Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I didn’t see him.” Debra slapped her hands down on her desk. “That piece of shit came up from behind me. He slammed something into the back of my head and knocked me out.”
Voices rose and fell around them, but Preston ignored the noise. The FBI had brought a whole team into the small sheriff’s station, and the place seemed to be bursting.
“When I woke up, I was in the dark. I couldn’t get out. Th-thought I was in the ground.” Her head bobbed forward, but she wrenched it back. “Put me in cold st-storage.” A shudder worked over her body. Her hands lifted. She started to take a step away from the desk, but her body weaved.
Her hands flew right back down onto the desktop.
But it wasn’t some sort of dramatic gesture for emphasis.
No, Preston realized she’d made the fast movement so she could stay upright.
“Debra?” Instantly, he was at her side. He went to her left, and Sloane positioned herself on Debra’s right.
“Did you go to the hospital?” Preston was sure one of the Feds had told him that she’d been getting checked out.
But when he’d gotten her on the phone a bit ago, she’d told him to come meet her at the sheriff’s station. To come to her office.
So he had.
Her head turned toward him. One of her pupils appeared huge, while the other was half its size. That could not be good.
“Yeah.” Her head rolled a little. “Th-they tried to keep me. I wouldn’t let them.” Her words slurred together at the end. Wouldn’tletthem. “I have a case to solve!” Casetosolve. “Ran out.”
He and Sloane exchanged a worried look.
“Let me go,” Debra fretted. She tried to pull away from him.
“If I let you go, I’m afraid you’ll fall.” He wasn’t afraid of that. He was certain of it. “You need to get back to the hospital.” A non-negotiable considering the way her pupils were reacting. “I think that hit to the back of the head hurt you more than you want to admit.”
“Won’t. Won’t fall. Let me go.” Letmego.
His grip tightened.
“Preston!” High-pitched. “That’s an order from the sheriff.” Fromthesheriff. “Let me go this minute or I arrest you!” Arrestyou.
He let her go.
Debra pushed away from the desk. Took one step. “My town. My people. I—” She toppled.
Preston caught her before she could hit the floor. His arms locked tightly around her. “Call an ambulance!”
Sloane grabbed for the phone on the desk.
“I’m fine,” Debra told him. “Fine, fine, fine…”
“You are not. Your breathing is erratic, your pupils don’t match, and your whole body is shaking.”
Her lips pulled down—as they trembled. “I…didn’t know.”
“You’re going to be fine.” He could hear Sloane talking on the phone. Saying that the sheriff needed an ambulance, ASAP. “We’ll get you taken care of.”
“It was so dark, wasn’t it?” Tears slid from the corners of her eyes. They fell back into her hair. “Everywhere it’s dark, and it’s swallowing you up.”
Swallowingyouup.
“You had to be so scared,” she told him. “But you never acted scared. Not even as a kid.” Her eyes rolled back in her head.
“Debra!”
She blinked. Tried to focus. “I…would have killed him, too.” Low. Hoarse.
Then her whole body began to jerk in his hands.
“Ride in the ambulance with her,” Sloane said.
Debra had been loaded into the back of an ambulance. Deputies and the FBI agents who’d come to town all watched in silence. The light on top of the ambulance flashed in sickening circles.
“She needs someone to watch over her.” Sloane was adamant. “I’ll be right behind you. I’ve got Frankie.” She jerked a thumb over her shoulder.
Yes, Frankie was right there. Standing near the sheriff’s station.
And Noble was edging toward the side of the building.
Both of his guards were there.
“I’m safe. Go take care of her.”
He didn’t want to leave Sloane. There was so much that Preston needed to say to her, but…
“We’re leaving!” A shout from inside the ambulance.
His hand brushed across Sloane’s cheek. Preston jumped into the back of the ambulance. Debra had been secured on a gurney, but her head turned restlessly, and she twisted her hands as the EMT tried to examine her.
“I…don’t want to be in the dark.” Debra’s fretful voice.
“You’re not.” Preston edged as close to her as he could.
She pushed away the EMT. “Get me out!” Angry now. Afraid. “Get me out of the dark!”
The back doors of the ambulance slammed shut.
Debra let out a terrified cry.
“Sir, sir, please, try to get your friend to calm down.” A frantic request from the EMT. A man with short, curly hair and a Texas accent.
Preston reached for Debra’s hand. “You’re out of the dark.”
Her head whipped toward him. “Preston.”
“I won’t let you go back. You are out of the dark, and you will not go back.”
She smiled for him. Her breath eased out in a sigh as the ambulance raced for the hospital.
