Slow Dance with a Cowboy by Linda Style

Author:Linda Style
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2002-12-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

SIRENS WAILED. Distant, then louder, coming closer and closer.

All black. Everything was black. She was slipping away. Going down. Get up. She had to get up. Pull herself from the blackness.

A blur. Movement around her. Bright lights flashed and voices echoed in her head. Wake up. Got to wake up. Everything a blur. Blinding light.

The white jackets! The faces, always the faces. Like her dreams? No. Not a dream. Oh, God! What was happening? Was she going crazy? Was she trapped like her mother? No, no, no! She had to get out of there.

Scream. She had to scream and fight back. But the sounds went mute in her throat. All she felt was a burning, scalding pain—it hurt too much to scream. Or talk.

And she was cold. So cold. A hand under her head. Something soft. Wetness against her face, over her eyes. The hand. She remembered the big hand, crushing, hard over her mouth, her screams cut off, stifled, like her breath.

Someone had tried to kill her.

Nicole ripped the wet thing from her eyes, forcing herself to focus on the form hovering over her.

“Nicci? It’s me. It’s okay, Nic.”

Risa’s voice. Her face was blurry, but there.

“You’re okay. You’re okay.”

She tried to speak, but all that came out was a croak. “Wh-what’s going on?” She managed a whisper. She raised a hand to her neck where it hurt and tried to raise herself to a sitting position, only to be pushed back down by someone on the opposite side. She turned her head, annoyed at the resistance.

“You’ll have to stay where you are for a bit.” The white-coated man smiled at her. “I’m a paramedic and we need to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine,” she mouthed.

“Shhh.” Risa pressed a finger to Nicole’s lips. “Don’t try to talk now. You can talk later. First we’re going to get you to the hospital with these guys to make sure you’re—”

Risa was interrupted by two burly paramedics who slid Nicole onto a gurney. A police officer appeared from somewhere and announced that he and his partner would follow to get her statement.

Nicole closed her eyes. A statement? What would she say? That when she thought she heard something, she’d dismissed it because she’d been having too many feelings like that lately? Could she tell them she was afraid that when she heard things she wasn’t sure she really did? That she saw shadows everywhere? That she was afraid she was imagining things and would eventually be like her mother?

She tried to swallow, but a needle-sharp stab of pain made it impossible. She touched her throat again.

No, she hadn’t imagined this at all. This was real. Very real. And although it was frightening, she felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

This is real. You didn’t imagine it.

“They won’t let me ride with you, so I’ll follow in the car.” Risa’s voice trailed off as the paramedics lifted the gurney into the ambulance. One by one, the vehicle’s doors slammed shut and in seconds, they were rocketing through the streets, sirens shrieking.

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