Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Milo
Ifell to my knees beside her, clasping her frigid hands between both of my own while an officer assessed if she needed an ambulance.
Eden looked terribly still, illuminated by the scattered headlights around us, and even though I was watching closely, I could barely see the rise and fall of her chest.
“Come on, beautiful,” I coaxed gently, unable to look away. “I need you to breathe for me, Eden. Did she hurt you? Are you injured?”
Snowflakes dotted her cheeks, pink and chapped from the cold, as her eyelids fluttered open so she could blink up at me. We’d pulled into the deserted parking lot behind the string of police cars—just as Sandra Billings yanked Eden in front of her like a shield.
My heart still felt like it was going to pound out of my chest.
I stroked her hair back from her face, murmuring encouragement until she managed a series of tiny, broken breaths. Her fingers tightened around mine, though she flinched like the movement pained her.
With a frown, I turned her hands over and saw the rough scrapes across each palm. “Shit, I’m sorry. Can you tell me where else it hurts?”
“Everywhere.” The word escaped on a breathless whimper that broke my heart.
“Okay,” I soothed, keeping hold of her as I ran my other hand along her cold limbs. “Do you think anything is broken?”
For a beat or two, she stared up at me, still trying to catch her breath, then she rasped, “Only my street cred.”
Her voice was hoarse, the words interrupted by her gasping breaths, but I sat back on my heels, threw back my head, and laughed.
Though I wasn’t convinced she was completely unharmed after a landing like that, she was the only woman I knew who’d crack jokes while flat on her back on the snowy pavement.
“Believe me, that wipeout can’t negate just how badass you looked punching her in the throat. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
A tiny smile curved her lips. “I’ll have to thank Arnaud for teaching me those moves.”
“I’ll thank him, too.”
Rob appeared at my side with a blanket. “Hey, cuz. Think you can sit up?”
I eased one arm around her to help her into a sitting position and Rob wrapped the plaid fleece around her. The black tights she wore under her dress were shredded at the knees, the skin underneath torn and bloody. Beneath my hands, her entire body trembled with the cold.
“Do we need to call for paramedics? I’m afraid it’ll take longer for them to get out here than it would to get you back to town,” Rose said, crouching on Eden’s other side. “But if you’re injured, we’ll call them in.”
“No,” Eden replied. “I’m okay. Just cold. Eve—is Eve safe? She kept saying Eve was lost.”
Rose smiled. “Safe and sound at home with her parents. Do you think you could answer a couple questions?”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Eden winced and beat me to it. “I’d really like to get away from this place.”
To my relief, Rose nodded and stood. “Then we can have an officer drive your car back to town,” she said to Eden, but her eyes were on me.
“That’d be great,” I replied quietly. “Thank you, Rose.”
“Let’s get out of here. You’re taking her to the clinic?”
I nodded. “Yes. Better safe than sorry.”
“Good. We’ll get your statement there, Eden. Drive safe. We’ll be right behind you.”
Eden breathed a sigh of relief, then leaned heavily against me as she tried to get her feet under her. Between the three of us, we got her upright and tucked into the warm cab of Rob’s truck with a second blanket spread over her lap.
Once the doors were closed behind us, I wrapped my arm around her and Eden dropped her head to my shoulder. The shivering slowly faded, but every few minutes, a new tremor shuddered through her entire frame.
“You’re safe now,” I murmured into her hair.
“So are you,” she whispered.
Every other possible outcome of this afternoon thudded through me as we made the slow commute back to Spruce Hill, each image more gruesome than the last. It wasn’t until we turned onto Main Street that my pulse finally slowed to a normal pace.
“I don’t really need a doctor,” Eden protested when Rob pulled up outside the clinic.
“Eden, baby, I saw how hard you fell,” I replied gently. “It’s not just a doctor, it’s Libby. You’re family now. You have to know there’s no chance in hell she’d let you go home without being checked over.”
Rob jogged around to the passenger side to help me get her blanket-bundled self out of the truck and winked at her. “Remember that time we were playing hide and seek and I tried to do a backflip off the neighbor’s porch wall?”
“And you blacked out when you landed flat on your back? Yes. Addie was convinced she killed you and we were all going to prison,” Eden replied, grinning weakly.
“Yeah, well, you might not have attempted a flip, but you caught some serious air. At least I landed on grass. You hit the asphalt.”
She scowled at both of us but stopped arguing as I slipped my arm around her waist to help her into the clinic. Rob planted a loud, smacking kiss on Eden’s cheek when we reached the door, then left to go relay the afternoon’s events to his sister.
Libby met us just inside the lobby to take Eden directly to an exam room. I started to follow, but Rose came through behind us and crooked her finger at me.
“Go ahead. I’ll be fine,” Eden said quietly.
Gently, I cupped my hand around the back of her neck so I could pull her forehead to my lips. “Damn right, you will.”
Even with Rose waiting to speak to me, I watched until Libby and Eden disappeared around the corner. Anxiety kicked my pulse up again, but at least it wasn’t the dizzy pounding I’d experienced in our rush to get to Eden.
I didn’t have much of a statement for Rose, so we spoke only briefly in the corner of the deserted waiting room.
“Remember when I said not to do anything stupid?” she asked, arching a brow.
I grimaced. “I didn’t know how long it would take you guys to get there. I wasn’t going to let her face down that woman alone.”
“Uh huh. Well, we were contacted by Simon Baumgartner, the one who’d reported the burnt car stolen. After he spoke to Eden, he found some things Sandra left for him in his office, flyers about repentance and journals full of ranting passages from the tangles of her own mind.”
“About role-playing games opening the gates of hell for innocent teenagers?” I asked.
Rose grimaced as she nodded. “You guessed it. Turns out Martha Baranski is Sandra and Mary’s second cousin.
Word got around that they were looking for a space to open the store, and after they lost out on it, Sandra saw one of your new ads.
I guess she put two and two together and placed the blame on you.
She didn’t know Eden was related to her brother-in-law until after the fire. ”
I blew out a breath. “I’m glad. Eden’s been hurt enough as it is.”
“Baumgartner said he was extremely concerned she was planning to do something reckless after she called him, especially once he realized Sandra had gone off the rails.”
“Reckless,” I mused, staring at the nondescript artwork hanging on the wall across from me. “She was trying to protect me.”
“Maybe next time she’ll let us do our jobs,” Rose said, but she smirked at me just before Libby waved for her to go in to take Eden’s statement.
My sister-in-law sat in the chair Rose had vacated and grabbed my hand. “Hanging in there?”
“Trying. Is Eden really okay?”
“Yes, though I’d like her to take it easy for a few days. Nothing’s broken, but she’ll probably have some serious bruises. You two are quite a pair.”
“A match made in paradise,” I murmured.
Libby squeezed my hand, then we sat in silence until Rose and Eden emerged from the exam room. I caught a glimpse of the bandages on her knees, but she had shed the blankets and otherwise looked blessedly whole, even if she was moving a bit stiffly.
“Will you still love me if I start wearing combat boots?” she asked as she walked straight into my arms.
“Hell yeah, combat boots are hot. Please tell me you’re not already planning for your next tussle with a would-be murderer, though?”
Her silence was answer enough. I rolled my eyes heavenward as Libby’s laughter rang out behind me. A faint giggle, muffled against my shirt, shook Eden’s shoulders when I growled against the top of her head.
Oh, yeah. A match made in paradise, for sure. Everything I’d ever wanted was right here in my arms.