To Forgive & Hold Safe (The Broken Men Chronicles - #4)(SAMPLE ONLY)

Chapter 2

© Carey Decevito, 2016

Chapter 2

I'm not sure why I went home.  I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep, due in part to the adrenaline coursing through my veins, but mostly because of the memory of those piercing irises filled with such fright, that had stared back at me on that treacherous stretch of road.

Hannah.

I paced the main hallway to my home.

Why did I feel so guilty?

You promised her.

I paused mid-step and ran my hands over my face letting out a loud sigh.  I may have never uttered the oath but when I said that I wasn't going to leave her, it had been just that—a promise.  I had given her my word which was the same in my book.

So why wasn't I there with her?

With rough hands, I undid my tie, chucking it on the back of the leather sling-back chair in my study before I proceeded to unbutton the collar to my shirt.  I allowed my butt to collapse to the seat behind me.

The longer I sat there, the more I grew apprehensive.

What if she didn't remember who I was or what I had said when she woke?

What if she did?

I didn't know anything about Hannah but her first name and those eyes...those pleading eyes that seared my soul.  So helpless, so desperate...so familiar.

It wasn't the first time that I found myself at the scene of an accident but something I couldn't quite pin-point made the events of the night shake me to my core.

"I don't even know her full name," I said to the walls surrounding me.

I felt defeated, at a crossroads of sorts.  I couldn't stay home, but could I go to the hospital and be by her side?

You've got to be losing your ever-loving mind.

Despite my internal attempt at talking myself down, I got up, grabbed my keys and slammed the front door to lock it.

I jumped in my car for a destination I wasn't quite sure I belonged at.

Maybe I could just show up and ask around.  Surely one of the responders would still be around.

I lost count of how many times I circled the parking lot when I got there.  When I found my resolve, I put my car in park, turned its engine off and sat there, staring out the windshield.

When I saw the paramedic I'd spoken to earlier walk out of the ambulance bay door, I made a mad dash toward him, hitting the key fob to activate my car's alarm from across the lot.

"Hey, Craig!"

The man turned to face me.  His face was grim and I felt my heart sink into the pit of my stomach.  My feet came to a dead halt a few feet from him.

"Is...is she..." I couldn't finish but what surprised me was the tremendous relief I felt when Craig shook his head.

"No," he said.  "She's alive but we ran into complications on the way.  She went into full arrest.  I honestly have no clue how the guys managed to get her back but they did."

As if once wasn't enough, Hannah had crashed a second time upon their arrival and was brought straight to the OR.

"She looked in rough shape, but..." I ran my hand through my jelled brown hair and down my face, releasing a loud sigh.

"You okay?" he asked.  "You look all bent out of shape."

I'm sure I did.  "It's nothing.  Long day."

"Listen," his eyes still assessing me, "I've got to get this rig back to the garage, clean and restock it.  I'll catch you later?"

"Yeah, man," I said, blew out a puff of air and then something came to me.  "Craig?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you manage to get her whole name?" I asked.  "I mean..."

His brows drew together and then his face softened as he gave me a small nod.  "Parsons."

"Thanks."

Craig paused before getting into the ambulance and gave me another once over.  "Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine," I said and waved my hand as if to brush it all off.  I wasn't really but he didn't need to know the turmoil I felt inside so I chased my words with a quirk of my upper lip, hoping it was enough so Craig would move on.

It worked.