Cries in the Night (18 page)

“Hey, take it easy,” the paramedic told her.

She glanced at his badge because she didn’t remember hearing his name at the kidnapping. “Chris, you’re Rusty’s brother, aren’t you?”

“Yes, but right now, I need you to come with me. Can you walk?”

She nodded. “My head and my chest hurts, but I’m okay.” Even though she didn’t feel bad, her legs were rubbery, and she allowed Chris and his female partner to walk on each side of her with their arms wrapped around her back as they guided her to the open back door of the ambulance. “I don’t need to go to the hospital.”

“Maybe … maybe not,” Chris said. “We need to check you out to see.”

“I need you to do me a huge favor,” she told him as she sat on the pram inside the ambulance. “Rusty and I had a date tonight, and I need you to call him so he’ll know where I’m at.”

Chris didn’t say anything, but the arch of his eyebrows showed his surprise.

A police officer walked up that Julie recognized.

“Julie, are you okay?” Officer Don Vincent asked with genuine concern. “I don’t usually see you on this side of the ambulance.”

“Hi Don. I’m fine, or at least I will be once I get something for this headache.”

He looked over at her car. She hadn’t been going very fast, so the impact had been minimal, but the cheap metal had crumpled in a deep V with the telephone pole buried in the middle.

“Something was crawling up my leg, and I guess I lost control.” She massaged her forehead. “I really don’t remember much.”

“Any alcohol or drugs?” he asked.

“No, I’d just left the grocery store and was headed home.”

He walked over to the car and leaned into the open driver’s side door and started looking around. Chris checked Julie’s vitals and shined a small flashlight in her eyes while his partner did a body check to see if anything was broken.

“Everything looks fine,” he told Julie.

His partner whose name tag identified her as Sara agreed. “Nothing’s broken, but you have a significant bruise on your chest. Your breathing may feel a little labored, and we need to make sure your lungs don’t collect any fluid.”

Julie automatically tried to take a deep breath, but it caught midway as pain shot through her. She moaned.

“You’re also showing signs of a mild concussion,” Chris continued. “I recommend that you spend the night in the hospital for observation.”

“No, I’d rather not. I … I don’t like hospitals,” Julie rushed to say.

“You really should consider it,” Sara added. “You shouldn’t be alone tonight.”

“I’ll take care of her.”

The deep voice everyone on scene recognized came from beside the ambulance, and everyone turned to look at Rusty as he hurried forward.

“She needs to be in a hospital,” Chris insisted, giving his brother a meaningful look.

“I don’t like hospitals either,” Rusty told him. “I’ll keep an eye on her. I know a little first aid.” The corner of his mouth lifted ironically. They all knew how many hours firefighters had to take each year to keep current on medical emergencies.

Chris threw up his hands, then took off his rubber gloves with a snap and tossed them inside the ambulance. Sara gave Julie a friendly smile, then stepped away. Rusty moved closer and with a finger crooked under her chin, he tilted her head up so he could see her better.

“You’ve got a couple of impressive black eyes. What happened?”

“As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I felt something on my foot … a big spider or a mouse or a snake … I don’t know, but when it started going up my leg, I must have hit the accelerator or jerked the wheel … I don’t remember. I guess it knocked me out for a second because I woke up against the pole. My air bag saved me.”

Just then Don returned, holding out at arm’s length a two-foot long snake with red-yellow-and-black bands around its thin, shiny body. “Look what I found,” he said with a mixture of surprise and distaste. He had a tight grip on the reptile just behind its small oval head.

“It
was
a snake!” Julie exclaimed. “Is it poisonous? Aren’t coral snakes red, yellow and black?”

“Yes, but this is a milk snake, and they’re harmless,” Rusty told her. “
Red touch yellow, kill a fellow; red touch black, venom lack.
It’s a rhyme my dad taught us so we wouldn’t pick one up.”

“Harmless if you don’t count scaring me to death.” Julie shivered, thinking about the creepy creature crawling on her. “How did it get in my car?”

“That’s a little weird. They aren’t native to Colorado, and they aren’t active in the winter,” Rusty explained.

“So it’s not likely he just crawled up from underneath?” she asked, almost afraid to hear the answer.

“Probably about the same odds as winning the lottery,” Don confirmed. “What do you want me to do with this thing?”

“Take him home to your kids,” Rusty suggested. “Those things cost about $50 in a pet store.”

Don held him out toward Julie and she cringed. “Are you sure you don’t want him?” he teased.

“Get him away from me. He’s all yours.”

Don took out a specimen bag, dropped the snake into it and zipped the top closed. “I’d better get going before he runs out of air.”

“Hey, what about the accident?” Julie asked.

“Don’t worry about it,” Don told her. “Doesn’t look like much damage except to your car. Get it towed right away. I’ll give you a report for your insurance company, but I won’t give you a ticket.”

“Thanks,” she said, relieved that she wasn’t going to get a ticket, but still distracted by how the snake could have gotten into her vehicle. She looked up at Rusty. “I’m sorry about our date.”

“I got here as soon as Chris called. Are you sure you don’t want to get this checked out at the hospital?”

“No, I’m feeling better already. Do you know someone who can tow my car?”

“Sure. I’ll make a call, then I’ll take you home.” He looked up a name on his Contacts list and hit the call button. “Do you have a body shop you like to use?”

She shook her head. The reliable car had never needed any attention other than an occasional oil change and a new set of tires at the beginning of the winter. “Oh, but I need to get my phone and my purse out of there. And the groceries. The trunk is full.”

