9
Everything hurt.
Her head throbbed with every pulsing beat of her heart.
Her face, hands, and knees stung. How far had they skidded on the sidewalk before coming to a stop after the explosion threw them off their feet?
Her chest burned with each intake of breath. Bruised ribs, probably from where Adam had landed on her.
She would never tell him that. Ever.
It had all been a blur. She lay frozen beneath Adam as the ground shook and everything around them seemed to be breaking apart and burning.
Until, finally, the chaos stilled.
Adam’s chest was draped across her back. His left arm was over her head like he’d landed on her sideways. His face was turned away from her.
“Adam?” She coughed into the dust-filled air and pain sliced through her. “Adam?”
Why wasn’t he answering her?
“Adam? Sabrina? Oh no!” Gabe’s anguished cry terrified her more than anything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours.
“Sabrina! Thank God! I, um . . . Oh, Father, help me.”
Was Gabe praying?
“What’s wrong with Adam?” She gasped the words. He was so heavy. She never would have expected him to be as heavy as he felt at that moment.
“Sabrina, I’m going to need you to stay calm.”
“I’m trying, but I’m having some trouble”—she sucked in a breath—“breathing.”
“Adam’s not conscious,” he said. “And there’s a huge piece of the roof on the two of you. I’m afraid to move him. It isn’t burning, thank heaven.”
The roof? No wonder she couldn’t breathe. But then . . .
“Is he breathing?”
God, please let him be breathing.
“He is,” Gabe said. “But if you can hold on, I’ll see if I can shift—”
“Don’t!” The effort to yell the word cost her precious oxygen, but she didn’t care. “Wait.”
“You’re sure? He’ll kill me if I don’t get you out from under him,” Gabe said.
“I’ll kill you if you move him,” she said.
Gabe knelt beside her. She could barely see him through the space between Adam’s arm and the ground. “I have no doubt you would,” he said. His eyes were red.
Sirens rent the air and Gabe’s relief was palpable. He got to his feet. “I won’t try to move the roof off completely, but I’m going to try to lift it up a little so you can breathe.”
She heard his grunt and the pressure on her rib cage eased. Not much, but enough for her to get a slightly deeper breath.
“He saved our lives,” Gabe said.
“What was it?” Part of her didn’t care. Part of her knew this was her brain’s way of protecting itself from the things she didn’t want to think about. If she could focus on the facts, she didn’t have to focus on the emotions that lay heavy across her heart.
“An RPG, I think.”
“A what?”
“A rocket-propelled grenade. Must have been on a timer. Or maybe it didn’t go off the way it was supposed to. Either way, it was lucky for us. Those things usually blow on impact.”
“How do you know that’s what it was?” Whispering was easier than trying to project her voice, but he heard her.
“You can spot the smoke trail. Adam saw it first. I just ran when he said to run. I didn’t see it until we were already jumping off the porch. I’m guessing the explosion from the RPG hit some of the gas lines and caused them to blow. It’s a wonder there’s anything left of the house.”
She peered under Adam’s arm, but everything was blurry. Where were her glasses? Probably in a thousand pieces somewhere.
From what little she knew about RPGs, mostly from news reports from the Middle East, she was fairly certain they didn’t have a long range. Whoever had fired it had been close enough to know they were on the porch.
Close enough to see them now.
Doors slammed and footsteps pounded. “Gabe!”
Was that Anissa? Why was she here?
“Gabe!” That was definitely Ryan.
“Are you okay?” Anissa asked.
What was Anissa seeing that had her so worried for Gabe? How badly was he injured?
“I’m fine, but—”
A muted conversation took place above her. She heard whispers but couldn’t make out what was being said.
“Sabrina!” Anissa knelt beside her. “Hang in there, hon.”
“I’m fine,” Sabrina whispered. “Adam?”
“He’s breathing.” Anissa’s voice trembled. “We’ll get that stuff off him in a sec.”
The squawk of the sirens pierced her tender ears and then cut off. More running steps. More yelling.
And then a new sound reached her ears. Thump, thump, thump.
A helicopter.
“Well, that’s great.” Gabe’s annoyance filtered through the chaos.
“Ignore it.” Anissa wasn’t being bossy. She didn’t sound annoyed with Gabe either. She sounded . . . compassionate. Anissa and Gabe had been getting along a lot better than they used to, but if she was being compassionate toward Gabe, then something must be wrong.
