“What’s the latest?How is Chad?”
“The paramedic who treated him on scene managed to get him breathing again.They’re doing scans on him now to determine the damage, but he’s breathing on his own.”
“What damage?”
“They don’t know how long he went without oxygen to the brain.He was rescued by bystanders, but it wasn’t easy getting him out.”
“Rescued?From where?”
Josh took a shaky breath.“The water.”
Romeo blinked.“What the fuck was he doing inwater?”
“I’ll ...I’ll explain when you get here.How long are you going to be?”
Romeo grimaced.“I’ll be there as quickly as I can.Thank you, Josh.”
He froze at the woman on the bench fifty meters from him.
Ally Coulson.
He knew it was her from the few pictures he’d seen on Chad’s phone.Dark hair with the purplish tint lit up by the lamp she was under, thick purple glasses, and an oversized leather jacket.She cradled a coffee in her hands, and her eyes were unseeing as she stared at the ground.
She was sad, with sunken shoulders and a defeated hunch to her spine.
But it didn’t help.
She’d be sad if Chad was hurt or if he’d been found out to be harboring a killer.
Romeo kept walking, keeping his stride natural as he passed her.
He glanced from person to person outside the hospital, wondering if they were undercover officers ready to pounce.
Was the nurse on her phone outside the door really a nurse?
Or was she cleverly placed there to tempt Romeo close enough to ask her if she knew anything about Chad’s condition?
“Are you in there or are they just trying to draw me out?”
If he went over to her, he could ask, or he could call the hospital, but if it was a trap ...they would’ve thought of that already.
“Fuck,” Romeo hissed through his teeth.“Where the hell are you, Chad?”
He’d let emotion get the better of him and it had led him to St Johns.
But if they had Chad, it was more likely they were holding him at Bardhum Station.That’s where Romeo needed to be, unless he really was hurt.
Unless he really was inside the hospital, in pain, wondering where Romeo was.
Romeo’s head throbbed.
“Water,” Romeo muttered.“Pulled you from the water.What water?”
He shook his head, and checked his phone, praying for a message from Chad.
There was nothing.
He’d never been overly emotional, knew he lacked a few emotions altogether, but Chad had unlocked some in him he’d never thought he had, but this situation, this moment, they were twisting, and warping, and pulling so tight Romeo thought they might break him apart.
