Читать книгу Fractured Memory - Jordyn Redwood - Страница 12

THREE

Eli parked his car behind the two agents who watched Julia overnight. His heartbeat picked up slightly. There was no denying he was anxious to see her again. He was excited to tell her the hit package had revealed a set of fingerprints they were hoping to get a match on. Thus far, the parolee remained elusive.

Exiting the car, Eli approached the other agents’ vehicle. A navy blue, older-model Ford Granada—in fact, the first type of car he drove as a teenager.

He used his knuckles to tap on the window. Will Sullivan and Jace Bastian looked his direction. Will sat in the passenger’s seat with the laptop of the security feed from Julia’s town house. Jace took the opportunity to exit the vehicle and stretch his legs. As he opened the door, two large McDonald’s coffee cups tumbled onto the broken pavement.

“How’d the night go?” Eli asked.

Jace pushed his hands toward the sky, a groan escaping his lip. “Nothing exciting to report. She read, she slept. Still sleeping.”

Eli glanced at his watch. It was almost nine. Julia said she was an early riser. Perhaps the stress of yesterday had taken its toll. It was a plausible explanation.

“Last contact?” Eli asked.

“By phone around nine o’clock last night. She was asleep an hour later,” Jace said.

“What about Ben?”

Will looked down at his laptop. “He’s not visible on any of the camera views.”

Intuition fired through Eli’s mind. “Call Julia,” he ordered.

“But she’s sleeping,” Will said from inside the car.

“I don’t care. Call her. Get her up.”

Eli rounded the car, opened the door and ripped the laptop from Will’s hands. Jace had the phone up to his ear. Eli could hear the phone ringing through the miniature speakers.

Julia didn’t move.

Will shrugged. “Maybe she’s a heavy sleeper. I’m telling you—Nothing. Happened.”

“That’s the problem.” Eli circled his finger in the air. “Call her again.”

Jace rolled his eyes and with dramatic flair dialed Julia again. Eli would address the tone of those movements when he wasn’t scared something had happened to Julia. This time, she did stir. Eli exhaled. On the feed, he could see her grope for the phone on the bedside table.

Her movements were stilted...clumsy.

Taking the laptop with him, Eli grabbed the phone from Jace in the moment Julia answered the phone. “Julia?”

Breathing. No words.

“Julia—are you okay?”

Was he overreacting? Perhaps she was a heavy sleeper and he’d hastened her from bed the one morning in a long time she was sleeping in. Stress. Being hunted by a killer could definitely sap a person’s strength.

“Hurts...”

He looked back at the laptop feed. She was sitting up rubbing her hand against her forehead. No, not the right words. She was barely able to hold herself upright. Her body would drift to the side and she would jolt herself back into a sitting position.

“Are you sick?” Eli asked.

She slumped backward on the pillows. “Bad headache.”

He pulled the phone from his ear and set it against his chest. “Will, was she drinking last night?”

“Tea—”

“I mean liquor.”

Will laughed out loud. “Julia doesn’t strike me as one who imbibes.”

On the screen, Julia’s arm dangled off the bed and she dropped the phone. Eli shoved the laptop and Jace’s phone at Will. “Call 911.”

“And tell them what?”

“Give them the address. Tell them it’s a medical emergency.”

Eli’s feet pounded the pavement with Jace’s footfalls close behind him. Trees rushed by as he pumped his hands faster to get his legs to pick up speed. Nothing looked disturbed from the distance as he rounded the corner and nearly pummeled the door as he dropped his speed. He jabbed the key code into the lock.

It didn’t release.

He tried again.

Nothing.

“It’s Monday. The lock’s code has changed,” Jace said with his hands on his knees as he huffed from the short sprint.

“Get it.” Eli seethed.

Jace patted his pockets and held his hands up empty. His phone was in Will’s possession. Eli reached for his and keyed in his code and handed it over to Jace and then began to pound on the door. “Julia!”

“I got it. I’m sure she’s fine.” Jace entered the code.

The door released, and Eli almost tripped over Ben’s body crumpled at the base of the staircase. He kneeled down and placed his hand in the middle of Ben’s back. “Ben! Can you hear me?” Ben groaned in response and tried to lift his hand up, but it immediately flopped back down. “Jace, carry him outside for the medics.”

Eli raced up the staircase and straight into Julia’s bedroom.

She remained in the same position he’d last seen her in on the computer screen. Eli sat next to her on the bed and grabbed her shoulder. “Julia. Julia!”

