Now what sleep she’d finally fallen into had been cut off at the quick. She glanced at her clock: 11:00 p.m.
“This does not bode well for my doctor’s appointment tomorrow,” she muttered at the dog as she shoved out of bed, grabbed her cell phone.
Add to the fact that it had taken her more than a half hour to finally get comfortable and she was about ready to evict her canine roommate.
Lancelot barked, once, twice, sharp, insistent. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Believe me, I get it.” She slugged her way to the door. Lancelot was out like a shot.
The cool night air had her shivering and reaching for a sweater. She shoved her feet into slip-ons and in the beams of the motion-lights, followed Lancelot outside. “Okay, dog, where’d you go?” Lancelot barked again, but this time the sound was followed by a rustling and crash. Thinking the dog must have injured himself, she hurried toward the storage shed. “Lancelot!” She clicked on her flashlight app, shone it around as a shadow burst out and headed right for her.
Jo froze.
Lancelot erupted from behind the shed as a flicker of light exploded from the back of the building. The shadow knocked against her as he raced away. Jo spun and stumbled, unable to catch her balance. She hit the ground at the same time Lancelot leaped over her. Jaws snapping, the dog snarled and caught the back of the shadow’s jacket. She heard a rip and a shout, definitely male, and then a muffled whumph.
Lancelot let out a whine. Footsteps raced away as the shadow disappeared beyond her house and into the thicket of trees.
Dazed, shaken and trembling, Jo ran her hands around the gravel and dirt, searching for her cell phone. “Where is it? Where is it? Lancelot? You okay?” She could barely see beyond the stars exploding in her eyes, and the over-bright lights, but there he was. Lying a few feet away. “Lancelot!” She pivoted onto her knees, scrambled forward to the animal, who lay there panting and whining. “Are you hurt?” He had to be. The dog never stood still, let alone lay prone. “Don’t worry. I’m going to get help. Don’t worry, boy.” Tears burned her eyes.
The glass of her cell caught the light. “It’s okay, boy.” Trying to breathe deep and keep her focus, she stretched out and grabbed her phone. She blinked to focus, opened her contact list and dialed Ozzy. Just as the phone connected, she felt the first cramp.
* * *
“WHAT SAY YOU, oh, dungeon master?” Jasper O’Neill let out a cackling laugh that had Ozzy thinking back to his less mature days. Had he sounded this ridiculous when he’d played D&D as a kid? Then again, what were the odds he’d be working as a firefighter and, during his downtime, joining in on a ruthless game of fantasy and mayhem?
“I really should be recording this for TikTok,” Frankie muttered. “No one on the planet would believe it.”
“Au contraire,” Ozzy said and rolled his ten-sided die. “There are plenty of people who would.” He glanced at the clock. Only seven hours to go until he was off shift. With a full two days out ahead of him, the world was his and Jo’s oyster. Well, maybe the ocean was. She’d finally agreed to go fishing with him as long as they stayed relatively close to shore.
“Nine,” he announced to Jasper, then he kicked Roman under the table to jerk him awake.
“I’m here, I’m here.” Roman nearly toppled back in his chair. “Where’s the fire?”
“My hero,” Frankie snorted.
Ozzy’s cell phone buzzed. “Maybe you should have recorded that instead,” he teased Frankie.
“I’m sure I’ll have another chance.” She went back to flipping through TV channels.
One glance at his phone screen and Ozzy was grinning like a fool. “Hey, Jo. Miss me?”
“Ozzy. I need help.” Jo’s gasp had Ozzy on his feet.
“Jo? What’s wrong?” He snapped his fingers, pointed to the emergency vehicle and the station’s oversize SUV nicknamed Dwayne after Frankie’s favorite action hero movie star. “Is it the baby?”
Game forgotten, he ran for his locker.
“I don’t know.” Her voice cracked. “Someone tried to break into the shed...the shed. Oh, no, Ozzy! I smell smoke. Someone set fire to the storage shed.”
“I’m on my way. Don’t hang up, you hear me? You stay on the phone with me.” Frankie, Roman and Jasper were already suited up and jumping into the vehicles. “Jasper, call an ambulance and Luke,” Ozzy ordered. “Have them meet us at the construction site. Jo?”
