Page 134 of Hell Hath No Fury
Emma eyed it. “When you feel up to it, you and I are going shopping.”
Nell smiled. “That would be fun.” She waved goodbye to Matthias and crutched toward the crosswalk leading from the lot to the rehab’s entrance, Emma and Eric flanking her. She stopped at the edge of the access road.
“What’s wrong?” Emma panicked, hoping her sister wasn’t having a change of heart.
“Nothing.” Nell pivoted to look at them, her expression grave. “I’m serious, though. I love you both, but I need to do this on my own.”
“We know that,” Emma said. “We’re only walking you in. We’re not moving in with you.”
“Please, Em. I want to do this myself.”
Emma remembered a note Nell had left for her when she and Zeke had run off. She’d wanted to deal with her situation in her own way then, too. Much as she always had when they were kids.
“You’ve always been a stubborn brat,” Eric said with a strong dose of snark.
Emma snorted. “I was thinking the same thing, but I wasn’t going to actually say it.”
Nell stuck her tongue out at them. “You call it stubborn. I call it independent.”
“Tomatoes, tomahtoes.” Emma shook her head. “Fine. We’ll wait here to make sure you don’t fall off your crutches or anything.”
“I can accept that. But no more pictures of me going in. Save them for when I leave this place for good.”
Emma rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
Nell took one hopping step and threw her arms around them in a group hug. “I love you guys.”
A lump rose in Emma’s throat as she choked out, “I love you, too.”
Eric’s equally weepy response got lost in Nell’s hair.
She released them with a smile, turned, and started across the access road.
Eric draped an arm around Emma’s shoulders. “Our little one is leaving the nest.”
As Emma watched her sister make her way along the crosswalk, she became aware of the nearby roar of an engine growing louder. Emma caught movement from the corner of her eye. A dark car was blasting up the access road. She registered the speed and the fact that the vehicle was careening toward her sister.
Emma screamed Nell’s name. Saw her turn and freeze. Emma launched into the crosswalk, intent on shoving Nell out of the way.
But not fast enough.
The thud was deafening. The impact flung Nell into the air before she slammed to the ground. Emma caught a glimpse of her sister’s wide, terrified eyes before she disappeared beneath the car. Thethump thumpof tires bumping over Nell, the driver never touching the brakes.
Screams around her sounded like they were filtered through water. Emma raced to the body in the road. To Nell’s broken and bloody body. One crutch was shattered into pieces; the other lay six or more feet away. Emma slammed to her knees at Nell’s side, only vaguely aware of Eric next to her. She barely registered the crash of metal on metal in the distance, her full attention on the stunned expression on Nell’s face. The once sparkling blue eyes now wide and staring. A pink froth bubbled from her lips. Blood soaked through Nell’s shirt. So much blood. Emma touched Nell’s cheek, still warm. Pressed fingers to her neck.
“Do something!” Eric shouted. At Emma. At the people rushing up to them.
“Give us room,” a stranger said as he knelt next to Nell.
Emma couldn’t breathe. The world whirled around her. She looked up at the newcomer. Took note of his scrubs; of the stethoscope he whipped from around his neck and used to listen to Nell’s chest.
“We’ve got an ambulance on its way,” the man said. “Please step back and give us room to work.”
Another man in scrubs appeared from the gathering crowd. Both of them huddled over Nell and started CPR.
* * *
From his Jeep, Matthias didn’t have time to react to Cassie’s report that the car used to run Emma and Nell off the road had been discovered abandoned and torched near the Pennsylvania border. That another car, an older black Ford Focus, had been reported stolen from near the same location.
