Hold Your Breath (Search and Rescue) (27 page)

“Busy place,” Lou muttered, zipping her coat as Rob opened the door, apparently not waiting for an invitation.

“Hi,” he said with that rare smile that always made her smile back. “How’re you doing?”

“Depends. Have you heard anything about Callum?”

“Yep.” His grin widened a few notches. “By the time they landed at Presbyterian St. Luke’s, he was conscious and alert. Nice save, Lou.”

“Seriously?” She blinked as the information settled, and then launched herself at him, wrapping him in a hard hug. “That’s awesome! Thanks, Rob.” She shifted to slide past him.

“Wait.” He grabbed her arm. “Where are you headed?”

“Denver,” she answered, although a “duh” was implied in her tone. “To Callum.”

“Now? Is that a good idea, for you to be driving?” He looked around, as if searching for someone to support his attempt to keep her from leaving.

“Very. Amy cleared me medically.”

“I need to get your statement.”

Now that she knew Callum’s status, everything else that happened crashed through her brain. “You’re right, but I need to go. Can I call you and give you my statement over the phone while I drive?”

Shaking his head, he said, “I don’t want you driving at all, much less while talking on your cell.”

She resisted the urge to stamp her foot in frustration. “I can—”

Ian opened the other rear door of the ambulance, interrupting her. “I’ll drive her.”

“To Denver?” When he nodded, she grinned. “Thank you!”

“Okay.” Rob released her arm. “Call me with your statement, then, as soon as you’re in an area with enough cell reception not to be dropping the call every few seconds. This isn’t the usual way we do things, but you’ve earned an exception tonight.”

“I will,” she promised. “Thank you.” When she grabbed Ian by the sleeve of his coat, the stiff material reminded her that he was still in his bunker gear. “Did you want to change first?”

“Sure. I’ll just take a minute. Meet you at the dive van? Thought we could run by Station One to drop it off and pick up Callum’s truck.”

She nodded, circling around the ambulance on her way to the dive van. Firemen and deputies still milled around the scene. As she wound her way through the rescue workers, each one gave her a shoulder squeeze or a quiet “good job.” She accepted each accolade with a smile of thanks, even though she wasn’t sure her inept fumbling under the ice merited the praise.

“Callum is alive,” she muttered under her breath. “And that’s worth something. That’s worth a lot.”

Firefighter Steve caught her by the arm as she passed. “You did a good thing. I would’ve missed the surly bastard.”

She grinned at him, knowing her relief and thankfulness were shining from her. “Me too.”

* * *

Ian didn’t say much on the almost three-hour drive to Denver, but Lou was grateful for his strong and steady presence—as well as his excellent driving skills. If they’d had better road conditions, the trip would’ve taken closer to two hours, but the ground blizzard had glazed the highways with ice where the wind had blown snow across the road.

As soon as they reached a flat stretch of high plains where she knew she’d get cell reception for a good twenty minutes or so, she called Rob to give him her statement. He put her on speaker so Chris could listen to her as well.

Lou didn’t know if it was sheer exhaustion or if she was still in shock, but she told her story in a dull, unemotional voice. Neither Rob nor Chris interrupted her. After she finished, there were several seconds of silence.

“Brent Lloyd was the one who called it in, then?” the sheriff finally said. It sounded as if he was working it out in his head, rather than actually asking Lou the question. “He was the only one at the reservoir?”

Lou rubbed her forehead. Her brain was lethargic, and her thoughts were slow to form. “I guess. So he lured us there to, what? Kill me? Or Callum? That makes no sense, though. He didn’t even know Callum.”

“He was watching you, though,” Chris said. “He saw that you were spending a lot of time together—living together, even. Since he was fixated on you, your relationship with Callum probably enraged him.”

Rob interrupted Chris’s theorizing. “Could you identify Lloyd’s voice if you heard a recording of the 9-1-1 call?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” Lou squeezed her eyes together and then opened them. They felt gritty, as if sand had worked its way under her lids. “My stepdad would be a better one to ask, though. He worked with him every day for years. You still have his number, right?”

“Yes, I’ll contact him.”

“Okay.” She noticed they were on the curve approaching the south side of the pass. To her relief, there were no flashing lights indicating that the pass was still closed. “If you have any more questions, you’ll need to ask them quickly. I’m going to lose cell reception in about one minute.”

