us, Emma,” implored another as they loaded the other Emma onto the ambulance.
Wake up, Emma. Wake up! This is all a bad dream. Just wake up!
Water dripped off her nose as she jerked a look to her right, to the men still standing on the bank shaking their heads as they spoke to the police officer about the accident. And to the left where two firemen tidied the ropes they’d used in the rescue.
Alone as she’d ever been, there in the dark, she spun around to suddenly find another man—one she hadn’t seen before—watching her.Seeingher with something close to astonishment. He looked vaguely familiar, like some figure out of a film she’d once seen, but the memory blinked away as soon as he met her eyes. He took a tentative step in her direction, looking nothing like the others, who were all business and urgency, but quite separate from all that. She couldn’t make out why. Except for the fact that his odd clothing… Black leather pants, knee-high boots, and loose linen shirt—did not fit here. Just as she didn’t fit.
