FIFTEEN
Karen turned off the gravel road and pulled into the driveway. She parked next to Joshua’s car. Amber sat next to her, pale and sweating, her breath coming in quick pants. Her hospital gown had gotten even bloodier during the drive; the entire middle of it was nearly covered.
Right as Karen turned off the car, Ross stormed out of the house and sprinted to them.
“Out of the car,” he yelled to Karen. He gestured to an area in the middle of the front lawn. “Go over there.”
Karen opened the car door and walked over. From a few feet away, she watched as Ross ran around the car and threw open the passenger door. He leaned inside and hugged Amber.
“I knew you’d make it, baby,” he said. He cupped the sides of her face with his hands. “I knew it all along.”
He kissed her, hugged her again. It reminded Karen of those videos of returning soldiers being greeted by their families—there was pure happiness, pure love, in his embrace.
“Careful,” Karen said. “Her stitches were torn. Don’t make it worse.”
Ross looked at the blood on the front of Amber’s hospital robe. He kissed her forehead and walked over to Karen.
“Anybody see you when you escaped?”
“No. I don’t think so.”
Ross gestured to Amber. “What happened to her?”
“We fell when we were leaving. Her wound got ripped open.”
“So how bad is she?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Didn’t ask if you were. Just gimme your opinion.”
“She’s in bad shape,” Karen said. “She needs to get back to a hospital.”
“A hospital?”
“Yes. And soon.”
Ross scratched the back of his neck, stared off for a moment.
“How’s that supposed to work?” he asked. “Can’t exactly show up to a hospital an hour after someone looking just like her escaped from one. Same injury and all.”
“You’ll have to go far away. Get to another state. Missouri’s only a few hours from here. Illinois, too.”
Right now, she just wanted them to leave. End this, right here, right now—that was her focus. Get them away from the house and far, far away.
“The keys are still in the ignition,” Karen said. “I won’t call the police. Just take my car and go.”
“Listen, I’m no fool,” Ross said. “That won’t work. I know there’s alerts and stuff that go out. I show up to a hospital with her, they’ll look up her records, see that she escaped, and that will be it. She’ll be arrested. Doesn’t matter if the hospital’s in another state.”
“You’ll have to take that risk. If her wound gets infected, she might not make it.”
Ross bit his lower lip and stared at Amber, in the front seat.
“I gotta think about this,” he said.
“You don’t have time,” Karen said.
“Won’t take long. I think I got an idea. Just need to make a few phone calls.”
He walked back over to the car.
“Meantime, I’m bringing her inside.”
“What? No.”
Ross nodded.
“You’re a nurse. And you got a bed inside. We’ll set her up there for now.”
Karen tried to protest, but Ross waved her off. He lifted Amber from the front seat and wrapped a steadying hand around her waist, helping her walk from the driveway up to the front door.
“Open that for me,” he said to Karen. “And don’t try nothing. The gun’s in my waistband. Won’t take but a second to grab it.”
She opened the door and stepped into the living room. Ross and Amber entered a few feet behind her.
“Go down the hallway,” Ross said to Karen. “I saw a bedroom earlier. We’ll go there.”
Karen walked down the hallway. In her bedroom, she stood off to one side and watched as Ross gently laid Amber in bed.
“You’re going to be all right,” Ross said, kissing her forehead. “Trust me, baby.”
Ross motioned Karen out to the hallway. They left the bedroom and walked back to the storage room. Inside, Joshua was tied up in the same position he’d been in earlier. Ross sat Karen down in her chair and zip-tied her hands to the armrests and her feet to the chair legs.
“You need to listen to me. She’s at serious risk,” Karen said. “If the wound gets infected, there’s nothing I can do here. I don’t have the antibiotics she needs. You need to get her back to a hospital.”
“I believe you. I just need to make a couple phone calls. Won’t take long.”
Ross walked out of the room. Karen closed her eyes. The rush of adrenaline she’d felt at the hospital had passed. It was only the afternoon but she felt so tired, so beaten down.
“Mom, what happened?” Joshua asked.
Karen sighed heavily. She told him a quick version of the events at the hospital.
“She’s in my bedroom now,” Karen said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. I’m hoping that this will be it.”
She didn’t know how much more she could take. She prayed that this was almost over. Ross had said he wouldn’t harm them if she broke Amber out; she could only hope he meant it.
But if he went back on his word, she had a plan. She looked down at her leg. Right there, tucked away in her sock, she could just barely see the handle of the scalpel she had taken from the hospital.
Lying on her back, Amber winced. The pain in her stomach was sharp, not a stabbing sensation as much as a steady, constant throb. She reached down and pulled the gown to the side. The dressing covering her wound was soaked in deep crimson. She winced and peeled the dressing off. The stomach wound was almost an inch wide, a bright shade of red, the surrounding skin inflamed. Blood had started to coagulate and dry over it.
She looked away and glanced around the bedroom, searching for something to focus on, some way to distract herself from the pain. There wasn’t much; bedrooms didn’t get much more plain and ordinary than this one. The walls were covered in light blue wallpaper, the curtains and carpet a matching beige color. The only decorations were a few framed photographs resting on top of a dresser. There was one of the lady (what was her name? Karen) and a few friends, sitting at a restaurant table, smiling into the camera and holding margarita glasses in the air. A few other random photos, most of her kid. Some of him when he was younger: one at Disney World wearing a floppy hat with Goofy ears, another of him stepping off a school bus, a few of him holding golf clubs.
Ross entered the room. He carried a coffee mug in one hand. Flakes of red were smudged around his chin and lips. Even in her dazed state, she could see that he’d been huffing paint.
“Does it hurt?” he said. He sat down on the edge of the bed and ran his hand through her hair.
She gritted her teeth and nodded.
“You’ll be fine,” he said.
He held up a mug and rotated it to show her the characters printed on the side—Ernie, Bert, Grover, Oscar, Big Bird.
“Found this in the cupboard and thought you’d like it,” he said. “Remember Sesame Street? How we used to always watch it?”
“Yeah,” she said. After Ross was released from prison and they were living in Nebraska, they got only one channel on the small, outdated television in their apartment: the local PBS affiliate. Almost every morning, they’d been forced to watch Sesame Street during breakfast because they had no other options. It had been a running joke between them since then.
Ross cradled her head with one hand and lifted the coffee mug to her lips. His hands were slightly shaking.
“Here, drink some water.”
He tilted the cup and some of the water spilled out and dribbled down her chin. He wiped it away with the back of his hand.
For the next minute, he held her in his arms and helped her drink. Here was the Ross she loved. The man she knew was worth fighting for and risking everything for. The good person who was still somewhere in there, deep down.
“That enough?” he asked her.
She nodded. Ross leaned over and kissed the top of her head. He grabbed her hand and held it in his.
“Listen, we can’t stay here for long. We need to get you looked at and fixed up. Can’t check you in to a hospital, though. Police know who you are now. They’ll be looking for you. Can’t let you get arrested.”
Ross pulled a phone from his pocket—must’ve been the kid’s phone, she figured.
“I got an idea,” he said. “I think I know what we can do. Just gotta make one quick phone call first.”
“Wh-who?” she asked.
“We’re desperate, babe. Gotta call up the only guy who I think can help us. I’m calling up Shane.”