Page 157 of Fierce-Colson

“I’m turning the corner to the school right now.”

“We’ll see you in a minute,” Madeline said.

There was no ambulance there yet. He was lucky he was close enough, but he could hear the sirens coming.

He parked in the emergency zone, leaving room for the ambulance, then ran into the building.

The coach who he’d met last week was holding the door for him. “How bad is it?”

“Just guessing, but I think she broke her ankle or foot. Not sure. She’s in a lot of pain. It was just an accident.”

“I’m sure it was. Where is she?”

He heard the crying, his heart breaking all over again.

These were the tears of a kid in physical pain. Not the emotional kind he’d heard for months while she was locked in her room away from him, not talking, unsure of her next move.

“Colson,” Bella said, sobbing. She was sitting on the floor, her back against the wall, ice on her ankle, but even he could see it wasn’t turned right.

Lots of other girls around, scared, crying, holding each other.

Fuck. What a mess.

He squatted down and got right in front of her face. “Hey. It’s all good. You’ve got one up on me now. I’ve never ridden in an ambulance.”

“No?” Bella asked. “Ever? Not even at work?”

“Not even then.” He grabbed her hand. “Deep breath in and out. The ambulance is pulling up now. Everything is going to be just fine.”

“Can you ride with me?”

“I’m going to follow behind. They will take good care of you.” And he noticed the EMTs coming in made eye contact with him, the way he was holding Bella’s hand, then he moved out of the way.

“I’m Izzy,” the first EMT said. She’d worked a lot of scenes he’d been at. Ones much worse than this. He sure the hell wouldn’t want her job. “Tell us what hurts?”

“My ankle. And my head. Everything now.”

“Colson,” Izzy said, nodding toward his sister.

He knew that sign. Keep her distracted while they looked.

He moved closer again, his body blocking her from seeing her injury. “Whatever it is, you’ll live. And you’ll get to milk it and make crazy demands of me. I know how much you like to boss me around.”

She cracked the barest of grins. “Can you call Marly? Will you tell her?”

“My first call once I know you’re on the way. I promise.”

“We’re going to get you on the gurney,” Izzy said. “Try to do what we say. Don’t fight it, but it might hurt some.”

“You’re tough, Bella. You’ve got it.”

“Is Izzy short for Isabella? That’s my name, but I like Bella better.”

“It is,” Izzy said. “See, we’ve got something in common. We can talk about why you like Bella over Izzy once we get in the ambulance. The ride is fun. We move fast. No one gets in our way.”

“Just like Colson. You’ll be driving fast too, right?”

“Had my lights going to get here,” he said, rubbing her shoulder.