“Do I sound like I’m laughing?”
“Jesus Christ!” He rushed back down the stairs and yarded open the door of the truck and got in behind the wheel. “How is she?”
“Not good. She’s awake though and is asking for you. We can’t wait for you. She’s got some bad injuries and is heading to surgery.”
“I’ll be there in less than five minutes.” He hung up.
Lance felt a wave of panic as he pulled up to the front entrance and ran through the double doors. Jacob was waiting for him. “What happened?”
“She was hit outside her apartment. Her neighbor found her on the sidewalk. She called us.” He walked his brother down the hall to the waiting room.
“How bad is she?”
“The surgeon will know. She’s got some internal bleeding and quite the bump on her head. We have to have the worst luck when it comes to our wives.”
“Yes, I remember.” Tessa was hit by a delivery truck when she was in New York.
“Tessa was in worse shape than Tammy is Lance. I know that’s not much of a relief.”
He put a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “It’s enough to get me through the night.”
At that moment Jacob was paged overhead. “I’ve got to go. My shift ends at two. I’m covering for a friend.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“I called Colt after I hung up from you. He’s on his way.”
“Thanks Jake.” Lance sat in one of the chairs and worried his hand through his hair. Then he leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees and ducked his head.
Colt found him like that forty-five minutes later. “Hey bro. I got you coffee. Strong as shit and thick as tar.”
Lance sat up. “Thanks.”
“How are you holding up.” He handed his brother the Styrofoam cup.
“I’m going to say good because I haven’t had someone come tell me she’s dead.” He sighed emotionally and looked at the ceiling. “Fuck Colt, I can’t go through this again.”
“She’s going to make it.” Colton knew he was talking about his friend Riley and his family that were murdered five years ago.
Lance nodded.
A half an hour after that Jacob showed up smiling.
Lance stood. “She’s good?”
“Yes. The surgeon said a few cracked ribs, and a ruptured spleen. He removed the spleen and said she’d recover a hundred percent. She’s really tough.” He laughed. “She’s out, but in recovery. They’ll let you see her in about an hour, but she’s going to be fine. Duncan needs to speak to her first. I told her you were here. She’s fuzzy, but coming around.”
“Thank God.” He grinned at Colt, who patted him hard on the shoulder.
Tammy was doing her best to tell Duncan, the chief of police, what she could remember. All she knew is she was hit by a car, and was able to jump out of the way enough not to get killed. The surgeon told her he’d removed her spleen and the pain in her chest was from a couple of cracked ribs on her left side. She was very relieved. People can live without a spleen, but not other vital organs.
The front fender clipped her middle when she jumped out of the way. She flew into the sidewalk banging her head, which now hurt like a damn. According to Duncan there were tire marks on the sidewalk, so this was deliberate. She would have never thought that someone was capable of that in this town.
“Car color?”
“Sorry Duncan. It was dark and the headlights were on. I didn’t see anything.” Her voice was groggy. She was doing her best to remember, but her body started to hurt.
“You’re lucky Tammy. It could have been worse.”
