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“Right here, hon,” he said, handing it to me.
I took it from him and pulled up Ryan’s number. I hit the call button and shoved it to my ear, standing up and pacing back and forth. I saw Marvin and the customer exchange a glance, but neither moved. They were waiting to hear what I found out.
“Nothing,” I said. “Dammit, Ryan, answer me!”
I called again. And again. The phone went right to voicemail each time.
Growling in frustration and worry, I pulled up a search engine and searched the number for the fire station. I knew it was somewhere in my phone contacts, but I couldn’t even think straight enough to remember what I put it in as. When I saw the number on the contact page, I called it. It rang and rang, but no one answered.
I tried again and got the same response. Desperate and out of other options, I pulled up Caden’s number. As soon as he answered, I blurted out what happened, and he went silent for a moment before telling me he would call me right back.
My head spun and my stomach roiled as I waited for Caden to call me back. After what seemed like an eternity, my phone finally rang. “Caden, what’s going on?” I said, realizing I was nearly screaming into the phone but not caring.
“He’s in the hospital, but they think he’s going to be okay,” he said. “He’s at First Regional right by the bread factory.”
“Thank you,” I said, and then an intense pain made me cry out and slam my hand onto the desk.
“What the hell was that?” Caden asked, but I put the phone down on the desk and stayed locked in place. My mouth was open, and my eyes were wide as I tried to figure out what was going on myself.
“Uhm,” Marvin said, inching closer. “Allison, was that a… a…”
He couldn’t even finish the thought before another wave of pain shot through my stomach, and I reached out to grab his shoulder. I squeezed so hard I was fairly sure I heard him whimper, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. The pain in my stomach was as intense a pain as I had ever felt.
“It was a contraction,” I finally muttered when I regained control of all my limbs and could force breath through my lips again. “I need to get to the hospital. Right now.”
Marvin grabbed his keys and ushered the customer out of the shop. “Get in my truck. ”
17
RYAN
Everything happened so fast I barely had time to process it before I was on the ground, looking up at the floor where I had been standing and wondering what happened. I knew I’d fallen, and a good bit of space, too. I was lying on my side, and my knee was on fire. My hip was also hurting, but not nearly as badly as my knee, and I knew that blood was flowing down a gash on my cheek. Otherwise, I seemed fine.
There was a structure that looked like it had protected me when the roof came down. I could see the sky in between wisps of blue-gray smoke. Shouts from above meant that the rest of my crew knew where I was and had a general idea of what happened. All that was left was for them to get me. I opened my mouth to call out.
My throat clutched up, and I coughed. The words failed to materialize. I hacked and lurched and realized I couldn’t move my arms. Suddenly, panic struck my core. What if I’d hurt my spine? What if the reason I felt like I was okay was that something had been severed?
I tried to look down and was encouraged by my neck cooperating, even if it was sore and hurt. My legs were still attached, so that was something. I tried to focus on moving my foot and relaxed as it twitched. Then pain shot up from it and through my knee and hip, making me wish I had just waited to find out if I were paralyzed until I got to the hospital.
Still, I knew that not being able to talk meant I had inhaled a lot of smoke. Which meant I must have been down there longer than I thought. My guess was that I had been knocked unconscious, probably when I slammed my head on whatever caused the gash. All I could do was wait now. Wait and try to keep myself as low to the ground as I could.
The beam that protected me from the roof was almost standing on end, leaning against the floor above me. The other end of it had cratered into the floor beside me. I tried to move my hands and saw my fingers wiggle. Figuring I might be able to get into a more comfortable position, I got up on one elbow, and promptly, the lights went out again.
