Slow Burn: A Colorado High Country Novel

by Pamela Clare

  When would she see him again? When would she see this place?

  If only she could inhale and hold it all inside her, right there close to her heart. There was something peaceful here, something she’d never felt anywhere else. She would visit, of course. She would come back for Christmas. She’d never seen the mountains in the wintertime. Maybe she would even ask Eric to teach her to ski.

  He stood with Austin and the other groomsmen as Austin gave them each a gift bag. Lexi had given her bridesmaids engraved Kate Spade gold bangles. Vic’s said, “Best friends forever,” and had today’s date. She watched to see what Austin had given them, but when Eric took his gift out, she had no idea what it was.

  He laughed, held it up. “Excellent!”

  Obviously, he was pleased with it—whatever it was. Probably climbing gear.

  From the front of the inn came the sound of shouting.

  She hurried toward the front yard to see what was happening—and stared.

  Two young men followed Bear down the sidewalk shoving him, teasing him, trying to grab the cake from his hand, a beat-up SUV with California plates moving slowly along the street beside them.

  She ran as fast as she could in heels, rage making her face hot. “Stop it!”

  “Come on, man! Give it to me!”

  “Just take it from him.”

  Bear turned his body away from them, cradling the cake against his chest. “He who oppresses the poor taunts his Maker.”

  “What are you—some kind of retard?”

  “Leave him alone!” she shouted.

  The men heard her this time and turned to look at her, their gazes raking over her, smiles taking over their faces.

  “Well, hello, there,” said one with bleached white hair and tattoos on his neck and arms. “What’s your name, sugar?”

  She tried to reach Bear, but they wouldn’t let her pass. “Let him be. He hasn’t done anything to you. Go on your way. Bear, find Eric or Austin, okay?”

  The SUV had stopped in the street, two more young men watching, big smiles on their faces as if this were merely entertainment. She knew now that she ought to have gone for help rather than trying to deal with this alone. She didn’t even have her phone.

  Bear stared at her, fear in his eyes, cake still held protectively against his chest.

  “What if we don’t want to go?” said the one with the white hair. “What if I’d rather have you suck my cock?”

  She ignored the taunt. “There are a hundred people at this wedding who care about the man you’re bullying, including law enforcement.”

  “Ooooh! I’m scared.”

  The other one—the man who hadn’t spoken to her—grabbed Bear’s cake away from him and smashed it on the front of his jacket. “Eat that, retard.”

  “Don’t touch him!” She started toward Bear, but the one with the white hair shoved her.

  “Back off, bitch.”

  Victoria stumbled backward, one heel catching on the hem of her dress. She fell back into the street.

  Squealing breaks. An approaching bumper.

  Pain exploded against her skull.

  And then ... nothing.

  Eric saw the bastard shove Victoria, saw her fall backward into the path of an approaching car. His heart gave a sickening thud, fear like ice in his blood. “Vicki!”

  He shouted back to Taylor. “Call EMS! Call Scarlet PD! Now!”

  Please let her be okay!

  His brain couldn’t form any other coherent thought as he ran toward her, his mind taking in only fragments of what was happening on the street.

  A woman jumping out of the car to stare down at the street in front of her vehicle. The bastard who’d pushed her jumping into the SUV. The SUV’s tires squealing as it sped away. Bear standing as if frozen.

  Eric reached the front of the car—and he saw her.

  Victoria lay unconscious on her back, her head mere inches from the car’s tire, the bouquet smashed beneath it, its petals crushed.

  “Jesus, Vicki.” He dropped to a knee beside her, bent over her, pressed his fingers against her carotid, searching for a pulse. “Can you hear me, baby?”

  Years of training kicked in, forcing his panic aside.

  Her airway was clear. She was breathing. Her pulse was rapid and weak.

  She was going into shock.

  “I didn’t hit her,” babbled the woman from the car, clearly terrified. “I’m sure I didn’t hit her. I was already slowing down because those boys were in the way. It’s their fault! One of them pushed her into the street.”

