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Plum dropped an armful of photo albums, books, and clothes to the ground, bent over to cough and spit and then stood upright again, looking at the flames. And then his reckless darling turned to head back down the alley, no doubt to sneak into the back of the building and try to salvage more of her things.
“No!”
Plum whipped around at his voice, but she didn’t stop when she saw him. No, she took another step toward the alley and he didn’t hesitate. He grabbed her wrist and held on like his life depended on it. It did. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he had the chance to stop her from going back into that deathtrap and didn’t.
“Plum, no. Don’t you fucking dare. It’s not safe. It could collapse. You need to stay out here.”
Her eyes were wild as she stared up at his face and then down at where his hand circled her wrist. And then she leaned over his forearm and bit him. Fuckingbithim.
Gideon swore in surprise and reflexively let go, but she wasn’t fast enough. Her short skittering steps were no match for his long strides and he grabbed her by the biceps this time, hauling her against him.
“Stop,” he demanded, banding his arms around her waist and ribs as she struggled against him. “Plum, stop. You cannot go back in there. You’re going to get yourself killed.”
But his brave and stubborn little plum blossom wouldn’t stop struggling against him. No, she seemed downright feral. She screamed and fought with every ounce of will she had in that tiny, round body of hers. When she’d exhausted herself, he loosened his grip enough to turn her round and hold her tight to his chest, stroking her hair and rubbing her back while she wept into his shirt.
“That’s everything,” she croaked. “Everything I have. Everything I’ve worked for, everything I’ve built. That was my business and my home and now it’s gone. It’s all gone, Gideon, and now I have nothing.”
He wanted to offer that she still had him and that wasn’t nothing now was it? But she had made it clear shedidn’twant him. Plus she was hurting and angry and he didn’t want to give her the opportunity to lash out. Even if they had still been together, it wouldn’t be fair to ask a grieving woman to prop up his ego.
She wept some more, banged her fists against him, and he held her until she wasn’t wailing anymore. When he separated them and cupped her cheek to tip her head up, he saw how red and bloodshot her eyes were, soot smudges on her face, and a rip in her shirt at her shoulder. It looked like her sleeve might be soaked with blood but the light was deceiving with the dark of the night and the blaze of the fire plus the flashing of the emergency vehicles playing tricks on his eyes. Either way, best to be safe.
“I understand you’re upset. You can be upset for as long as you like but we need to let one of the EMTs look you over. You’ve no doubt inhaled a bunch of smoke, and it looks like you have a deep cut at your shoulder.”
He put a hand to the small of her back and when he was sure she wasn’t going to make a break for the alley again, started to lead her over to one of the paramedics. But when she took a step and made a plaintive little cry as she half-collapsed, he scooped her up into his arms. Thankfully she didn’t protest. Had it been her ankle? Knee? Something else?
Gideon elbowed his way through the crowd until he found a paramedic who hustled them over to an ambulance, the backdoors open and equipment at the ready. He set his grieving plum blossom on the end of the stretcher and stood just behind her while she answered the paramedic’s questions and submitted to his poking and prodding.
She looked as though she was going to vomit when he examined the wound on her shoulder and then she actually did puke when he palpated her ankle, the vomit coming out soot-tinged as it spilled from her mouth to the sidewalk.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Gideon snapped at the man whose name tag said Breyer. “Be careful with her.”
“He is, really,” Plum assured him. “It just…it really hurts.”
Poor girl. He needed to keep control of his temper so she didn’t need to mind him as well as everything else she was dealing with.
“I beg your pardon,” he told the EMT. “That was rude and I’m sure you’re doing your best. I just don’t like seeing her in pain. It makes me a little crazy.”
Which was a funny thing for a man who had regularly spanked her to tears over the past several months to say, but this was very different. Plum wasn’t brave and mouthy right now. She was trembling and distraught and truly injured and there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about any of it.
“I get it, Father,” the EMT told him, and for some reason Gideon got the impression this Breyer fellow was telling the truth.