“I’m here. Ozzy.” The way she whispered his name sent a wave of panic surging through him. “Ozzy, something’s wrong with the baby. I can feel it.”
“I’ll be there soon, Jo, I promise.”
Frankie, behind the wheel of the main engine, pulled out of the garage as Roman started up the SUV. Ozzy jumped into the passenger seat beside Roman, straining to hear Jo. “We’ve got sirens rolling, okay? Can you hear them?” The lights spun into the darkness as Roman sped behind Frankie.
“Faster, faster,” he pleaded. Roman glanced over at him.
“Going as fast as we can, Oz.”
“I know.” Never had a ride felt so long. “Jo? Tell me what happened.”
“I thought Lancelot had to do his business. Lancelot.” There was another sob. “He’s down, Ozzy. I don’t know how, he jumped between me and whoever was up here.”
“He’ll be okay,” Ozzy lied. As crazy as he was about that mutt, his first concern was Jo. “You said you have pain. Tell me where. Did this guy hit you?”
“No. He knocked me down. Just ran right at me. I can see flames in the window, Oz. The shed—the supplies...”
“Get as far away from it as you can.” Ozzy’s mind raced. He cupped the phone against his hand. “Is there anything explosive on a construction site?”
Roman shook his head. “Shouldn’t be. Not with this one, anyway. Jo would know. She’d have signed the permit for it.”
“Right.” Stupid. “Jo? Are there explosives... Jo? Jo!” His phone beeped as the call disconnected. “She’s gone.”
“Time to make this thing fly.” Roman hit the gas and took a sharp turn. They cut around the fire engine, taking a shortcut down Leaf Glen Lane. Roman blasted through stop signs, siren and lights blaring. Ozzy glanced into the rearview mirror, saw the engine coming up fast behind them once Roman had veered back onto the main road. “Man, I’m going to pay for that later.”
Ozzy barely heard him. He dialed Luke’s cell, not surprised when his former boss answered immediately.
“I’m on my way, Oz.”
“Jo said someone was up here, Luke. They started a fire.”
“I’ll get Matt and Fletch on it. Is Jo okay?”
Ozzy swallowed hard. “I don’t know.”
“Hang on,” Roman ordered and took the last hill like a Hollywood stuntman. As the car skidded into the gravel lot, Ozzy could see the flames licking up the back of the shed. “You find Jo!” Roman yelled. “We’ve got the rest.”
“But—”
“Go!” Roman ordered and dived out of the car. Frankie’s truck abruptly stopped beside them. Ozzy was out of the car, using the glow from the headlights to lead him to where Jo lay on the ground, curled up on her side, her hand stretched out toward Lancelot.
“Jo. Hey, Jo, I’m here.” He dropped to his knees beside her, thought for a moment she was unconscious until she blinked open her eyes and turned her head. “Hey. Told you I’d be here.”
She shook her head. “The cramps won’t stop, Ozzy.” Tears streaked down her cheeks.
“I’ve got an ambulance coming.” But he already knew it would take too long. He wasn’t going to be too late this time. He wasn’t going to stand by, wait and do nothing. “Do you trust me, Jo?”
That she didn’t hesitate before she nodded filled him with both hope and confidence.
“Okay.” He slipped his arms under her knees and shoulders. “Grab hold of my neck.
I’m going to take you in myself.”
“Okay.”
He had no idea where he got the strength, but he scooped her up, tried to ignore the sound of her gasp as he shifted his hold. He walk-ran toward the SUV and set her in the passenger seat. “Roman!”
“Go!” Roman yelled back as he, Frankie and Jasper grabbed the truck hose. Jasper raced toward the house and connected a second hose to the water line into Jo’s home.
“Lancelot’s hurt,” Ozzy yelled.
“We’ve got him,” Frankie called, her voice muffled by the face shield on her helmet. “Go, Ozzy. Go.”
He slammed into the car, shoved it into Drive and peeled out of the gravel lot.
“Ozzy, I’m scared.”
He could feel her trembling from where she sat. “I know, Jo.” He reached for her hand, felt both relief and terror as she grabbed hold of him. “So am I, but it’ll be okay.”
