Torch (Take It Off #1)(49)
Author: Cambria Hebert

“Why aren’t you at the hospital?” I demanded, trying to sit up but groaning and falling back down.

“Easy,” he murmured.

“Hospital,” I reminded him.

“I’m not going anywhere without you.”

Someone groaned inside the room. It sounded like Caroline, and I gripped Holt’s arm. “She has a gun!”

“Not anymore,” he said, grim, anger playing across his features.

And then the room was swarmed by police officers and EMTs. Holt picked me up and cradled me against his chest. He sat down on the bed, keeping me in his lap.

One of the EMTs was leaning over Mr. Goddard. “This one’s alive,” he said, looking up at his partner who was leaning over Caroline.

“She’s alive too.”

Then he left Caroline’s side and went over near the desk where William was. A few seconds later he said, “DOA.”

A sob ripped from my throat and I clutched Holt. He gathered me closer against him and whispered in against my ear that everything was going to be okay.

I believed him.

“She’s got a concussion,” Holt called out, and then there were hands on me that weren’t Holt’s as the medics checked my eyes and response.

From on the floor, Mr. Goddard groaned and sat up, leaning against the wall. “What happened?”

“Caroline shot William. He’s dead,” I said, glancing over to where he sat.

“I’m very sorry about all of this,” he said sadly.

“So am I.”

“It’s over now,” Holt said, still refusing to let me go (much to the EMT’s frustration).

“What about her?” I said, feeling a twinge of panic when I looked over to where she lay. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I punched her in the head,” Holt said unapologetically.

“I stabbed her with a pen.”

“That’s my girl.”

I was so relieved we were both still alive. I didn’t bother to remind him not to talk to me like I was a dog.

A police officer was cuffing her hands behind her back. “She’s going to spend a long time in jail.”

“They’re the ones who have been trying to kill me.”

The officer nodded grimly. “There will be plenty of time to get your statement later, after you’ve been to the hospital.”

“You believe me, right?” I worried. What if she got away with this?

He nodded. “Absolutely. There are too many witnesses for her to get out of this.”

“If you signed those papers, I will be sure the courts know it was under duress,” Mr. Goddard said.

Holt glanced at me. “Did you sign them, Katie?”

I glanced at the documents still on the nightstand. “See for yourself.”

He leaned over and grabbed them up, glancing down at the signature line.

His chuckle was a welcome sound.

I glanced down at my “signature.”

SCREW YOU.

Then I looked back at Mr. Goddard. “My signature is not on that paper. But I would like to sign the papers to claim the money.”

“I have extra copies in my suitcase. I never travel without doubles.”

I looked back up at Holt. “You came for me.”

He touched my cheek with his fingers. “When I woke up and Dad told me they’d taken you, I about lost my mind.”

“I thought you died in that explosion.”

“Takes a lot more than that to kill me.”

“Thank God.” I laid my head against his chest. The EMT sighed and gave up, going to see about Mr. Goddard’s injuries instead.

“How did you know where I was?”

“When I came to, Dad told me two people forced you into a car and drove off. I knew it was about the money, and I knew you were meeting the lawyer here. I didn’t even wait around for the EMTs to check me out. I took Dad’s work truck and sped the entire way. I heard the gunshot as I was getting off the elevator.” His voice turned hoarse. “When I burst in here and saw her on top of you, I lost it. I would have killed her if the cops weren’t rushing down the hall.”

“Thank you for saving me,” I whispered, reaching up to cup his jaw.

“You saved me too. If you hadn’t come running out of the house, I would have been inside my truck when it blew.”

I squeezed my eyes shut at the horrible image.

“How did you know?” he asked.

“I didn’t. I just had a really bad feeling all of a sudden. I panicked.”

He hugged me closer, hunching around my body. “We came close, Freckles. We almost lost everything.”

“But we didn’t,” I whispered, inhaling his scent that still clung to his skin even after he was the victim of an explosion.

“We need to get you two to the hospital,” one of the police officers said, gesturing to the door.

I looked up and noticed that Mr. Goddard and Caroline where already gone and there was a sheet draped over William’s body.

Holt stood. When he didn’t put me down, I patted his chest. “I can walk.”

He shook his head. “You have a concussion.”

“So do you,” I reminded him.

“Yours is worse.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl?” I countered.

“Because I want to hold you.”

I couldn’t argue with that. So I didn’t.

The ambulance was waiting when we stepped outside. Before lifting me up into the back, Holt leaned down and covered my lips with his.

The heat was instantaneous, sweeping up inside me and igniting a fire of passion that only he could make me feel.

“I thought fire fighters were supposed to put out fires, not make them,” I said when he lifted his head.

He smiled. “Get used to the heat, sweetheart, because this is one flame I’m never putting out.”

I liked the sound of that.

EPILOGUE

The ringing of the phone cut into my sleep. I untangled myself from Holt’s embrace and reached for my brand-new cell phone lying on the nightstand beside the bed. I liked it better when I didn’t have a phone to ring and wake me up.

“Hello?” I answered, trying not to sound like I was sleeping in the middle of the afternoon.

“Miss Parker?”

“Yes?” I said, my mind going through the possibilities of who the woman on the other end of the line was.

“My name is Anita Caldwell. I’m with First People’s Bank here in Wilmington.”

“Oh yes, how are you today, ma’am?”