Page 6

Everything in me wanted to sass him with a witty reply about how much I liked a good spanking, but telling him I loved him seemed to have taken up all my energy.
Fang got up and jogged to the edge of the house, disappearing around the side that would lead him up to the road.
It left space for me to notice the state Vaughn was in. He paced up and down the poolside, dripping wet, hands to the back of his neck. He kept shooting panicked glances my way, at least three of them before he realized I was watching.
He dropped to his knees in front of me, and then down onto his stomach so our faces were level. “Hey, Roachy. You okay?”
I think we both knew I wasn’t. But I tried to nod anyway. “Sure. Was just inspecting the bottom of the pool. There’s a few broken tiles that could use replacing.”
Behind me, Kian sniggered, his palm still running up and down my back.
But Vaughn’s mouth pressed into a line. “Don’t joke. You were about two seconds away from drowning.”
Ugh. He had his bossy older brother voice on, which he knew annoyed me. He wasn’t that much older than me, and he wasn’t my brother. I mustered up enough energy to tell him where to go. “If I want to make jokes about my failed imitation of a mermaid, then I will. Thanks, brother.”
His eyebrows furrowed. “Seriously? You’re giving me attitude five minutes after I save your ass from drowning?”
Sasha cleared her throat. “Hey, I helped! Quit hogging all the credit.”
Kian glared at her. “You nearly drowned yourself in the process. See now why I wanted to teach you how to swim last summer? What the hell were you thinking, jumping in that pool, Sash?”
If gazes could set a man on fire, Kian would have gone up in flames.
Sasha’s gaze was scalding. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I was thinking I didn’t want to see you cry because the woman you have the hots for sank like Jack from Titanic.”
Kian gasped. “Sasha! You did not just go there! You know how I feel about that movie. Rose totally had room on that bit of wood, and you know it!”
I would have laughed if Fang hadn’t come running with the paramedics at his heels. Vaughn scrambled out of the way.
The female paramedic cast a watchful eye over the entire scene before she focused on me. “I’m Claire. Where are we at?”
Kian’s face sobered. “She puked water for a good few minutes, but she’s breathing and talking,” he informed them. “Not sure how long she was under…Sash?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Maybe a minute?”
Claire looked at her. “Were you here when she fell in? Are you sure it was only a minute?”
Sasha’s cheeks pinked. “Actually, I was next door… But it was definitely only a minute. I ran right over as soon as I saw her go in.” She glanced over at me. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be a Nosey Nelly. But that guy…”
I tried to smile at her while the paramedic put a mask blowing oxygen on my face. “I’d be pretty dead right now if you hadn’t. Thank you.”
“How exactly did you fall in?” Claire asked, picking up on Sasha’s comment about a man. The paramedic glanced at the rips and tears on what was left of my costume. With shrewd eyes, she studied the three men standing around me and then lowered her voice. “If you need help…”
“It wasn’t them,” I said quickly.
She checked my expression, and her worries must have been settled by whatever she found there. “Okay. I believe you. We can talk about calling the police when we get you to the hospital.”
I clutched at my towel tighter, a new spike of fear tearing through me at the mention of the hospital. Leonn, one of Caleb’s buddies who’d attacked me, worked at the hospital as a doctor. Fang had kneecapped him pretty bad earlier in the night, so there was a very high probability he’d be there, in the ER, getting medical attention of his own.
I shook my head. “No hospital.”
Paramedic Claire frowned. The woman should have been a schoolteacher. She had that ‘I’m disappointed in you’ scowl down pat. “Your oxygen levels aren’t too bad, but you need to come in and get a full work-up. You’re at risk of secondary drowning.”
I’d heard of it. Where water in your lungs drowned you while you were on dry land. “How do you diagnose that?”
“Observation, mostly.”
I jerked my head at the three guys hovering around me like mother hens. “Pretty sure they’re willing to observe me.”