Rusty nodded and started talking to someone on the other end of the phone line as he walked toward her car. He gave them the location and the information about her car. When he hung up, he reached in and retrieved her purse, her phone and her keys, then popped the trunk open. “He’s on his way,” Rusty called over his shoulder as he began the process of transferring her grocery bags from her vehicle to his that was parked close by.

An hour later, Julie was settled comfortably on her couch with a soft plush throw tucked around her and a bowl of soup on a tray on her lap. The three Advil she had taken as soon as they arrived weren’t doing much to dull the pain that was throbbing in her head. She watched through the open doorway into the kitchen where Rusty was unpacking her groceries and putting things away. He had insisted that she relax on the couch and had provided her with the food.

“How’s it going?” she called to him.

“I’m almost through,” he answered, pausing to look at her. “You should find everything sooner or later. You had so many empty shelves, I kind of had to guess where things go.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she told him. “As long as the refrigerated stuff gets put away.”

“I did that first. Now, eat your soup while I finish.”

She obediently took a few spoonsful until it seemed too much of an effort to swallow. There was the sound of the pantry door shutting before Rusty walked into the room, carrying a ham and cheese sandwich.

“I hope you don’t mind. I made myself a sandwich. Do you want one?”

“Of course, I don’t mind. And no, I don’t want one. I’m just sorry that I ruined our evening.”

“I still have hope that someday we’ll actually eat at a real restaurant.” His boyish grin told her he wasn’t upset.

He settled on the couch next to her and even shared the other end of her throw. He took control of the remote and flipped through the channels until they settled on a silly Christmas movie that required absolutely no concentration to keep up with the storyline about an elf falling in love with a yard gnome.

“I hate the holidays,” Julie muttered.

“Really? I kind of like them,” Rusty admitted. “Of course with our weird schedules, we can’t always make the whole day, but those of us who can go to my parents’ house around noon. There’s so many of us that we draw names, even my parents, so everyone gets just one gift, but it’s a good one. We take turns playing Santa, without the dressing up part, and hand out the presents. After we open them, we all sit down to dinner. It’s always the same, turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, hot rolls and pumpkin pie. All homemade, of course.” He smiled and licked his lips. “It’s my favorite meal.”

Julie’s smile was wistful. “That sounds nice. Holidays were always like that when my parents were alive, but after … well, it’s never been the same since. Now it’s just another day.”

Rusty’s vivid blue eyes softened. “Are you going to be alone on Christmas?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, but that’s okay. It’s usually a busy day for victim’s advocates. A lot of people behave badly on holidays. After all the hype, it’s a big disappointment, you know. It can never meet our expectations after we’re grown up.”

“You just haven’t spent them with the right person.”

CHAPTER TWELVE

Rusty shifted, trying to relieve the crick in his neck. It took him a minute to get his bearings. For some reason he was sitting up and someone was sleeping in his arms. The morning sun was just starting to peek through the cracks where the drapes didn’t quite overlap. Slowly, all the events of last night came back to him … Julie’s accident, the snake, her concussion.

He sat up straighter. He was supposed to have been watching her and keeping her awake. And here they were, asleep on the couch. He looked down at Julie, slumped over with her head resting on his chest. Her hair smelled like flowers and vanilla and was soft against his chin. At work she always wore it pulled back into a ponytail or clipped up in a bun. He’d seen it down only twice, the first night he had dropped by and surprised her and last night when her head had been hurting, and she had taken the rubber band out and combed her fingers through the silky strands, releasing it to fall long and loose around her shoulders.

It had surprised him how sexy she was, even with two black eyes. He had thought she was sort of pretty before, but now that he had gotten to know her, he realized she was beautiful, in a totally natural way. Her skin was flawless and her body was slender but had the right amount of curves. He was very aware of her firm, full breasts that were pressed against him right now. One of her hands was lying on the couch, but the other was draped over his lap, her fingers dangerously close to the morning bulge in his jeans. The thought of her actually touching him, stroking him made his erection grow even more.

She wore very little makeup, but she didn’t really need any. There was nothing artificial about her. Except for the brown contact lens, which he still didn’t understand. The natural color of her eyes was a soft, cornflower blue that made her look younger and more vulnerable. If anything, she was a little too thin which made her eyes look almost too large and her cheekbones more prominent than they would if she took the time to eat properly. She was so busy taking care of other people that she didn’t take very good care of herself.

And for some reason, she did everything she could to make herself look plain and unattractive. It was like she didn’t want anyone to notice her; sort of like she wanted to blend in with the wallpaper. Maybe that was why people trusted her
and let her inside their private lives so easily. She came across as honest, compassionate and non-threatening.

Rusty looked down at her and lightly brushed her hair off her face. His feelings toward her confused him. Of course, he could be counted on to help out a buddy who needed an extra hand to repair their roof or install a fence. The girls he knew were attracted to his muscles or his sexual prowess or even how he looked in a uniform. He wasn’t known as being emotionally available.

Why then was he spending all his spare time with a woman who was even less emotionally available than he was?

He could tell she liked him and appreciated his help, even that she enjoyed being with him and was glad to see him. What she hadn’t done was flirt with him or send him any of those feminine messages that told him they wanted him to make a move. She didn’t caress his cheek or squeeze his arm or lick her lips, making sure he was watching. She either had no interest in him other than as a friend … or she had absolutely no game.

And why did it make a difference to him? Hell, if he knew. It just did. Around Julie Lawrence, Rusty had absolutely no game either.

Gently, he shook her shoulder.

“Julie, wake up.”

She moved slowly, going through the same disorientation that he had. It was clear when she realized she was lying on him because she immediately jerked upright and put a little distance between them. But the abrupt movement caused her to gasp in pain.