“Piper, I’m here.” I move with them as they lift her into the back, bend over her as they prepare to leave, and stroke her hair off her forehead, tears blurring my vision. “You’ll be okay. I’m right behind you. I’ll be at the hospital. I’ll get your mom.”
She opens her mouth, but the paramedic says, “Don’t talk.”
“Not,” she rasps, barely a whisper. “Not Chloe’s fault.”
That hits me sideways. “What?”
“We’re leaving,” the paramedic says. “Out.”
I let it go. She’s probably delirious. “I’m right behind you, Piper.” I jump out of the ambulance and find Sergeant Lucero waiting, but I can’t do anything but stare helplessly as they take off with the closest person I’ve got to a kid of my own.
“Come with me,” Lucero says. “We’ll take my car. Tommy will get your car and Raven to jail.”
I follow him, flinching when the ambulance’s siren kicks on. Lucero takes off after them with matching lights and sirens. I flash back to the night Keith was shot. To me holding his bleeding head in my lap, promising him I’d take care of Piper.
I press my elbow to the window ledge and my head into my hand, trying like hell to hold my shit together. “What the fuck happened?”
“They were breaking into the dispensary. Piper was cut on the broken window.”
I feel my own blood drain from my head like a receding wave. “Her mom—”
“We got ahold of her. She was in Santa Barbara, and she’s on her way, but there’s an accident on 101, and it may take her a while to get here.”
She’s working on a Sunday? is my first thought.
I close my eyes and rub my hand across my mouth, my heart a fiery knot clogging my throat. I have an insane urge to call Chloe. I want her by my side. Only, Piper’s words return. An instant later, the strange earlier call from Chloe fills my head.
I look at Lucero. “Why would she say this isn’t Chloe’s fault?”
“Chloe Hart?”
“Yes.”
Lucero shakes his head. “No idea. Chloe wasn’t involved. They’re bringing the other kids into the ER to get checked out before we book them. We’ll see what they have to say for themselves.”
“Hawthorne,” I tell him. “ Hawthorne’s the weak link.”
At the hospital, I jump from the car before Lucero has fully braked and jog to Piper’s side, hurrying alongside the gurney on the way into the ER through the trauma bay. Doctors meet us at the gurney and issue orders to other personnel. A nurse touches my arm. “Can I get you to give me some basic information?”
I don’t respond. I’ve got hold of Piper’s hand, her fingers icy in mine. She’s barely conscious. “Your mom’s on her way. I’m right here. Fight, Piper. Fight the way you always fight me and your mom.”
Then they push through the trauma bay doors, where I know I’m not allowed. I might have busted in anyway, but the nurse is tugging on my arm.
“She’s in good hands. Now, is she allergic to any medications?”
I shoot answers to the nurse’s rapid-fire questions, probably faster and more accurately than her mom can.
The nurse assures me their best trauma surgeon is on duty when dumb, dumber, and dumbest are dragged through the ER and tossed in separate holding rooms, each with a supervising cop.
I go right to Tommy Croft, who’s standing by Dale’s room. “Did he talk?”
“Couldn’t fucking stop talking,” Tommy says. “I think I need some water. Stand watch for me?”
“Damn right.”
“Back in twenty.”
As soon as Tommy wanders out of the ER, I enter Dale’s room and he looks up. “Hey, man.” He struggles to his feet and moves to the opposite side of the room, back against the wall. “Hey, this wasn’t my idea. I was just along for the ride. We didn’t know Piper’d get hurt.”