Be With Me(11)

“I’l arrange for the statement to be issued outside the hospital,” he said. “Surely you can manage that much, Regina. We can’t let it get out that our police department is ineffective. It would compromise the community’s faith in the department’s ability to keep them safe. Al you’l have to do is stand there and smile. I’l do al the talking.”

She clenched her teeth and trembled in rage.

Sawyer’s hand smoothed up and down her arm, and his other hand rested on her thigh. He gave her a comforting squeeze. Then he leaned over and kissed the side of her head.

Her father’s neck was mottled with anger. He made a show of checking his watch. “I’l be out front waiting. The doctor said you’d be discharged within the hour.”

He turned and stalked out of the room, the door closing with a bang behind him.

“Pompous, self-important windbag,” Hutch said through clenched teeth. “I swear to God, one of these days I’m going to lay his ass out.”

“Reggie, honey, are you okay?” Sawyer’s concerned voice sounded in her ear.

“I’m fine,” she said quietly.

She looked at each of them, saw the sympathy and the anger in their expressions. And guilt. They knew that the three of them were a serious bone of contention between her and her father.

“What I need to know is who’s going to pul the truck around back so I can avoid the bul shit out front?”

Cam grinned. “Leave that to me, Reggie darling.

Hutch and Sawyer can hustle you to the ER entrance, and I’l be waiting there.”

Chapter 5

The nurse, bless her heart, had Regina discharged in half an hour. While she listened to the nurse rattle off her spiel about aftercare instructions, Hutch bent down and slipped Regina’s shoes on her feet. A few seconds later, a second nurse appeared at the door with a wheelchair.

“For God’s sake,” Regina muttered. “I don’t need a wheelchair.”

The nurse folded a sheaf of papers and handed them to Sawyer. “Hospital policy,” she said with a smile.

“Come on,” Hutch said as he helped her get up. “It won’t be so bad. It’l be quicker anyway.” There was that. Regina had no guilt whatsoever about having Hutch or Sawyer break into a run with the wheelchair if they were spotted by her father.

Press conference, my ass.

Elections were right around the corner, and Peter Fal on would use any means necessary to thrust himself into the spotlight. Positively, of course.

It probably suited him wel to have a poor, pitiful daughter injured in the line of duty so he could take his tough-on-crime message to the public. She was only surprised he hadn’t dragged her mother along to play up the concerned maternal angle.

But that would require Lydia to cancel her massage or hair appointment or whatever the hel it was she did every day.

“You need to relax, baby,” Hutch murmured as he settled her into the wheelchair.

She glanced down at her hands bal ed into fists in her lap. Hutch reached down and gently uncurled her fingers and laced them with his while Sawyer listened to the last of the nurse’s instructions.

Sawyer turned around as the nurse exited the room. “You ready?”

Regina nodded. She was ready to have this day over with. Ready to be done giving her statement.

Ready to be at home in her own bed, where she could sleep for about twelve hours.

Sawyer wheeled her around, but Hutch kept hold of one of her hands as he walked beside the wheelchair.

“I wonder if you could pop a wheelie in one of these things,” Sawyer mused.

Regina grinned. If she didn’t ache so bad, she’d tel him to go for it.

They hustled her down the corridor, and then Sawyer pulled up short when they reached the end.

“Look left, Hutch. Make sure the coast is clear.” Hutch ambled forward and glanced left, then right toward the emergency room.

“Al clear.”

“Then let’s move,” Sawyer said as he pushed her into motion again.

He jogged behind the chair as he rol ed her through the ER lobby and to the automatic doors where the ambulances unloaded.

Cam was waiting in the Tahoe.

Without waiting for her to get up, Hutch simply reached down, plucked her up and deposited her into the backseat after Sawyer opened the door.

Sawyer climbed into the front, and Hutch hurried around to the other side. As Hutch slid in, Cam took off.

Hutch reached over and secured Regina’s seat belt, careful not to catch the tender part of her ribs.

Regina grinned. Their getaway reminded her of old times. Sneaking out during high school, jumping into Cam’s beat-up Camaro and hauling ass down dirt country roads.

When Cam pulled up to the police station a few minutes later, Jeremy was standing in the parking lot

—if you could cal a three-space piece of pavement a parking lot—waiting for them.

Cam got out and Sawyer hopped out to open the door for Regina.

Regina looked over at Hutch as he walked around to her side. “Can I borrow your jacket?” He glanced down her body then simply reached into the back and pulled out the worn leather jacket.

He slipped it over her shoulders, and she gingerly put her arms into the sleeves. She felt a ton better.

Not as exposed or vulnerable as she faced walking into the station.