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“Who?” I asked. “Bree’s grandmother? Was she inside?”
Liem pulled back, his eyes bugging out. “No, Vinh. Bree. They took her to the hospital, but she asked me to stay here in case her grandmother was inside. I called Mom and Dad, and they’re already on the way there to meet her.”
I jerked back violently, my thoughts, surroundings, everything crashing to a halt. I watched Liem’s mouth move, but I couldn’t understand as single word.
My eyes flicked down to his chest, and I watched it rise and fall for several beats. Liem grabbed my arms tightly and shook me. Finally, the static cleared, and his words with it.
“Go to the hospital. I’m going to stay here in case they find out something. We don’t know where Bree’s grandmother is.”
We turned toward the fire even as every fiber of my being was cringing away from the embers, and neither of us voiced the truth. If she’d been in there, there was no way she could have survived. The smoke alone would have been enough.
The paramedic who had been working on Liem, a nervous looking guy somewhere in his midtwenties, tugged on Liem’s elbow with a gloved hand. “Come on, let me finish cleaning up your cuts.”
In an uncharacteristic show of aggression, Liem yanked his arm from the medic and said through gritted teeth, “I’m fine.”
He looked back at me, guilt shadowing his gaze. “Go. She’s at Gulf Memorial. I’ll update you when I know anything, and please”—his voice broke on the last words—“tell me how she’s doing when you get there.”
With a jerky nod, I turned my back on the fire and—walked? Ran?—I had no idea how my legs carried me back to my car, but they did as I all the while forced my thoughts to blank so I could focus on getting to the hospital without having the meltdown to end all meltdowns.
51
BREE
“Okay, Miss Faust, this is going to hurt, even with the pain meds we’ve put in your IV. We’ve got to get these wounds cleaned and these pesky shards out as soon as possible so we can get you all better. The paramedics reported that they saw a few deep ones before they put the bandages on. Now, just take a deep breath with me, and when you let it out, I’ll start.”
The warmth and authority in her voice wasn’t quite enough to soothe my nerves, especially since I was lying on my stomach, completely naked, on a hospital bed.
But at least I’d been moved to a private room shortly after arriving at Gulf Memorial. My wounds weren’t bad enough to risk the highways they’d have to use to get to the nearest trauma center in a reasonable time. Those roads were currently gridlocked by vacationers fleeing the incoming tropical storm.
Gridlock. That’s what I thought about as I held back some of—but not all—the screams when my sure-handed nurse—doctor? I didn’t even know—removed who knew how many pieces of glass from my back, the clink of each one hitting the bottom of the emesis basin enough to make the churning in my stomach ratchet to the next level.
All of it was a necessary distraction from thinking about Grandmother.
My sprained wrist was already braced and my two similarly sprained fingers splinted from where they fell victim to trying to break my fall. They tried their best, but I still had a small gash somewhere near my eyebrow, and when I tapped gingerly on the side of my face, I could feel the swelling.
The door opened, but with the slight privacy curtain hiding my naked form from the open doorway, I couldn’t see who it was. A female nurse appeared in my line of sight and crouched down so she was at eye level with me. “How’re we doing, sweetie?”
I winced as I heard another shard hit the basin but then gave the nurse a feeble thumbs-up with my other hand. Her eyes smiled kindly at me, but her possible actual smile was hidden by her mask as she took in the injuries to my face. “We’ll get you a cold compress for your head as soon as your back and legs are done. You’re doing great. Do you want someone in here with you? A man who says he’s your father was asking for you, but I wasn’t sure if you’d want him in here?”
I nearly bowed off the bed, causing both women helping me to yelp and the nurse in front to grab my shoulders and ease me back into a lying position. “Woah! Easy, now. No one can or will come in here without your permission. His wife was also here, but she didn’t identify herself as your mother. Would you like me to ask her back here?”
Reason came back to my senses as I realized there was no way my actual father could, or would have been contacted that easily, if at all.
“What did they look like?” I rasped out, my throat feeling like sandpaper.
“The man was in a wheelchair and had an ex-military look. The woman, his wife, was perhaps Vietnamese with shoulder-length hair and the kind of authority that reminded me of my middle-school principal.”
Liem must have called his parents. I almost considered smiling, but then a sharp pain came from the back of my thigh, and I gritted my teeth, wishing I could find a more comfortable position to be tortured in. Between the IV and the wrapped wrist, it was impossible to distribute my weight properly, never mind the nakedness.
The nurse caught my gaze and asked gently, “It’s okay if you don’t want anyone in here. Would you like for me to stay and hold your hand? We can update them when you’re done.”
I nodded, feeling tears prick in my eyes as she took my uninjured hand and squeezed. “I’m here. Just look into my eyes and breathe with me.”
I did as she asked, but no matter how hard I tried to blank my mind, there were too many questions swirling, too many unknowns.
How long had it even been since the sliding glass doors exploded? Minutes? Hours? How was that even possible? Was the storm going to make landfall soon, or would it even reach us? Was Vinh still moving his boat? Had Liem been able to talk to him?
I thought that was the worst part of this—if I didn’t allow myself to think of Grandmother. How would Vinh react to the fire and to me and Liem having been so close to it? He’d probably lock us both in a boat and take us to the middle of the ocean for the rest of our days.
