Hooked

them. Linc pushed away the pieces.
    “Hurry up,” Bill said. “This place is about to come down.”
    Tawny breathed out a sob. “Walsh. Is that you?”
    “Yeah, it’s me, and Bill here. We’re gonna get you out.”
    She tried to move her arms. “God, I’m so sore, I can’t move anything. How long have I been like this?”
    “Too damn long,” he muttered. “Can you stand?”
    She tried to get up and would have collapsed if Linc hadn’t grabbed her. “I can’t. My whole body’s numb.”
    “I’ll carry you.”
    “You sure you can?” Bill asked.
    “Yeah.”
    “Linc?”
    “Yeah?”
    “You saved me.”
    “We’re not out of here yet.” As he uttered the last word, a loud creak sounded from above.
    “Watch out,” Bill yelled. “The beam is falling.”
    Linc hadn’t yet picked her up, and he didn’t have time to get her out of the way, so he did the only thing he could think of. He covered her with his body. The beam came down on top of them, along with chunks of plaster and dust. But all he felt was the weight of the heavens descend on his head. He thought he heard her scream his name, a split second before the lights went out.

Chapter Forty-Five
    Going Home

    T awny sat in the hospital waiting room, numb and dazed. She’d cleaned up, but her dress was still covered with cement dust. The nurse gave her booties for her bare feet. Her shoulder felt like a wedge had been hammered into her joint, and the rest of her body protested in pain. An emergency room doctor declared nothing broken. A bad bruise, he said, and it’d take awhile to heal. He washed her cut face and feet with antiseptic and placed a couple of strips of suture tape in lieu of stitches. Her body was a roadmap of bruises from the tight cords, but all that would pass with time.
    What wouldn’t pass was what Walsh had done to save her life. She’d be dead if he hadn’t covered her with his body, and he might be dead for doing it. He’d taken the full brunt of the beam on the back of his head and right shoulder. A CT scan confirmed cranial bleeding, and he was already in surgery. After they got that under control, they’d perform surgery on his shoulder. They couldn’t be sure how bad it was until they got inside. If he lived. The thought that saving her might cause his death brought tears to her eyes.
    A guy came over and introduced himself as Linc’s partner, Dennis Hyde, and another, an FBI agent named Jim Clauson, did the same. Both men acted concerned, but she was too disoriented to respond with anything more than wan smiles and tentative nods to words she couldn’t process. Dennis told her Linc was tough, and he’d make it. She figured he was trying to make her feel better, and although she appreciated his effort, she felt just as bad after he spoke to her as before. Other detectives from Linc’s unit came and went. Most offered smiles she barely acknowledged.
    Harry stood alone on the other side of the waiting room. She acknowledged him, but he wouldn’t look at her and didn’t speak to anyone except Clauson and the doctor. She knew how close he and Walsh were, but she didn’t understand his aloofness. Maybe he thought if it weren’t for her, Walsh wouldn’t be fighting to stay alive. Well, if he didn’t want to talk to her, that was okay. She didn’t feel like talking anyway.
    She didn’t know how long she sat there. Days perhaps, but she knew it wasn’t. More like five or six hours because she drifted in and out of sleep due to the medication the doctor forced on her. She was stunned to learn it was already the next morning when she woke. She’d been in the hospital almost twenty-four hours.
    She looked up. Harry handed her a cup of coffee. It had sugar but tasted good.
    “Thanks,” she said. “Any news?”
    “The surgery was successful. He’ll live, but he’ll be in the hospital and out of commission for a while. Shoulder’s bad. He’ll need reconstruction. He’s sedated now. No need to hang around.”
    “Can I see him?”
    “Better not,” Harry said. “I think you’ve done enough.” He turned away to reclaim his seat on the other side of the waiting room.
    Tawny’s heart almost stopped at his words. Before her eyes filled with tears, she put the coffee down and headed for the door. On the way out, she ran into Dennis Hyde.
    “You been home yet?” he asked.
    Tawny shook her head. “I’m going now.”
    “You mean you’ve been here all this time? No food, no sleep?”
    “Plenty of