“Baby? Baby? Can you hear me? It’s Mama.”
Jade knelt beside her daughter, her fingers shaking while she tried to dial 911 on Aisha’s cell phone. She waved her hand and snapped her fingers in front of her daughter’s face while she waited for the call to go through.
“Baby, look at me. It’s over now. We’re going to be okay.”
Ben was the first to arrive on the scene. The ambulance crew was only a minute behind.
“Is she dead?” Jade asked as Ben leaned over Sapphire’s body.
“No.”
A clash of emotions raced through Jade’s body. Relief. Disappointment. Confusion.
Ben walked over to Dez. “Can you hear me, sweetheart? Are you hurt at all?”
“She’s been like that since I got here,” Jade explained, holding her daughter tight.
“Probably the shock. But we should take her to the clinic to make sure.”
“What about Aisha?”
“Hit to the head,” he explained. “She’ll have a nasty headache, maybe a concussion, but the paramedics don’t think it’s anything to get too worried about.”
Jade took her daughter’s hand. “Baby, you want to come with me to talk to the nurse at the clinic? Make sure you’re doing okay?” There was nothing in the world Jade wouldn’t give up in order to hear some kind of sassy reply. Tears leaked down Jade’s cheeks. “I don’t know what’s wrong with her.”
“She’s all right,” Ben answered. “Probably just scared.” He reached out his hand and rested it on Dez’s shoulder. “You know what, princess? All the bad guys who wanted to hurt you are gone now. You don’t have anything to be afraid of anymore.”
Jade waited for some sign of life to light up her daughter’s expression.
Nothing.
She squeezed her eyes shut. She couldn’t stand to see her daughter like this.
“Hey, Dez?” Ben asked. “Want to go for a ride to the clinic with me? Want to take a trip with your good pal Ben?”
Dez blinked, and a small, quivering smile spread across her lips. “I think you mean Officer Ben, don’t you?”