Page 22 of Mad Boys


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“Don’t,” I snapped in a croaking voice. “You could suffocate without oxygen right now.” Her throat could have smoke damage. Worse, her lungs. I turned away to cough, my eyes were irritated and even my breathing had turned to wheezing.

“Good advice,” a paramedic said as he slid in next to me. “Let’s get you some oxygen, too.”

“She needs a hospital,” I said. KC’s eyes were red and irritated. Worse, there was a hint of blue around her lips and not just her hair.

“We’ve got her,” the paramedic assured me, before he handed me a mask to put on. The coughing hurt, but the oxygen helped. KC suddenly tried to sit up, her expression wild.

I yanked off my mask. “They’re right there,” I told her in a raw voice. “Your guitars are safe.”

She sagged like someone had cut her strings. The paramedic got the mask more firmly set on her face. He was checking her vitals and then shooting me a look when she grabbed at my hand.

I held my mask in place and let her grip my hand as I watched the fire department get the water hoses on. The building was a loss. Even if they hosed down all the flames, I doubted whatever was left would be remotely salvageable.

“You want to go to the hospital with her?” the paramedic asked. “We’re triaging right now. She’s breathing, we want to keep her on the oxygen and then we’re gonna transport. We have others with more serious wounds who are going first.”

“I’ll stay with her,” I said. “Then yes, I want to go to the hospital with her.”

I needed to know she was going to be all right, especially if she was going to make such crazy calls where her life was concerned.

Her eyes were closed again, as she dug her nails into my hand until it felt like she wanted to draw blood. I didn’t try to pull away. Instead, I just leaned toward her and said, “I'm here, Kaitlin. I got you. You're going to be okay."

Far too briefly, her eyes flickered open and she focused on me, then they closed again. I had to keep both her mask and mine in place. It wasn’t long before Aubrey joined us. She shot me a narrow-eyed look, but I wasn’t going anywhere. Neither was she.

When it was our turn to transport in the ambulance, she gripped the guitars then stared at me and the vehicle.

“I’ll stay with her,” I promised. “Look after those.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I can,” she said finally. “You better damn well take care of her.”

I didn’t offer any platitudes, but I wasn’t going anywhere until KC told me to fuck off herself. It wasn’t until I was sitting in the ambulance with a fresh oxygen mask that I caught sight of my brothers. The pair of them stared at me and then at her.

Jonas’ expression was one of absolute fear, while Lachlan’s bordered on fury. Fuck, they needed to stay here and out of it, but I didn’t think they were going to listen. Who knew, maybe it would give them something to talk about that didn’t involve Jonas trying to relocate Lachlan’s jaw.

KC never let go of me for the whole ride to the hospital. I finally had to take my hand from hers when they wanted to move her to a hospital bed, and they put me in the bed area next to hers. I endured all of the checks while I kept an eye on her.

By the time Aubrey arrived, I was ready to collapse. The news about KC seemed good. Mostly smoke inhalation. They wanted to keep her on oxygen and keep an eye on her throat. Observation for a few hours and then she’d probably be released.

They said pretty much the same about me. I met Aubrey’s gaze when she went to close the curtains between our cubicles. Anger was in her expression, but there was gratitude in her eyes.

I understood both emotions. Head back, I closed my eyes and let her off the hook.

A fire.

Fuck, that was close.

Too damn close.

Eight

KC

Eight hours we were in the emergency room of the local hospital. I was out for a few hours of it, at least, that was what Aubrey said when I woke up to her sleeping sitting up next to me. The first thing she did when I opened my eyes was call Yvette. I had a hard time talking with the oxygen mask. I wasn’t allowed to take it off, but the croak of my voice wasn’t something I wanted to hear again anyway.

“Bitch,” Yvette said, her French pronounced as it usually was when she was distressed. “You scared the shit out of me.”

I’d apologize, but, yeah, she was a wreck. No cosmetics, her eyes reddened, her nose shiny, and a hint of chap around her lips. It had been a long night for her.

“I wanted to come down, but Aubrey said to wait until we knew whether you were getting out of there.”

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