Betting Man (The Beaufort Poker Club #6)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

CHASE

Steve

A BOLO for Kingsley just went out. Who talked to Bee last?

Hannah Jane

What? I texted her last night.

Chase

WTF? I’m heading to the precinct now.

Kristin

I tried calling. She’s not picking up.

Maddie

Wasn’t she supposed to be working tonight?

Jason

We’re on our way to the hospital with Bee. Mel is helping the paramedics.

Erica

Is she okay? What happened?

Luca

Does this have anything to do with what we discussed when we worked out?

Jason

Affirmative.

Will

How bad is it?

Jason

Bad. She’s unresponsive.

I pressed the pedal to the floor, pushing the speedometer well beyond the red line. Blue lights danced on the pavement as I gunned it over the bridge to Morehead City.

At least there wasn’t a lot of traffic at this time of night.

Hang on, darlin’.

You have to be okay.

I glanced at the picture tucked in the dashboard by the odometer as dispatch chattered over the radio.

She was so beautiful back then. Still is. Even more now.

Bridget had clipped the thumbnail photo out of our senior yearbook. She handed it to me at graduation. I was going off to East Carolina University to get a degree in criminal justice, and she planned to stick around town and get a job.

I remembered that moment like it was yesterday.

Her running across the football field to me, blonde hair blowing in the wind. Her little white dress peeking out from under her open graduation gown. The smack of her lips as she planted a kiss on my cheek, throwing her arms around me, and squealing about how ‘we did it!’ She had just slipped the picture into my hand when Heather’s parents—Tom and Evelyn Daniels—pulled Steve and me aside to take photos.

Maddie ran over and grabbed Bridget, drawing her to the other side of the crowd. Bee’s brother, Jason, had taken leave from the Navy to watch her graduate. He probably wanted at least a face-to-face before he left. But as I stood beside Steve and Heather for photos, Bridget looked over her shoulder. Her honey-blonde hair swayed in slow motion as it whipped around her body. The corner of her pink lips turned up in a smile. She let out a burst of contagious laughter at whatever Maddie had said.

I knew I’d have the rest of the summer with her until I moved into my dorm, but that moment… Seeing her happy… I wanted to bottle it up.

So goddamn beautiful.

Red and white lights flashed on the eastbound side of the road as I approached the hospital. The photo on the dash slid as I slowed just enough to make it into the entrance without catapulting over the median of shrubbery and well-manicured landscaping.

The ambulance screeched to a halt outside the emergency room doors. I whipped into a parallel spot bordering the lot, ripped the keys from the ignition, and rocketed out of the driver seat.

My vision tunneled. Adrenaline pulsed through my veins as I bolted across the lot.

A car slammed on breaks, barely avoiding me as I sprinted to her. The pissed off driver laid on the horn, but I could barely hear it over the deafening roar of blood in my ears. I didn’t care.

I had to get to her.

She had to be okay.

The back door of the ambulance flew open. Jason jumped down first, followed by Melissa. Behind them, one end of the gurney peeked out from between the open doors.

But it wasn’t Bridget’s blonde hair that was splayed across the back of the stretcher. It was matted, damp, and… red.

“Bridget!” I cried out, and my knees went weak. I couldn’t make out a single strand of gold beneath the blood stains. So much fucking blood. I needed to get to her. Had to get to her .

My chest tightened with panic as Jason’s last text message to the group flashed in my mind.

Bad. She’s unresponsive.

I’d never been a praying man. Sure, I went to church on Easter and Christmas like most folks in the south, but I’d seen too much ugliness in the world to believe something or someone out there controlled it all. But at that moment, I was ready to drop to my knees in the middle of the parking lot and beg for some divine intervention.

I caught up to the paramedics and grabbed Bee’s hand as they wheeled her through the entrance. It was limp and cold. Lifeless. An oxygen mask clung to her battered face, and a brace cradled her neck. The blood, swelling, and bruising made her features nearly indiscernible.

“Darlin’—” My voice broke. I had no words for a moment like this. Not when she was fighting for her life, and there wasn’t a goddamn thing I could do about it.

“Sir, step back, please,” a paramedic ordered.

“Chase—”

My eyes darted back to Jason and Melissa as they caught up with the paramedics.

“She’s alive,” Mel said, her voice trembling. Her lip quivered. I’d seen her rocking and rolling in the ER a million times. Nothing fazed her. The terror in her eyes chilled me to the bone. “Unconscious, but alive.”

Jason tightened his grip on her. He looked like he was walking through hell. I felt it in my bones, and I knew we weren’t out of the fire yet.

“Detective, you need to back off,” the other paramedic snapped. “She’s lost a lot of blood. You need to let us do our job.”

I had seen that guy before. I couldn’t remember his name, but we ran into each other at crime scenes from time to time. He was just doing his job. I didn’t fault him for being short with me. Hell, if I had been anyone else, he probably wouldn’t have been so polite.

But she was my girl. There was no way I was letting her go this time.

I walked beside the gurney as they rolled Bridget inside. “Please,” I begged Bridget, stroking the back of her hand. “Please, darlin’—you gotta wake up.”

“Brannan, you gotta let her go from here,” the paramedic clipped. “Are you family?”

Mel slipped her arm around my waist, and Jason stood on the other side of her. We created a traffic jam the nursing staff would probably bitch about, but I didn’t have a single fuck left to give.

I only cared about seeing Bridget open those green eyes I loved so much.

“Detective,” the paramedic said, raising his voice. I still hadn’t let go of Bridget’s hand. “Are you family?”

I looked up at him. “She’s my girl.”