Chapter Twelve

“Luke!” Claire caught him before he hit the ground.

His weight bowed her over. Using all her strength, she got him back to sitting, his back propped against the truck.

The streetlight at the end of the block shone on his shoulder. The cut gleamed, shiny and dark.

She’d thought about putting her shirt on the wound, but it had gotten so dirty from crawling out the window, it would probably cause infection.

His head lolled to the side. “Kitten.”

Khan spun in a circle, his dance move when anxious. He could tell something was wrong.

A ball formed in Claire’s throat. She had to get Luke somewhere safe. She hadn’t seen any sign of Ballard’s men in the last thirty minutes, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still searching for them.

She was going to have to take Luke to the hospital, and hope nobody would come looking for them.

She trailed her fingers through his hair, then cupped his cheeks. “Luke. I need you to listen to me, okay?”

His brown eyes blinked open at her. They were glazed with pain, but he was still with her.

“We need to get you to a hospital.”

“No. Find us too easy.”

“We have to. You need stitches.”

He grabbed her wrist where she cupped his face. “No. Too dangerous. Promise.”

Damn it. He was probably right, but she had to do something. Get him somewhere they were inside and safe. They didn’t have enough money left for another hotel—and Ballard would undoubtedly be searching any nearby establishments for check-ins anyway.

All right, no hospital. No doc-in-a-box, either. They would want names, insurance info, stuff that went into a computer and would enable Ballard to find them.

Khan rubbed up against her. “Where would you want to go if you were hurt, Khan?”

A vet. Of course. That’s it!

“You’re a genius, Khan.”

The cat continued to prance around like he was well aware of the fact that he was amazing.

She’d spent a lot of time in the neighborhood they were in. After leaving Skyline Park, the first foster family she’d gone to had lived only a couple miles from here.

And then, the summer after high school, she’d worked at the independent vet just up the block. It had been one of the happiest times of her life—waking up early and spending her days with animals.

The first time she’d seen a Maine coon in person was when someone brought theirs in with a hurt paw. She’d fallen in love with the breed right away and started saving that night in order to buy her own one day.

“Luke. Listen.” She bowed her head so they were eye to eye again. “There’s a vet’s office near here. It has an apartment garage we might be able to get into. It’s only a couple of blocks away. Can you walk that far?”

For a second she thought he was unconscious again, but finally, he nodded gingerly. “Yeah.”

“Great.” Scooping a hand under his good arm, she helped him stand.

Years had passed and she didn’t even know if Dr. McGraw’s practice was still open. Back when she worked there, he’d converted the space above the detached garage into a studio apartment. On nights when he worked overtime and was too tired to commute home, he stayed there. But that had rarely happened on weekends. He’d wanted to be home with his wife because the grandkids came over.

They walked slowly in the correct direction, her carrying as much of his weight as possible.

This plan had a lot of unknown variables. She prayed it would work, because otherwise, she didn’t know what she was going to do.

Khan circled them as they walked, darting ahead and coming back to check on their progress. It was slow going, and every time headlights appeared, they ducked behind the nearest vehicle or trash can.

They turned a corner and she glanced behind her and saw the orange of the fire in the distance. The sight made Claire’s chest ache. Her beloved childhood safe haven was gone.

Ballard’s men may have been the ones who’d started the fire, but Claire had been the one who led them to that building. And now Luke had been hurt because of her.

She pushed the feelings down. Right now she had to focus on getting them somewhere safe. Luke’s wound seemed to have stopped bleeding. He was conscious but still so very weak. He’d always taken care of her, and now it was time for her to do the same for him.

It was dark in the veterinary clinic. It sat next to a house that had been renovated into a beauty salon, across the street from a local hardware store. Luke was on the last of his reserves as they made it down the narrow drive between the salon and the clinic to the garage in the back.

She let out a sigh of relief when there were no lights on in the garage or the studio apartment that rested above it.

She set Luke at the bottom of the wooden steps that went up the side of the garage.

“I’ll be right back,” she whispered to Luke as he slumped on the stairs. Khan sat down at his feet.

“I’m coming with.” Luke grabbed hold of the weathered railing and started to pull himself up. “Not...leaving you.”

