I carefully dislodged her hips from where they held her pinned, and then worked her shoulders out one by one. I was slow, exceptionally careful not to jar anything that could break her spine. If it wasn’t already broken. Shut the fuck up. There was never a complaint from the crew that held up the heavy locker system.
Freeing the last inch of her shoulder, she dropped the twelve inches to me, landing heavily on my chest. “She’s free!” Slowly I lifted my hands to test her pulse.
Steady. Strong. Thank you, God.
Her nose lay in the hollow of my throat, her forehead resting under my chin. I felt every breath she released, and kept rhythm with my own breathing, like I could do the work for her. Slowly the lockers moved until all I saw above me was blue sky.
The storm was already gone.
“Is she okay?” Avery asked, lying next to me.
“Don’t move. There are paramedics ready to take you, but don’t move in case you injured your back or your neck.”
“Is she okay?” she repeated.
“I don’t know. Did she wake up at all while you were under there?” Please.
“No.”
My eyes squeezed shut against the panic that crept up my spine, infecting every nerve with the need to fight, to do something. Anything.
The paramedics came for Sam first, laying the backboard on top of her and then maneuvering the straps between our bodies until she was tight. They kept asking if I was okay. Was I hurt? Was I uncomfortable?
What did any of it matter?
She wasn’t awake.
She was warm but lifeless. Nothing would wake her, nothing would bring her back. I pushed her long blonde hair out of her eyes and prayed. We’d made it out of the car, the water, but this I couldn’t pull her out of. I was powerless.
Fuck. Sam wasn’t Grace. I couldn’t compare the two, but that was all my brain wanted to do.
I followed the paramedics out, passing Maggie, who was being held back by a first responder. “Avery’s okay,” I told her.
They lifted Sam into the ambulance, and I climbed in with her. “Sir…”
“Where she goes, I go.”
I stared him down until he nodded his head and let me in.
“I heard somewhere that this helps with the nausea,” Jagger said as he handed me a ginger ale and sank into the empty waiting room chair next to me.
“Yeah, and what asshole told you that?” I took it and popped the top. The taste put me back in another hospital. Another waiting room where I’d sat alone, waiting for news. Waiting for them to release Owen from the small line of fucking stitches he’d needed, to give me news on Grace.
“This guy who’d lived through a hell of a lot more than I had and somehow came out the other side.” He leaned back against the waiting room chair. “I called Ember. She’s on a flight with Sam’s mom. Josh is headed to Montgomery to pick them up.”
“Good. That’s good.” I braced my elbows on my knees and leaned over, trying to force air into my lungs.
“You need to get your hands checked out.”
“Yeah.” At some point. Right now? Not high on my priority list.
I fucking hated hospitals, and yet here I was again. This time was a little different. The waiting room at Southeast Medical Center was full. All the hospitals were, with Enterprise out of commission. The wounded poured in, and the families did all they could…waited.
The other waiting room in Nags Head had been nearly empty except for the family who told me I wasn’t to blame, but the looks they’d given me sure as hell said differently. Especially Parker, once she’d shown up, hissing at me that I should have taken his keys, should have never let him drive.
Yeah, the waiting room was different, but everything else felt very much the same, right down to the unparalleled fear rushing through my veins.
I should have been with Sam. I never should have let Grace sit on my lap, no matter how harmless it seemed at the time, never let her kiss me. I should have told Sam sooner, made her see how much I loved her. If she’d known, she wouldn’t have moved in with Morgan. She would have been with me.
She wouldn’t have ended up under a pile of rubble.
“She’s going to be okay, Grayson. I’ve never met anyone with as much grit as Sam. She’s a fighter, she’ll be okay.”