Relief and fear and guilt caught in the back of Cal’s throat. He’d thought, for a few minutes, that he mightnever see Joe again, or that if he did, it would be in a box. There was probably something he could say that would cover that, explain it, but it was beyond Cal. Once they reached a safe distance, he dragged Joe into a rough, desperate hug and breathed in the smell of him mixed with smoke and old oil.
“You scared the fuck out of me,” he rasped in Joe’s ear. “You asshole. Don’t bloody do thatagain.”
Joe laughed. There was more wobble to the sound than usual. “I have no intention of doing this again. Once was enough.” He leaned against Cal and cradled his arm to his chest. Blood had soaked through the rough bandage he’d made of his sleeve and dripped slowly from his fingertips. “She cut me. I think I need a doctor.”
“The ambulance is on the way,” Cal promised. He stroked Joe’s hairback from his forehead, twisted his fingers in the soft, dark curls, and pressed a kiss to his scarred temple. “You’ll be okay.”
Joe nodded and relaxed carefully into Cal. He closed his eyes, clutched his forearm tightly, and rested his head against Cal’s shoulder as they waited to hear the siren of the ambulance. When they finally did, Joe lifted his head and glanced over at the crumbled Rosie.
“Don’t tell them what she did?” he said. “Say it was an accident.”
“Why?” Cal protested. “She tried to kill you.”
“I know,” Joe said as the ambulance pulled in and the paramedics spilled out. “But she’s my sister, and I think I’ve taken enough from her, even if I didn’t mean to.”
The paramedics pulled Joe away, his arm up and bundles of gauze pulled out of packets before Cal could promise oneway or the other. In the end, when the policeman asked what happened, he shrugged and lied about wildlife in the road. He’d passed enough furry corpses on his drive up from Reading to expect that to be believable.
Rosie wasn’t his sister, but the sight of her huddled in the grass made him think she might actually have lost enough.
Although, if anything happened to Joe, he thought grimly as hewatched the ambulance pull away, he’d have to rethink that.
