Page 26 of Sinful Seduction
“Dammit!” I swing my arm back and hammer-fist Teddy’s chest. Then I hit him a second time and lower over him and pray for something. A pulse, even if it’s weak. Breathing, even if labored. “You need to continue here. Aubree.” I scoot left and make room for her to skid down beside me.
“Chief!” Fifi snarls. “Help, please!”
“He’s been without a pulse since I got to him. Continue compressions. Someone needs to call an ambulance.” I spin on my knees and catch the first set of eyes I can find. A young woman, not a great deal older than Molly, clutches to her steering wheel with shaking hands. “Call 911. Tell them he’s eighty-seven and suffering acute MI. Not breathing. No pulse. Stay with him,” I tell Aubree, then I shove to my feet.
“Wait!” The old woman—Donna—grabs onto my arm with surprising strength, digging talon-like nails into my wrist and tugging my hardly healed shoulder. Pain splices down through my chest and into my stomach,nausea like a beating drum to join the headache already in my skull. “You can’t just leave him!”
“She’s a doctor!” I tear my arm free. Then I point to Aubree. “She’s a doctor, too. Sit down, stop freaking out, or you might end up on the road beside him.” I twist and sprint toward Fifi. “What’s going on?”
“She was fine.” A man, aged somewhere in his thirties, with dark hair and brown eyes, whips his back door open and tears his child out of her seat. “She was fine!”
The little girl falls limp in his arms, her head lolling back and her arms dangling by her side.
“No!” He compresses her chest with his large hand, too heavy, too strong, as tears flow onto his cheeks. “Wake up!”
“Sir, no.” I snatch her up and make a beeline for Lori’s, and while I walk, I study her. The long blonde hair cascading from a messy ponytail, and long, dark lashes kissing her cheeks. Her shirt is soaked through with sweat, and her heart thunders recklessly against her neck. “How long has she been unconscious?”
“She was awake just a second ago,” Fifi runs beside me, dashing ahead and ripping the shop door open to let me through. “Her eyes were open, but she was dizzy and tired. He—the dad—he saw you tell me to help other people, so he flagged me down and said he was worried about her.”
I stride through the door and into blissful cool, at least forty degrees cooler than the untamed heat outside. Then I lower the girl to the floor and point toward a terrified, staring Mia. “Go to her. Soothe her, Fifi. She’s earned a woman in her life whowon’tlet her down when shit gets scary. Hey?” I brush the hair off the girl’s face and look up as the dad rushes into the shop. “What’s her name? Does she have any other medical concerns?”
“No, she…” He drops to his knees and takes her hand. “She’s normally okay. She’s…” His eyes spill over. “She was fine, and then she started talking funny. And now she’s?—”
“She needs to cool down.” I swing around in time to catch Mia transferring from Penny to Fifi. From standing on her own two feet and holding the old woman’s hand, to wrapped around Fifi’s torso, her arms and legs clinging, and her face buried in Fifi’s hair.Good. I look to Lori. “Get us water. Lots and lots of water. And a wet washcloth. And a pair of scissors.”
“Here.” The dad finds a pair on the floor, half hidden under the rolls of fabric I tossed earlier. “What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna take some layers off, and we’re gonna call an ambulance.”
“You want her to chug a bunch of water?” He takes a bottle from Lori and tears the cap off. “You want her to drink?”
“No!” I slap his hand away before he can line the bottle up with her little lips and drown her, then I cut through her shirt and carefully peel the fabric off her chest. “We’re gonna do this gently. Nothing crazy. And we’re not tipping water down her throat while she’s unconscious. We’re simply going to stabilize her until an ambulance arrives, or we risk making things much, much worse.”
“I don’t know what I’m supposed to…” He chokes on his tears. “I’m sorry. I’m not very good at this.”
“You’re learning.” I tip a little water onto her hair, and some more onto her chest. “It’s okay not to know everything.”
“Her mom and I split up.” He shakily accepts another bottle of water, but then he sets it down again and takes her shoes off. “We split up, and now I only get to see my baby every other weekend. This is our first summer where I get two entire weeks in a row, but now I…” He strips her socks off and whimpers. “She’ll never let me see my daughter ever again.”
“Let’s worry about making sure she’s okay.” I wet the tip of my finger and hover it right over her lips. “She’s breathing. And her heart is pumping.”Which is way better than Teddy is doing.“She’s overheated, and sitting in the car in that traffic would’ve been like sitting in an oven.”
“Ambulances are on the way.” Fifi sways with Mia, hugging her baby close and stroking her back. “You hear those sirens, Moo? That means they’re coming to us, and since they get to drive extra fast when they use their lights, they’ll get here real quick.”
The little girl’s lashes flutter, her eyes wheeling beneath the lids.
“You’re in there, huh?” I lay my palm over her chest and wait the paramedics out, since there’s literally nothing I can do but make sure she continues to breathe. That her heart continues to beat. And God, I hope she doesn’t seize. “You’re sleeping, because it’s so freakin hot out. But I see you in there, little girl.”
“Cara.” Her father tosses her socks and shakily tips water onto her feet. “She’s my princess. My whole world. She’s going to be okay, right?”
“She’ll stay a night at the hospital.” I stroke her hair and wait for her to come back. To open her eyes. “They’ll hook her up to an IV for fluids, probably. Run some tests to make sure her kidneys are okay.”
“Are you a doctor?” He licks his lips and dribbles water along her legs.Poor Lori’s floor. “I heard someone shout about doctors.”
“I’m a medical examiner.” I lean over Cara and watch, bewitched, as her eyes flicker open and she takes in the world around her. “Hi there,pretty girl.” I run my fingers through her hair and search her eyes. Her pupils. “You must’ve got those from your momma, huh? Since yours are green and Dad’s are brown.”
“Daddy?” From dazed to distraught, she scrunches her face and tries to shove up to her elbows. “Daddy?!”
“I’m here, baby.” He comes closer and cups her cheek, and though I know he wants to whip her up and into his arms, he says nothing of my restraining hands holding her down. “I’m so sorry, princess. Daddy is so silly for getting caught up in this traffic jam.”
