Chance of a Lifetime by Jodi Thomas Read Free Book Online Page B

phone he thought he saw a shadow of a man dart into the alley thirty feet away.
    “Nine-one-one. What is your emergency?”
    Rick closed his eyes and let the phone slip from his fingers as pain won the battle.
    He drifted in the night, trying to find the way back to the world. In the distance, he heard a siren. Then what seemed much later, someone called his name. Finally, light danced across the darkness like a ball.
    “Rick,” a woman yelled. “Rick!” She was moving closer. “Oh my God, Rick!”
    Someone had found him. He tried to call out but couldn’t.
    “Phil, call an ambulance,” the woman snapped orders as her hand touched Rick’s throat. “Then call the hospital and tell them we’re bringing Rick Matheson in. They’dbetter be ready. Looks like a head injury, back injuries, and maybe broken bones in legs.”
    The light moved closer to his face. “Rick,” a woman said again. “Can you hear me? It’s Alex.” Her badge flashed in the light of others moving in. “We’re not moving you until the EMTs get here, but don’t worry, I’m with you.” He could hear clicking on a phone, then her hushed words. “Dispatch, call Hank and tell him I’ve found his cousin. He’s hurt bad. The ambulance has been called, but he can get here first.” She paused for a few seconds, then added, “Back of used bookstore.”
    She knelt close, shining the light on his face. “Rick, hang on. Hank’s on his way. We’ll get you some help.”
    “Thanks for coming,” he tried to say, but he wasn’t sure the words came out right. A coldness crossed over him and he drifted into a place where there was no thought, no pain.
    When he pulled back to the world again, he was surrounded by light so bright it hurt his eyes. For a second he thought he might be in heaven, but the sound of two women arguing almost made him wish for the blackness again.
    He managed to open one eye a slit. Dr. Addison Spencer was yelling at his cousin’s wife, Alex Matheson, the sheriff.
    “I’m taking him in to examine him, Sheriff,” the slim blond doctor yelled. “As soon as I know he’s not bleeding internally, I’ll let you question him.”
    Alex wasn’t giving an inch. “I have to know who did this. The steps were cut, Doc. Don’t you understand? Someone tried to kill him.”
    Dr. Spencer wasn’t slowing down. “Get out of my way or I’ll have you kicked out of my hospital.”
    Alex looked like she might argue. She closed her mouth so tight white lines formed around her lips as she nodded once. “All right. Take care of him first, and then I’ll find out who did this.”
    The doc gave a signal to move the bed, then turned back to Alex. “I’ll make sure you get to ask those questions as soon as possible.”
    “In the meantime I’m posting a guard.” The sheriff’swords ended with the closing of a door and people in masks rushing toward Rick like vultures at a fresh kill.
    He lay perfectly still, but he felt like the six-foot buffet at the Golden Corral with everyone poking on him. Slowly, the pain eased enough for him to take a deep breath, but he didn’t want to look at what they were doing. Someone was cutting his clothes off, needles were stuck in his arm and someone had taped something cold to his chest. He guessed he was lying nude for a viewing. In his shattered thoughts, he got the idea that if he didn’t open his eyes maybe no one could see him if he couldn’t see them.
    Another breath and the pain eased a fraction more, but the poking and twisting of his body continued.
    About the time he fell asleep, someone patted his cheek to wake him up to tell him that it was almost over.
    He felt his entire body being lifted and shifted onto another cold surface. His mind decided to drift off and the next thing he felt was a warm blanket being spread over him.
    “Rick?” Dr. Spencer said. “Rick, you’re going to be all right. Just try not to move. Rick, are you awake?”
    “Yes,” he said, and the word almost