Roping the Cowboy Billionaire - Emmy Eugene Page 0,2
the hooks inside the mudroom and retraced his steps.
Tam didn’t hear him or didn’t care what he had to say, because she said something else to the guy who’d hit her.
“You’re obviously okay,” Blaine said. “At least your mouth.”
“I called nine-one-one,” she said. “My back hurts.”
“Are you sitting down?” Blaine asked, jogging to his truck now. Half of them sat in front of the homestead, as four of the Chappell brothers lived there. The other four lived in a second house further west, and their parents lived on the road that ran along the front of the ranch.
“Yes,” Tam said. “I’m fine, Blaine. I’m not going in the ambulance.”
“But an ambulance is on the way, right?”
“They’re here already,” she said. “The police too.”
“Then why are you yelling at that guy?”
“He’s a police officer, so his buddies are just letting him go wherever he wants.”
“Okay, Tamara,” Blaine said, employing the use of her full name as he got behind the wheel and started his truck. “Do not yell at a police officer.” Especially some of the obscenities she’d been using. “Please.”
“I don’t feel good, Blaine,” she said, and her voice was half the volume and twice the pitch it had just been.
“I’ll be right there.” He went down the lane that led to the highway at twice the normal clip. “You never told me where you are.”
“The stop sign just down from my shop. I got new leather delivered yesterday.”
“Which way from your shop, Tam?” he asked, turning left onto the highway. Her shop was near downtown, so he knew he needed to go that way.
“Uh…I don’t know,” she said.
“Tam,” he said. “What’s your middle name?”
“Um, Presley?”
Why was she guessing? “Where are the paramedics?” he asked. “You need to get them. You don’t sound good, Tam.”
“I don’t feel good,” she said, her voice ghosting into a whisper by the last word.
“Tam,” he said, raising his voice. “Tam, which direction from the shop?” He could probably find her pretty easily once he got to her leather-working shop. The flashing lights and emergency vehicles in a small town wouldn’t be hard to find.
“Tam?” he asked when she didn’t answer. A loud clunk came through the line, and Blaine’s blood turned to ice. “Tam,” he yelled.
Other voices came through the line, and he heard a man said, “Ma’am? Ma’am, I need you to wake up.”
“Hey,” Blaine yelled, hoping to get someone’s attention.
“Who’s this?” a man asked.
“I’m her boyfriend,” Blaine said, wearing the label proudly. “Did she pass out?”
“Yes, sir, she did. We’ve got a team here working with her.”
“She said her back hurt,” he said. “She was in a car accident about five years ago with her mother.” Blaine could still remember getting that phone call too. His anxiety shot through the top of his skull. “She couldn’t tell me where she was, and she guessed at her last name.”
“We’re at the corner of Leavers and Hoof.”
“I’ll be there in five minutes,” Blaine said. “Or should I meet you at the hospital?”
“We’ll still be here in five minutes,” the guy said. “I have to go.” The line went dead, and Blaine banged his open palm against the steering wheel. He wasn’t angry, but frustration looked a lot like anger for Blaine Chappell. So did worry, and that what was really eating through him.
“I’m coming, Tam,” he said under his breath, practically taking a corner on two wheels. “Hang on. I’m coming.”
2
Tamara Lennox opened her eyes at the touch of someone with cool fingers.
“Tam,” he said, and she blinked to be able to see Blaine better. He came into focus slowly, and she tried to sit up.
“Shh, no,” he said, pressing that large, cool hand against her shoulder to keep her down. “You’re in the back of an ambulance, sweetheart, and you’re not getting up.”
“No,” she said, a powerful sense of choking coming over her. She coughed at the suddenly sterile air. “I said I didn’t want to go in the ambulance.” Her legs thrashed, and she found them tied down. “Blaine,” she said, plenty of panic in her voice. “Help.”
But he moved, and another man’s face filled her vision. “Ma’am,” he said. “It’s a six-minute drive, and we’re already halfway there.”
“No,” she said again, desperate now. She couldn’t be in an ambulance. They were so tiny, and she was fine. Even as she thought it, a wave of pain moved down her back. Tears sprang to her eyes.
“I can give you a mild sedative,” the paramedic said.