“Are you her next of kin?”
“What?” Preston barely heard the question. Debra had just been wheeled through two giant, swinging doors. Headed back to the ER.
The nurse in bright blue scrubs moved between Preston and those doors. “Are you the patient’s next of kin?”
“She has a concussion, doesn’t she?” Had to be the problem.
A concussion way worse than the one Sloane had received when she’d been brought to the same hospital.
“But Debra is going to be okay?” She’d started seizing multiple times during the ambulance ride.
She’d held his fingers in a desperate grip.
The shudders had made her whole body lurch and contort.
“What was up with the seizures? Why did she have so many?”
“I have authorization forms that need to be signed.” The nurse did not move. “Are you the patient’s next of kin?”
No, that was Joshua. “Give me a second.” Preston yanked out his phone. Called Joshua. The phone rang and rang. Where in the hell was his assistant?
“Preston?” Sloane voice. Her fingers slid over his shoulder.
He whirled toward her.
“What’s happening?” Sloane asked him. “How is Debra?”
Joshua’s voicemail picked up. “It’s Preston,” he snarled. “Get your ass to Grace General. Debra needs you.” He hung up. Focused on Sloane. “They took her back to the ER.”
Sloane’s eyes were wide and worried.
“She should have stayed in the hospital the first time that she was here. She’s always been so damn stubborn. She should have stayed here and let the Feds take over the investigation but…” But it had been her investigation. Her town.
“Sir.” The nurse in blue waved to get his attention. “I have to get the next of kin’s signature. Are you her family or not?”
“He’s her family,” Sloane replied at once. “Preston, go with the nurse.” She pushed him with a gentle but firm touch. “Sign the paperwork. Then get back there and make sure Debra is all right. They let family go back. You are family.”
But he did not want to leave her—
Sloane must have figured out his hesitation because she let out a long sigh. “I’m in a hospital with staff members and security everywhere. I’m fine. I’ll stay here and be perfectly safe. I’ll wait for you.” Her head dipped toward him. “Go take care of Debra.”
The nurse had turned away. “Paperwork first, then you see her.”
“Do not leave this hospital,” Preston ordered Sloane.
“Got it.” She shooed him. “Bossy.”
With one last look at Sloane, Preston followed the nurse.
Sloane exhaled on a long, hard, rush of air. There were no seats in the packed ER waiting area. Patients and family members were scattered everywhere. One poor kid kept crying as he held his swollen wrist. A teenager had a bloody slash running down his cheek. A young girl vomited into a trash can.
Voices rose and fell around her, and Sloane backed up a step.
Frankie was parking the vehicle behind the hospital.
He’d let her out near the ER doors, then waited just long enough to see her actually enter the facility before he’d pulled away.
Frankie had said he’d leave the car in the back of the facility and come meet her.
At this point, Sloane was far too familiar with the hospital.
She was pretty was sure that this was the third trip to Grace General that she’d made.
She knew Noble had tailed them to the hospital. She’d jumped out of the Range Rover and rushed inside before waiting for Noble to appear. Like Preston, she was worried about Debra.
She is family to you, Preston. Even if you can’t see it.
Debra was family. And Sloane thought that Frankie had become family to him, too. And probably even Noble. When he’d talked about not having ties, she’d wanted to tell Preston how very wrong he was. It wasn’t about collecting strays. That was bullshit. It was about creating your own family.
Preston, above all others, should understand that family was not forged simply from blood.
“Sloane?”
She turned at her name.
The EMT, Adam East, stood a few feet away, wearing his blue uniform, with a radio and strap sliding across his shoulder and down to his waist. He owlishly blinked at her. “You already got the call?”
She still didn’t have a phone. So, no. She hadn’t gotten any call. “What call?” What was he talking about?
“Your friend, Lily. You…you got the call about her?”
Her heart seemed to stop. Why would I get a call about Lily?
“I, um, just brought her here.” He took a few halting steps forward. His worried gaze swept over her.
Lily didn’t leave town. Preston had told her that, but Lily should have been safe with Atlas. Atlas always kept Lily safe.
“I…” Adam raked a hand through his hair. “I was sure you were going to be contacted—”
She shot forward and locked her hands around his arms. “Is it the babies? Are they okay?”
“I…Look, I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to tell you anything about her actual condition. That’s against the rules. She’s here, though, I can say that much.” His eyes lit up. “And, hey, I can take you to her. That work for you? That good?”
“Yes, yes! Take me to her!” Please let the babies be all right. Please let Lily be okay.
“Follow me.” He turned and began hurrying through the hospital corridors.
She chased after him.