Armed With Steele Read Online Free

world came to a dead stop.
    “A coma? H-how can she be in acoma? I mean, I’m sure she was wearing her seatbelt—she always wore her seatbelt. And she’s got airbags. Bunches of airbags. She…she should’ve been well protected, and—”
    Sharon reached over and placed a comforting hand on my knee. “I don’t understand it either, sweetheart. No one does.”
    Coma. The word ricocheted through my brain like Oswald’s magic bullet.
    The only thing I knew about comas was what I’d seen on TV. People trapped in their own mind for years, life eventually going on without them. But I didn’t want my life to go on without Grace. I needed her. She was everything to me: the sister I’d never had, my closest confidante in all things boys, and the one person alive who could cheer me up with a single peal of laughter.
    “Did…did the doctors say how long they think she’ll be like this?”
    Sharon’s eyes darted from mine back to her lap. “They don’t know.”
    “They don’t know ?” I jumped up out of my seat, ready to storm the ER for answers. Heads across the lobby turned in my direction. “They’re doctors! This is what they get paid to do! Couldn’t they at least have offered you an educated guess?”
    “Jessica, honey, please.” Sharon offered a tight-lipped smile to someone across the lobby and reached out to pull me back down into my seat.
    I relented, for her sake alone.
    “No, they didn’t. All they said was that she’d wake up when she’s ready.”
    I shook my head and saw my future flash before me. Stuck in this damned lobby with every contagious sniffle and sneeze in Fort Wayne for weeks on end. Or longer. “Great, we’re doomed. Grace never likes to be rushed into anything.”
    The words were out before I could edit. Matt chuckled, and a faint smile appeared on Sharon’s lips. “You do know my Gracie well.” She wrapped an arm around my shoulders and gave me a motherly squeeze.
    I nodded. “So, where is she now?”
    “Intensive Care. Once she’s stabilized, they’ll move her into a regular room.”
    “Can I see her?”
    Sharon shook her head. “I wish you could, Jessica. I truly wish you could.”
    My eyes drifted toward the lobby’s double-doors, and I wondered for the first time what Grace was feeling right now. Was she scared? Lonely? In unbearable pain? If only I could go back and see her. Hold her hand and tell her that everything was going to be alright…
    “Oh, before I forget.” Sharon reached around to produce a familiar-looking, oversized black Coach—the one Grace had fallen in love with at the outlet mall this past spring. “Officer Steele retrieved this from Grace’s front seat. I guess it made the trip here in the ambulance with her and Matt. Would you mind taking it home with you tonight? That way it’ll be there for her when she—” Sharon attempted a smile. “When she comes home.”
    Matt piped up. “And I sure as heck don’t want to carry that thing around anymore.” From the look on his face, you’d think Sharon was holding a giant pink box of tampons.
    I grinned at him, then looked back to Mrs. Sullivan. Hope fluttered between us. “Sure.”
    She patted my knee and sighed. “I really should get back to Grace. You two might as well head on home—we’re in for a long night.”
    Leave…without Grace? “B-but we need to be here, in case something changes!”
    Sharon rose from her seat. “Then I’ll call you right away. Now go home, and get some rest.”
    I knew from the look on her face that her words were an order, not a request. And the persistent ache in my back was a not-so-subtle reminder that a night in my own bed was a much better option than sticking around that lobby. Still, the thought of leaving Grace pained me. I could only hope that by the time I returned, she’d be awake and this whole nightmare would be over. Then I could pay penance for not answering her call. Wait on her hand and foot until she’d made a full recovery. And