Gabe must be hurt far worse than anyone was letting on.
Father, please. Don’t let my friends die. And Adam, oh, God, please. I can’t . . .
“Let’s see what we have here.” A new voice. Deeper. Calmer. “My name is Clark. What’s yours?”
“Sabrina.” She tried to answer him, but she wasn’t sure if he understood.
Gabe spoke. “Dr. Sabrina Fleming,” he said, “and Investigator Adam Campbell is the guy pinned under the roof. I was afraid to move it completely, but we need to get her out from under there. She’s having some trouble getting enough air.”
“You did the right thing,” Clark said.
Someone new knelt beside her and pushed Adam’s arm away enough to slip a mask over her face. The flow of oxygen did help. Some.
“Dr. Fleming? A medical doctor?”
“No,” Anissa said. “She’s a PhD. Computer forensics and cybersecurity.”
“Nice.” Clark sounded impressed.
Sabrina would be impressed if he were more focused on Adam.
“We’re going to get a collar on Adam,” he said, “and then we’ll get this roof off of him and get him off of you.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“When we move him, I need you to stay as still as possible,” he said. “I know you’re going to want to get up, or roll over, but please don’t until we check you out.”
More conversations happened above and around her. Adam’s weight shifted. “It’s okay,” Anissa whispered. “They’ve almost got the collar on.”
Another shift, this time of Adam’s legs. Why were they moving his legs?
“Whoa,” Clark said. “Calm down, Adam.”
They weren’t moving his legs. He was moving them!
“Bri?” Adam’s raspy voice in her ear was the most beautiful sound she’d ever heard. “Bri!” The panic in it was not okay.
“I’m okay,” she rushed to assure him, “but you have to be still.” Her voice was muffled by the mask. She hoped he could hear her.
“Adam, listen to Dr. Fleming,” Clark said. “You’ve been knocked unconscious and pinned down. We need to stabilize you before we move you, and the sooner we do that the sooner we can get you off of her so she can breathe.”
“Okay.”
Adam’s hand squeezed her arm.
He could move his hands. Thank you, God.
“Okay,” Clark said. “You’re going to lift the roof and walk backward with it. As soon as they’re clear, we’ll get Adam on the board and off Dr. Fleming. On the count of three. Ready?”
Far more people responded yes than she’d been expecting.
“One. Two. Three. Lift.”
Instantaneous relief.
Adam wasn’t anywhere near as heavy as Adam plus a piece of the roof.
She heard the grunts of the people moving the roof. The ground shook as they dropped it.
And faster than she’d expected, Adam was gone. Cool air rushed over her as her lungs expanded fully.
“Lie still.” Anissa squeezed Sabrina’s now-exposed fingers.
“Sir, we need to take a look at that—”
“Later.” Gabe’s tone left no room for argument.
“Gabe.” Anissa’s reproach was tender. Her worry tangible. “She’s right. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not,” Ryan said.
Their conversation shifted out of earshot as they followed the group taking Adam to the ambulance.
Anissa stayed by her side, and for the next few minutes all Sabrina could do was answer questions and nod and move the parts of her body the paramedic, a young woman named Dorothy, asked her to move.
They settled Sabrina onto a stretcher and strapped her in. “You’re going to be fine, Dr. Fleming,” Dorothy said. “But it’s protocol in a situation like this for you to go to the emergency department. They’ll take great care of you.”
“I know,” she said. “I was there this morning.”
“We have another ambulance ready.” Dorothy pointed toward the road. “Just waiting for the first ambulance to leave.”
Adam was in that ambulance. Why hadn’t they left yet? He needed to be X-rayed, maybe have CT scans and MRIs. He might need oxygen. He could have burns. “What’s taking them so long?”
“They’re just being extra careful,” Anissa said. “But he’s talking, and I saw him moving his hands and legs. We’ll get a full update as soon as we get to the hospital.”
“Hey.” Gabe handed Sabrina her glasses. “Thought you might want these. The frames are a little wonky, but I don’t think the lenses are scratched.”
“Thank you.” She settled them on her face—wonky was an understatement—and looked around.
The house was a smoldering heap.
Gabe’s head and arm were bleeding. His pants were shredded on one side. “You need to go to the hospital,” she said.