“We’ll call you back in a couple of hours. You can give us an update on Callum at that time, too.”

“Okay. Talk to you then.”

The two men said their good-byes and disconnected the call. Lou let the phone drop into her lap, her fingers suddenly too weak to hold it.

“Holy shit,” Ian said, his first words since she’d called the sheriff. “Fucking bastard set up an ambush.”

“Yeah.” Her head fell back against the seat. “Mind if I sleep now?”

“Go for it.” Although he sounded truly pissed, she knew it wasn’t directed at her. It was all meant for a dead man. Shutting down any thoughts of Brent, she allowed her eyes to close. There would be plenty of time later to process the events of the night. Right now, she just needed to sleep.

While the firefighters on the scene had commended Lou for her unauthorized dive, Callum had a different take on it. “What’s Rule Number One?”

Taking another step into his hospital room, she grinned at him. It was one thing to be told he was conscious and alert, and quite another to actually see him scowling at her. Unable to stop herself, she rushed over to his bed and hugged him as best she could without disturbing any tubes, IVs, or equipment. When she pulled back, he was smiling.

“Rule Number One?” he asked again, despite his tender look.

“Um…don’t hold your breath when you’re diving?” she guessed, sitting on the edge of his bed so her hip rested against his. She couldn’t stop staring at him. Seeing him awake and talking and a normal, healthy tan color seemed like a miracle.

“No,” he said with a snap that didn’t do anything to dim her smile. It was even wonderful having him bark at her. “It’s
go home
.”

“What?” Her eyebrows drew together. Did he not want her there at the hospital? If so, that was just too bad. They’d have to call security to boot her out of his room. She settled her rear more firmly on his bed.

“Go home. That is the first rule that every rescue worker needs to follow—to go home at the end of the call.”

“And we did!” She beamed. “Well, at least we
will
go home. Eventually. Once they spring you from this joint. Eventually qualifies, doesn’t it?”

He scowled even as he took her hand and ran his thumb across the back. Lou wasn’t even sure he was aware he was holding it. “You’re missing the point.”

“What’s the point, then?” she asked absently, her eyes tracing his features. She loved his stubborn chin and the way he set his jaw when he was irritated or frustrated. His mouth was even better, its soft curve not disguised by the firm way he pressed his lips together. Even his nose—

“The point,” he gritted, interrupting her catalog of his features, “is that you were not qualified for what you did. You didn’t have a dive tender on shore. You disregarded so many SOPs…” He trailed off, shaking his head as if overwhelmed by the sheer number of rules she’d broken.

No matter how long he lectured her, Lou knew she wouldn’t be able to dredge up an ounce of contrition for going under the ice after him. With a shrug, she said, “But if I hadn’t, you would’ve died. This way, I get to keep you. Rules, schmules.”

His face unreadable, he stared at her.

Cupping the side of his face with her free hand, she leaned over to kiss him lightly on that stern and beautiful mouth. As she pulled back, she stroked her thumb over his bottom lip. “I don’t think there’s any rule I wouldn’t break for you,” she admitted. “In the same situation, I’d do it again.”

With a frown, he mirrored her movement, laying his large, rough hand against her cheek. She leaned into it, loving the warmth it radiated. “I don’t want you to sacrifice yourself for me,” he said.

“How about we both live, then? That’d be a win-win.” This time, he answered her grin with a tiny one of his own.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook, though.” His smile disappeared into the familiar hard lines of his face. “I’m going to think of an appropriate punishment.”

“Yeah?” she breathed, kissing him again.

He returned the kiss but then scowled when she pulled back. “Don’t make it sound so sexy. It will be a real punishment. Something bad.”

Having Callum alive and talking to her made it impossible to dread whatever penance he could impose. “Will you send me on a week-long, out-of-state training with Chad where the only sleeping quarters available is a pup tent we have to share?”

“No.” Lines formed between his eyebrows. “You won’t be sharing a pup tent with anyone but me.”

“Well, that’s good.” She couldn’t stop kissing him, marveling at the warmth of his lips. His eyelids were drooping, though, so she reluctantly pressed her mouth to his a final time and then pulled away. “The guys want to see you. Think you can stay awake for a few more minutes?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Send them in.”