  “I saw, ma’am,” he said. “It wasn’t your fault. Why don’t you come over here and sit on the curb?”

  He didn’t want her having a coronary or going into shock, too.

  In the distance, he heard the wail of sirens.

  He stripped off his tux jacket, laid it over Victoria, then shifted position and opened her eyes, relief surging through him to find her pupils equal, round, and reactive.

  Then Taylor was there. “EMS and the PD are on their way. What the hell happened? Was she hit?”

  “I don’t think so. Some son of a bitch shoved her into the street. She fell backward. I think she hit her head. Did anyone get the plate number?”

  “I … I didn’t even think about that,” said the woman.

  Bear finally spoke. “They tried to take my cake. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work.”

  So they’d tried to take Bear’s cake, and she’d stood up for him.

  “Come here, buddy,” Taylor said to Bear. “Why don’t you sit down?”

  “Is she … dead?” Bear asked in a tiny voice.

  Eric left it to Taylor to help Bear and the woman from the car, their words fading into the background as he focused on assessing Victoria.

  He rubbed a pressure point on her breastbone hard with his knuckles, deliberately trying to cause her pain. “Victoria, can you hear me?”

  She didn’t move, didn’t even moan.

  Damn it.

  Come on, honey.

  “That young man just shoved her, and she fell right in front of me.”

  “Thanks for the information, ma’am,” Taylor’s voice was calm. “The police will want to hear what you saw.”

  “Oh, my God! Did she get hit? What happened?” That was Lexi.

  Eric let Taylor answer her questions.

  There wasn’t even a mile between the firehouse and the inn, but it seemed to take fucking forever for the ambulance to arrive. When it did, Silver was driving, Ryan riding shotgun. They jumped out, grabbed gear out of the back.

  Eric brought them up to date. “I think she hit her head. She’s breathing. Pupils are normal. Pulse is rapid and weak. Ryan, grab a C-collar. Let’s get some fluids going and give her some O2. Then we can—”

  A hand came down on his shoulder, gave him a squeeze.

  He looked up.

  Taylor.

  “Leave this to them, okay? You’ve done your part. Just let them work. You’ve trained them well. They know what they’re doing.”

  “Right.” Eric made room for them, took Victoria’s hand in his, watching while Silver started an IV in each arm. “Victoria, can you hear me? We’re right here. We’re taking good care of you.”

  And then it hit him.

  His hands started to shake.

  Jesus.

  She’d almost been killed.

  Victoria had almost been killed.

  Victoria heard Eric’s voice. She could hear him talking to her. He sounded worried. But no matter how she tried, she couldn’t answer him.

  Eric walked the length of the ER waiting room. They’d taken Victoria back for a CT scan more than an hour ago. What the hell was taking so long?

  She’d started to come around on the ambulance ride to Boulder, opening her eyes and squeezing his hand when he asked her to. Her pupils had remained normal, and fluids had helped stabilize her blood pressure. But she’d been unconscious for so long. Thin
gs like “skull fracture” and “brain bleed” had started running through his mind.

  She’s going to be okay.

  “Hey, Hawke,” Taylor called. “You’re pacing again. Come and sit down.”

  Lexi and Austin sat near the window together, talking quietly, their flight to Hawaii canceled, their honeymoon on hold for the moment. They were still dressed as bride and groom and drew a lot of stares from the people walking in and out.

  Eric walked over to them, sat beside Taylor. “What is taking so long?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she’s waiting in line for the CT machine or something. Or maybe the radiologist—”

  An ambulance pulled into the bay—a Boulder EMS company’s rig—and EMTs pulled out a stretcher. The man with the bleached white hair lay on it.

  “That son of a bitch.” Eric was on his feet.

  Taylor stopped him with a hand to the chest, leaning in close. “The chief of Scarlet FD cannot beat the shit out of a patient in the ER, not even one who deserves it. Besides, it looks like he’s in bad shape.”

  “Fuck. Yeah. Right. Sorry.”

