Page 76 of To Hold and Protect

Gunshot wound to her chest? That wasn’t good, and was why she’d be going to the hospital in Statesville, which had a trauma center. Horace County had a small sixty-bed hospital, and that was where Everly was on the way to.

“Par... Parker?”

He stood at hearing what sounded like the voice of a lifetime smoker. He handed the oxygen mask to Josie and climbed into the bus. “Hey.” He placed his hand over hers. Her shirt had been cut open and Charlie had put an occlusive dressing over the wound, which was on her upper right chest, thankfully not anywhere near her heart. He didn’t see any visible burns, so that was good, too.

“Sle...sleeping pill.”

“You took a sleeping pill?”

“No. Ev.”

It took a moment before it clicked. “She gave Everly a sleeping pill?”

“Yes,” she said, then her eyes closed.

Son of a bitch.

“We’ve got to go, Chief. The chopper will be at the school in a few minutes.”

He squeezed her hand, then backed out of the ambulance. “Take good care of her,” he told Charlie and Josie.

“You know we will,” Josie said as she closed the back doors. She jogged to the front, and a minute later, the ambulance left with lights flashing and the siren blaring. As it disappeared from sight, he felt like she was being torn away from him.

He found his brother standing with Greg. “Where is she? Where’s Crystal?”

“In the back of my car. One of my officers is on the way over to transport her to the jail.”

“I need to talk to her.”

Tristan frowned. “Not sure that’s a good idea right now. You’re too angry.”

“Damn right I am. I almost lost Willow and Everly today because of her. She gave Ev a sleeping pill, and I need to find out what.”

“Come with me.”

He glanced at the house. It appeared that the fire was under control and almost out. Another reason to be angry with that woman. She’d ruined all Willow’s hard work.

“She’s probably not going to tell you,” Tristan said. “She’s a bit irrational right now.”

As they approached, an idea came to him. When Tristan opened the back door, Parker kneeled in front of her. “Hey, honey.” It grated to call her that, but he needed to find out what was in Everly’s system. “Can you tell me what she gave Everly to make her go to sleep?”

She held up her handcuffed hands. “Can you take these off? I don’t know why everyone thinks I’m the bad one. I tried to save our little girl from that horrible woman.”

“Our little girl” again.Was this woman really that far gone, or was she slyer than a fox? “Take them off her,” he told Tristan, who raised his brows but did as he was asked. Parker forced himself to smile at Crystal. “Better?”

“Oh, yes.” She leaned out of the car and threw her arms around him. “My hero. I knew you’d save me.”

He’d never hated a woman before, but he did this one. He put his hands on her arms and pulled them away from him. “Crystal, what did you see her give Everly? We need to know so we can file charges against her.”

“Yes, she needs to pay for what she did. She gave our precious girl half a sleeping pill.”

A few more questions, and he had the name of the pill and the dosage. “Handcuff her and take her to the jail,” he told his brother before turning his back on Crystal. She screamed obscenities at him as he walked away. He somehow managed to refrain from giving her his middle finger.

“Everly’s fine, Parker,” said Jim Blaine, Everly’s doctor, as he listened to her heartbeat. “She has minimal smoke damage, and she should wake up anytime now. I want to keep her on oxygen and under observation tonight just to be safe.”

“That would make me feel better.” He wasn’t taking any chances with his baby girl. He’d checked out okay, nothing worse than a scratchy throat for a day or two.

Jim wrapped his stethoscope back around his neck. “I know you’re not going to leave, so I’ll have an orderly bring in a cot for you.”

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