A Justified Kill (10 page)

Hanna
whipped her head in her direction
. A
wild
deer in the headlight look
was in her eyes. Amber knew the feeling all too well and stood with her hand held out to the girl.
Hanna
looked at her hand, then back up to
her
face,
and
then timidly
placed her dirty hand
into
Am
ber’s and stepped out of the jeep
.
She stepped lightly, h
er tender feet aching with the steps she took across the cold concrete.

Sensing her pain, without thought, Amber turned and quickly swept her up into her arms. Gasping, Hanna wrapped her arms tightly around her neck and was carried thro
ugh the sliding glass doors which
took them into the well-lit emergency room.

Amber
never allowed herself to get emotionally attached or
close enough to anyone to care, reminding herself of this fact over and over again with each step. Although she didn’t want to care, she
wasn’t
surprised to find
her
instinct was to
protect this girl
. I
t
seemed
natural for her to want to
care for
her
. The
one thing
she was certain of, the
bastard would pay f
or hurting her.
Tightening her hold on Hanna, she held her in a secure grip.

An orderly took o
ne look
at the
two girls
entering the nearly
empty
emergency room
,
grabb
ed
a wheelchair
that was lined up
along the wall
and
rushed towards them.

Before the nurs
ing
assistant
had turned back tow
ards them, Amber remembered
she still looked like a young
er
gi
rl
. She needed to look old enough to get Hanna admitted to the hospital, but not look like herself.  In her own true form, even in her late twenties, she barely looked older than Hanna. So, she eased Hanna to her feet
and steadied her before
her fingers reached for the stone she
always
wore around her neck.
Turning away her eyes scanned the emergency room for cameras and found none.
Amber muttered the words
which
would o
nce again al
ter her appearance, hoping no one would
notice the
instant
change.
Once done she turned back around.

“
She needs
a doctor now
,
” Amber
insisted
loudly
, helping Hanna into the chair and
wrapping
the blanket around her another older
aid
had thought
to bring
over.

The
young
er
orderly
escorted them, pulling aside one of the
curtained partitions
, motioning for Amber to wheel the patient over to the bed.

Shaking her head, Amber leaned towards the young woman. “Isn’t there anything
more private than this?”
Amber
leaned closer to the o
rderly’s ear.
“She was raped.”

             
The youn
g woman pulled back and star
ed
in concern, a look
of apology swam across her features
when she looked down
at
Hanna
. “I’
m
so
sorry, but we don’t really have anything more private.”
A thoughtful look crossed her furrowed brow and she turned to Amber with a
sudden
grin.
“
Wait,
I can put her
in one of the cardiac rooms
. I tend to forget we
just did some rec
onstruction, right this way.
”

Amber moved out of the way when the woman reach
ed
for the blue handgrips.

Backing the wheel
chair, she effortlessly pushed
it
down the eerily quiet hall
. T
he only noise was the r
ubber soles of the
orderly’s
shoes making an annoying s
quishing, squeaking sound
on the heavily polishe
d and buffed vinyl floor tiles.
At
the end of the hallway, she
stopped at one of the doors of
a
room
t
hat had recently been enclosed with walls.

Although it was faint, Amber could smell the scent of fresh cut lumber and paint.
She
nodded her approval at the woman’s
questioning look.
The good thing about being in smaller towns such as this one, there were usually not large crowds in the wait
ing room and they were not stuck on following the rules
and could be a little more lenient
.
B
ut they were
still
usually slow as hell.

Stopping just inside the door Amber helped
Hanna
to stand.
She
could tell the
adrenaline of escaping was wearing off and the abuse her b
od
y had suffered was hitting her
full force.
Hanna
’s wobbling legs would barely move, with her arm wrapped around her back,
without thought,
Amber
lifted her once more and
carried her to t
he bed. Placing her against the white sheets and smoothing her hair away from her face Amber gave her an upside down grin.

“I’
ll
be
back with the paperwork to
get you checked in.
We’ll need some ID as well.
”
The order
ly
disappeared and pulled the door closed behind her.

Well shit.

****

It
turned into a major fiasco trying to check Hanna into the hospital for emergency tre
atment since she was a minor
with no
paperwork
proving
Amber
as
her
legal guardian.
With her life on the run,
Amber had become skilled at convincing people she was someone other than who she really was
. Apparently Hanna had some skills too and together,
after nearly an hour of going back and forth with the nurses
,
the doctor finally came in
.
He eyed Amber suspiciously, but saw that the girl really needed help. He listened to the story they wove,
the look on his face telling Amber he was
not believing for a minute
Hanna was her cousin
from Lo
s Angeles
.
But they stuck with the story that they
were just
passing through town
on their way to Portland when Hanna was attacked.

Amber hated doing it, but f
lirting with the doctor the nurses giggled over
obviously helped a little
, along with promising
she had
already called her aunt and uncle
. She
convinced him they
were
already
on their way. The doctor moved t
owards the bed while Hanna star
ed at him a little apprehensively until Amber took one of her hands.
Seeing her frightened look
, he asked her a few question without moving any closer, then
stepped out
of the room. He sent the
nurse back in with the gown
. While Amber assisted the nurse in helping Hanna slip out of her clothing and put the thin hospital gown on, she listed to the conversation in the hallway.

Outside the closed door, Am
ber heard
another nurse tell the doctor the sheriff was on the way,
she nearly panicked
. The instinct to run beat at her but she forced herself to remain still. Although she continued to listen for the slightest indication that someone other than the nurses and doctors were coming in to the room.

As far as she knew Amber had no issues with the law, but she couldn’t allow them to take a report from her.
This
would mean she had to produce some identification and at the moment, that was just not possible.
Flirting with the doctor had gotten her out of producing any ID. If she talked to the police they would insist.
If they decided to detain her for questioning, took her fingerprints or anything she would go into their system.
If her real last name went into any kind of database, the pack would find her. She knew the Co
uncil was still looking for her
. They
had their own
set of
laws and their contacts were far reaching. When her grand
father had helped her to escape,
he had warned her to stay out of the reach of the Council, it meant life or
death for her.
She had been on the run far too long to have them find her
now, just
because she was helping someone else.

Finally, the nurse left and as soon as they were alone Amber quickly turned to Hanna. “I know you don’t want to do this alone, but unless you want to see me in jail, I can’t be here when the sheriff comes.”