Page 59 of Callum
“I don’t know. She was finishing work so I’m hoping she’s still at the library. She may have lost consciousness. She said two words to me, then nothing.” Fuck, saying that out loud stabbed at him like a dagger to his flesh.
“I’ll call paramedics and alert the team. We’ll check the routes between the library and her place too.”
“Thank you.”
Callum made it to the library in half the time it normally would have taken him. Her car sat out front, dark and closed. He could only hope like hell that meant she was inside.
He grabbed his Glock and entered the building, scanning the dark library, everything clear to his enhanced vision.
When he saw her on the floor of the office, his heart crashed in his chest. Fiona lay on her side, still.
He rushed over to her and kneeled, gut tightening at the blood that covered her hair and seeped into the carpet beneath her head. A slew of curses flew from his mouth. “Fiona? Wake up, honey.”
She didn’t, and the only thing that kept him calm was that he could hear the beating of her heart in her chest.
He touched her cheek and lowered his head to her ear. “Fiona, can you hear me?”
A soft groan sounded, then her eyes fluttered. Air whooshed into his chest.
“Callum?”
“Yeah, honey, it’s me.”
Her eyes scrunched, and she touched her head, letting out another low moan. “My head. Someone hit me.”
Her words were like gas on the fire of his rage, but he forced gentleness into his voice as he spoke. “I’m gonna help you up, okay?”
She sucked in a long breath and nodded slowly. “Okay.”
Carefully, he took hold of her upper arms and pulled her into a sitting position. Her brows slashed together in pain, and that made the fury barreling through his chest intensify.
“I forgot your book,” she breathed, once she was sitting. “I came back in to grab it, but someone was in front of my locker. They…they grabbed my stapler and hit me in the head, then I hit the doorframe when I fell.”
So, she’d had two knocks to the skull.
“Did you recognize them?” Callum asked through gritted teeth.
She swallowed and shook her head, then cringed at the movement. “No. They were wearing a balaclava over their face, and it was dark, so I couldn’t make out their eyes. They were the same height and frame as me.”
His chest seized. Just like the person who’d entered her house. And now they were breaking into the goddamn library to go through her shit?
Engines sounded from the street, then footsteps. Seconds later, Liam stepped into the room, closely followed by the ambulance team.
Callum remained close to Fiona’s side the entire time the paramedics ensured she was stable enough to move, then as they treated her in the ambulance while the police spoke to her. In that time, Jason and Tyler arrived. It wasn’t until the paramedics were almost done, and the guys were talking at the front of the library, that he squeezed Fiona’s arm.
“Is it okay if I go talk to them?”
He didn’t want to leave her but needed to talk to his team.
“Yes, go.”
“I’ll stay close.” He gave her one more squeeze before moving to the guys. “What did you find?”
“The back door was unlocked and open,” Liam said quietly.
Callum flinched. “Unlocked?”
Jason nodded. “So, either the door was unlocked when she left, or whoever it was had a key.”
