turned serious later. I knew they wouldn’t blame her for my stubborn bullshit, but she didn’t know that.
I shrugged, then whimpered at the pain radiating through my skull.
"Will you sit?" Nancy asked, indicating to the step of her ambulance. "I promise my colleagues are doing everything they can for your friend."
I drew a deep breath, trying to make good choices. Slowly, with my eyes locked on Bree's crushed car, I sank down to the step Nancy was pointing at.
The moment I did, I caught a shift in her attitude, like a small wave of relief passed over her at my acceptance of her treatment.
"Good girl," Steele murmured, crouching beside me and linking our fingers together. "Bree's going to be okay, beautiful. She'll be just fine."
I appreciated his comforting words, but he couldn't know that. None of us could. Bree might well already be dead, for all we knew. And if she was, then it was on me.
The section of car metal the firemen had been working on came free, and the EMTs rushed in to attend to my friend, now that they could access her.
From the crush of bodies all around, I couldn't see anything except her lifeless, blood-soaked hand hanging out of the car.
Oh fuck. She was dead.
My best friend was dead because of me.
44
The next few hours passed in a blur. After they freed Bree from the wreckage of her car, she was rushed into the ambulance and carried away with sirens blaring. That gave me a small measure of hope because why would they bother unless there was some chance to save her?
Steele and Nancy convinced me to be transported too, something I probably needed, considering the sharp pain every time I turned my neck. Also, it meant that we were following Bree, and I needed to stay close to her.
We left Archer and Kody behind to clean up the mess of what was almost certainly another assassination attempt. How the hell they'd manage to do that, given the number of witnesses, property damage, and dead bodies, I had no idea. But I had faith they'd work it out. Their resources were, I was quickly learning, seemingly endless.
When we arrived at the hospital, Nancy told me that Bree had been taken into surgery, and it'd be some time before we'd know anything. She handed me off to an ER nurse, who checked me in, and gave Steele a clipboard of paperwork to fill out on my behalf.
"This seems like overkill," I mumbled, sitting on the edge of a hospital bed and watching Steele fill out the forms confidently. How he knew all that personal information about me off the top of his head, I had no idea.
"It's a precaution, Hellcat," he murmured back, not stopping his pen for even a second, "and one I'm glad they're taking. We're not taking chances with your health."
I had nothing to say back to that. Besides, if Bree would be in surgery for some hours yet, I had nowhere else I needed to be.
"It's just a bit of bruising and a headache," I said anyway. It always made me feel anxious and guilty to use medical assistance unless I really needed it. I never wanted them prioritizing me and my non-life-threatening injuries over someone else.
Steele clicked his pen off and set the clipboard aside, giving me a pointed stare. "You're getting checked out. End of discussion." He reached out and tugged my shoes off, then pointed for me to sit further back on the bed. "So just get comfy. I'm not leaving you."
Grumbling, I did as he wanted and shuffled back against the pillows. He sat on the edge of the mattress, resting his hand gently on my knee as he checked his phone. A deep frown creased his face, and he started tapping out a rapid, one-handed reply.
"Fill me in, Max," I ordered, my fingers fidgeting with the stiff blankets. "I'm a mess of nerves right now; I need the distraction."
He glanced up at me, worried, then gave an understanding nod. "Just touching base with our guys working on profiles for Scott, Bark, and your professor. They said they'll send a report through on Scott shortly."
"Okay, that's good, right? So why the frown?" I got the impression bad news was coming.
Steele sighed and shook his head, though. "No reason. I'm just worried about what they might have found. Believe it or not, we would rather Scott not be guilty in this shit."