“He will,” Anissa said.
Gabe glared at Anissa but didn’t argue.
“Then I guess I’ll see you there,” Sabrina said.
Ryan joined Gabe and Anissa by her stretcher. “I’ve already called Leigh,” he said. “She’ll probably beat you there.”
“She doesn’t have to be my personal nurse.”
“She doesn’t want you to be alone,” Ryan said.
Wow. Sabrina’s chin quivered and she clamped her jaws together to stop it. She would not fall apart. Not now.
When she thought she could speak without blubbering, she whispered, “Thanks.” The ambulance pulled away and they all watched it go. “Has anyone contacted Adam’s family?”
Ryan patted her arm. “The captain was going to call his parents, but—”
“His parents are in Italy,” Sabrina said. Dorothy pushed her stretcher toward the waiting ambulance.
“I’ll call his grandfather,” Anissa said. “Then I’ll be sure Gabe gets seen. We’ll see you at the hospital.”
Sabrina rested her head on the stretcher. Before the doors closed, she saw Anissa on the phone. Gabe had his head in his hands and Ryan had a hand on Gabe’s back.
“Hey,” she called out. Ryan and Gabe looked up. “Be careful.”
They gave her a thumbs-up and the driver closed the doors.
“We’ll be there in ten minutes,” Dorothy said. “Try to relax.”
Like that was going to happen.
So far today someone had attacked her, then left her to bleed on the ground, where she could have died, and then someone had blown up a house while she was still in it.
And . . . all the evidence.
The horror of it washed over her again. Gabe was hurt. She was hurt—again. The evidence was gone.
He’d sacrificed himself for her. He’d protected her from the first explosion and the second. If he hadn’t been hovering over her, she might have been killed.
A tear escaped. Dorothy saw it.
“You’re doing great,” she said. “You’ve been through a lot.”
This sweet girl had no idea.
“Your boyfriend is in the best hands,” she went on. “If I was hurt, Clark’s the one I’d want by my side.”
“He isn’t my boyfriend,” Sabrina said.
Dorothy coughed a couple of times, but it sounded a lot like “yeah right” and then “liar.”
“He isn’t,” Sabrina said.
Dorothy patted her hand. “Then you need to do whatever you have to do to change that. I’ve never had a man care enough about me to even open a door, much less shield my body with his own. You’re a very lucky lady.”
Despite everything that had happened today, somehow Sabrina thought Dorothy might be right.
“I need to see her,” Adam said. Again. He’d been saying that for the past hour. No one had been able to give him any information. They’d sent him to radiology, and they’d cleaned and bandaged his back, which at the moment felt great thanks to the lidocaine they’d used. He didn’t want to think about how it would feel later, but all in all they’d taken fabulous care of him physically. But did no one care that he was freaking out over here?
He understood the privacy laws they were bound by, but couldn’t they give him something? If she was really okay, why hadn’t she been in to see him?
A doctor—he assumed it was a doctor—leaned into Adam’s field of vision. The collar they had around his neck prevented him from turning his head. “Mr. Campbell, I’m Dr. Sloan. I’m thrilled you’re doing well enough to insist on seeing your girlfriend, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to wait a little longer.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s . . .” He couldn’t bring himself to say “just a friend,” because she was so much more.
Dr. Sloan smiled. “Boy, you’ve got it bad. And I promise I’ll let her come in to see you as soon as possible.”
“Is she okay? They wouldn’t tell me anything in the ambulance.”
“Yes,” he said. “She’s fine.”
The doctor sounded convincing, but he could be saying that to calm Adam down. “How do you know?”
Dr. Sloan winked at him. What was that supposed to mean?
The doctor called out a few orders—it sounded like Adam might be able to get out of the neck brace soon—but then the doctor’s tone changed. “Have any of you ever met Dr. Fleming?”
“No,” a female voice replied.
“She’s the patient visiting us in room 4 for the second time today. If she keeps this up, we’re going to have to name it after her,” he said. “She’s a professor at the university. Her specialty is computer forensics.”
“Cool,” another voice chimed in.
Adam appreciated what Dr. Sloan was doing. He was simultaneously letting him know that he really had seen Sabrina, and she was okay, without violating any privacy laws or revealing anything about her physical condition.
