To Forgive & Hold Safe (The Broken Men Chronicles Book 4) Read Free

my soul.  So helpless, so desperate…so familiar.
    For whatever reason – maybe it was the similarity of our situations – the night’s events had shaken me to my core.
    The longer I sat there, pondering the reasons, the more I grew apprehensive.
    “I don’t even know her full name,” I said to the walls surrounding me.  What if she didn’t remember who I was and what she’d asked of me when she woke?
    What if she does?
    That thought alone had me getting to my feet and reaching for my keys.
    You’ve got to be losing your ever-loving mind, Ben.
    Locking the front door, I jumped in my car for a destination at which I wasn’t quite sure I belonged – but I was going to live up to my word.
     
    I lost count of how many times I circled the parking lot after I arrived.  When I found my resolve, I put my car in park, turned its engine off, and sat there staring out the windshield.
    Craig, the paramedic I’d spoken to earlier, walked out of the ambulance bay door. I made a mad dash toward him, hitting the key fob to activate my car’s alarm from across the lot.
    “Hey, Craig!”
    The man turned to face me.  His face was grim and I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach.  My feet came to a dead halt a few feet from him.
    “Is…is she…?” I couldn’t finish, but what surprised me was the tremendous relief I felt when Craig shook his head.
    “No.  She’s alive, but we ran into complications on the way.  She went into full arrest, but Lindsay managed to resuscitate her.”
    As if once wasn’t enough, by the time the rig had arrived, Hannah had crashed a second time.  She was now in the OR.
    “She looked in rough shape, but…” I ran my hand through my jelled brown hair and down my face, releasing a loud sigh.
    “Hey man, you okay?  You’re all bent out of shape.”
    “It’s nothing.  Long day.”
    “Listen…” His gaze turned, assessing much like it had at the scene. “I’ve got to get this rig back to the garage, clean, and restock it.”
    “Yeah, you do that.” I blew out a puff of air.  “Hey, Craig?”
    He paused before getting into the ambulance.  “Yeah?”
    “Did you manage to get her last name?  I mean…”
    His brows drew together.  “Parsons.”
    My nod was curt.  “Thanks.”
    Craig paused before turning his key in the ignition and gave me one last once over.  “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    I waved my hand as if to brush his concern off.  “I’m fine.”  I wasn’t, really, but he didn’t need to know about the turmoil I felt inside. So, I chased my words with a quirk of my upper lip, hoping it was enough to appease Craig.
    It worked.

Chapter 4
    When Craig retreated, I turned toward the Emergency Room entrance, observing the chaos of an unruly weekend night through the floor-to-ceiling windows.
    I wondered if any of Hannah’s relatives had been contacted, if any of those people sitting in those waiting room seats, at the very moment, were there for her.
    I walked through the sliding glass doors to be met by crying babies and an assortment of worried, sickly and irritated people.  I smiled when I saw Marie at the triage desk.  Her familiar face helped assuage the small bout of nerves that suddenly consumed me.
    “Hey, Marie, I need a favor.”
    The woman looked at me with an arched brow, her eyes travelling from my face down to my toes and then came back up to stop at my shirt.
    “What the hell happened to you?”
    I followed her gaze and peered down at myself.  My front was covered in soot, dirt and dried blood.  Not once had it occurred to me to change my clothes before leaving the house.
    “That’s why I’m here.  A woman was brought in not too long ago.  I was the one who called 9-1-1 and stayed with her until they came.”
    “Her name?”
    “Hannah Parsons.”
    “You know I shouldn’t be doing this, right?”
    “I promised her.  She lost her husband tonight.  I-I promised her that I wouldn’t leave.  I just want to know if