An anxious crowd filled the waiting room—the fire chief, Derek, Chad, and Phil among them—and Callum was visibly flagging when Lou slipped into his room after the last visitor had left. Dragging a chair next to his bed, she picked up his hand again and gave it a squeeze.

“How’d you get here? You didn’t drive, did you?” he asked, his words loose with exhaustion. Lou supposed that almost dying would tire out a person.

“As if I’d do something that stupid,” she scoffed, ignoring the fact that, before Ian offered to bring her, she’d been insisting on doing that exact stupid thing. “Ian drove me in your truck. I called the sheriff and gave him my statement, and then kept almost dozing off before everything that happened hit me again and jerked me awake.”

“What did happen?” He was definitely slurring now, his eyes barely open. “I remember feeling a tug on my line after I started to descend. When I looked up, the end was floating. By the time I’d figured out it’d been cut and looked around for the person who did it, he was far enough away just to be a shadow. It was dumb, I know, but he was too far away for me to see the dive gear at that point, and I was still thinking he was a victim. I swam in that direction but lost sight of him.”

He paused, and Lou thought he’d given up the battle with sleep, but he picked up the story again after a few seconds. “That kept happening—I’d spot him and then lose him again, like this weird game of hide-and-seek. I followed him for a while, but then he must’ve circled around behind me, because something hit me hard on the back of the head. After that, everything got mixed up in my mind. I know I turned and struggled with him. He had a knife in his hand, and I managed to get him to drop it, but then he hooked my regulator hose. Fighting him like I was, I couldn’t get it back. The last thing I saw before I lost consciousness was you. I was so pissed at you for coming after me. So pissed, and so scared you’d be hurt.”

“I’m fine.” Her voice wavered, and she swallowed hard, trying to steady herself. “It was Brent. He must’ve been the one to report someone falling through the ice. I don’t know why he attacked you, though. I mean, everything so far had been aimed at me. Why did he want to hurt you?” Her hard-won control broke, and her voice cracked on the last word. Lou was glad he was almost asleep, so he didn’t see the tears begin to track down her cheeks. She scrubbed at the wetness with the back of her free hand.

“Because,” he mumbled, even as his eyes closed completely, “I got…the girl.”

Standing so she could lean over him and kiss his forehead, she whispered, “Yeah, you do.”

* * *

A ringing sound jerked Lou out of her restless doze. Her neck straightened from its kinked position with a painful crack, and her hand pressed against the side. Her phone rang again, and she fumbled to pull it out of her jacket pocket. She answered it without looking to see who was calling, whispering, “Just a second,” with her gaze on Callum. Although he stirred, he didn’t wake completely, and Lou slipped out of his room before speaking again.

“Hello?”

“Louise. What on earth is going on?”

Rubbing her eyes, she walked through the quiet hallway, heading for the far side of an empty waiting area that she hoped was far enough away from everyone that her voice didn’t disturb any patients at—she checked her watch—two in the morning. “Mom?”

“Why is some Podunk sheriff calling Richard in the middle of the night?” she demanded. “Is it true that poor Brenton is really dead?” Her voice caught on the last word.

“Yeah.” Lou sighed. “He attacked Callum. I had to stop him.”

“What? You killed Brenton?” Her mother’s voice rose to an uncharacteristic shriek.

“I had to, Mom.” Despite her words, Lou’s stomach felt heavy, and her throat was so thick it was hard to speak. “Or Callum would’ve died. And I would’ve, too.”

“Who is this Callum?”

This was not the time or the circumstances which Lou would’ve chosen to reveal her new relationship status to her parents. “My boyfriend.”

“Your
what
?” The piercing shriek was back, and Lou winced, pulling the phone away from her ear. “You were cheating on Brenton?”

“What? No!” It was Lou’s turn to get a little shrill. “How could I be cheating on someone I wasn’t dating anymore? He was
stalking
me, Mom. He tried to kill me—twice! He burned my house down, and my truck, and everything I owned.” To her disgust, Lou was crying again and couldn’t seem to stop. Between her sobs and the still-present throat lump, she could barely understand her own words. “He tried to murder Callum!”

