Free An Accidental Hero by Loree Lough

nurse looked up from her clipboard, peered over black half glasses at his shirt and blue jeans. He followed her gaze. Until that moment, Reid hadn’t realized how much of Cammi’s blood had soaked into his own clothes.
    “Bring her inside and take a seat,” the nurse droned, pointing at two empty chairs in the waiting room.
    Eyes narrowed and lips thinned by fear and frustration, he took a step closer, thumped a forefinger on the form she’d been filling out. “Sprained ankles and upset stomachs can wait,” he growled. With each word, his voice escalated in volume and vehemence. “but the lady outside can’t. ”
    She must have heard hundreds of similar speeches. Shrugging, she went back to her scribbling. “Like I said, take a seat and we’ll get to you when we—”
    Reid spotted a gurney behind her and, stomping toward it, he snarled, “When I get back in here, there had better be a doctor standing where you are.” He didn’t wait for her to protest, didn’t tell her what he’d do if his order wasn’t carried out. Instead, Reid blasted the wheeled cot through the doors and parked it alongside Billy’s pickup.
    One look at Cammi, slumped against the window, was enough to turn his red-hot rage into ice-blue fear. She’d been pale as a ghost when he’d left her mere moments ago; in the short time he’d been inside, she’d gone whiter still.
    “Cammi, honey,” he said softly, “we’re goin’ inside now, okay?” He eased his arms under her, tenderly lifted her from the passenger seat and lay her on the gurney. Reid draped his jean jacket over her, then hurried toward the E.R. entrance, taking care to avoid cracks in the sidewalk that might jar her.
    “Hey, buddy,” an orderly said, “you can’t leave your truck there. We need that space for the ambulances when—”
    He tossed the man his keys. “Be my guest,” he snapped. “I’m kinda busy right now.”
    “Easy, Reid…” Cammi whispered.
    Was he hearing things?
    “…unless you want the E.R. docs to admit you, too, after you’ve had a stroke—or someone punches your lights out.”
    That she’d be concerned about him at a time like this said a mouthful about the kind of human being she was. From the instant their eyes met last night, he’d felt compelled to protect her from anything and everything that could harm her. What she’d said just now made him want that even more.
    He was about to say something comforting, something consoling, when he spotted a man in a white lab coat. “Doc!” he shouted. “Hey, Doc!”
    Brows raised, the fellow pointed to himself.
    “Yeah, you,” Reid hollered, pushing the gurney toward him. “This li’l gal is having a miscarriage. She’s lost a lot of blood and—”
    One look was all it took. Immediately, the doctor took control, barking orders to nurses and aides as he steered the gurney through the “Staff Only” doors to the emergency room. “Did you see the gal with the clipboard?”
    Reid ran alongside him. “Nurse Ratchet, y’mean?”
    The doctor grinned slightly. “Tell her I said you’re to provide whatever info she needs on this patient.”
    Cammi could barely keep her eyes open. Who would defend her if he wasn’t with her?
    “Do it now, ” he insisted. “Name’s Lucas. Brandon Lucas.”
    Reid grasped Cammi’s hand, brought it to his lips. “I’ll be right back, promise.”
    She nodded weakly, and in a barely audible voice said, “I know. I’ll be fine….”
    “’Course you will.” She had to be, because—
    “The nurse?” Lucas reminded him, then snapped shut the curtains surrounding Cammi’s cubicle.
    Reid stood there a second, unable to decide whether to burst in, or to do what the doctor ordered.
    “Sooner you get it done, buddy,” Lucas said through the pastel-striped material, “the sooner you can come back and hold her hand.”
    He pictured her, weak and alone, small and vulnerable, and realized there was no place on earth he’d rather be. But Lucas was