“Listen to me. Tanner will find it, okay?” He was quiet a second, then he said, “Hear that siren? The ambulance is here and Tanner’s right behind it. He’ll find the dog, I promise.”
She didn’t hear anything. Actually, darkness was closing in around her. There was more she wanted to say, but she couldn’t catch her breath. Couldn’t speak...
“Don’t leave me, Glory.” His voice, now ragged, emerged deep and desperate. “Don’t you dare leave me.”
Her last thought was that Kam sounded awfully sad, and if she could, she’d make him smile.
Never in his life had he been more agonized. His eyes burned and his throat ached with the need to shout. If only shouting would help anything.
Tanner clasped his shoulder. “Shouldn’t be much longer.”
That promise didn’t help much when too many hours had already passed. He kept seeing her again, crumpled and bloody, squashed in that fucking car. Blood had covered her face and pale hair. The door pinned her in place as she’d labored to breathe.
“She’ll be all right,” Callie stated with firm determination, her eyes swimming with tears, her nose bright pink.“She will.”
Tanner tugged her into his lap and wrapped himself around her.
Kam felt mean, like he needed to destroy something—orsomeone. Like Mike. He knew that miserable puke had to be behind this.
When Callie stood, both Tanner and Kam looked at her.
Her face showed her strain and her voice broke when she said, “I can’t sit here. I’m going to—” she gestured at the small waiting room “—move. Before I explode.” And with that, she began pacing the perimeter of the room.
Helpless, his jaw locked, Tanner watched her.
“You can walk with her, you know. You don’t need to babysit me.”
“Right now, she looks in better shape than you.”
“Fuck you, Tanner,” he said without heat. He pressed the heels of his hands against his eye sockets. “Christ, this sucks.”
“I know, but she’ll be okay.” He shared a crooked smile. “At least I found that pup.”
Dropping back in his seat, Kam lowered his hands and closed his eyes. “Yeah, that’s something, I guess.” Opening his eyes again, he pinned Tanner in place. “She begged me to find the dog—and not to tell Liz.”
The shifting of Tanner’s gaze showed guilt.
The rage of fear rose again. “You know why that is, don’t you?”
“Glory will tell you.”
“I want mybrotherto tell me.”
Lifting his brows, Tanner said, “So we’re kids again?”
Right. Not since he was an angry youth put in unfamiliar circumstances had Kam sneeredbrotherin quite that mean, insulting way. It was meant to degrade the relationship, because back then, he hadn’t trusted in anything good. Now he did. “I’m sorry.”
“Understandable.” Tanner kept his gaze on his wife as she tried to outrun her worry in a room too small for the mission. “Years ago, Glory was in another accident, the same onethat killed her parents. She had a lot of injuries then, and my understanding is that Liz, in trying to help, offered one plastic surgery after another.”
Horrified, Kam sat forward, his every muscle clenched tight. “She was a kid.”
“Very much so, and she almost died with her parents. She had a broken shoulder, leg, ribs, nose, and jaw.”
Crushing pain settled around Kam’s heart. “To think what she went through...” He couldn’t bear it.
“You’ve met Liz. She’s not the overly maternal type. My guess is that she was trying to help in the only way she knew how.”
“By removing the scars.” And putting Glory through more pain, more stress.