  They had a C-collar on the bastard and had intubated him. His face was pretty banged up, large-bore IVs in his arms, fluids wide open.

  A Forest County sheriff’s car pulled in behind the ambulance, and Julia Marcs climbed out.

  “You stay here with Lexi. I’ll find out what the hell happened.” Taylor turned and walked out the sliding doors.

  He and Julia talked for a moment, then walked inside together.

  “Hey, chief. Hey, Lexi.” Julia glanced at her watch. “You look awfully pretty in that gown, Lexi. Sorry this happened today.”

  “Thanks. We’re sorry, too.”

  “As I was telling Taylor, a description of the SUV the assailants were driving went out over the county channel. About an hour later, I saw them pulling out of the parking lot at the Mine Shaft and turned on my lights. They didn’t stop. The driver drove down the canyon like a maniac and lost control at the intersection of Ninth and Canyon. Rollover MVA. The other three had their seatbelts on and are on their way to the Boulder Hilton, but this guy didn’t and was ejected.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry.” Eric knew cops hated car chases that ended with injuries. “It looks like he’s in bad shape.”

  “Yeah. Now I need to hang around past the end of my watch so I can finish my report. How’s your friend?”

  Eric shrugged. “That’s what we’d like to know. She was only semi-conscious when we got here, but she—”

  A man in green scrubs walked over to him. “Eric Hawke?”

  Eric’s pulse jumped. “That’s me. How is she?”

  The doctor gestured to one of the private rooms. “Why don’t we talk over here where we can have a little more privacy.”

  Shit. Damn it.

  That’s what doctors said when they had bad news.

  He, Taylor, and Lexi followed the doctor into a room with a table and a few chairs. The doctor closed the door behind them.

  “We’re both advanced life-support paramedics,” Eric told him, hoping that would encourage the doctor to get to the point and not talk to them like they were two-year-olds.

  “The good news is that she’s conscious with no neurological deficits that we can see. She knows who she is. She knows where she is. She knows that she was maid of honor at your wedding. She doesn’t remember what happened, which isn’t surprising. That’s very common with concussion.”

  “Oh, thank God!” Lexi looked like she might cry from sheer relief.

  Eric took this in. “So what’s the bad news?”

  “She’s got a skull fracture. It’s a simple linear fracture, and scans show no sign of subdural hematoma or swelling. She’s having some nausea and dizziness, but that’s to be expected. Mostly, she’s got a very bad headache. Because she was out for so long, I’d like to keep her here overnight, keep her under observation, try to get her comfortable.”

  “Thanks so much.” Taylor shook the doctor’s hand.

  But Eric couldn’t stand it any longer. “I want to see her.”

  Chapter 20

  Victoria felt someone stroke her cheek and opened her eyes to find Eric looking down at her. “Eric.”

  “Hey.” The smile on his lips did nothing to hide the crease of worry between his brows. “How do you feel?”

  “My head … hurts a lot.”

  “You’ll be getting another dose of morphine in about twenty minutes.”

  She reached out for his hand. “I’m so glad to see you.”

  He gave her fingers a warm squeeze. “Lexi and Taylor are here, too, remember?”

  “They are?”

  “Hey, Vic.” Lexi appeared beside Eric, still wearing her wedding gown, Austin beside her. “We’re still here.”

  Vic didn’t understand. “Weren’t you supposed to be on a plane?”

  “We canceled our flight,” Austin told her. “We’re going to stick around until we know you’re okay.”

  “But why … how?” It was all so confusing.

  Eric stroked her forehead. “Do you remember why you’re here?”

  Of course, she did. Except that when she tried to recall what had happened, her mind went blank. “No.”

  Eric exchanged a glance with Lexi and Austin. “You got a bad bump on the head and have a concussion and a skull fracture. You’re having some problems with short-term memory, but that’s not unusual.”

  She looked from Eric to Austin and Lexi. “I ruined your wedding, didn’t I? I ruined your honeymoon.”

  “No!” they said together.

