Beautiful Broken Promises(35)
“You’re lucky. It’s all still intact.” I looked down at his face and nearly gasped at the image below. My breasts had been directly in front of Lane’s face, and he’d made no attempt to look anywhere else. “Seriously, Lane?” I pushed his good shoulder and stepped down, trying hard not to trail my fingers down him as I went.
He laughed and shook his head while shrugging his shoulders. “I’m a guy. It’s my only excuse.” He continued to laugh. “It was all just… right there!”
“Perv,” I scolded him, but my laugh told him I really wasn’t that mad. “Time to wake the kids up.”
I walked toward the connecting room, but my sudden descent and quick movements had left me a little light-headed. I continued walking until I was in the next room so I could grab a hold of the dresser and control the spinning in my head without Lane’s concerned glare. Once my vision cleared and the room stopped whirling, I sighed in relief and began packing up our bag to head out.
LANE -
We caught a cab outside of the hotel. Braden and Raegan climbed into the backseat first, and I realized there wasn’t enough room for all four of us to sit side-by-side. I scooted in next and pulled Kate onto my lap. It’s never pleasant to have to ride shotgun with the cabbie, so I was glad that I had found a way to get us all back there.
The ride should have only taken us fifteen minutes, but with traffic coming off the bridge it took a good thirty before I saw the dingy police station. I didn’t really mind the drive. Along the way I began pointing out different places to Kate. Even Braden joined in and asked a few quiet questions. Kate was bouncing in my lap, telling me how much she loved riding in cars and airplanes. It took that moment for me to realize she probably hadn’t been in either before these past few days.
Another reason why I didn’t mind the extended stay in the yellow cab—Raegan fell asleep on me. Almost two minutes into the ride, she began to scoot down in her seat. Her head fell lazily onto my shoulder, and I decided I didn’t mind the feeling of her using me to catch some rest.
She was really going to need a decent amount of time to catch up on sleep. She tried to be tough and I knew she was, but I always caught her eyelids fluttering in exhaustion or her head drooping with her immense fatigue.
Last night after my shower, I scanned the labels on her prescription bottles. Even though it had been insanely late, I texted Charlie and asked him to look into what she could be taking those for. I knew the cut on her forehead wasn’t pretty; I had seen it twice already. But I didn’t understand why she required so many different types of drugs. Surely, they were the main culprit in her weariness and those crazy dizzy spells. Should she really be up and about this much? My guess was she probably didn’t know what taking it easy was though, so I’d have to step in and show her.
We pulled up to the curb of the precinct, and I swiped my card quickly through the cab’s card reader. Kate opened the door and slid down onto the concrete. I softly jostled Raegan next to me and felt her sluggishly move, but she didn’t bring her head up.
“Hey, Rae, we’re here,” I delicately crooned. I felt bad for waking her, but I really couldn’t let her continue to sleep in a cab. My insistent hands shook her a little more. She moaned and mumbled what sounded like, “I’m coming,” but I couldn’t be sure because she didn’t look like she was going anywhere.
Panic started to hit me when I realized something wasn’t right here. This wasn’t just normal fatigue. I thought back to our conversation last night when she told me about her heart and her blood pressure.
Quickly, I reached toward her neck and felt for a pulse point. I knew the one in that spot would be stronger than anything I would find in her wrist. I also knew I wouldn’t be able to tell what her blood pressure was, but I just felt the need to know her heart was still pumping.
Lutheran Medical Center would typically only be a five-minute drive, but I didn’t know how long it would take in this afternoon traffic.
“Raegan, I’m gonna take you to the hospital, okay?” I told her. Her head bobbed up and down before she finally raised it to look at me.
“No. No more hospitals.” Her words were tired, but she seemed to be pulling herself together—clawing her way through the fog was more like it. “I just forgot… to take my medicine. Just... grab my bag,” she said, fading slightly.
I cursed and scooped her up into my arms while trying to slide out of the cab. The driver gave me an exasperated expression. No doubt he was wondering when we planned on vacating his vehicle. Asshole. Kate grabbed ahold of the backpack, and with all of her might she hoisted it up onto her tiny back. Holding Raegan in my arms, I reached back into the cab and seized my bag from the floorboard. Good thing I had ditched that sling again.