Please, he prayed silently. Let it be okay.
* * *
HOSPITAL COFFEE SUCKED.
There just wasn’t any way around it. Nor was there any way around the unease and fear circling inside Ozzy like a ravenous shark. Jo had looked so pale in the blazing lights of the hospital’s parking lot and she’d still been shaking when he’d wheeled her into the emergency room.
He’d made this trip dozens of times, but it never got any easier.
He walked beside the stretcher, clutching Jo’s hand. She’d gone quiet in the car, so quiet after she’d confided her fear. She was the strongest person he’d ever met. He didn’t want to see her in pain again.
“We’ve got her, Ozzy.” A young female nurse in blue scrubs he vaguely recognized stepped between him and the swinging doors into the triage room. “Let us take care of her.”
“I promised...” He stopped, hands on his hips, as he tried to catch his breath. “I promised I’d be here.”
“You can wait right here. I’ll let you know what I can, all right?” She touched his arm. “You don’t remember me, do you?”
“Ah, no. Sorry.” He shook his head.
“Allison Cavanaugh. We had a date last Christmas. You took me to the tree-lighting ceremony at city hall.”
“Right, Allison.” He couldn’t for the life of him place her. The only person, the only woman, he could think about was Jo. “Sorry.”
“Are you the father?”
“No.” The answer came out automatically and with far more regret than he’d anticipated. “I mean, yes. Kind of.” He cringed. “It’s...” He was actually going to say it. “It’s complicated.”
“Life often is. Someone will be out when they can.”
“Okay.” He patted his chest for his phone, remembered he’d left it in the car, and paced back and forth as he debated going out to get it.
Minutes, or maybe hours, ticked by. He didn’t go far because he wanted Jo to be able to see him if she needed to. Even with his training, he couldn’t make sense of the doctors’ and nurses’ movements on the other side of the door. The clock ticked slowly and loudly to his ears.
“Ozzy.” Leah Ellis rounded the corner, her normally pristine appearance a bit haggard, her sweater on inside out and her shoes completely mismatched. “Paige called. She told me what happened. How is she?”
Leah looked as pale as Jo had.
“No idea. Leah—” He let out a long, controlled breath “—if she loses the baby—”
“You stop it right now,” Leah ordered. “This baby is a miracle and I don’t believe for a second it won’t arrive safe and sound at the right time.”
“Now’s not the right time.” Ozzy shook his head. “It’s too early.” He was far too familiar with preemie statistics, and very few of them were on Jo’s side.
“I know.” She linked her arms around Ozzy’s and held on. “I know. We just have to think positive, right? How about we go into the waiting room, get some coffee?”
“They said they’d tell me when they know something.”
“Then they’ll find you. Excuse me.” Leah stopped at the registration desk and spoke to an older, rather dignified-looking nurse. “Would you let the doctors know Jo Bertoletti’s family is in the waiting room?”
“Certainly. I have her paperwork here.” She handed a clipboard to Leah.
“Great. Thanks.” Leah took it and Ozzy into the waiting room. “You want to give this a shot?” They sat in two linked chairs under the television that was set to family-friendly cartoons.
“The forms?” Ozzy frowned. “I don’t know any of this information.”
“Me, either. Oh, hang on a second.” She disappeared around the corner. “Cheyenne just got here,” she said when she returned. “She’s going in to see Jo now. That’s good. That’ll reassure Jo.” She sat down, set the clipboard on her lap and grabbed hold of Ozzy’s hand. “I don’t know if you’re one for prayers—”
“Ahead of you already.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. “Way, way ahead of you.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“GIL.”
Leah’s startled voice shot Ozzy out of his trance. He checked his watch. Cheyenne had made one quick appearance to let them know Jo was stable and that as far as the ultrasound had shown, the baby was fine for now.
For now. Those words continued to echo in Ozzy’s head as he looked to Gil. Then at the dog at the end of the leash. “Lancelot.” Relief surged through him as the dog padded over to him and stuck his wet nose in Ozzy’s face.
“Got him special permission,” Gil said. “Since he’s a former police dog and all.” “Boy, you scared years off me,” Ozzy muttered. Lancelot had a tight bandage around his torso, making him look like he was wearing a mummy costume. “He’s okay, then.”
