Then she didn’t hear anything else.
* * *
SHE HADN’T ANSWERED HIM.
Cooper rushed forward, running fast. She’d just been out of his sight for a few minutes. The cops were close by. Gabrielle couldn’t just vanish.
A crumpled form lay curled near a garbage container.
Gabrielle.
He didn’t realize that he’d bellowed her name. But in the next instant, he was on his knees beside her, frantically searching for a pulse at the base of her throat.
The pulse beat slow, steady, beneath his fingers.
He brushed back her hair. Her head slumped weakly against his hold.
What in the hell had happened?
His gaze flew around the alley. It was too dark to see much.
And he didn’t hear anyone.
“Gabrielle?” His fingers shifted through her hair. When he found the bump on the side of her head, he swore.
Then he stood, holding her carefully in his arms. She needed help.
“Freeze!” a male’s voice shouted.
He wasn’t in the mood to freeze. He was in the mood to get Gabrielle help.
Light from a flashlight hit him in the face. That light was so blinding that it made viewing the person connected to that voice hard. The man was little more than a shadow.
“Gabrielle?” The guy’s voice roughened. “What the hell did you do to her?”
“Nothing,” Cooper growled. “When I found her, she was unconscious. I’m trying to help her.” And you’re slowing me down.
The light came closer.
“I’m not armed,” Cooper told him. That wasn’t true, but the man wouldn’t notice the weapons he carried. They were too well concealed. “We need to get her help.”
He could see the man’s face now. It was the detective from the other night, Lane Carmichael.
“I remember you,” Carmichael said, obviously placing him. “You were at the other crime scene, too.”
Great. Not the connection Cooper wanted the detective to make. If he wasn’t careful, the cops would start looking at him for the kills.
He wasn’t sure his P.I. cover could stand up to their perusal.
Carmichael yanked out his radio and called for backup—and an EMT.
A moan slipped from Gabrielle’s lips. Under the flashlight, her lashes began to flutter. She blinked a few times then seemed to focus on him. “C-Cooper?”
“It’s all right,” he tried to reassure her. “I’ve got you.”
A faint smile curved her lips. “S-saving me...again? You’re making a h-habit of it...”
Yes, he was.