The Hotter You Burn

She’d been fine one moment and deathly ill the next. She wasn’t feverish or exhibiting any other symptoms.

“Is there some kind of virus going around?” he asked, desperate for answers. He couldn’t help her until he knew what was wrong.

“No, otherwise I would have gotten it long before now,” Jessie Kay said. “I always get sicker faster and far worse than everyone else. Could she have eaten too much junk food?”

A soft moan rose from Harlow—right before she vomited up a river of blood.

The crimson splatter on the sides of her mouth had to be the most horrifying sight he’d ever seen. Beck sprang into action. He scooped Harlow into his arms, her body utterly boneless, and shouldered his way into the hall. “Jase! West!”

Both friends came running.

“Help me get her to the emergency room.”

Jase swiped up his car key, and West held open the front door, then the car door.

“Go to St. Joseph’s.” He wanted Harlow to have the best medical care, experts in every field at her disposal, and as much as he loved Strawberry Valley, he wasn’t sure about the medical facilities.

As fast as they drove, they reached the city hospital in less than an hour. A true miracle, considering they didn’t wreck or get pulled over. Along the way, West made some calls, so, by the time they screeched to a halt at the curb, doctors and nurses were already outside, waiting for them.

Several people reached for Harlow at once. Beck almost couldn’t bring himself to let her go. But he did it, his stomach seeming to twist around a knife. She was placed on a gurney and wheeled away.

As Jase parked the car in the lot, West led Beck inside. They sat in the waiting room, and one hour after another passed, every second more agonizing than the last.

Beck checked with the receptionist at the front desk so many times she began to moan every time he approached. Brook Lynn and Jessie Kay eventually arrived with food and bottles of water. Brook Lynn tried to get him to eat or drink something, but he refused, too unsettled. She tried to engage him in conversation, but there was only one person he cared to chat with right now, and she wasn’t available.

Finally, a nurse came out to ask their entire group questions about her. What Harlow had eaten and drunk that day, what she had done. He answered as best he could, but when he asked questions of his own, the nurse rushed off without responding.

Another hour passed.

He couldn’t lose Harlow. He just couldn’t. He liked—no. Damn it, no. He loved her, and he wasn’t going to hide from the truth any longer. He loved her with all his heart, all his mind and all his strength. He loved her, and he had come to depend on her. She was the best part of his life.

The only part that mattered anymore.

A burn of tears in the back of his eyes, He tangled his hands in his hair and tugged at the strands. Was it normal to be kept waiting this long? Damn it! Why the hell wouldn’t anyone tell him what was going on?

He paced. He considered punching the walls. He tried to breathe as his imagination tormented him with a continuous replay of Harlow vomiting blood.

At long last the nurse returned to lead their group to a comfortable seating area away from the crowd. No matter the questions Beck threw at her, she replied with, “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to ask Dr. Lowe.”

“I’d be happy to ask him. If he’d be kind enough to show his damn face.”

She beat feet. Finally, a short, squat man with a no-nonsense gaze and a stern demeanor joined them, saving the building from the fury of Beck’s fists.

“My apologies for the delay. I’m Dr. Lowe,” he said as he shook one hand after another. “I’d like to speak to Miss Glass’s next of kin.”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Beck said. “How is she? What’s wrong with her?”

The doctor pursed his lips. “I’m sorry, but considering everything I’ve learned, I will only speak with immediate family.”

“Why? What did you learn? Did something happen to her?” Beck nearly grabbed him by the shoulders to shake the answers out of him. “Is she going to be okay? You have to tell me. Please.”

“Tell me. I’m the sister,” Jessie Kay said, pushing her way forward. “I’m Jessica Glass.”

Dr. Lowe led her to the side, and Beck nearly burst out of his skin. He didn’t have a right to know Harlow’s condition because he wasn’t her husband? Hell, no. Unacceptable. He would have joined the pair and demanded answers now, but Jase grabbed him by the arm, holding him in place.

“Let go, man. Now.”

“Calm yourself.” Jase motioned to the entrance. Two security guards stood in the doorway, and a fortysomething woman wearing a pantsuit entered, a notebook in her hand. A detective, guaranteed. He’d talked to enough of them after Pax’s death to recognize one on sight.

The blood drained from Beck’s head. If the cops were involved...

Something bad had happened to Harlow.

Panic flooded him as he shook off Jase’s hold and raced to Dr. Lowe and Jessie Kay. “She’s okay. She has to be okay. You tell me anything else, and I will lose my shit.” His throat was closing, making breathing difficult. Dizziness hit him, and blackness winked over his vision. “She can’t be...she just can’t be... I need her!”

Gentle hands helped him into a chair. “Beck.” Jessie Kay’s voice reached him through the length of a long, narrow tunnel. “You really have to shut your mouth and listen to me, okay. I know you’re thinking the worst, but Harlow is alive.”