Page 103 of What Hurts Us

Shane tipped his head over his shoulder. “Giving a statement to your boy toy.”

I looked up.

Cal was here. I hadn’t even noticed him when we rolled in. He was talking to an older lady that I had seen around town a few times. Cal glanced up from his notebook and nodded toward me. A faint smile painted his lips, but he quickly returned focus to the witness.

“Any consciousness?” I asked.

“In and out.”

I grabbed my pen light and clicked it on, gently opening the woman’s eyes. Her pupils constricted at the flash of light.Good.

The gurney clanked and clattered as AB wheeled it through the door. The vic stirred, groaning in pain as she came to. A new spot of blood seeped through the side of her shirt.

“Jesus Christ,” Shane muttered. “How’d I miss that one?”

“How many entry wounds?” I asked as I grabbed my shears and started slicing through the shirt.

“Six by my count, seven with the new squirter.”

Calm in the chaos.

The three-inch slice was jagged and deep—like the attacker had tried to carve out a piece of her but hit her rib instead.

It couldn’t have been a large blade, I thought to myself as I did my best to stop the bleeding. It wasn’t one clean puncture. Each wound site had to have been made of three or four stabs a piece.

“C-Cl—” The woman sputtered, whispered words uttered in an incoherent jumble of sounds.

“We’re taking you to a hospital, ma’am,” Shane clipped. “You’re safe.”

Safe. Notyou’ll be okay.We didn’t make promises like that. But safety was something we could give her.

“Claw…” Her eyes closed again, too exhausted to continue.

“You’re gonna take a little helicopter ride today,” I said. “We’re gonna get you loaded up, and I’m not gonna lie—it’s probably gonna hurt, but not worse than what you’ve already survived.” I had no idea if the woman could hear me or not, but it was worth a shot. There were few things worse than loading an unconscious patient into the bird, then having them wake up mid-flight and freak the fuck out.

Or they think they’re being abducted by aliens.The day I met Callum replayed in my mind, bringing a smile to my face in the middle of the grim scene.

“We’ll get her loaded and start a transfusion before we lift off. Give the OR a fighting chance.” Two of the stab wounds were to the soft tissue of her stomach. We had no way of knowing whether a vital organ had been hit. All we could do was try to cheat death one more time.

As gently as we could, Shane, AB, the newbie, and I lifted and eased her onto the gurney.

“Clos—” The woman grimaced as she was strapped in. “Closet.”

AB frowned, leaning in closer to hear better. “What was that?”

She lifted a frail finger, pointing off to the side.

I looked over my shoulder, meeting my own reflection on the edge of a bloodied blade.

I screamed, pain lancing through my scalp as a meaty hand grabbed my hair and yanked me away from the gurney. The attacker trapped me against his body—one thick arm around my stomach, the edge of a hunting knife pressed against my throat.

The small living room turned into utter mayhem. Orders were shouted, and weapons were drawn. Callum shoved the witness out the front door and pulled his gun.

The steel bit into my skin, and I froze.

“Nobody move! You leave that bitch here, and I let this one go,” the man spewed.

I was forced to stare down the barrels of five guns, all trained on the man behind me.

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