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“Jerry! Get Dustin out of here. Right now,” Cary said.

Jerry nodded, grabbed Dustin by the scruff of the neck, and heaved him into the hall.

“Cary…” Laney whimpered. “Cary, what did I do… what did you do…”

“You,” Cary turned to Shane. “Take her.”

Shane nodded, understanding flowing between them, and he tried to pull her up but she shrank from him, shaking with shock.

“For God's sake Cary, can’t you see she’s traumatized?!” the paramedic yelled. “She needs to talk to the damned police!”

“You shut your fucking mouth,” Cary hissed, the woman shrinking away from him. He was staring at her like he wanted to backhand her, and she was staring at him like she was expecting it.

Shane had a funny feeling that this woman had something to do with why Sarita had shown up out of the blue, out of her mind.

“Laney,” Shane murmured to her, “we need to leave. Now.”

She just whimpered. Shane scrubbed his face with his hands and stood up, his stomach churning at the squelching sound under his boots, and he tried to pick her up but she fought him like a tomcat. He dropped her by accident, panic and frustration overloading his mind.

“Jesus Laney! I’m trying to help!”

“Shane,” Cary said, looking at him. The hair on the back of Shane’s neck stood up, his gut screaming a warning, but he swallowed it down as he thought about what Cary had just tried to do for her. He nodded once, stepping aside.

Shane moved to the doorway as the other paramedic poked her head back in the room.

“Kim,” she said, “procedure… you need to call it.”

Kim blinked, her skin the colour of sour milk, but her training seeming to take over because she snapped on a latex glove with efficiency and moved towards Nick’s body.

Shane couldn’t look away from Cary.

He was squatting beside Laney, his hands on her bed on either side of her, looking at her like… like he loved her.

His stomach churned, the warning in his gut screaming in his blood.

Kim pressed her gloved hand to Nick’s neck.

“Why did you do this,” Laney whispered, her eyes locked on Cary.

“You know why,” Cary said.

Something passed between them, the room growing strangely tense. Kim looked up at them with a twisted expression on her face, like she might be sick, before she stood up and went out into the hall.

“Time of death, 23:59,” she said from outside the room, her voice shaking.

Laney and Cary were still staring at each other.

“I love you, Little Laney,” he whispered.

Shane felt goosebumps rising all over his skin.

And then Cary bent his head and kissed her.