Julia shook like a rag doll under his touch. He licked his finger and placed it under her nose. A faint wisp of breath crossed his finger. He pinched the muscle between her neck and shoulder as hard as he could—a trick from his police days to see if an unconscious person could be roused.

Nothing.

Glancing around the room, nothing seemed out of place. A cup of clear liquid was the only other thing on the table next to her bed. He took a quick sip. Definitely water. No pill bottles.

Will came through the doorway. “What’s going on?”

“Did Jace get Ben outside?”

“Yes, but he’s not waking up. What’s wrong with them?”

“I don’t know.” Eli lifted Julia’s limp body. She was a deadweight in his arms. His throat tightened. Immediately, his mind raced back to the moment he’d cut the rope from around her neck, catching her lifeless body as she fell into his arms. Her skin...so cold and pale. How his breath seized in his chest that he’d been too late to save her.

Just as it did now.

Lord, you cannot do this to me again.

He carried her to the couch, where EMS would have more room to work.

Eli teased her eyelids open and examined her pupils. They seemed normal size—not the dark black holes of the dead or drugged. Julia still didn’t move. The subtle rise and fall of her chest the only evidence of life.

At least this time she was still breathing.

There was something off about her appearance. For bed, she’d dressed in light black cotton pants and a pink T-shirt. He traced his fingers over the scars on her neck and felt her pulse. Something in his mind begged him to remember. Her lips. It was the color. He brushed his thumb over them, spurring his memory into action.

His job was to observe. To catalog every detail to determine if something was amiss. After she’d packed and dressed yesterday, she wore little makeup. Her lips had not looked this red.

Unnaturally red. Cherry red.

He brushed his thumb against her lips again. Definitely not lipstick.

Voices called out as he heard heavy boots racing up the stairs. Two paramedics in their firehouse bunker pants and suspenders eased him back.

“What happened?” one asked. Eli took in the name on the badge. Russell.

“She complained of a severe headache, seemed unsteady and then passed out. I can’t get her to wake up.”

Another firefighter surveyed the living room.

“Is someone helping my partner, Ben? He’s unconscious outside.”

“Yes, another team is with him. What’s her name?” Russell asked.

“Julia Galloway.”

“Age?”

“Twenty-nine.”

“And you are?”

“Eli Cayne.”

“Relationship?”

What could he say? Protector?

Eli indicated himself and Will. “We’re U.S. Marshals.”

That raised Russell’s eyebrows. He turned away from Eli and focused on Julia. His partner snaked his hands under her T-shirt and attached heart monitoring leads to her chest, a blood pressure cuff to her arm and a lit probe on her finger. Next came some oxygen delivered through small tubes in her nose.

Russell placed a fisted hand in the center of her chest and rubbed it against her sternum. “Julia? Julia! Can you hear me?” He took a penlight from his pocket and shone it into her pupils. “Equal and reactive to light,” Russell noted. A firefighter helped the paramedics by documenting Russell’s findings.

Russell’s partner called out, “Vital signs are normal. I’m going to start an IV.”

Russell turned back to Eli. “Do you know anything about why she wouldn’t be responding to us? Did she fall and hit her head? Did she take any drugs or alcohol that you know of? Is she a diabetic?”

“No, no, and I don’t know.”

Russell turned to his partner. “Let’s get a blood sugar. After that, let’s try a dose of Narcan.”

“What is that?” Eli asked.

“Narcan is a medication that reverses narcotic drugs if people overdose on them. The blood sugar will tell us if she’s diabetic.”

At that moment, a piercing shriek filled the small townhome. Everyone startled and Eli reached for his weapon.

Julia didn’t flinch.

“What is that?” Eli yelled.

A firefighter bent over and pulled the contraption out of the plug. The alarm ceased. “Just as I thought. It’s the home’s carbon monoxide detector. Found it on the floor. There are toxic levels in this place.”

Russell snapped his fingers in the air. “Everyone...go, go, go! Let’s get her outside.”

Eli reached under and scooped his arms under Julia’s and lifted her up. Russell grabbed her legs. It surprised Eli how quickly Russell could go down the stairs backward with a body in tow, but he was likely used to doing it every day.

“Straight to the rig, guys,” Russell instructed, and they raced Julia to the back of the open ambulance door.

A second ambulance screeched to a halt in the street just behind the two fire trucks.

“Hey,” Russell yelled to his cohorts. “Get that guy loaded fast and on one hundred percent oxygen. There’s a carbon monoxide leak somewhere in that place.”

One of the firefighters held a thumbs-up sign and began to scoop up Ben’s lifeless body.

Eli and Russell clamored up the two steps at the back of the ambulance and plopped Julia down on the narrow gurney.

