Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 381(@200wpm)___ 305(@250wpm)___ 254(@300wpm)
I knew we were there when Dallas started laying on the horn.
He rushed out of the car, opening the back as Dr. Price himself came rushing out the front door.
“She was drugged,” Dallas told him as I carried Everleigh up the front path. “Gave her two doses to counteract it,” he added.
“Okay. Come on in,” Dr. Price said, cool and collected. Like he’d seen this a million times. And maybe he had. Drug use and overdoses happened everywhere. And in our little nowhere town that didn’t have a very close hospital, Dr. Price likely had to handle just about everything. At least while waiting for an airlift to a trauma center. “Put her down on the table,” he demanded. “What did she take?”
“She was drugged,” I corrected. “Heroin. Likely cut with Fentanyl.”
“Okay,” Dr. Price said, tone soothing as he stuck a pulse-ox onto her finger, and turned to get a blood pressure cuff. “How are you feeling, honey?” he asked.
“Okay,” she said, sounding a little slow, but awake.
Awake was good.
“Yeah?” Dr. Price asked. “That’s good. Just be still for one minute,” he said as he pumped up the blood pressure cuff. “Okay. Alright. Your vitals are okay,” he said. “But I want to keep you here for a few hours to keep an eye on you. Give you fluids. Make sure you don’t need another dose of the meds. They work fast and almost completely within a few minutes, but sometimes you might need another dose in a few hours. That’s why I want to keep an eye on you,” he explained.
“Yeah, I would be too worried to leave,” she admitted. “And, um, can you check my shoulder?” she asked.
“What happened to your shoulder?” I asked, starting to move forward, but Dr. Price moved in my path.
“How about you step outside?” Dr. Price suggested.
“I didn’t do it,” I insisted, offended he’d think that was possible.
“He didn’t,” Everleigh said.
“Just one second, Everleigh,” Dr. Price said as he waved me toward the hallway. “She needs to be examined,” he explained. “And she could use some calm. You’re all over the place,” he said, and, well, he was right about that. “Go cool off. Let me look over her, then come back in when you calm down.”
“Okay,” I agreed, knowing she deserved the best of me after what she’d been through, and that I was nowhere near that. “Take care of her,” I said, getting a knowing nod from him.
“I will.”
With that, I turned and moved out front, wanting to take five minutes to get my head on right. So I could go back in there and comfort her.
But then my gaze landed on my brother who was talking to a uniform, likely the one whose cruiser we’d stolen.
“You motherfucker,” I hissed, charging toward him.
The anxiety of Everleigh’s health lessened, the rage I felt toward him for putting her in this position came back.
“It’s okay,” Dallas said to the officer as he took a step away. “Watch your fucking tone,” he warned as he moved toward me.
“I’ll talk to you however the fuck I want,” I countered. “When all of this was your fucking fault.”
“I was doing my job,” he insisted, glaring at me with eyes so much like my own.
“Your job. Dragging innocent women in on bullshit charges while the real bad guys got away? Doing a great fucking job, man.”
“Her fingers were all over the box.”
“And seeing as she worked there, that was not enough to bring her in on. So busy trying to get more feathers in your fucking cap to actually do a thorough job.”
“You don’t know a fucking thing about my job.”
“I know I managed to do it for you in less than a day. And do it right.”
“You’re just pissed off because you were fucking the woman.”
“I wasn’t,” I countered. Because I wasn’t. Not at the time, anyway. “I just knew an innocent woman when I saw one. Everleigh? Fucking seriously, Dallas? Probably the most innocent woman in this entire fucking town.”
“What the fuck can you possibly know about innocence?” he shot back.
“What the fuck happened to you?” I asked, exhaling hard.
“Me?” he asked, letting out a humorless laugh. “What happened to me? What happened to you?”
“What happened to me?” I scoffed. “I had a dad who couldn’t work, a brother who needed to be provided for, and bills piling up every single fucking day. I was drowning in responsibilities I didn’t ask for, and no way to handle them save for finding a job that would give me a lot of money in a short amount of time.”
“Don’t you dare blame me and Pop for your life decisions.”
“How did you think the lights stayed on, Dallas? When Pop was in bed for months on end, when the disability paychecks barely covered putting some food in the fridge? Who handed him the two grand you needed to go to the fucking Academy in the first place? Even when you stopped speaking to me.”