“It is cool,” he said. “I’m going to see if the school will have her come in and do a cybersecurity class for my kid’s middle-school class. I think it would be quite informative for them. She said she’d be happy to.”
“Was that before or after you stitched up her head? Again.”
Adam knew that voice. “Leigh?”
“Hey.” Someone—he assumed it was Leigh—squeezed his hand.
“Let me guess,” Dr. Sloan said, “you’ve been sent by Dr. Fleming to ascertain the status of Mr. Campbell.”
“I have,” Leigh said. She leaned over Adam. “She’s fine, Adam. Completely fine.”
“Does she have a head injury? She already had a concussion from this morning.”
“Um, no. A few bruised ribs. Some minor contusions.” Leigh’s eyes shone with honesty and the vice grip around his heart released.
“Did they check? Because she can’t be trusted to tell the truth about how much pain she’s in.”
“Yes,” Leigh said. “X-rays and scans and examinations—all done. A few stitches, thanks to Dr. Sloan, and she’s being released.”
“How bad is she hurting?”
“Adam.” Leigh gave him a kind but firm look. “She almost died today. Twice. A little pain? It’s not such a bad thing.”
He understood what Leigh was saying. And she was right. Pain beat the alternative. Except he didn’t want her to hurt at all. Ever.
“Your CT looks good, so let’s get you out of this,” Dr. Sloan said.
In a few moments, his neck was free from the collar. He took in the room around him. “Thank you,” he said.
Dr. Sloan frowned at him. “I’m going to tell you what I think you should do. I think you should go home. Take Dr. Fleming. Find a comfortable chair or couch and rest. Put your feet up. Watch a movie.”
Adam didn’t respond. He wouldn’t lie to the man. And he would try to get Sabrina to agree to the doctor’s recommendations.
But it wouldn’t work.
Dr. Sloan’s frown deepened. “But since I know you’re going to ignore me, at least agree you will take it easy. That you will take the meds I prescribe. That neither of you will be alone tonight and someone will be around to check on you.”
“I will,” Leigh said. “They can stay with me.”
Dr. Sloan didn’t give Adam a chance to disagree. “Excellent.” He turned to Leigh. “Take care of them.”
“I will.”
Dr. Sloan left the room muttering something about workaholics.
“How’s Gabe?” Adam asked Leigh.
“Grouchy. He’s already gone back to the house to see if there’s anything salvageable. Ryan’s with him. They said you would understand.”
He did. And he was thankful they’d done that. Neither of them could help him by sitting in a hospital waiting room. They needed to find out who did this.
Now.
“Anissa’s still here,” Leigh said.
“Why?”
“She’s with your grandfather in the waiting room.”
“What?”
“Actually, I believe she’s with both of your grandparents.”
“Grandmother? Is here?”
“Yes. I think they want to see you. I’ve been holding them off, but you probably should . . .”
“Of course. Yeah. Okay.”
Five minutes later he heard Anissa’s voice outside the door. “He’s in here.” Grandmother entered first, followed by Grandfather.
“Oh my.” Grandmother’s whispered words stunned him. For Virginia Campbell, those two words were equivalent to a shout of horror.
Grandfather placed his arm around Grandmother’s shoulders and squeezed. Grandmother leaned into him for a brief moment before straightening.
“I do not appreciate getting phone calls in the middle of my bridge club,” she said. He might have been hurt by the severity of her remark if he hadn’t noticed the way her hand shook as she brushed back her hair.
“Anissa shouldn’t have called.” He shot daggers at Anissa, who didn’t look nearly sorry enough for putting him in this situation.
“She most certainly should have.” Grandmother bestowed a smile on Anissa. “She clearly understands the way mothers and grandmothers worry. Besides, how would it look for a Campbell to be in the hospital and no one from the family present to advocate for him.”
“Grandmother.” He wanted to say he didn’t need anyone to advocate for him. And he didn’t care how it looked. But then he caught Grandfather’s eye. “I’m sorry. Things got a little crazy for a while.”
Anissa smirked, and she and Leigh slipped into the hallway.
“From what we heard, you saved Dr. Fleming’s life today.” Grandfather had a twinkle in his eye that didn’t bode well. If Grandfather got the idea he had any sort of feelings for Sabrina . . .
“Well, of course he did,” Grandmother said. “He’s a Campbell.” High praise from Grandmother. If he hadn’t gotten the all clear from the doctor, he would have been worried there was something seriously wrong with him.
