“We’ve got to get her strapped into the litter, Dustin.”
The hard, male voice was one that sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it.
“I gave her a shot of haloperidol. It’ll calm her down enough until we can get her to the hospital and treat her. They’re going to lift her, so I’ll be going on the helicopter with Jessie.”
“Thanks, Dr. Price.”
Clutching Dustin’s shirt, afraid, she burrowed closer into him. “Don’t … leave.” As she forced the words through thick lips, the fear she had been combating was gliding into a listlessness that had her limply acquiesce, letting herself be taken from Dustin. Without him holding her, she let the drowsiness she had been fighting win. The hard blast of wind blowing down at her didn’t even tempt her to try to open eyes that she could only see through a slit anyway.
Raised voices and weightlessness had her mind swimming in a kaleidoscope of colors that had her uncaring about what was happening to her. The dreamlike state allowed her to drift away like a leaf on stormy lake, taking her farther and farther away until she could no longer see the shore and had no hope of returning.
At least she had been able to see Dustin one last time before she died, and her brothers would be able to bury her.
A feral yell of rage had her wanting to turn her head, but she couldn’t. She tried to make out where the sound was coming from, afraid a wild animal was about to kill her and scatter what was left of her.
“Shut the fuck up, Asher! You’re scaring the hell out of her! Holt, get your brother under control, or I’m going to Taser the shit outta him.”
She recognized the threatening male voice as Greer’s. She had died and gone to Hell.
“I’m gonna kill the motherfucker who did this to my sister!”
The struggling movements of boots scuffing pavement had her wanting to turn her head again, but what she was lying on was moving too fast.
“Dammit! Drake, hold Holt back. He can’t go into the emergency room with her! Asher, I’m going to Taser you if you don’t stop fighting me.”
“Taser me? You should be finding out who did that to my sister!”
Her scattered wits latched on to Asher’s shouts.
Someone had done this to her? Jessie prodded her mind, trying to remember what had happened before she had come to on the mountain and finding no answers.
“Jessie, this Dr. Price. You’re in the hospital, and we’re going to get some X-rays done. Do you understand?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Nurse ….”
Jessie lost track of the conversations, letting the void take her back to where she wasn’t being poked and prodded.
“Jessie …? Can you hear me? It’s Knox. Can I ask you a couple of questions?”
“Hmm …?”
“Who hurt you?”
“Don’t know ….” The pain was returning at his questions. She wanted to know, too.
“What’s the last thing you remember?”
“At daycare … Dustin came in to talk to Bliss.”
“You don’t remember going to the laundry room?”
“No.”
“I’ll leave you alone for now. If you do remember anything, even if it’s small, just tell one of the nurses to get me. I’ll be just outside the door.”
“Doctor, the state police are asking for the rape kit. If you’re finished getting samples, I’ll processes it and give it to them.”
The hesitant female voice asking the doctor for the order had the lethargic lassitude dissipating.
“Rape? I wasn’t raped. Don’t touch me.” She tried screaming to make them leave her alone. She had to go home! “I wasn’t raped … Dustin, tell them I wasn’t raped … Dustin, please.” She sobbed, tasting metal in her mouth. “Dustin …? Where are you?”
“Dustin’s on his way.” The doctor’s firm assurance didn’t stop her from trying to get off the bed. “If you quit fighting, I can let one of your brothers in—”
“No!” Jessie hissed. “They won’t know. I don’t want them to know. Dustin … I want … I wasn’t raped.”
“Okay, Jessie. We’re getting Dustin. Knox says he’s here.”
Jessie let hands press her back down to the bed. She would be able to talk Dustin into taking her home. She had always been able to talk him into anything. Well, almost anything … She hadn’t been able to talk him out of hating her because she was a Hayes.
At one time, she had even considered changing her name just so she could have him as a friend again. It had been a youthful fantasy that she would marry him one day. It was a fantasy that burst when she had seen Dustin with Sam, sitting in the back row of the movie theater when they were in high school.
She had been with Holt and Asher and had seen Dustin find a seat in the back row. It was unlike him to sit in the back. When the lights had dimmed, she had shrunk down in her seat, watching as Samantha snuck inside to sit with him. She had known then that Dustin was in love with the girl. She sat in the theater, her heart breaking into a million pieces.