is your name, sweetheart?” he asked, his voice deep and soothing to my ears.
I winced in pain but said, “Lane Edwards.”
He nodded, still smiling. “What is your date of birth?”
I had to think about that for a second, but I remembered the correct date and said, “The fifth of February, nineteen-ninety.”
“Last question,” the smiling man said. “Who is our prime minister?”
I grimaced. “David Cameron, unfortunately.”
“That’s really good, Lane,” he said, laughing.
“Where am I?” I asked, bewildered.
“My name is Jacob, and I’m your paramedic,” Jacob said clearly. “You’re in my ambulance, and we’re en route to York Hospital to have you assessed and admitted by a doctor. You gave us a scare there for a minute, but you seem to be doing better. You’re awake and talking, and that is what I like to see.”
What the hell does that mean?
“What happened?” I asked.
Jacob frowned down at me. “Can you remember anything, Lane?”
I closed my eye and thought hard about what could have happened to me that had me in the back of an ambulance and on the way to the hospital. For a minute or two I drew a blank, and then, like the impact of a train, it all came flooding back.
“Jensen,” I shouted. “He hurt me, he tried to – he tried to—”
“Shhh,” Jacob soothed. “It’s okay. He was arrested at the scene and cannot hurt you anymore. Hear me clearly, love, he cannot hurt you.”
I continued to panic, and Jacob looked distraught.
“I have your friend Drew here,” he said, and that got my attention.
“Drew?” I called out.
I heard movement, and then suddenly she was hovering over me.
“I’m here,” she breathed.
Her eyes were red and bloodshot, obviously from crying.
I swallowed. “My family . . . Kale . . .”
“They’ll meet us at the hospital.”
I closed my eyes and swallowed.
“I had to call them, Lane,” Drew sniffled. “You have to understand how scary it was seeing you like that . . . like this.”
I tried to nod, but the neck brace around my neck and shoulders prevented that.
“I know,” I acknowledged. “Thanks, Drew. You . . . you saved me.”
Her eyes glazed over. “I heard you scream. I didn’t know it was you, but I knew whoever was screaming was in trouble.”
Thank God she heard me when she did.
“Why were you in that building?” I asked.
“My friend Carey lives on the third floor,” she explained. “I was leaving her apartment when I heard screaming coming from Jensen’s, so I called for Jack, Carey’s boyfriend, and he kicked the door open.”
My throat clogged up with emotion, so I blinked in acknowledgement that I’d heard her.
“Drew,” Jacob said, “can you retake your seat, please?”
Drew disappeared, and I yelped when the ambulance ride got bumpy.
“Sorry, Lane,” Jacob called out. “We’re just pulling into the emergency bay now. We’ll have you in the hospital in a minute or two.”
I winced and cried in pain when the stretcher I was on was lifted out of the ambulance and then wheeled into the hospital. I stared up at the ceiling, watching light after light pass by. It got a little hard to stay awake then, so I closed my eyes to rest them for a few seconds.
“Room four with her, please,” a female voice said to Jacob, who was pushing me in the direction of the room.
“This is where I take my leave, Lane,” Jacob said when he leaned back over me. “You hang in there, love, okay?”
“I will,” I said. “Thank you.”
Jacob left to go outside to talk to the nurse he was leaving in charge of me, so Drew came to my side.
“Drew?” I heard my mother shout, her voice clearly distressed.
Drew exhaled a huge breath of relief and rushed outside into the hallway. I closed my eyes as she said, “She’s okay. She’s awake and talking.”
“Lane,” I heard my mother cry, closer this time, and then a shadow came over me. “Oh, my baby.”
I felt her hands on me, and it upset her even more that I winced in pain when she pressed too hard.
“Oh, Christ.” Lochlan’s voice was strangled. “Lane.”
“Lochlan,” my father’s voice shouted. “What room do they have her – Lane!”
“No,” Lochlan shouted. “You don’t want to see her like this.”
“Get the hell out of my way!” my father bellowed, and I heard some grunting, then a male cry.
“Baby,” my father whimpered. “Oh, my girl.”
Wake up!
I forced my left eye open, and when my vision adjusted, my parents’ distraught faces came into view.
“I’m . . . okay,” I rasped.
This caused both