“Are you coming?” Russell asked Eli.

“Yes.” Eli saw Will and Jace hovering by the front door of the townhome. “Jace! Meet me at...”

“Sage Medical Center,” Russell said.

Jace nodded, and Russell yanked the doors closed and pounded on the roof. After that, he busied himself removing the oxygen prongs from Julia’s nose and placing her on an oxygen mask. Eli heard the rush of air as Russell cranked the oxygen to its maximum flow rate.

Eli sat on the bench opposite the gurney and grabbed Julia’s lifeless hand. “Is this all from the carbon monoxide?”

“Likely. It explains why both of them fell ill.”

Eli shook his head as scrambled thoughts scurried through his mind. “What does that do to a person?”

Russell placed a blue tourniquet around Julia’s forearm. “Carbon monoxide is a toxic, colorless, scentless gas. It replaces oxygen on your red blood cells and starves the body of oxygen. That’s why she complained of a headache. Your brain gets very cranky when it doesn’t have enough oxygen.”

“Why didn’t we get sick?” Eli motioned his hand between himself and Russell.

“It takes time for that process to happen—about fifteen minutes minimum if the levels are high. Once you open a door, the gas will start to vent out. We didn’t have enough of an exposure to be symptomatic.”

“Can you treat it?”

Russell withdrew the needle from its plastic sheath and then shoved it into the back of Julia’s hand. Drops of her blood hit the floor of the ambulance before Russell could connect the IV solution. Her life spilled out in front of Eli. Was he at fault? Could he have prevented this from happening?

Russell pointed to the mask. “The oxygen. If it’s really bad, the doctor may place her in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.”

“Will she be all right?” Eli asked.

“If we got to her in time, she’ll be fine. I just don’t know if we’re in that window.”

For the first time in a long while, Eli bent his head and prayed to a God he’d distanced himself from.

Lord, keep Julia safe. Heal her body.

I need her in this life with me.

* * *

Under the muffled sound of sirens, Julia’s eyelids fluttered open. Her head...pounded, the surge of blood like freight trains rushing through a cross stop. She tried to pull her hand to her forehead to put counterpressure against the pain, but something snagged her hand.

Warm fingers swallowed her hand up. “Julia.”

Eli’s voice. Strong. Concerned. She inhaled a calming breath. Everything would be okay if he was with her. Why did she feel so terrible? Her body ached worse than when she contracted the flu. With her other hand, she groped her face and felt the mask covering her mouth and nose. The oxygen cooled her face. When she tried to pulled it off, another hand pushed it away.

“Leave it on, Julia.” Eli again. “You’re in the back of an ambulance.”

Blinking several times, she tried to clear her blurred vision. She tried to sit up, only to be stopped by the strap around her chest. She was covered by a rough, well-used cotton blanket.

Julia shook her head to try and clear her thoughts. “What happened?”

Eli gripped her hand tighter. “They think it was carbon monoxide poisoning.”

At first, it didn’t mean anything to her. Even her medical mind couldn’t process the information. Everything was so jumbled. Fuzzy.

Then a stranger’s voice. “My name’s Russell. I’m a paramedic. Glad to see that you’re waking up.”

Her eyes finally focused. Eli’s blue eyes softened. A faint smile came to his lips. Her heart ticked up a notch.

“How did it happen?” Julia asked.

“What?” Eli said.

“Julia, are you allergic to anything?” Russell asked.

She shook her head. “Accident or on purpose?”

Confusion clouded Eli’s face. How could she make him understand what she really wanted to know? Had this been an attempt on her life?

Russell interrupted before Eli could respond. “Do you have any chronic illnesses? Do you take any medications?”

Julia shook her head again. “Did they try to—”

Russell’s head loomed into her field of vision. “Julia, I think it’s best if you rest. Your confusion is normal. Once we get the poison out of your system, you’ll start to feel a lot better.” He patted her shoulder and sat back down.

“Kill me?”

Eli gripped her hand in both of his and bent his head, resting his forehead against her fingers. Her heart sank as tears fell down her face, collecting in her ear wells.

He didn’t know. He couldn’t answer her. But his posture spoke of defeat. Eli was strong. Smart. Maybe even the kind of man she dreamed might someday take an interest in her. He was trained to prevent crime—to pick up on circumstances that were suspicious. She could tell he felt responsible for what had happened.

When he looked up, his blue eyes held hers. Fierce. Determined. “I don’t know if this was deliberate yet, but I’m going to find out.”

If Eli Cayne couldn’t keep her safe...could anyone?