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steel
hitting steel hurt Riley’s teeth. “Geez, I hate that.”
    Lisa Beth had put her hand to her mouth. “Me,
too,” she shouted over the generator noise.
    When the cut was complete, Decarlo handed
down the giant scissor-like tool, then ripped back the roof.
Without help.
    “Hell, Rocky’s good,” Lisa Beth said.
    “They don’t call him the Rock for
nothing.”
    Since the backseat was so small, the Quint
guys had literally taken the car from around the people inside so
the victims were accessible.
    “Go on in,” Tony told the two of them.
    Lisa Beth took point and climbed into the
backseat of the car. The teenagers there appeared unconscious. When
Ramirez told them to get two backboards, Riley hadn’t realized
three people occupied the vehicle.
    Which meant the kid in the front seat was
dead. Lisa Beth realized that at the same time and froze. Then she
said, “Jesus,” and turned to her charge.
    Riley tried to ignore the body of a dead
teenager in the front as he worked. In sync, he and Lisa Beth put
collars on the two breathing boys and, with the help of the others,
slid them onto the two backboards. As four of the crew carried the
kids across the pavement, Tony gave them another order. “Every
emergency vehicle in town was sent to the lake, so the Midi will
take the victims to the hospital. You two go there, then come back
to the house.” Luckily, the new Midi was equipped to transport
victims.
    “I’ll ride with the guy,” Lisa Beth said. “No
offense Riley, but I’m a paramedic.”
    “Wouldn’t think to question you,” he said.
Jane loved that he wasn’t a chauvinist. “I’m down with
driving.”
    The trip to Memorial was short because the
scene of the accident was close to the hospital. Riley tried not to
think about the white face of the dead teen and the terrible stink
of death as he stopped the Midi, bolted out and headed around back.
He opened the doors, helped Lisa Beth get out one of the gurneys
and set it up on the pavement, then they repeated the process. They
wheeled the victims through the glass doors of the ER. A nurse and
doctor met them inside.
    Lisa Beth said, “BP, 90 over 70 on this one.
Could be internal injuries.”
    “BP 150 over 80,” Riley told them. “And I
think the kid’s arm is broken.”
    “We’ll take it from here,” the doc said.
“Thanks.”
    As they whisked the victims into ER, Riley
watched, deflated by the adrenaline spike waning. “I take it that
isn’t the guy you hate.”
    “No.” She turned and her gaze caught on the
nurse’s station. “Shit, there he is.”
    Riley tracked her gaze to a doctor with
longish hair, his arm braced against a wall, talking to someone.
His smile was warm, affectionate. “He doesn’t seem like a
monster.”
    “Looks can be deceiving.” Lisa Beth moved a
few feet farther down in the entryway. “Damn it. Um…Rye, come here
and see who he’s talking to.”
    Riley joined her. The woman leaning against
the wall, staring up at the doctor, laughing, was Jane.
    Lisa Beth grabbed his arm. “God, tell her not
flirt with that guy, even for fun.”
    Flirt? Jane was flirting with another
guy?
    “Rye, did you hear me?”
    “Yeah.”
    “He’s my ex and he’s a real player.”
    A sudden urge to protect Jane, combined with
the images of her crossing him at every turn, rushed through Riley.
Then he saw the vision of that young kid, sprawled over the
steering wheel in the front seat. Finally, the face of his father
obscured all the images in his head.
    “The hell with this,” he barked and stalked
toward his fiancé.
    Who was flirting with another man.
    oOo
    ONE MINUTE JANE was having a nice
conversation with Linc Roberts, a new ER doc, and the next, she was
yanked backward.
    “What the fuck do you think you’re
doing?”
    She turned around. “Riley, what…what are you doing?” He still gripped her arm. “And let go. You’re
hurting me.”
    Linc moved in closer. “You heard the lady.
Let go.”
    “Fuck off,”