Page 72 of Hiding Rose
“Possibly. Let’s get her to the hospital. That asshole can wait his turn,” the EMT said, swiveling his head to his walkie talkie clipped to his shoulder. “I need a stretcher on the east side of the building, now! Female patient, conscious, possible gunshot wound.”
Sawyer swam into my line of sight and he held my face, rubbing my cheeks. “Stay with us, Rose. Keep your eyes on me. I’m going to take care of you.”
I reached up and caressed his face with my hand. “You’re scared. I can see it in your eyes. I’m going to be okay. I won’t leave you now that I’ve found you,” I promised. Pain shot down my leg and I cried out, twisting my body to the right, but the EMT held me down.
“Don’t. Move,” he ordered me, as he strapped on some kind of girdle the other EMT brought with him. “Hold the backboard,” he said to Sawyer.
The pain in my hip shot through my leg again when they lifted me to the gurney, but I bit my lip, letting a tear fall, but holding in the sobs. “I’m going to be okay,” I chanted. “I’m going to be okay.”
Kate and Gideon ran over, their hands on my shoulder. “We’re following you to the hospital,” Kate assured me. “We’ll take care of you.”
I put on a brave face and a smile. “I’m okay. Take care of all of this. Nothing you can do at the hospital. I’ll be back before you get all these people cleared out.”
Gideon patted my shoulder. “I’m on my way now to confer with the judges. We’ll be there as soon as we can,” he promised.
Sawyer stood on the other side of me while the EMT’s loaded their bags. “Finish the competition, Kate,” he said. “My sous chefs have it almost ready and I don’t want to forfeit the taste test and disappoint those who came out. We can’t afford to lose the revenue. Please. Make an announcement the competition will go on.”
She smiled sadly, but patted my shoulder. “If that’s what you both want, I’ll do it.”
I glanced up at Sawyer and the way he gazed at me would have had me performing jumping jacks if I thought it would make him happy, even in as much pain as I was in. “Do it. Don’t let him win,” I whispered, as they loaded Jarrett up on a gurney too and ran with him to a waiting ambulance. Mine was idling a few feet away and the EMT’s started pushing me toward it. “Wait!” I screamed at them and Sawyer halted their forward motion. “Cassy, where’s Cassy? He hurt her!”
Sawyer laid his hand on my shoulder. “She’s okay. He hit her on the back of the head and knocked her out, but a spectator found her and took her to the medic tent. She was still clutching the pineapple juice.”
I burst out laughing at the image and nodded. “Tell her I’m sorry,” I said, letting go of his hand. “I didn’t want this to happen.”
“We gotta move,” the EMT yelled and everything moved in fast forward from that moment on.
Sawyer kept pace with the gurney and yelled over the sounds of the festival. “I’m coming with you. You can tell her yourself later.”
When we got to the ambulance and they loaded me into the track, the EMT held his hand on Sawyer’s chest. “No room in the rig. You’ll have to find a ride over,” he said. He jumped in the ambulance, slammed the doors, and hit the siren. I watched through the window as Sawyer stood in his white coat getting smaller and smaller, until he disappeared altogether. Once again, I realized I was alone.
