much as she hated it, Claudette was innocent until proven guilty.
“Detective Woodward.”
Rising from her spot beside Kelso, she turned to see one of the officers who accompanied them.
“House is empty except for our vic.”
“Not sure she’s the vic. Have our boys made contact?”
“No.”
“Have you called the EMTs?” Kelso started running a face towel under the sink to clean Claudette without disturbing much of the evidence until the CSI team got here which could be the next morning or the next day.
Gabby let out a frustrated huff. “Dammit, Hastings—”
“I tried,” the officer cut her off. “Radios are jammed. That’s why I sent my partner hustling back to command post.”
Frowning, she glanced back at Kelso who was quietly trying to calm the disoriented Claudette. She was weakly fighting him off—or her version of it.
“I’m going to try and raise someone.” Anyone. This communication darkness was starting to nag her. Pulling out her rover, she walked out the bathroom and to the window. “Command post, this is Woodward.”
Static. She turned the knob and tried another channel. “That’s weird.” She fished out her phone and checked that too. “No signal.”
“Looks like there’s a jammer,” Hastings said.
The cop was right, but why?
“Get out of here,” she growled at Hastings.
“Why?”
“Get out! That’s an order!”
Not waiting to see whether the cop complied or not, she ran back to Kelso who was in the process of hauling Claudette out of the tub.
“Up you go, Ms. Dumont”
“Kelso, wait!” She jerked him away from Claudette and got in between them. Her partner landed on his ass behind her while her stepmother fell back into the tub.
“What the hell, Gab?” Kelso glared at her.
“It’s a trap. They’ve jam—” Her breathing constricted, and her vision tunneled, meeting Kelso’s horrified eyes and then she was falling…
“Gabby!”
The three worst moments in Declan’s life revolved around Gabby. The third one was when he found her in bed with Nick. The second? When he found out she was in the hospital because she was mugged without knowing the extent of her injuries.
Watching Gabby fall to the floor unconscious via live video was the most terrifying moment of his existence. Even being surrounded by Yemeni rebels with the barrels of seven AK-47s pointed at him didn’t measure up to the excruciating dread of watching the woman who was his everything, walk into a trap, and possibly her doom.
As he and Bristow raced through the courtyard of Eden Park Townhomes, following the lead of the officer who’d been with Gabby, he found himself praying.
That he wasn’t too late.
That he’d get the chance to tell Gabby he loved her.
That fate wasn’t so cruel this second time around.
The door was wide open, and the lights were blazing by the time they arrived. Bristow made them put on respirator masks. If Declan never saw one of these for the rest of his life again, it would be too soon.
The first floor was empty.
“Gabby!” He yelled and charged straight for the stairs. Kelso was at the top of the staircase, but he was on his ass, slouched against a wall and having a hard time breathing. Gabby was on her back unmoving.
“I tried,” Kelso wheezed, getting a hand up from Bristow. “It got me too. Hastings, help him.” He told the other cop.
Declan couldn’t breathe as he dropped to a knee, gathered Gabby into his arms and sprang up to run down the steps and out into the open.
“Lay her down on the ground,” Bristow ordered. “Help her breathe.” The nurse led Kelso to sit on a nearby bench.
Ripping off his respirator, Declan lowered his mouth and breathed through Gabby’s own.
“Do it a couple of times, Roarke.”
The nurse drew out a packet from his saddle bag and ripped it open, expertly fixing the Narcan tube to the inhaler. “We’ll do one dose and see how she reacts. She might need two depending on how much she inhaled.” He held Gabby’s fingers tightly as Bristow shot the anti-overdose drug into her nose. It was only then that he noticed the officer laying down another cop on the grass.
“You doing okay there, Kelso?” Bristow called out as he used his teeth to tear another packet of the drug.
“Yeah, help Hastings. I’ll keep.”
“I think Ms. Dumont is dead,” the officer said.
“Claudette?” Declan mumbled, suddenly remembering that he’d seen her in the video too.
Kelso shook his head. “She was in a bad way. She wouldn’t have survived that fentanyl aerosol.”