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An eternity later,the fire was still raging, but the firemen seemed to have it contained. Thanks to Kimberly’s quick thinking, the fire department, an ambulance, and a half dozen cop cars arrived on scene within seconds of them clearing the building.
They got to work with hoses while the paramedics had triaged all three women. He and Sam flat-out refused all attempts at medical attention, and the only time they took their focus off Kimberly was to hand Cas the keys to their car so he could take care of Grungy.
Kimberly was on a gurney, gauze wrapping her head and one of her arms. Dean and Sam stood on either side of her, holding onto her hands and glaring at the man who’d dared to speak the words he just uttered.
“I’m sorry, guys, but it’s a Covid world now. I can’t bring you along. Now, you can follow, but they won’t let you in to see her once you get there.” Dean curled his free hand into a fist. Sam did likewise.
“Look,” the EMT said impatiently, “these ladies need help. You guys gonna waste time arguing, or let us do our job?” Sam took a half step forward like he was gonna lay the guy out, when Kimberly moaned, and her hands fluttered in theirs. All thoughts of the medic vanished, and they turned back to her.
“Hey, shh, ‘is okay.” Her voice was unrecognizable. “It’s okay now. It’s over. I’m okay.” Emotions too big to contain stung the backs of his eyes, and he and Sam both leaned close so she could see them past her bandages.
“We found her.” Tears leaked steadily down her abused face. “We did it. We found Shawna. Did you catch him?”
“We sure did, sweetheart.” Sam gently kissed the fingers he held. “Grungy’s locked up tight. We got him honey.”
“What about…” She swallowed with effort, and the pain had her legs shifting on the gurney. “What about Leviathan? He’s the one who took me and brought me here.”
“Gone before we got to you,” Dean told her gruffly. “Don’t worry about that now. We’ll catch him.”
“I know you will,” Kimberly told them in a dreamy voice as the medic injected something into her IV that made her whole body go lax. “You two saved me. You’re like superheroes.”
“Must be some good drugs he just gave you,” Dean told her, and Sam seconded it.
“I love you both so much.”Definitely loopy from the meds, he thought with a tug at his heart.
“I got a secret for you.” Dean leaned close and looked into her good eye, it was sparkling. He kissed her oh so softly, felt the puff of her tender sigh, then moved his lips to her ear. “I love you too. So much I’m stupid with it.”
“Oh.” That eye filled, then overflowed with joy and unfettered adoration.
“And he’s not the only one, either,” Sam told her, and then she was crying in earnest as the men tenderly kissed and soothed what wasn’t bandaged as relief and love swamped her. “I love you too, sweetheart.”
“You saved me. You saved Shawna. I’m safe now. Go. Go finish this.”
Dean kissed the fingers he still held gently one last time, then eyed the medic as he laid her hand on her thigh. One of the hardest things he ever did in his life was to turn and walk away.
“Just…” Dean looked back to see her fingers still clinging to Sam’s. “Just do it fast, all right? Then come get me outta there and take me home. Okay?”
“Okay,” Sam answered her and brushed his finger down the one cheek that wasn’t bruised. “We can do that.”
After the dust settled and they cleared the scene, Dean sat next to Sam in a windowless cell and waited for Grungy to be brought in.
“Thank you, officers,” Sam said with detached coolness as two uniformed men frog-marched a shackled Grungy into a chair and secured him to the table. They left without comment.
“Hey, yeah!” Grunge cackled. “Thanks fer the help, boys. Y’all was real nice.”
The cops were too professional to rise to the bait and just shut the door behind them with a rusty complaint of hinges.
Dean slid the photos of Shawna and the other victim, Becky Anderson, in front of him. “Where are the other three missing women, asshole? Let’s skip all the tedious bullshit and jump right to the good stuff, shall we?”
His beady eyes narrowed on Dean’s face, then he looked at Sam with the same intensity, and Dean could have sworn he could hear those oily wheels of thought squelching around in his head as he tried to figure a way out of this.
“Shee-it!” He sat back in feigned surprise and flicked the photos away from him. “You tellin’ me there was other girls up there too? I didn’t know nothin’ ‘bout no other girls. Musta been Leviathan that took ‘em. I had no idea what was goin’ on up there.”
“Up there?” Dean asked, bracing his hands on the table and leaning forward. “How’d you know where the women were being kept if you didn’t know anything about them?”
He looked scared for only a second, then he sneered. “I didn’t. I just figured that’s where they were, ‘cause that’s where he was supposed to bring yer slut.”
Sam kicked at his chair, and the thing jerked back, then forward again, rocking Grungy like a pinball.
