any on hand, she’d be in trouble.
He communicated via CB radio with the emergency services operator and the EMT who responded to the scene, neither of whom were able to give him any detailed information. All he knew was that Shay had been bitten by a rattlesnake, and was in stable condition.
Luke wrapped his fingers around the steering wheel, maneuvering past cars that had pulled to the side of the road. Both he and Clay had their lights flashing, and although it wouldn’t be safe to go any faster around the curves, Luke wanted to. For the first time in his career, he wasn’t the least bit concerned about public safety.
Some of the damned fools on the road wouldn’t even pull over. Luke gritted his teeth, suppressing the urge to fire off a few warning shots.
Finally they were in the parking lot outside the ER. Luke didn’t bother to find an open space. He jerked to a stop beside the curb, yanked his keys from the ignition, and hopped out, not waiting to see if Clay would do the same.
At the front desk, there was a blue-haired old lady with wire-rimmed glasses. Luke did a quick survey of the waiting room and didn’t see anyone who looked more helpful. “Shay Phillips,” he said, surprised he wasn’t short of breath. His heart was hammering in his chest as if he’d been running for miles.
The lady smiled placidly. “Are you a blood relation?”
Luke left her sitting there. Ignoring the protests of a couple of nurses in colorful scrub outfits, he stormed through the double doors leading to the emergency room. Growing frantic, he searched the beds, jerking back curtains and calling her name. He startled a gray-faced older gentleman and a boy with a crooked wrist before he found her.
She was reclining in a hospital bed, wearing a faded blue gown, eyes closed, dark lashes fanning her pale cheeks. Tubes were coming out of her nose and she had an IV and a blood pressure monitor attached to her left arm.
She looked so goddamned frail.
Luke’s heart felt too heavy for his chest. For a moment, he thought he was having some kind of stress-related attack. Then she opened her eyes, and he realized it was something far more serious.
Shay blinked at Luke groggily.
She hadn’t been comfortable, with her injured hand elevated and her body strapped to a bed, attached to a bunch of medical gadgets, but she must have drifted off to sleep.
Before the ambulance picked her up, she’d been a little manic. While she waited for emergency services, she’d recaptured the Red Diamondback Rattlesnake and transferred it to a safer place, trying to remain calm. The cardboard box the snake had been in didn’t provide enough oxygen, and she didn’t wish the rattler any ill will.
It wasn’t his fault she’d stuck her hand in the box.
Luckily, she didn’t seem to be having any reaction to the venom. The doctor wanted to keep her here all day in case she began to show symptoms, but he didn’t think she required aggressive treatment.
Shay was relieved, because she’d heard of men who’d gone through the agony of anaphylactic shock, and even those who had lost limbs from severe bites.
Luke yanked the curtain open farther and stood at the side of the bed, gaping at her. The look on his face was so disturbing she sat up and frowned. “What is it?” she asked, her mind flitting from one worst-case scenario to the next.
He made a strange wheezing sound, gripping the curtain so hard several rings popped from the rod overhead.
“Is it Dylan?”
“Dylan?” he choked.
“My brother, Dylan,” she explained, wondering what the hell was wrong with him. “Did something happen to him?”
“No,” he said, swallowing. “I don’t think so.”
“Then what is it? You look like you just saw a ghost.”
“I thought I had.”
She looked around in confusion. “Where?”
“Right here.”
Shay wanted to smack some sense into him. Then it dawned on her that he was talking about her. He’d obviously heard she’d been bitten. The crazed look in his eye, the labored breathing, the curtain-ripping… it was all for her.
A strange sensation coursed through her, dancing in her belly. She tried to shake it off, but it refused to go. She tried to deny his feelings, too, but concern was written all over his face, and in the way he clutched the nylon curtain like a lifeline.
“Sit down before you pop a blood vessel,” she said in a hoarse voice, gesturing to the chair beside her bed.
He remained standing. “Are you going to be all right?”
“Probably. They think it was a dry bite.”
“A dry bite?”
“Just a warning nip. Little or no venom.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, placing a hand over his chest. Her own heart bounced like a giddy schoolgirl’s, swelling with love for him.
The realization that she was in love with him came with a lot of excess baggage, fear and anxiety and disillusionment. For one fleeting, absurdly sentimental moment, she imagined what it would be like to have him love her back.
“How the fuck did you manage to get bit by a rattlesnake?” he said, his brows slashing downward. “On the fucking hand, no less!”
A cold, hard ball settled in the pit of her stomach. Luke Meza wasn’t in love with her. He was just at the end of his rope, frazzled by the events of the past few days and so angry that he couldn’t keep his emotions, or his mouth, in check. “Language like that will get you kicked off the troop, Eagle Scout.”
His jaw clenched. “Do you have any idea what I just went through?”
Laughter bubbled up from within, tearing through her chest. “What you just went through? Are you serious?”
“A few hours ago, I saw Bull Ryan facedown on the ground with his scalp hanging to the side like a loose toupee,” he said in a low, furious voice. “And last night I dreamed-” He broke off with another curse, raking a hand through his hair.
She stared at him in wonder. “Dreamed what?”
“That you were dead,” he bit out. “I dreamed you were dead.”
Judging by his reaction to seeing her in the hospital bed, the idea of her dying disturbed him greatly. She frowned, worried that her brother would hear rumors about the incident and have the same reaction. “I should call Dylan at school,” she murmured, reaching for the phone beside the bed.
“Don’t bother. He’s not there.”
Her stomach clenched with dread. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. I sent Garrett out looking for him.”
“Why?”
After a moment’s hesitation, he leveled with her. “Because his application for employment was in Bull’s hand.”
She felt the blood drain from her face. “He just started working there yesterday. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“Maybe not,” Luke agreed.
“I have to get out of here,” she said, pulling the oxygen tube away from her nose. “I have to go find him.”
“Stop.” He reached out and stilled her hand. “What did the doctor say?”
She glared at him. “That I’m fine.”
“Then why haven’t you been discharged?”
“Because some patients have a delayed reaction to rattlesnake venom,” she said, lying back against the pillows. “Symptoms can develop up to eight hours later.”
