“I just want to grow old with you, Josie,” said Noah.
She shook her head, feeling tears now sting the backs of her eyes. Although she’d grown better at crying—as if it were a skill to be honed—in the months since her grandmother’s murder, she still hated doing it. She certainly didn’t want to do it at an active investigation scene.
“Just consider the risk next time, would you?”
“Okay,” she said. But she wondered what would feel worse—having tried to rescue Amber and failed, or having never tried at all? Either way the outcome was the same. Or maybe it wasn’t. Was she deluding herself, thinking there was even the slimmest possibility that Amber had survived? Avoided the rocks? Pulled herself to shore?
A rap on the window made them both jump. Noah pressed the button on his side, lowering it. Gretchen poked her head into the car. “I want both of you in the nearest ambulance. Fraley, I’m sure you’re fine but the boss got a lot wetter for a lot longer. She definitely needs to be checked out.”
“What about Amber?” Josie asked.
Gretchen looked away for a moment, turning her face upward to the wintry night sky. She wiped at her eyes before looking back at Josie, but still her voice cracked when she spoke. “The marine unit is going to be out tonight searching. For now, they’re calling it a rescue mission. But if they don’t find her on one of the islands or along the bank before the morning, then it becomes a recovery mission. In that case, once daylight arrives, we’ll see if we can get more resources on it.”
Beside her, Josie felt Noah’s hand slip into hers. Amber wasn’t a police officer, but she was one of them. They’d worked with her on a daily basis for over a year. She’d become part of their team, and she’d been a good fit in spite of how much resistance they’d shown her when she first started.
“Mett?” Noah said.
Gretchen sucked in another breath, trying to compose herself. “Chief’s going to handle him.” She tugged the door open. “Let’s go. Ambulance. Now.”
Josie’s legs were stiff and achy as she moved toward the open doors of one of the ambulances. Noah walked behind her, his hand warm on her lower back. “Shit,” he said when they reached the cab.
Josie looked inside and saw Sawyer Hayes, dressed in his Denton City EMT uniform and readying his supplies.
Noah said, “We can go to the other ambulance.”
“No,” she said. “This is ridiculous. He’s the one who isn’t speaking to me. You go get our emergency bag out of your trunk. There should be a change of clothes for each of us.”
He made a noise in his throat but then she felt him disappear and heard his footsteps over the gravel heading back to the car. She climbed into the cabin and stood on the other side of the gurney from Sawyer. If he was surprised or disappointed to see her, he didn’t show it. He patted the gurney, indicating for her to sit down. Without looking at her, he said, “The Great Josie Quinn,” but his voice was soft and without malice. Still, it made her wince. The last time he’d called her that, his tone had been dripping with bitterness and rage. Before she could respond, he said, “You’ll need to get out of those clothes.”
“What? I—”
“Josie, you’ll freeze in those. I promise, I won’t look. At least down to your undergarments. I’ve got blankets.”
He turned away from her, rummaging in one of the many compartments along the wall until he came up with a gray fleece blanket. Keeping his back to her, he held it out. She took it and began stripping down to her bra and panties.
“Just drop your clothes and shoes on the floor,” he said. “I’ll put them in a bag.”
Once she was mostly naked, she laid on the gurney and covered her body with the blanket. “Can I have another one for over my shoulders?” she asked him.
He found another blanket and turned toward her, wrapping it carefully around her shoulders, making sure no skin was exposed except her neck and face. Josie studied him. His penetrating blue eyes. The shock of black hair falling across his forehead. He looked so much like Eli Matson, it never failed to throw her. The woman who kidnapped Josie as an infant had brought her to Denton and passed her off as Eli Matson’s daughter. Eli had been a wonderful, caring, devoted father. Then he died, leaving Josie in the hands of a woman whose cruelty knew no end. Eli’s mother, Lisette, had fought hard to get custody of Josie, eventually winning and transforming Josie’s hellish life into something wonderful.
“Did you get the photo album?” Josie asked him.
“I did,” he said softly, still not meeting her eyes. He found a thermometer and tucked it beneath her tongue, waiting until it beeped.
What none of them knew was that before Josie came into Eli’s life, he’d had a brief relationship with Sawyer’s mother, who then got pregnant with Sawyer. However, she kept his father’s identity from him his entire life, only telling him when she was on her deathbed. She had never even told Eli.
“You’re welcome,” Josie bristled.
Sawyer chuckled. “I’m happy to have it. It’s a connection to Lisette.”
Once his mother died, Sawyer discovered that his only living relative on his biological father’s side was Lisette, his grandmother. He had gone to her, asked her to take a DNA test, which she readily agreed to do. They’d grown close in a short span, making up for lost time. Then Lisette had been murdered, and Sawyer blamed Josie.
He asked for an arm next, taking her blood pressure and then checking her pulse and oxygen saturation.
“Why am I not at all surprised that you jumped in the river?” he muttered.
“I didn’t, actually,” Josie said. “I mean, not technically. I was on the wall, trying to pull Amber out of the water. She—”
“She got swept away,” Sawyer filled in. “Gretchen briefed everyone. For what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
Josie pulled her arm back inside the warmth of the blankets. Sawyer turned away again, tapping at his onboard computer and then looking for something else among the equipment. He came back with a pile of hot packs. One by one, he shook them to activate the heat.
“Did you know her?” Josie asked. “Amber?”
“I didn’t know her well. I knew her to say hello. Saw her around. Why was she in the river in the first place?”
“I don’t know,” Josie said. “Mett hadn’t heard from her for a couple of days. He got concerned, went to her house. Something we found there led us to believe she might be here.”
Sawyer stopped, brow kinked, a frown on his face. “You think she tried to hurt herself?”
“No,” Josie said. “I think she was meeting someone here or someone brought her here against her will.”