  “No, sweetie, you didn’t ruin anything. Don’t think that for a minute.” Lexi reached out to touch her knee.

  “You’re a hero to everyone in Scarlet now,” Austin told her.

  “I … I am?”

  Then Eric told her how she’d run out to the street in front of the inn to protect Bear from some meth-head bullies who were trying to steal his cake and how one of them had shoved her, sending her toppling backward into the street.

  “You hit your head hard, and you were out for at least ten full minutes.”

  It was like hearing a story about someone else. She truly couldn’t remember any of it—defending Bear, arguing with meth-heads, falling into the street.

  “Is Bear okay?”

  “He was pretty shaken up about what happened to you, but he’s going to be all right. Winona got him settled down. Megs helped him clean his jacket. Kendra brought him another piece of cake.”

  “What about the meth-heads? Did anyone catch them?”

  The three exchanged a glance again.

  “Yeah,” Eric said. “They caught them. They’re in jail.”

  “Good.” Then it occurred to her. “How many times have you told me this?”

  “Four. Or five now, I think.”

  “Wow.” She closed her eyes, her head throbbing.

  “Are you in a lot of pain?”

  “Yes.” It was like the worst migraine ever.

  She heard a beep, and then Eric spoke. “Victoria is still in a lot of pain. Can you please call the doctor to ask him to boost the dosage and do something to help her now?”

  “I’ll be right in,” said a woman’s voice through the speaker.

  “I called your father to let him know what had happened,” Lexi said. “I told him you’re going to be okay.”

  Eyes still closed—the light hurt—Vic thanked her. “What did he say?”

  “He wants you to call when you’re up to it.”

  So he wasn’t coming out here. She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised.

  “Your boss called. Eric spoke with her.” There was a note of amusement in Lexi’s voice that brought Vic’s eyes open.

  “Oh, no. What did you tell her?”

  “I told her that I couldn’t tell her anything due to patient privacy laws. Then I whispered that I was the first paramedic on the scene and that you were in the hospital with a skull fracture, and we weren�
�t yet sure how badly injured you were.”

  “Oh, my God.” Vic laughed, then winced at the explosion this caused inside her head, pressing her fingers to her temple. “What did she say?”

  “She wanted to know your hospital room, so I told her. Then she asked when I thought you’d be discharged. I told her I didn’t know because I was just the paramedic and not a doctor. But I told her you probably wouldn’t be able to travel for a week.”

  Vic couldn’t help but laugh again, despite the pain. “You’re terrible.”

  “I just want her to leave you alone so you can rest.”

  She squeezed his hand. “Thanks.”

  The door opened, and a nurse in maroon scrubs breezed in, something in her hand. “Are you in a lot of pain?”

  Vic nodded.

  The nurse injected medication into her IV.

  Vic’s eyes drifted shut, and she floated away.

  Eric helped Victoria into his truck to make certain she didn’t get dizzy and fall. When she was buckled in, he walked around to the back of the vehicle and made a quick call to Megs. He would never ask her to do anything like this under normal circumstances, but he was desperate.

  “Megs here.”

  “Hey, I need your help. Can you and whoever else is around head to my house, climb in through the bathroom window, and clean the place? I haven’t been there much for the past week, and it’s a pit. I’m headed that way with Victoria—”

  “Oh, my gentle Jesus.” She moved the phone away from her mouth, but not far enough that Eric couldn’t hear her. “Hawke wants me to tone out the Team to clean his house for Victoria. He must be in love.”

  He hadn’t asked her to tone out anyone. “There’s a six-pack in it for those who volunteer. I don’t want her to see the place when it’s a wreck.”

  Megs laughed. “You mean you don’t want her to see how you really live. You’ve got it bad for her, don’t you?”

  “You have no idea. Please, will you do it?”

  “Sure. I’ll see who else is willing to help me.”

  “Thanks, Megs. I owe you big time.”

  “I probably owe you a few, too, but who’s counting?”

  “Thanks so much. We’re leaving Boulder now.”

  “How is she?”