Axe is already in the car, checking Drew when he nods over to the other car. He somehow already knows what’s happening. I hesitate before I pivot and pull the passenger side of her car open. I hear the sirens approaching in the background, but I am trying not to focus on the smoke which is still coming from the engine.
Fire’s eminent, I already know that.
She’s lying limp in the seat, her head slung to the left, rest against the window, and her mouth agape.
“Tatum.” I reach over, pressing my fingers to her neck and sighing at the pulse. “Tatum. Come on, wake up.” The blood trickles down her face, dripping onto her jeans and the floorboard of the car. I watch her eyes moving under their lids. “Tatum, baby. Look at me.” Her eyes flutter open, barely, but our surroundings light up more and the flame from the engine of the other car catches my attention. “Look at me, okay.” She nods her head. “We’ve got to get you out of here. I need you to help, okay? It’s probably going to hurt, but…” I trail as I continue to look at her. “Then you can go back to sleep. Can you do that?” I’m whispering to her and she nods again. “Wrap your arms around my neck.”
One arm comes out, reaching around me, but then she gasps. “I can’t…”
“That’s fine.” I whisper to her, glancing up and seeing the fire spreading over to where we are. The sirens are even louder now. I’m sure they’re pulling up. I, as gently as possible, wrap my one arm around her back and the other underneath her legs and slowly slide her across the center console.
“Hurts.” She gasps as she rolls into me.
“I know, psycho, I know.” My voice gets caught in my throat.
Somehow, I lift her up over the console and get her out of the car when the fire spreads over to her car. Turning around, I’m carrying her over to the bikes where Axe has sat Drew down on his.
“Do you think you can stand up?” I ask her, but I don’t receive a response. When I look down, I can see her eyes closed. Her head slumped against my chest and her arm hangs limp.
Axe glances up at me, reaching an arm out until his hand lands on me, and nods. “Ambulance is here. Take her to them, send one over for Drew.” I nod my head as he keeps me stable for a moment, and then I move over to the paramedics.
“My sister, she’s over there. She needs… something…” The paramedic looks up at me, confused. “She was in the other car. Someone might have slipped her something, I’m not sure though.”
“Well, well,” I hear come from behind me as the paramedic helps me place Tate on the gurney. “If it isn’t my favorite group of felons.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes already, but it somehow also makes me laugh, turning around and seeing Elias Leach smirking over at me. “If it isn’t deputy save-a-life.”
“Funny.” He starts again, but I’m really not in the mood to hear this shit. “Yet another time that there’s some sort of crime and our friendly neighborhood gang is in attendance.”
“It’s my sister.” I point over to where the paramedic is looking at Drew. “And my girl. So, yeah, I’m going to fucking be here.”
He looks past me to the inside of the ambulance and tilts his head as confusion fills his face.
“It looks like she’s been drugged.” The paramedic tells me as he walks closer. “She should go to the hospital to be observed.”
“Yeah.” I nod again before turning back to look at Eli. “Look, do you want me to tell you what really happened, or do you want me to tell you just enough to fill out paperwork?” He rolls his eyes like he thinks I’m exaggerating. “The man who drugged Drew was driving the car. Tatum followed them. She hung up the phone before anything really happened, but sent me her location.”
“So, where is he?” He laughs, throwing his hands out and looking around.
I shrug my shoulders. “He saw me as I rode up, panicked, and he ran off as we were pulling up.”
“Why’d he run?”
“Come on, Eli. You know why? He knew what I’d do if I got my hands on him.”
“And what?” He laughs, looking back at me. “You just let him go after he supposedly drugged your sister.”
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answers to.” I whisper to him so that if he’s recording it, somehow it won’t really be able to pick it up. He shakes his head, attempting to tell me not to talk, just yet.
His eyes widen as he understands what I’m saying. I glance down at it and he nods his head, reaching up and turning it off.
“You have him, don’t you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“But you will?”
“Yes.”