“No, you’re staying.” She put a hand on his chest, and he stilled. “I’ll be right back. I can move faster without you.”

A quick kiss to his lips revealed they were cold. Not good. They had to get him inside pronto. The fact that he didn’t argue further just proved that point.

She took the steps two at a time. Cupping her hands around her eyes, she pressed against the window on the door and peered into the apartment.

The vague shapes of furniture rose from the dark room. She didn’t see any people—just a lot more boxes than had been around when she worked there.

She reached over to the light fixture and ran her fingers under the edge, letting out a shuddery sigh of relief when she found the key in the same place Dr. McGraw had always kept it.

With shaking hands, she unlocked the door and let it swing open, listening for any sounds before stepping inside.

“Hello?” Nothing. She went in and looked around. It was empty. Thank God. She turned and hurried back down the steps.

Khan was still standing guard over Luke. She wrapped her arm around his torso while he held on to her shoulder. “Come on, it’s empty.” They slowly made their way up the stairs. “And tomorrow is Sunday. If Dr. McGraw didn’t spend tonight here, he won’t come in tomorrow.”

At least, she hoped that was still true. If not, the police would just have to add breaking and entering to their list of reasons to arrest her.

The studio apartment wasn’t much. Boxes and supplies took up one entire wall. There was a small full bed in one corner and a love seat in front of the TV in the middle. She helped Luke sit on the carpet, leaning his good side against the couch so he wouldn’t get blood on it. Khan started his rounds, sniffing the corners of the room, while Claire closed all the blinds.

Once she was confident no light would escape the apartment and give away their presence, she switched on a standing lamp. The paleness of Luke’s face was striking, made even more prominent by the dark circles under his eyes.

“We need to get your shirt off so I can see the cut.” Sitting on her knees next to him, she helped remove it. He winced when he had to move his hurt arm but didn’t make a peep.

His shirt was completely ruined and most of his back was covered in blood. She gasped when she saw the cut. It wasn’t very deep, but it was long and had to be painful. “Luke, you need stitches.”

“No.” His voice was thin, weak. “They’d put my name in a computer. Ballard would have us in thirty minutes.”

“Luke...” An invisible weight pressed against her throat and chest. He was too big for her to force to a medical facility.

She gritted her teeth, hating that it was her situation that was causing him literal physical pain right now. Her situation that meant he couldn’t get the help he needed.

“Let me see what I can find.”

Rooting around in the cabinet under the sink, she found a fully stocked first aid kit, as well as some protein bars and nutrition drinks. Those would help his body begin to replenish everything it had expended.

When she returned, Khan had stopped his exploring and sat next to Luke, licking his hand.

She opened a drink and handed it to him before settling cross-legged behind him. She pressed a clean piece of gauze to the cut but fresh blood quickly seeped through.

She changed out the gauze and applied pressure the best she could as he finished one nutrition drink and she handed him another one.

“How’s it looking back there?”

He finally sounded like Luke again, like he wasn’t about to keel over. But she still had to tell him.

“It looks like this gauze isn’t enough. You need stitches. Really, Luke.”

“Okay.”

“We can go to the hospital?”

“No, you’re going to use that suture kit over there and do it yourself.”

She looked over to where he was pointing, and sure enough, resting on one of the boxes of supplies was a sealed suture kit for the clinic.

She shook her head frantically and scooted back from him. “No, I can’t do that. I don’t know how to give someone stitches.” She was glad for the nutrition drinks and that a chance to rest had him feeling better, but this was crazy.

“When you worked here at the vet clinic, did you ever see them stitch up an animal?”

“Sure, a lot.”

“It’s the same concept. Basically, just sewing. I had to do it once in the army when our medic got injured while we are on a mission. He talked me through it. I can talk you through this.”

“If you’re Hannibal Lecter,” she muttered.

He chuckled. “That was the other guy. Hannibal just ate them.” He turned so he was facing her more fully. “I know this is gross, but it’s our best bet.”

“It’s not that it’s gross...” she whispered. “It’s going to hurt you.”

He leaned over and kissed her tenderly, his full lips soft against hers. “I’ll be okay, I promise.”

“I don’t know if I can do this.”

“You can, Kitten. I trust you.”