Page 23 of I Found You (Wilder #1)

After Maeve left to meet her mother, Jane and I walked in circles around the house while I tried to calm her down, but it seemed like she was getting worse by the minute.

She went from fussing to a heart-wrenching cry that wasn’t like anything I had ever heard within twenty minutes.

Her temperature felt warmer than it did when I got here, so I stripped her of her outfit, thinking I was going to give her a cool bath to help get her temperature down.

As soon as I started to remove her clothes, I could tell that something was wrong.

Small red dots had broken out on her abdomen, back, and legs, but she was otherwise really pale.

The baby thermometer was in Maeve’s linen closet in the bathroom, and I thanked my lucky stars that it was the forehead scanner style.

One hundred and one point six. She looked exhausted, her body limp in my arms like crying was wearing her down.

I didn’t want to bother Maeve, but I didn’t know what to do. She was freaking me out. My heart was beating fast in my chest, my muscles tense with worry. Maeve didn’t answer, so I ran that cool bath and tried to soothe Jane. Her cries turned to moans as I ran a cloth lightly against her.

After my third call to Maeve, I changed gears and called Luke. As a police officer, he had been medically trained for a lot of scenarios. With my phone on speaker, I explained to him how Jane was acting as I wrapped her in a towel and held her close to me.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” I growled at him.

“Take a breath, man. Can you take her temperature again? Is it getting worse, or is it the same?”

I laid Jane down on the floor so I could put a new diaper on her and retake her temperature. One hundred and two point two.

“It’s higher. She’s scaring me, Luke,” I confessed to him quietly. “Fuck, I think I’m going puke.” I ran my hands through my hair, rubbing the scruff on my face. I didn’t know what to do, but I knew I couldn’t just sit here and do nothing.

“Listen to me, Wyatt,” Luke said. His voice was calming yet stern.

He was made to be in law enforcement. He had a demeanor about him that oozed authority.

It would usually piss me off when he would try to pull that tone on me, but right now, I could see why he was so good at his job.

De-escalating situations, keeping a cool head about him, Luke could talk a man off the ledge.

Which was exactly what he was doing with me before I could completely lose my shit and go into pure panic mode.

“I’m going to talk to Letty, and she’s going to send an ambulance to Maeve’s house.

If the EMTs don’t think there is anything to panic over, they will let you know.

They are trained professionals, Wyatt. If they think that Jane should be brought in to be looked at by a doctor, then that’s what we’ll do.

I’m heading over there now as well. I should be there in eight minutes. The ambulance is four minutes out.”

My brain couldn’t make sense of what he was saying. It was like white noise was pulsing inside my head. I finally processed what he said after a few seconds. “You never called Letty. How is the ambulance already on the way?”

“That’s what text messages are for.” He didn’t call me a dumbass because he knew I was closer to my breaking point than ever before, but I heard it in his voice all the same.

I had the door open before either of the two EMTs got out of the ambulance the second they pulled up. A woman in her late twenties was clearly in charge, which was probably for the best, considering her sidekick looked like he belonged in middle school.

They assessed Jane’s condition efficiently.

I didn’t like the way they were handling her though.

I didn’t like her not being in my arms. Her crying moans were getting worse, and she wasn’t opening her eyes.

I jumped out of my skin when Luke put a hand on my shoulder.

I hadn’t even heard his cruiser pull up.

“You’re shaking, man. Breathe,” he told me. To the two EMTs, he asked, “What’s the prognosis?”

“I want to bring her in. I don’t like how lethargic she is. It could be a number of conditions, but she needs to be evaluated by a doctor to determine the best course of action.”

“Fuck,” I hissed. Turning away from the group, I needed to take a second to collect myself before I fell apart.

If anything happened to this little girl…

“I’m just watching her. Her guardian is out to dinner.

I’ve tried to call her, but I can’t get a hold of her.

” Straightening my spine, I turned an icy glare to the woman who I assumed was in charge.

“She’s not going to the hospital alone. I’m going with you.

” My voice sounded like steel. It would be a cold day in hell I would let someone walk out of this house with Jane without me.

“Of course. You are more than welcome to ride with us or meet us there. We can figure the rest out later, but getting this baby treatment needs to be our first priority.”

“Let’s go.”

The ambulance was cramped, but they had a seat along the side that I used.

The middle-schooler EMT tried to take Jane and strap her down to the gurney, but he backed off after I told him that if he tried to put his hands on her again, I would fucking dismember him.

Amy, the female EMT, had my back and let me cradle Jane to my chest for the entire journey.

I called Maeve two more times on my way to the emergency room. She said she would be gone for an hour or two. It had probably only been an hour since she left. That thought alone felt wrong. How it couldn’t have been a week that passed in the past sixty minutes, I had no idea.

The hospital was a whirlwind. The EMTs brought her in, and she was immediately whisked away.

If anyone had tried to stop me from following them, it would have been a wasted effort.

Nothing was going to pull me away from Jane.

I didn’t care if I had to burn the whole place down, I would follow that gurney to hell and back.