Clandestine Christmas. Elle James

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СКАЧАТЬ by the impact, the figure landed hard on the concrete and rolled to a stop against the front of a brick hardware store.

      The SUV bumped back onto the pavement and sped away, disappearing out the other end of town.

      Heart rampaging inside her chest, Kate skidded to a halt, grabbed her cell phone and jumped down from her truck.

      Dialing 9-1-1, she ran toward the two people on the ground, reliving a nightmare she’d hoped never to experience again.

      A dispatcher answered on the first ring.

      “We have a hit-and-run on Main Street in front of the Lucky Lady Saloon. Two people down, send an ambulance ASAP!” Kate barked into the phone. Without waiting for a response, she shoved the phone into her pocket and bent to check the first person she came to in the middle of the street.

      A ruggedly handsome young man pushed to a sitting position. “Don’t waste your time on me, for God’s sake, check Sadie,” he said, his voice raspy.

      Altering her direction, she pushed on, leaping up onto the sidewalk.

      An older woman, possibly in her forties, wearing a long faux-fur coat, lay tragically still at an odd angle against the side of a building.

      Kate dropped to her knees, swallowing hard on the lump lodged in her throat, her eyes blurring. The last time she’d hurried toward a body, it had been her partner’s.

      For a moment, she froze, paralyzed by her memories. She’d thought the nightmares would have stopped by now. But she was awake and she was seeing Mac’s face, his eyes open, his expression slack in death.

      Kate closed her eyes for a second and forced herself back to the present and the woman lying in front of her. When she opened her eyes, she reached out and touched her fingers to the base of the victim’s throat. For a long moment, she felt nothing, and her heart sank into the pit of her damaged belly.

      Then a slight pulse bumped against her fingertips and a hand reached up to grasp her wrist.

      Kate flinched and would have pulled back, but the woman’s eyes opened and she stared up at her. “Jake.”

      The man who’d been hit stumbled to his hands and knees and crawled to Kate’s side. “Sadie?” He knelt beside her and took her other hand. “I’m sorry. I should have seen that coming.”

      Sadie gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. “Not...your...fault.” Her fingers tightened on Kate’s hand. “Jake.”

      “He’ll be okay,” the stranger stroked the older woman’s hand. “I’ll make sure he’s safe while you’re getting better.”

      Sadie shook her head, closing her eyes. “Take care of Jake. He needs a family...to love him.” The last words came out in a rush on nothing but air. Kate had to lean down to hear. The words made a sob rise up in her throat, which she choked back, determined to be strong.

      Sirens sounded in the distance.

      Kate felt again for the pulse in the woman’s throat, praying for even the slightest tap against her fingertips. “Sadie, hang in there. The ambulance is on its way.”

      The woman’s grip on her wrist slackened and her hand fell to the hard, cold concrete.

      “Damn it!” Kate eased the woman flat on her back and ripped open the fur coat. Trying to remember all the times she’d trained on CPR, she laced her fingers together, and pressed the heel of her palm against Sadie’s chest, chanting in her head with each compression.

       You will live. You will live.

      The man kneeling beside her checked Sadie’s pulse and shook his head. “Let me take over.”

      “No,” Kate snarled, continuing the compressions as the blaring sirens grew closer.

      A sheriff’s SUV arrived first, the deputy leaping out of the driver’s seat. “What happened?” he said as he dropped to the ground beside Kate.

      Kate jerked her head to the injured man. “You tell him.” She continued applying compressions, refusing to give up. She’d be damned if someone else died on her shift. Not on her first day on the job.

      The next vehicle to arrive was the ambulance.

      A sliver of relief washed over Kate, but she wouldn’t give up on the compressions until the EMTs were out of the vehicle, with their equipment and ready to take over.

      “We’ve got it,” a uniformed man bagged Sadie and another nudged her arm.

      Kate couldn’t stop, afraid that if she did, Sadie wouldn’t live.

      “Ma’am, you need to let us take over.” The EMT took her hands and forcibly removed them from Sadie.

      More hands locked on her shoulders and dragged her to her feet. “Let them do their jobs,” a man said near her ear, his breath warm on her chilled cheek.

      Kate stood on wobbly legs. Her back ached and her arms felt like limp noodles. She couldn’t take her focus off Sadie, afraid that if she did, the woman would die.

      The man who’d been hit by the SUV, slipped an arm around her waist. “Lean against me. The medical techs will take good care of Sadie.”

      “I have a pulse,” said the EMT forcing air into Sadie’s lungs.

      “Thank God.” The one providing the chest compressions eased off. “Let’s get her loaded into the ambulance.”

      They eased Sadie onto a backboard, braced her neck and got her onto a gurney.

      The man Kate had been leaning on left her side to follow the procession to the ambulance.

      Kate wrapped her arms around her middle, for the first time since she’d leaped out of her truck aware of the biting cold and her lack of a warm jacket. She shivered, but didn’t make a move toward her truck, her attention glued to the woman being carried away.

      As the EMTs approached the open end of the ambulance, the woman gasped, sucking in a deep breath. “Chase!”

      “I’m here, Sadie.” Her companion ran to her side and clasped her hand.

      Opening her eyes for only a moment, Sadie said, “Where’s Jake?”

      “At the ranch. Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him,” the man named Chase said. “You concentrate on getting better. Jake loves his grandma.”

      Kate stood to the side, her focus on the woman, heart hurting for her, and the grandson that stood a good chance of losing his grandmother.

      When the doors closed on the ambulance, the sheriff’s deputy touched Chase’s arm. “You should ride with her to the emergency room and have the doctors check you over, too.”

      “I can’t.” The man shook off the deputy’s concern. “I have to get back to the ranch.”

      “Do you want someone to drive you there?” the EMT asked.

      “No. СКАЧАТЬ