Page 49 of Overkill

“I’ve seen plenty of guys walk away from a damn IED or damn missile attack only to drop dead later from injuries he didn’t know he had. Didn’t know until hours, maybe even days, after the event. Spare me having to find you that way.” I was being a real shit about this, but I was putting my foot down. “Spare them from having to find you unresponsive”

She stared at me with absolute horror, like I’d just murdered her cat or something.

“We…” She looked at her brother and sister and swallowed hard. Then she fished her truck keys from her pocket. “Can you two get in the truck?”

Her brother gave a big sigh like he couldn’t be bothered to do that one little thing. The kid had a shit attitude. But I recognized that same. I once had the same when I’d finally exorcised my mother from my life.

Miriam, on the other hand, simply took the keys and left. Though, I swore she gave me a pleading look. Like she wanted me to do the right thing. To take care of Melody.

I hoped the look I returned gave her my vow that her sister would be safe with me.

As safe as Melody would allow.

Once her siblings were in the car, she looked at me and Captain Lyons.

“We can’t afford it.” Her voice was so small, and so heavy with absolute misery and hopelessness, my soul cracked in two. “Going in the ambulance, even just going for a checkup…I can’t…I can’t do it.”

That was all? There was an easy fix. But she kept going.

“Going into the ambulance down the road is at least $2,000. The stay, the X-rays…That’s everything, everything, I’d need to make it a month. I can’t miss a day of work, much less what I’d miss, then have to make up for in overtime. Do you know how much a teenager eats?”

“I’ll pay for it,” I insisted, placing her hand on my chest. “This is important.”

“No.” She recoiled, eyes furrowed in anger. “No!”

“Sweetheart…”

“No!” She interrupted. “I barely know you. Thank you so much for all the help you’ve given me now and in the past, but I can’t do this. I couldn’t even begin to repay you, and I don’t need it. I’m fine.”

She was not fine. She was run over by a car. That was far from fucking fine.

But I had overstepped.

Captain Lyons came up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. A quiet demand to stand down.

“Mels, don’t make it weird. Someone’s gotta watch you for at least 24 hours. I’m cool popping a squat on a chair by your bed, but Lizzie’s gonna have to sleep on the damn floor, because Marc is a teenager, and it’s not that I don’t trust him, but I sure as fuck don’t trust anyone around my little girl. So…”

“I’ll stay.” I volunteered far too quickly. “I can watch you tonight.”

I was a fucking pervert. Like the vampire in that fucking teen movie where he watched her sleep. Because that was exactly what I wanted to do.

“It’s settled,” Captain Lyons said.

“It is not settled!” She looked at him, shocked. “I…I don’t know him. I can’t leave him alone in our house with Miriam and Marcus. I…I…”

Ouch.

Not an unreasonable reaction. But ouch, nonetheless.

“Hey, this is one of my guys. He’s EMT certified, and I know he’s competent as hell,” he said. I was touched the captain was talking me up. “I’ve got tomorrow off. You have my number. He tries anything, I’ll kill him myself, and he’ll end up floating face down in the lake.”

She winced. He didn’t notice.

“Is the key in the same hidey hole?” the captain asked.

“Yeah, it is,” she answered.

Why the fuck did he know where the spare key was hidden? Was I going to have to kill the fire chief? That’d be a real doggone shame, because I liked him.