The woman didn’t look at him again as thesound of something peeling drifted to him. Then, she leaned forwardto stick things on his chest before moving out of sight again. Heheard shuffling noises and a small clatter before a steady beepingstarted.
“Is thathisheart?” Rogerdemanded.
Maggie swallowed to get some saliva into herparched throat before replying, “Yes.”
“Jesus Christ,” Roger muttered.
Maggie resisted making the sign of thecross. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d crossed herself. Ithad probably been when she’d fostered with that ultra-religiousfamily who had dragged all the kids to church three times a week.Maggie had only spent a month with them before proudly declaringher love for Satan and all things demonic while dressed as a Goth.She’d never been sent packing so fast in her life. Right now,though, the sign of the cross felt like the appropriate thing todo.
Whatwas this guy?
She could feel him watching every move shemade, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at him again.
I am not a coward. I have endured too damnmuch to be rattled by some weirdo with a freakishly high tolerancefor everything.
However, she was beginning to question if hewasa man. What man could endure the amount of damage thisone had and not only survive it, but be awake so soonafterward?
At least half his blood remained in thatalley, and hisspinewas visible.
She was half-tempted to crawl into the frontwith Roger, but she’d never backed down from anything before andshe wasn’t about to start now. She glanced toward Roger as theyraced through side streets and past warehouses with sirens blaring.She didn’t have to see the speedometer, she could feel the tiresspinning faster than normal, yet she yearned for Roger togofaster.
“Uncuff me,” Aiden rasped out.
A pair of charcoal-colored eyes shot towardhim and widened fearfully. The beeping from some machine increasedas he got his first full-on view of the woman. He’d never seenanyone like her before. She wasn’t what he would call sexy orstunning. He didn’t know how to describe exactly what she was, buthe couldn’t tear his gaze away from her.
Then, he recalled his mother holding one ofAbby’s porcelain dolls and turning it in her hand as she inspectedit. Unlike this woman, the toy had possessed blonde hair and blueeyes, but something about this woman brought the memory back tohim.
“She’s lovely, Abby,” his mother had saidand handed the doll back to his then seven-year-old sister.
Lovely, that’s what this woman was, but noneof those dolls could compare to her.
The woman’s rosebud lips quivered. Thosedark gray eyes stared at him before rising to the front of theambulance. “Roger,” she whispered.
“Going as fast as I can, Mags,” Rogerreplied brusquely.
Aiden seized her hand as something crashedinto the side of the ambulance with enough force to dent the walland send the ass end of the vehicle careening sideways.
CHAPTER 8
The sickening crunch of metal filled the airas the back of the ambulance skidded out. Maggie screamed, but shedidn’t know if it was because of the dizzying sensation of theambulance veering off its course, or from the hand gripping herstight enough to the stretcher that it kept her from being throwninto the wall.
Oh, God. Oh, God.
The ambulance came to a halt with its enginerunning and its headlights pointing toward a large warehouse.Completely thrown off by what happened, Maggie couldn’t figure outwhere they were, but it looked abnormally subdued outside thewindshield. Most of the warehouse workers had gone home for thenight, but she saw people running from the shadows toward them.
“Roger, you okay?” she demanded.
“What was that?” he replied.
Maggie gazed at the dented wall across fromher. It was too high up for it to be caused by another vehicle, butwhat else could have hit them with that kind of force?
“There were no cross streets,” Roger said.“No stop lights. It couldn’t have been another car. It came out ofnowhere.”
“Drive,” her patient spoke with far morestrength than he had before.
“What?” she asked, not because she hadn’theard him, but because she couldn’tbelieveshe had.
“Drive!” the man shouted at her.
