l,” he said, but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “What happened?”
“Later. We have her. It got fucked, but we have her.”
The shakes wanted to start again, and the heat began its next roll over the ice.
“She’s being transported to Dallas City Hospital. I need you there. I need you to . . . I need you to come there. I didn’t get the address.”
“I’ll get it. Eve, tell me what’s wrong.”
“I can’t, not now. I’m not hurt. It’s not that. Roarke, I need you to come.”
“I’ll be there.”
“Now or never,” the MT called out.
“I have to go.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll handle it. I’m on my way.”
Eve slid the ’link into her pocket, climbed into the back of the ambulance.
She sat, studied the face of the unconscious woman.
Open your eyes, damn it. Open your eyes and look at me again.
Because, she admitted, she hadn’t been wrong. It hadn’t been shock, not from the crash. She knew McQueen’s latest partner.
And it was just another nightmare.
But the woman didn’t wake up, not on the short ride to the ER. Eve kept pace with the medicals, one foot in front of the other, and saw her prisoner’s eyelids flutter, heard her moan as they rushed her down and through to a treatment room.
“Outside, please.”
Eve gave the doctor in charge, a young, harried black man in scrubs, one glance. “She’s in my custody. I stay.”
“Keep out of the way.”
She stepped back, but watched every move while the doctors, nurses, MTs rattled off in their strange language, transferred the woman to the table.
She moaned again.
“What’s her name?” the doctor called out to Eve.
“Which one? She’s got a lot of them.” She nearly gave him the one flashing like neon in her mind, then thought better of it. “Try Sylvia. It’s current.”
“Sylvia. We’ve got you now. Look right here. Can you tell me what day it is?”
“It fucking hurts! Make it stop. Give me something.”
“Just hang on now, we’re going to take care of you.”
“Give me something for the goddamn pain, you fuck.”
“Classy,” Eve said mildly. “She’s an addict.”
“Keep that fucking cunt of a cop away from me. She tried to kill me.”
“She’s lucid.” The doctor cut his eyes toward Eve. “Is she on anything now?”