Several seconds of silence ticked by as Lou tried to control her tears, which only made her shuddering breathing more uneven.

“He wouldn’t,” her mother finally said, although her tone was uncertain. “He just wanted you back. He said you were finally talking with him, going out with him, that he’d almost convinced you to come home.”

“When did he say this?” Lou demanded, the slap of betrayal stopping her tears. “Were you talking to him while he was here? Did you know about all the things he’d done to me? Why didn’t you warn me?” She’d gotten loud, loud enough for a nurse to stick her head into the waiting area and frown. Lou gave an apologetic wave and lowered her voice. “I can’t believe you knew he was doing this.”

“What ‘this’?” Her mother’s voice had gotten some of its snap back. “All he wanted was you. He followed you all the way to those godforsaken mountains because he cared about you.”

“If you care about someone,” Lou said flatly, exhaustion weighting her so heavily she sank into a nearby chair, “you don’t burn down her house. You definitely don’t try to kill her and her loved ones.”

“I can’t believe Brenton would do any of those things.” Her mom’s tone was now back to her usual level of confidence.

“Well, he did.” Leaning back in the chair, she fought to keep her eyes from closing. “I can’t believe you were talking with him the whole time.”

“I wasn’t.” Her mother sniffed. “We emailed a few times, but that was all. He wanted to share his progress in getting you to come home.”

“There was no progress.” Lou forced herself to her feet. If she spent five more seconds in that chair, she’d be sleeping there for the rest of the night. “Not after he slashed my tires or cut my propane line or peeked in my windows while I was sleeping or kicked me back into my burning house or after he tried to kill me and Cal. I wasn’t going to leave, I’m still not going to leave, and I’m probably never going to leave. This is my home now. I have a new family here. Good-bye, Mom.”

With a shaking finger, she disconnected the call. After hesitating a moment as she looked at the clock on the wall and the uncivilized hour it displayed, she tapped on the sheriff’s phone number. He answered after only a couple of rings, sounding alert and awake.

“Rob, it’s Lou. Sorry to call you so early.”

“I wasn’t sleeping,” he confirmed her impression. “What’s up?”

“I just talked to my mom. Brent had been emailing her.” Saying the words out loud made betrayal twist again in her belly. “You might want to look at those emails. They could explain why Brent did what he did—or what he tried to do.”

“Thank you, Lou. I’m already working with local law enforcement in Connecticut. I’ll see if we can get a warrant to search your parents’ house and seize your mother’s computer.”

Even after the conversation she’d just had with her mom, she cringed at the thought of the police searching their home. Then, she pictured Callum’s lifeless body floating in the water and hardened her heart to her parents’ upcoming distress. “Thank you.”

“How’s Callum?”

She smiled, despite her misery and exhaustion. “Better. He was lecturing me earlier.”

“Good. And you deserve worse than a lecture, after that foolhardy stunt.”

With a shrug he couldn’t see, she said, “Like I told him, I’d do that again and worse if it kept Callum alive.” The sheriff’s response was just a disapproving grumble, and she grinned again. “Good night, Rob.”

“Good night, Lou. I’ll probably need to talk to you again tomorrow once Brenton Lloyd’s body is recovered.”

“I’m not sure when Callum is getting released, but until then, I’ll have my phone on me.”

“Let him know everybody’s thinking about him.”

“Will do.”

Pocketing her phone, she walked back to Callum’s room. He watched her as she entered.

“Sorry,” she whispered, moving back to her chair next to the bed and taking his hand. “I didn’t want to wake you.”

“I just didn’t know where you were,” he grumped, although he squeezed her hand. She thought how hard it must be for a control freak to be incapacitated, even for just a short time.

“My mom called,” she explained with another grimace. “Turns out that she was email buddies with Brent. I yelled at her and got in trouble with a nurse for being too loud. And then I called Rob to let him know about the emails. Maybe they’ll shed some light into the mind of a crazy guy.”

Callum nodded, already looking like he was about to fall asleep again. His fingers tightened around hers. “Don’t leave, okay?”

“And miss out on this supercomfortable chair?” she gasped with mock horror. “As if I would.” When he just watched her out of half-closed eyes, not smiling, her own teasing expression fell away. “Go to sleep, Cal. I promise I’m not going anywhere.”