“How’re you feeling? Investigator Bell told us you were nearly crushed by a large section of roof.”
“I don’t know about crushed—”
“And we ran into Investigator Chavez in the parking lot as we were coming in. He told us your quick thinking saved all of you,” Grandfather added. “Said if you hadn’t reacted when you did . . .”
Grandmother sucked in a quick breath. “We’re proud of you, dear. When will they let you out of here?”
“Any minute now.”
“Do your parents know about this? Or Alexander?” Adam’s brother, Alexander, was an orthopedic surgeon in Chapel Hill.
“He knows, Grandmother. I talked to him for about thirty seconds before they did all the scans. He was going to call Mom and Dad as soon as they knew what we were dealing with. But with the time difference, I’m not sure they’ll get the message until tomorrow.”
Grandmother pinched her mouth into a tight line. “Good. I don’t wish to be part of any form of deception. Parents need to know what’s going on with their children.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What do you need, son? What can we do?” Grandfather patted Adam’s leg.
“Nothing. It’s just some bruises and lacerations. Nothing major. I’m fine.” There was no way he needed his grandmother worrying over things that would heal. “Thank you both for coming.”
Grandmother gave him a small smile. “Would you like me to send Marcel over tonight?”
She was offering to do without her butler for the evening? Good grief. He’d never heard of her doing that. Ever. Grandfather looked surprised by the gesture, but he supported it. “That’s an excellent idea, Virginia.”
“Thank you for that kind offer. Truly. But I’m fine. The doctor doesn’t want either Dr. Fleming or me to be alone tonight, and our friend Leigh Weston has agreed to keep an eye on us. She’s a nurse practitioner here in the emergency department, so she’s eminently qualified.”
“Judge Weston’s daughter. Yes. I know who she is. She’s quite respected in her field. An excellent choice. You’ll give her our number,” she said. “And tell her to call us if she has the slightest need.” Grandmother didn’t ask this—she stated all of it as an imperative.
“Yes, ma’am. I will.”
“And you will call us tonight? Just a little check-in?” Grandfather did ask.
“Of course.”
“Very well.” Grandmother looked around the room. Grandfather must have taken that as a sign that it was time for them to leave. He patted Adam’s leg, again. “Keep up the good work.”
But rather than walking to the door, Grandmother came closer, leaned over his bed, and planted a kiss on his cheek. “Be safe.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Grandfather winked and they left the room.
Adam touched his face. He had no recollection of his grandmother kissing him. Ever.
He had no idea what had just happened. Was it possible Grandmother had finally decided to give him her blessing?
He didn’t need it, of course.
But he couldn’t deny that he rather liked it.
“You okay?” Leigh said from the door.
“I think so.”
She came in, twirling a cream-colored card in her hand. “Your grandmother gave me her card. I’m to call if I need anything. She’s quite worried about you.”
“Yeah, I think she is.”
Who’d have ever thought that would happen?
It took another thirty minutes for him to get released. When he was finally free, the nurse wanted to push him to the door in a wheelchair.
He declined.
He found Leigh in the lobby. “Where’s Sabrina?”
“Right here.”
Her voice came from his left. Her eyes were red. Her right cheek was scraped. She might wind up with a black eye based on the bruising he could see forming. Her wrist had a bandage on it. There were stitches at her hair line.
She was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“You’re okay?” she asked.
“Come here.” He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. She held on to him like she might never let him go.
“We’re okay.” He kissed the top of her head, and he didn’t care that Leigh was standing six feet away with a goofy grin on her face and a tear slipping down her cheek.
Sabrina’s entire body trembled. Was she cold? Or maybe having some sort of delayed reaction to the day’s events?
“Adam,” Leigh said, “Sabrina has insisted that I take her to her lab. Would you care to join us?”
“The lab?” He tried to keep the “Are you crazy?” out of his voice.
“The hard drive,” Sabrina said. “I need to see if I can get anything off it.”
“Tonight?” he asked.
“You think we dare wait for tomorrow? We almost got blown up today. They’ve probably destroyed whatever evidence might have been in the house. We’ll never know for sure. The hard drive’s all we have left.”
As much as he hated to admit it, she had a point.
A terrifying one. But a good one.
“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”