Captive Hearts by Vincent Valentean

Author:Vincent Valentean [Valentean, Vincent]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

19

The beeping of hospital machinery was all that was keeping Connor’s mind alert and awake. He sat in a chair in Elora’s room, looking down at her sleeping face as a tube in her throat breathed for her.

She was alive, thankfully, and in stable condition. The old man’s shot had taken a decent chunk out of her side, but it had missed her vital organs and passed harmlessly through her, thankfully. Still, she had lost a lot of blood and needed oxygen. They’d intubated her shortly after her arrival. Connor had ridden with Elora in the ambulance. That was where she’d lost consciousness, and Connor had feared the worst. He’d screamed at the EMTs to do something, anything they could to help her. And they had done their job spectacularly.

Connor had also needed to be patched up. His ribs were fractured and wrapped in bandages and tape, and he’d undergone several X-rays to determine if he’d suffered any internal injuries as a result of Jacob’s vicious assault.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that he was dragging a car door around with him, Jacob had eluded capture. Connor had no idea how he’d managed, but Jacob likely knew every square inch of that maze-like junkyard and had several contingencies in place for such an event.

He’d called Martha to apologize for being away for so long and thank her for letting Grace stay over. He asked her to assure his daughter that he was all right and just needed to finish up some more work before coming home.

Of course, when Grace inevitably saw him, she was going to be alarmed. Connor’s face was splotched with bruises and lined with butterfly bandages that were holding several lacerations on his face closed. He looked as though he had been in a car wreck and wasn’t looking forward to having to explain the dangers of his job to his daughter. Not after what she’d already been through.

“Lieutenant Heart,” the all-too-familiar voice of Captain Anderson said from the doorway into the room.

“Captain,” Connor said, not looking up from Elora’s face to greet his superior officer.

“The doctors tell me she’s gonna be fine,” Anderson said, and Connor grimly nodded.

They had told him as much, so this wasn’t late-breaking news to him. But he still felt an avalanche of guilt at her condition. He’d been the one to run off half-cocked while she’d done the right thing and called for backup. He’d coerced her into breaking departmental regulations and violating the law to enter that property illegally. And now, because of his carelessness, she was lying here in this bed, unable to speak or sit up.

If she had died, who would have been there for her father? Would he simply wither and die? Or be kicked out of his nursing home? Connor couldn’t even fathom all the horrific what-ifs attached to this situation. The fact that Elora was still breathing and that the missing children had been recovered was a twin set of miracles that Connor believed may have just used up every last ounce of luck he had left in his life.

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