Changing Course (Wrecked and Ruined #1)(9)

"Okay, y'all be careful. Love you, babe."

"I love you too."

We both kissed the girls one last time, clueless to the fact that in less than two hours one of them would be dead, and the other would be lost forever.



WE WERE talking to Mrs. Reynolds when our pagers started going off. I excused myself to the other room, while Caleb continued to take her statement. The words scrolling across the screen marked the end of what I knew to be my life, and would haunt my dreams for years to come.



Single Car accident on I290 near Damen Ave. One fatality and one seriously injured. Silver Honda, 2 women mid 20's. Det's Jones and Sharp required on scene immediately.



"Caleb!" I cry, bolting toward the car as the words one fatality flash behind my eyelids with each blink. I jump into the car dialing Sarah's number, hoping for a miracle. I am desperate to hear her sleepy voice pick up the phone, while she lays tucked safely in our bed. Her voicemail picks up and my heart drops to my stomach.

"Oh shit! This is not happening," I whisper to myself. Taking a deep breath and scrubbing my hands across my face, I try to pull myself together enough to drive.

My head starts to swirl with scenarios that would leave them both completely unharmed. Maybe they just got carried away talking and are still hanging at Westies. Maybe they went to see a movie after dinner. There's a bar just two doors down from the restaurant, maybe they went there. I pick up my phone to call her one more time, praying this time she will answer. In my gut, I know it’s just wishful thinking. One fatality and one injury. I start the car, barely slowing down as Caleb jumps inside.

"It's not them, Brett."

"Did Manda answer her phone?"

"No, but I just know it. It's not them."

"It's them. I can feel it," I say, staring straight ahead and weaving through oncoming traffic.

"Shut the f*ck up, It's not them goddamn it!"

"Silver Honda, two women in their mid-twenties, on the exact route they would take home?" I say with an eerie calm to my voice.

"It's not f*cking them!" Caleb screams at the top of his lungs while punching the dashboard. He then grabs his phone frantically trying to call every patrol cop he has on speed dial. But no one answers his calls.

We drive the rest of the way in silence. One fatality and one injury. A few miles out from the accident, I stop hoping that it isn't them in that car. Instead I do the most horribly selfish thing I will ever do in this lifetime. One fatality and one injury. Looking over at Caleb sitting with his head in his hands, I don't feel one bit of guilt as I start praying it's Manda who is dead.

When Caleb and I arrive at the scene, there are ambulances everywhere. I could see Sarah's car folded in half around a tree. It took everything I had not to throw up at the very sight. I'm not sure how either one of them could survive a wreck that severe.

My car barely slowed before Caleb was out running toward the mangled heap of metal. I wasn't but five steps behind him. Off in the wood line, I could see the sheet covering what I knew to be a body.

"Oh God, please. Please don't let that be her." I chant to myself making my way to the wood line.

As I squeeze between police cars and ambulances, I'm suddenly shoved from the side and fall into an open ambulance. Dave Young, a street cop I knew from the academy and the only man on the force bigger than me, shoves me the rest of the way into the empty ambulance. He quickly shuts the door and yells for the driver to go.

"What the f*ck are you doing?" I say, lunging towards the back of the ambulance, ready to claw my way out if I have to. I look out the window just in time to see Caleb drop to his knees on the side of the road before I feel the ambulance start to speed away.

"You don't need to be there for that, Brett," Dave says as the familiar siren screams into my ears.

"Where's Sarah?"

"She's probably at the hospital by now. Left a few minutes before you got there. She had a heartbeat and was breathing but they couldn't get her to wake up. They worked on her for a while, she's got some pretty deep cuts on her arms and legs. She was thrown from the car. She's banged up, but I heard from Dan that she started mumbling something just before they loaded her up. That's a good sign, Brett."

"Holy f*ck." The relief I feel at his words leaves me light-headed. I lean back trying to catch my swirling head and steady my racing pulse. As the adrenalin leaves my body, my hands and legs begin to shake and tears pool in my eyes.

"Alright man, get it together. We're only a few minutes from your woman, and now would be a shitty time to show her what a * you really are," he tries to joke.

I let out a relieved laugh, forgetting all about the heartbreak that is taking place just a few miles behind us.





Brett

WHEN THE ambulance pulls into the emergency entrance to the hospital, I jump out running, with Dave hot on my heels.

"Slow down, Sharp. You know they aren't going to let you see her yet."

"I just need to know what's going on," I say just as I step up to the desk, pulling out my badge flashing it to the nurse. "Sarah Sharp, she was brought in a few minutes ago after a car accident. Where is she?" I bark, more anxious than angry. I pinch the bridge of my nose impatiently as she starts typing on the computer.