“Selena, call an ambulance,” Brooks shouted.
He only prayed they weren’t too late.
* * *
Selena sat at a table near the back of the club, watching Brooks talk to a group of other cops and paramedics. All the customers had left long ago, bailing after the music had been shut down and the lights had come up. Nobody had been interested in partying after seeing a person almost die on the middle of a dance floor. Half a dozen of the club’s employees were quietly moving around, trying to clean up.
Brooks had suggested earlier she and Becca might want to call it a night since he had no idea how long he was going to be stuck there. But Selena had wanted to stay in case there was a chance he got done sooner than he thought, and Becca had been too freaked out to leave on her own.
“A paramedic just called the hospital for me,” Becca said with a sigh as she sank weakly into a chair beside Selena. “She said Scott was conscious and aware when the ambulance brought him in. That’s a good thing, right?”
Selena leaned over and wrapped an arm around her, giving her a hug. “Definitely. Jayden and that other guy got to him in time and kept his heart going. Scott’s going to be okay. But you know, if you headed to the hospital and told them what happened, I bet you could get a nurse to give you some more details.”
Becca nodded. “I know, and I’m going to go. But the paramedic suggested I wait at least an hour so the ER can get him stabilized.”
That made sense.
“I get the feeling Jayden knows the other guy who jumped in to help him do CPR,” Becca said. “They worked together too well to be strangers.”
Selena had been thinking the same thing. Considering the fact that the other guy with the slight British accent was nearly as muscular and sexy as Jayden, she was pretty sure he was SWAT. The odds that two guys that hot—who both knew CPR—happened to be in the club at the same time was pretty slim.
“I think he’s one of Jayden’s coworkers,” she said, watching the British guy casually chatting up the other cops like they all knew each other.
“I wonder what they’re talking about,” Becca said.
“Well, while you were talking to the paramedic, they were asking the manager where he got those energy drinks,” Selena murmured. The guy behind the bar was still squirming at the looks the cops were giving him. “Narcotics officers tested the residue from the cans Scott had been drinking from, and it came back positive for fentanyl. But the manager claims he had no clue there were drugs in those cans, and he doesn’t know where they came from, either. Some salesman showed up about a week ago and offered them a dozen cases at a good price, promising people would like it. The guy was right, too. The manager told the cops people had been begging for it. He’d been hoping the salesman would come back with more.”
Becca stared at her open-mouthed. “I’m not sure what’s more shocking, that a club like this one would buy drinks from some salesman they didn’t know, or that you were eavesdropping on the cops.”
“I was just sitting here minding my own business, waiting for Jayden to finish up.” Selena did her best to look both hurt and innocent. “It’s not my fault they were talking so loud.”
Becca gave her a dubious look. “Right. And I’m sure it had nothing to do with you leaning in a little closer so you could hear.”
Actually, it hadn’t. Selena had been able to hear them fine from where she was sitting. She still could if she focused on what they were saying. But she didn’t bother to point that out to her friend.
“Okay, if your hearing is so great, what are they saying now?” Becca asked.
Selena frowned. Becca really did have bad hearing. “The guy to the left of Jayden—I think he’s from narcotics—is saying all the fentanyl on the street must be going into this energy drink. The older guy on the far right is named Ray. He’s from the gang unit and insists the salesman is actually a front man for a local gang.”
Beside her, Becca looked impressed. “You seriously just heard all that? You’re not making this up?”
Selena looked at the group of cops standing twenty feet from her and Becca, slowly coming to the realization that maybe it was a little weird she could make out what they were saying from so far away. From the concerned way Becca was regarding at her, it was obvious her friend had seen that thought flit across her mind.
“Are you okay?” Becca asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” Selena answered. Suddenly, she didn’t want to talk about her hearing anymore. “How about you? You’re the one whose date OD’d right in front of her.”
Becca shuddered as if reliving the memory of Scott collapsing to the floor. Selena reached out and tugged her friend into another hug, knowing it was a moment neither of them would ever forget.
“Seeing that happen to Scott was horrible,” Becca murmured against her shoulder. “But you want to know the worst part?”
Selena pulled back enough to see Becca’s face. “What?”
“Right before you and Jayden came back over to the table and we all went to dance, I’d been thinking the date hadn’t really been going very well and how I wasn’t sure if I’d want to see him again.”
Yeah, thinking about dumping your blind date only to have him practically die five minutes later was bad. Guilt trip times ten.
“He was really nice,” Becca said, like she had to explain herself. “And cute. But I don’t think I’ve ever met a man so shy. He had to chug alcohol just to talk to me, and I swear he didn’t look me in the eye the whole night. I couldn’t even get him to stare at my boobs, and trust me, I was giving him every opportunity.”
