He glanced down to see Meredith’s response to the action.
But her eyes were closed. She was absolutely still.
His heart felt like it would leap through his chest. “We need an ambulance,” he heard someone say, and he brought his fingers to the side of her neck, desperate for a pulse.
Barely.
But it was there.
“Mom!” he heard someone shout and looked up to see a young girl with dark blond hair and wide brown eyes run in. Darcy. She dropped to the floor, reaching out to touch Meredith’s hand.
“She’s going to be okay,” he told her, not sure entirely but needing it to be so.
It wasn’t until the paramedics arrived and checked her—assuring Darcy that Meredith wasn’t critical but they were taking her to the hospital—that he allowed the police to question him about what had happened.
He answered their questions, careful to keep his face neutral as he watched them carry Meredith out on the stretcher. He dug his card out and handed it to one of the guys. “If you have any more questions, you can call me. Otherwise, I’m going with her and her daughter to the hospital.”
It wasn’t until he looked into Meredith’s hospital room an hour later, seeing her lying there in a drugged sleep as her daughter held her hand, that he was able to breathe.
A hand rested on his arm. Meems.
“She’s going to be okay, Travis,” she said, echoing what he’d said earlier to Darcy.
He nodded briefly. “Yeah. I know.”
He’d done his job. Gotten the client her daughter back—and saved her life in the process. Everyone should be happy.
He should be happy.
Meredith would be fine. She had her daughter back. She could return to her life and everything that meant so much to her. The games, the schemes. The same old battle for queen bee. Whatever. It wasn’t his concern.
Jace joined them. “Looks like everything worked out. Are you heading back home? Maybe that long vacation to Key West you keep promising yourself?”
He nodded. “Yeah. As soon as they’re both delivered safely home, I’m outta here.”
Chapter Twenty
Meredith had been standing in the doorway of her daughter’s room staring at the miracle for the past half hour. Her daughter, safe in her own bed, peacefully sleeping.
If only sleep would come so easily for Meredith.
Darcy sighed and rolled over, away from the light in the hallway. Meredith stood back and closed the door and headed to her own room, wincing with each step.
She’d been released from the hospital this morning. She’d slept through most of yesterday, Sunday, waking for a few minutes that night to find Darcy at her side. They’d talked, and that had been nice until she fell asleep again and woke up this morning, more refreshed and ready to get home. But she was still aching. There was a bottle of pain pills in her room, but she wasn’t ready yet to numb everything.
As much as she wanted to.
She flipped off her bedroom light and slipped into the coolness of her sheets. She closed her eyes, trying to succumb to the immense fatigue weighing on her body.
Instantly, a memory replayed in her mind—that distant look in Travis’s eyes as he and Jace helped them into the private plane that would take them back to Salt Lake hours ago.
He’d been cordial, helpful, but downright distant. Meems had made idle conversation with Darcy during the one-hour flight back, but she’d barely heard it, instead watching Travis stare stonily out the window. Refusing to meet her gaze.
She had wanted to explain to him what happened the other night. Excuse her behavior. But her heart was heavy, because she’d realized that she couldn’t continue to offer excuses anymore. The time had come for her to rise above, and she’d failed miserably.
Just as he must have known she would.
They’d stood at the door of the taxi that would take them home, Darcy giving both men grateful bear hugs. When it was Meredith’s turn to say good-bye, she’d taken Jace’s hand first, then Meems’s, saving Travis for last. His hand had been strong and familiar in hers and their eyes had met briefly before they let go.