older female EMT appeared. Eden anticipated the freedom, reveled in it as the paramedic examined the chains twisted around Eden’s wrists. Smiling, Eden lifted her chin and looked at Cole.
“Hi there, handsome.”
Eden enjoyed the surprise in his dark green eyes. She’d always thought him good-looking, although not in the fairy-tale-prince sense. His angular features, slightly pointed nose, his wide-set eyes and the faded scar that ran from his right ear to his temple evoked images of his Celtic warrior ancestry. The idea was only enhanced by his perfectly honed body—one that had allowed him to lift her off the freezer floor as if she weighed no more than a sack of potatoes.
A sack of potatoes. Eden giggled. She was a bag of veggies.
“Get this around her.” A voice she didn’t recognize came from above her. She focused on a second EMT holding out a thermal blanket.
“Haven’t seen you before,” Eden murmured to the young male EMT. “You new?”
“She’s probably got hypothermia,” the first EMT told Cole.
“You think?” Eden said and then gritted her teeth as the chains were pried off her raw, bloodied skin. “Son of a—”
“Ah. There you are.” Cole’s chuckle sounded strained, and, sure enough, when Eden met his gaze, she loathed the concern she saw reflected in his eyes. “We’ve got to take you to the hospital, Eden. Get you checked out.”
Eden set her jaw. “I’ll be fine. Please take me home.” A long hot shower, a gallon of coffee, and she’d be on the other side of frozen in no time.
“These wounds need treating.”
Eden concentrated on the female EMT and tried her best to appear steady. “I don’t like hospitals.”
“I bet you’d like dying less. Hypothermia can mess with your heart. You’re going to be checked out and probably kept for observation.” The woman gave Cole a stern look. “I can bring a gurney over.”
New panic overtook the fear she’d experienced in the freezer. “No, Cole. Please.” She knew she had no right to ask him to help her again, but she didn’t have to explain—not to him. He’d understand she wasn’t up to facing another of her demons tonight.
Loyalty to her and obligation to his job battled behind the tension reflected in his gaze. “Compromise. No ambulance, but you let me take you to the hospital.”
Eden parted her lips, planning to negotiate, but his eyes narrowed.
“Take it or leave it,” he said.
Heart pounding, she realized she was too tired to fight him. Eden nodded.
“As long as you accept responsibility for her,” the EMT told him.
“I did that a long time ago.”
Eden hid her smirk, but kept her mouth shut.
Once the EMTs were gone, Cole fixed the blanket around her. “Fair warning, Eden. As of right now, things have changed. And believe me, you’re not going to like it.” He lifted her in his arms and strode over to his car. “Not one little bit.”
“Hey, Delaney!”
Cole turned, but continued walking backward as a patrolman called out.
“This is your case! You’re primary!”
“Secure the scene,” Cole hollered over to him. “McTavish is in charge until I get back here.” Cole stumbled. Eden locked her hands around his neck as he righted himself. He might be mad as all get-out at her, but he wouldn’t let her fall. He never had. “You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah.” The shivering had subsided, and while there wasn’t a part of her that didn’t ache or burn, she welcomed every pinprick of pain. “I’ll be fine.”
Cole nodded to the patrol officer who yanked open the door to Cole’s SUV. It was only after Cole secured her seat belt and closed the passenger door that Eden realized she’d forgotten to ask him one very important question.
How had he ever found her?
Big-city emergency rooms in the early morning hours on a Saturday were chaos personified. Add in a three-car pileup on the I-5, a collapsed back porch thanks to an overabundance of drunk partygoers, and the mass-testosterone-induced excitement of a road-trip bachelor party gone wrong, and Cole was looking at chaos in the rearview mirror.
“Detective Delaney, it would be better if you waited outside, please,” the duty nurse said as she switched on monitors and ordered her staff about.
“I’m staying out of the way.” Wedged in the corner by the door, he couldn’t be more out of the way if he was in the next room. Cole kept his gaze pinned to Eden’s. She was holding it together, but only barely. He was well acquainted with her aversion to hospitals and the medical profession in general. She’d be shaky under normal circumstances.
These circumstances were anything but normal. “I’m right here, Eden, okay?”
She nodded, once, sharp, and flinched as the nurse inserted an IV into her arm. That Eden pressed her lips into a tight white line told him she was either repressing a scream or debating verbally abusing her caregivers. He was tempted to advise the nurse to tie Eden’s hands down, but he didn’t want to borrow trouble. As long as he stayed in sight, as long as she knew someone who cared about her was here, she’d be okay.
His entire body itched to answer his cell. It had been buzzing on and off since he’d left the scene, but one glare from the nurse had him pocketing the device and riding out the endless minutes it took for them to evaluate and stabilize Eden’s core temperature.
As much as he wanted to be at the crime scene, his place was here, with Eden. He’d vowed to her older brother, Cole’s best friend, that he’d protect her. It had been eight years ago that Logan had left for—and never returned from—Afghanistan. Little did Cole know that oath would morph into a second job.
If there had ever been a time Eden St. Claire hadn’t pushed the boundaries of good judgment, Cole couldn’t remember it. Act first, worry later was her mantra.
But, he reminded himself, Jack McTavish was solid. Cole’s partner would keep the crime scene clear and their superiors at bay. And when he couldn’t, Cole would get a 222 text message.
Obviously it was past time to give Eden an emergency code. If for no other reason than to preserve Cole’s sanity.
Guilt then stabbed at his gut. Cole should have known something was wrong when Eden missed their weekly confab at Monroe’s Coffeehouse. Or he might have, if they hadn’t had that rip-roaring argument last week when he’d told her she was being reckless with her reporting. Instead of worrying when she didn’t show, he’d assumed she was trying to teach him a lesson and had ditched him. She’d done it in the past when she’d gotten too caught up in one of her stories.
His frustration boiled over. That crazy blog of hers had gotten out of control. Eden on Ice.