“Had the wind knocked out of him,” Gil said. “I took him to Doc Campbell. He has a cracked rib. He’ll be in some pain for a while, but all in all, he’s pretty lucky.”
“Thanks.” Ozzy held out his hand. “I appreciate it. Jo will, too. She was so worried about him.” He grabbed hold of the dog and hauled him in, gently, so as not to hurt him. The dog had done precisely what he’d hoped he’d do in a situation like tonight’s, what he’d hoped wouldn’t be needed. Lancelot had lived up to his name and protected Jo. If the dog hadn’t been there...
“He’s a hero.” Gil tossed an uneasy look at Leah. “Oh, there’s this, too.” He handed over Jo’s cell phone. “They managed to stop the fire before it spread to the treeline. The losses were minimal.”
“So far,” Leah whispered.
Ozzy focused on the mayor. “Anything else you can tell us?”
“Luke found a metal lighter near where you found Jo. It had teeth marks in it, so Luke thinks whoever set the fire had it in his pocket when Lancelot chomped his...butt.” Gil poured himself a cup of sludge from the coffeepot, examined the cup’s contents, then changed his mind and dumped it. “Luke’s going to run it for prints and I’m hiring a private security company to set up shop until the project’s done, or whoever is responsible is caught.”
“I’m surprised there are funds in the budget to cover all that,” Leah said, then held up a hand. “Not criticizing. Just saying.”
“There aren’t,” Gil told her. He started to say something else, then seemed to reconsider. “I’ll make it work.”
“I don’t understand why anyone would want to stop the sanctuary,” Leah said. “I’ve gone over it in my head a hundred times, and no one wins if it doesn’t get finished. But a whole lot of people lose.”
“That’s one thing we can agree on,” Gil said. “Look, I’m going to head into the office, see if I can get the lab results on the lighter expedited through the system. It’s better than me sitting around here doing nothing. Or worse, annoying you.”
“Appreciate you bringing him by.” Ozzy stood as Lancelot sprawled slowly onto the linoleum. “I’m going to have to
cancel our fishing trip for tomorrow, obviously.”
“We’ll do it another time. You take care of your family, Ozzy.” Gil’s eyes flashed before he ducked his head. “It’s the only thing that matters.”
“Okay,” Leah said when the mayor had left. “Who was that and how did the Pod People replace Gil Hamilton?”
Maybe Ozzy’s advice all those weeks ago had struck a chord. He held up Jo’s phone. “She mentioned her mother in Florida. Should I call her?”
“I can do that. When I have more information.”
She was right, Ozzy thought. Until they knew something for certain, there was no use raising the alarm. Then again, Ozzy couldn’t stop putting himself in another man’s shoes. Another man who didn’t deserve Ozzy’s consideration, but was involved in this whether Ozzy liked it or not. He tapped in Jo’s passcode, earned an impressed arch of brow from Leah.
“How did you know that?”
“It’s the date the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl.” He found himself smiling. “She mentioned it one time as a life-defining event for her grandfather. She’s not as sneaky as she thinks she is.”
“Uh-huh.” Leah stuck her tongue in her cheek.
“Okay, I might have been looking over her shoulder once or twice. But she did it to me first.”
“Hey, Ozzy. Leah.”
Ozzy’s smile faded as he looked up and saw Dr. Miakoda standing in front of them. Ozzy had been the bearer of bad news often enough to recognize the expression that came with the role, and thankfully Dr. Miakoda did not have it. The steel bands that had locked around his chest eased. “She’s okay? The baby, too?”
“She’s better than I expected her to be,” Cheyenne said. “The fetal heartbeat is steady and strong. Jo’s blood pressure isn’t that great, but then it hasn’t been. She has experienced some bleeding, so until that stops, I’m reserving complete optimism.”
“Does she know?” Ozzy asked.
“I told her before we had her sedated. I want her resting for as long as possible until the bleeding stops. We’re moving her into a room on the third floor. If you want, I can get you special visiting privileges so you can be there when she wakes up. Both of you. It’s always good to have friendly faces around.”
Building a Surprise Family Page 20