Chapter 30
THIRTY
Shane
Twenty-Four Hours Earlier
“Shane, my man.” Luke grins up at me when I walk into the station, and I already know what’s coming next. “I’m craving a steak and baked potato. What do you say? Want to go by the store and pick up dinner?”
Chuckling, I shake my head as we go about doing an equipment check.
Luke and I have been working together for too many years to count, and before that, we went to school and played baseball on the same team. He’s been married for about six months now, and he doesn’t have the heart to tell his wife, who loves to cook, that she can’t cook for shit. So, instead, he pretends to love it, barely eats, throws it away when she’s not looking, and then begs me to cook on our shifts since he can’t cook either.
“I’m going to buy you and your wife cooking lessons for whatever holiday is next,” I tell him, pulling my phone out of my pocket when it beeps, indicating that it’s dying, so I can try to charge it.
I connect it to the charger, but after a few seconds, it disconnects and blinks red, letting me know it’s almost dead and not charging.
“Fucking phone,” I grumble, accepting the fact that I’m going to have to buy a new one. It’s not that I’m cheap, but phones are expensive, and I literally use it for nothing except to text and call my friends and family. Hell, half the time, I can’t even keep track of where the thing is.
Once the trucks have been checked, Luke says, “Store?”
“Yeah, yeah.” I wave him off. “Let me get a workout in, and then we’ll go.”
“I’ll join you,” David says.
We’re just finishing up our run on the treadmill when my phone goes off with a text from Taylor, letting me know that she’s with her mom and they’re on their way to the city.
But before I can respond, my phone dies.
“Fucking hell!” I throw my phone on the table. “Can I borrow your phone?” I ask David. “Mine’s dead, so I need to let Taylor know to call the station if she needs me.”
“Sure.”
He hands it over, and luckily, I know her number by heart. It rings once, twice, a third time, then goes to voice mail.
“Hey, Tay, my phone is dead. When you get to the city, call me at?—”
My words are cut off by the sound of the emergency tone ringing out through the station, followed by the details of the incident—two females in a car accident, both injured and in need of medical help.
Since we’re the only fire station in town, our engine fits two patients, so we jump into emergency mode, heading straight to the scene of the accident.
Because we’ve done this too many times over the years, my brothers and I work like a well-oiled machine. So, when David gets to the victims before I do since I’m grabbing the gear with Luke and yells for me in a tone that indicates he’s freaking out, I’m confused … until I get over to him and see why.
“Taylor!” I yell, racing over to my little girl, who’s lying on the ground, unconscious.
There’s metal and glass shards poking out of her skin in various places, and her arm is in an awkward position. I glance at the other woman, who’s still in the car, and even from here, I can see it’s Jamie.
“Shane,” David says. “Snap out of it, man. We need to get them to the hospital.”
His words kick my ass into gear, and like the professionally trained paramedic I am, I work with my guys to get my daughter and her mother stable and to the hospital, the entire time praying that my little girl will be okay.
* * *
Shane
Present
“Fuck, Sour Patch.”
I pick her up and carry her over to the couch while Becky follows, sensing that something is wrong. When I sit on the couch with her in my lap, Becky sniffs and then licks her face.
“It’s okay, girl,” I tell her, patting her head. “Kinsley just needs a moment.”
The entire way here, I was worried about telling her what had happened because of how her late husband and baby had died, but I thought by telling her to stay calm, she’d listen. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best approach.
I move several strands of hair out of her eyes as she stirs slightly, blinking several times in confusion. I know the moment she remembers what I told her because her face pales, and she scrambles to climb out of my lap.
“Where is she?” she chokes out when I try to hold her so she won’t freak out. “Please tell me she’s okay.”
Tears fill her lids, and I tighten my hold on her. The past twenty-four hours have been hard enough, and the last thing we need is Kinsley in the hospital as well.
“She’s okay. I wanted to call you, but I didn’t know your number, and I didn’t want to leave her yesterday. Her phone got smashed in the accident, and mine’s fucked. I’m so sorry I couldn’t reach you sooner.”
The first thing I’ll be doing when this is all over is getting a new phone, and then I’ll be writing down Kinsley’s number. Not being able to get ahold of her was fucking hell. I just kept thinking she thought I was blowing her off.
My parents were already at the hospital with Eric and Katie when we brought them in, and I asked my dad to go by my place to see if Kinsley was there, but she wasn’t. And when he went back last night to check again, he found her and Becky asleep in my bed. He asked if I wanted him to wake her, but since visiting hours were over, I didn’t want to stress her out when there was nothing she could do, so I told him to let her sleep and that I would tell her myself in the morning.
Thankfully, my parents have cell phones, so I’ve been able to use my mom’s phone to communicate with everyone.
“It doesn’t matter,” Kinsley cries. “I just need to know she’s okay. I need to see her.”
“We can go see her,” I tell her, standing and setting her on her feet. “But you need to be prepared. She broke her wrist in numerous places, and the glass caused several gashes that needed to be glued. When she hit the concrete?—”
“What do you mean, she hit the concrete?” She gasps, covering her mouth as tears slide down her cheeks.
“Her seat belt wasn’t on.”
“Why the fuck wasn’t her seat belt on?” she demands.
“It was bad luck,” I say, pulling her into my arms. She’s shaking like a leaf in the middle of a damn storm. “Her mom had a benign tumor pressing on her brain that no one knew about. It caused her vision to blur, and she crashed the car while Taylor was unbuckled, reaching in the back seat to grab her iPad so she could go over the list of things she wanted to do in the city. She flew out, landed on her wrist, breaking it, and cracked her head on the concrete. She suffered from a concussion and had to have surgery on her wrist to fix it.”
“Can I see her?” she asks, her eyes glassy and her face blotchy.
“Yeah, but if you want to wait until she’s home …”
“No.” She shakes her head. “I need to see her for myself. To know she’s okay.”
“Okay. We can go see her. They’ve put her and Jamie in the same room.”
“Is Jamie okay?” Kinsley asks.
“Yeah, the tumor wasn’t cancerous, but between her shoulder getting dislocated in the accident and needing to have emergency surgery to have the tumor removed, she’s going to need some time to recover.”
Kinsley nods in understanding. “When can Taylor come home?”
“They’re hoping tomorrow. Because of the concussion, they want to keep her another night to monitor her and check to make sure there’s no swelling in her brain. I told her I needed to find you, and she asked me to grab some stuff for her since she doesn’t have any working electronics.”
“I’ll grab her favorite books,” she says with a forced smile. “Just give me a few minutes to get ready.”
“Thanks.” I reach out and wipe a few tears that are resting on her cheeks and then give her a quick kiss. “I’m going to grab some clothes and toiletries she asked for. I’ll meet you back down here.”
She nods, and as she starts to walk away, I can’t help the ominous feeling that comes over me, like everything is about to change—and not in a good way.
So, I grip the curve of her hip and pull her back toward me. “Everything is going to be okay,” I tell her, palming her cheek and looking into her eyes. “You know that, right?”
“I know,” she says. “Everything will be okay.”