“Get it.” Eli seethed.
Jace patted his pockets and held his hands up empty. His phone was in Will’s possession. Eli reached for his and keyed in his code and handed it over to Jace and then began to pound on the door. “Julia!”
“I got it. I’m sure she’s fine.” Jace entered the code.
The door released, and Eli almost tripped over Ben’s body crumpled at the base of the staircase. He kneeled down and placed his hand in the middle of Ben’s back. “Ben! Can you hear me?” Ben groaned in response and tried to lift his hand up, but it immediately flopped back down. “Jace, carry him outside for the medics.”
Eli raced up the staircase and straight into Julia’s bedroom.
She remained in the same position he’d last seen her in on the computer screen. Eli sat next to her on the bed and grabbed her shoulder. “Julia. Julia!”
Julia shook like a rag doll under his touch. He licked his finger and placed it under her nose. A faint wisp of breath crossed his finger. He pinched the muscle between her neck and shoulder as hard as he could—a trick from his police days to see if an unconscious person could be roused.
Nothing.
Glancing around the room, nothing seemed out of place. A cup of clear liquid was the only other thing on the table next to her bed. He took a quick sip. Definitely water. No pill bottles.
Will came through the doorway. “What’s going on?”
“Did Jace get Ben outside?”
“Yes, but he’s not waking up. What’s wrong with them?”
“I don’t know.” Eli lifted Julia’s limp body. She was a deadweight in his arms. His throat tightened. Immediately, his mind raced back to the moment he’d cut the rope from around her neck, catching her lifeless body as she fell into his arms. Her skin...so cold and pale. How his breath seized in his chest that he’d been too late to save her.
Just as it did now.
Lord, you cannot do this to me again.
He carried her to the couch, where EMS would have more room to work.
Eli teased her eyelids open and examined her pupils. They seemed normal size—not the dark black holes of the dead or drugged. Julia still didn’t move. The subtle rise and fall of her chest the only evidence of life.
At least this time she was still breathing.
There was something off about her appearance. For bed, she’d dressed in light black cotton pants and a pink T-shirt. He traced his fingers over the scars on her neck and felt her pulse. Something in his mind begged him to remember. Her lips. It was the color. He brushed his thumb over them, spurring his memory into action.
His job was to observe. To catalog every detail to determine if something was amiss. After she’d packed and dressed yesterday, she wore little makeup. Her lips had not looked this red.
Unnaturally red. Cherry red.
He brushed his thumb against her lips again. Definitely not lipstick.
Voices called out as he heard heavy boots racing up the stairs. Two paramedics in their firehouse bunker pants and suspenders eased him back.
“What happened?” one asked. Eli took in the name on the badge. Russell.
“She complained of a severe headache, seemed unsteady and then passed out. I can’t get her to wake up.”
Another firefighter surveyed the living room.
“Is someone helping my partner, Ben? He’s unconscious outside.”
“Yes, another team is with him. What’s her name?” Russell asked.
“Julia Galloway.”
“Age?”
“Twenty-nine.”
“And you are?”
“Eli Cayne.”
“Relationship?”
What could he say? Protector?
Eli indicated himself and Will. “We’re U.S. Marshals.”
That raised Russell’s eyebrows. He turned away from Eli and focused on Julia. His partner snaked his hands under her T-shirt and attached heart monitoring leads to her chest, a blood pressure cuff to her arm and a lit probe on her finger. Next came some oxygen delivered through small tubes in her nose.
Russell placed a fisted hand in the center of her chest and rubbed it against her sternum. “Julia? Julia! Can you hear me?” He took a penlight from his pocket and shone it into her pupils. “Equal and reactive to light,” Russell noted. A firefighter helped the paramedics by documenting Russell’s findings.
Russell’s partner called out, “Vital signs are normal. I’m going to start an IV.”
Russell turned back to Eli. “Do you know anything about why she wouldn’t be responding to us? Did she fall and hit her head? Did she take any drugs or alcohol that you know of? Is she a diabetic?”
“No, no, and I don’t know.”
Russell turned to his partner. “Let’s get a blood sugar. After that, let’s try a dose of Narcan.”
“What is that?” Eli asked.
“Narcan is a medication that reverses narcotic drugs if people overdose on them. The blood sugar will tell us if she’s diabetic.”
At that moment, a piercing shriek filled the small townhome. Everyone startled and Eli reached for his weapon.
Julia didn’t flinch.
“What is that?” Eli yelled.
A firefighter bent over and pulled the contraption out of the plug. The alarm ceased. “Just as I thought. It’s the home’s carbon monoxide detector. Found it on the floor. There are toxic levels in this place.”
Russell snapped his fingers in the air. “Everyone...go, go, go! Let’s get her outside.”
Eli reached under and scooped his arms under Julia’s and lifted her up. Russell grabbed her legs. It surprised Eli how quickly Russell could go down the stairs backward with a body in tow, but he was likely used to doing it every day.
“Straight to the rig, guys,” Russell instructed, and they raced Julia to the back of the open ambulance door.
A second ambulance screeched to a halt in the street just behind the two fire trucks.
“Hey,” Russell yelled to his cohorts. “Get that guy loaded fast and on one hundred percent oxygen. There’s a carbon monoxide leak somewhere in that place.”
One of the firefighters held a thumbs-up sign and began to scoop up Ben’s lifeless body.
Eli and Russell clamored up the two steps at the back of the ambulance and plopped Julia down on the narrow gurney.
“Are you coming?” Russell asked Eli.
“Yes.” Eli saw Will and Jace hovering by the front door of the townhome. “Jace! Meet me at...”
“Sage Medical Center,” Russell said.
Jace nodded, and Russell yanked the doors closed and pounded on the roof. After that, he busied himself removing the oxygen prongs from Julia’s nose and placing her on an oxygen mask. Eli heard the rush of air as Russell cranked the oxygen to its maximum flow rate.
Eli sat on the bench opposite the gurney and grabbed Julia’s lifeless hand. “Is this all from the carbon monoxide?”
“Likely. It explains why both of them fell ill.”
Eli