Clouds of dark smoke, combined with floating ash, made the air hard to breathe. Tanya coughed repeatedly, her throat dry and raw. She could barely distinguish the white uniforms of the paramedics. She stayed close beside Kevin's stretcher, but she was pushed aside as they lifted Kevin into the air ambulance.
"No! No, I want to stay with him. Take me too." A paroxysm of coughing wracked her chest. She couldn't speak above the racket of helicopter blades, motors, and raging fire. She bent and slid beneath the paramedic who was about to close the chopper door. "I must go with him," she said and jumped into the helicopter to squat close to the gurney.
Another accident, Tanya thought. Why? Why was the world angry with me? She watched the paramedics attend to Kevin, checking his IV line, adjusting the leads on the EKG.
I've done nothing wrong, she though. Why did Kevin have to be injured, maybe die? She glanced up at the monitors attached to Kevin. The signals were intermittent, at times disappearing entirely. Tears ran down her face unchecked.
Half an hour later, Kevin was rushed to the operating room of Saint Gilbert General Hospital. The automatic doors closed behind the stretcher, nearly brushing Tanya's face. She stood there, incapable of moving.
"How is he?" Malcolm asked when he joined her a short while later.
"He didn't move. He just lay there," Tanya said, her voice distant. "His hand was heavy, so very heavy, like the one…" Her voice cracked and she broke into tears. "He's dead, Malcolm. My wonderful Kevin is dead." The tears washed down her face and dripped from the end of her nose. "I bring bad luck. It's all my fault. First my roommate, then my love. I think I've lost him."
"You can't say that yet. Give the doctors time. They can do miracles, nowadays." Malcolm pulled her close to his chest and held her. "Let's go to the waiting room." He gently maneuvered Tanya into a long, empty hall. The dim lights and cheap upholstered chairs gave the room a somber tone.
"I don't understand," Tanya said in a little girl's voice. "I don't understand what's happening around me."
"I was afraid an accident was bound to happen," Malcolm said. "There was a leak of information at the police station. As soon as we became responsible for your safety, it became our leak at the Invicta. Recently, that leak became a killer. Mr. Joseph Halliday is the last link in a chain of people hired to kill you. He'd have done the job at Kevin's apartment or at Judith's place if he failed at the cottage."