Tell Me Lies by Tessa Dayne

motionless in the ice and snow was Paige, blood trickling from her mouth.
     
    “NO!  Dear God, no!” he cried, falling to his knees in the snow at her side.
     
    He didn’t dare touch her.  He was too afraid.  Yet, he wanted to assure himself that she was still alive.  God, please let her be alive.  He had never bargained with God before, but he would now, if it meant Paige’s life.
     
    Chapter Nine
     
    ~*~
     
    In the distance, sirens echoed in the night air, getting louder as the emergency vehicles approached.  They barely registered in Jonas’s grief filled mind.  All he could think of was Paige, lying on the street beside him, unmoving.
     
    “Sir?  You need to step away.  Let us through.”
     
    Jonas glanced up over his shoulder and found two EMT’s standing behind him, their equipment boxes in hand and a stretcher in tow.  He stood, moving aside to allow them to do their jobs.  Someone placed a blanket around his shoulders, which he grabbed with cold, numb fingers.
     
    “Sir?  Are you all right? Can you tell us what happened here?”
     
    Jonas turned his head and found two police officers standing behind him, their car with flashing red and blue lights illuminating the night sky.  He stared at them, a blank look in his eyes.
     
    “I…my fiancée…”
     
    The police officer looked at him closely, registering the blank look in his eyes, the paleness in his features and how badly he was shaking.  “I think he’s in shock,” he told his partner.  “Question some of the other bystanders.  I want to get this one to the hospital.  C’mon, Sir.  Let’s get you to the hospital.”
     
    Jonas shook his head no, trying to return to Paige’s side.  He couldn’t leave her.  He watched as the medics strapped her to the gurney and then wheeled her to the waiting ambulance.
     
    “C’mon, Mr. Barnett.  I’ll take you to the hospital.  It’s okay.  We will follow the ambulance,” the officer said, placing a comforting arm around his shoulders.
     
    Jonas felt the officer’s arm around his shoulders and heard his voice near his ear, but neither gesture truly registered in his shock-muddled brain.  He watched as Paige was loaded into the back of the ambulance.  When the doors slammed closed and the ambulance drove off, he seemed to snap out of it. 
     
    “My fiancée…I need to get to the hospital,” he said, his teeth chattering.
     
    “We are going right behind them.  C’mon…get in the car.”
     
    Jonas slid into the car, the blanket still wrapped around his shoulders.  The door closed and he leaned his head against the window, the cold glass numbing his cheek.  The officer slid behind the wheel and within moments they were following the ambulance.  Jonas stared out the window at the snow-covered streets, his mind trying to grasp the night’s events.
     
    How had things gone from so wonderful to devastating in just a few short hours?  What had Darren said to Paige to drive her from the safety of the penthouse?  He never should have left her.
                               
    ~ *~
     
    The ambulance pulled into the hospital drive and a flurry of activity around the rear of the vehicle ensued.  The gurney was pulled from the back and wheeled into the emergency room, nurses and ER techs rushing to the aid of the ambulance EMT’s, who relayed the status once again of their patient, then moved aside to do the paperwork required.  The techs and nurses wheeled the gurney into a private cubicle and pulled the curtain.
     
    ~*~
    The heat from the car’s heater seeped into his body, warming him.  Too bad it couldn’t warm the iciness that had formed around his heart.  Seeing Paige lying in the snow-covered street had been permanently etched into his mind’s eye.  She hadn’t moved, even when he had knelt beside her and whispered her name repeatedly.  He knew in his heart that she was hurt badly.  He didn’t need the EMT’s to tell him her