I swept my thumb across the back of her hand. “That’s my girl.”
Her fingers gave another twitch, but she didn’t let go. “I was losing my balance, and everything was fuzzy, but I got him with an elbow to the ribs. Then someone yelled from down the street.”
I glanced over to where Sergeant Ruiz was interviewing a couple—I guessed the people who had interrupted the crime.
“I don’t really know what happened next. I guess I fell…”
Hadley removed the gauze pad, and it was soaked in blood. She quickly replaced it with another one, even though Everly winced as she did. “Everly knocked her head pretty good on the pavement. It’s going to need stitches, and she might have a concussion. Whenever you’re done, we’re going to take her to Forest Lake to get checked out.”
One of the few downsides of living where we did was that there wasn’t a hospital close by. We had a good Urgent Care, but we were forty-five minutes away from treatment for true emergencies.
Everly tried to sit up on the gurney but winced. “Hadley, I don’t think I need the Emergency Room. Can’t someone give me stitches here?”
“You’re getting checked out,” I barked.
“Bedside manner, Hayes,” my sister warned.
My back teeth ground together. “You need a doctor to look at you, and probably some x-rays or a CT scan.”
Everly slumped back against the gurney.
“They’ll get you in and out as fast as they can,” Hadley assured her. “You done?” she asked me.
“Just one more question. Did you see the attacker? Anything about him or her at all?”
“Based on size, it was a man. He was behind me the whole time. I never got a look at him.”
“What about his voice? Did he say anything?”
“Nothing—” Her words cut off.
“What?”
“He made a noise when I bit him…but nothing about it was familiar.”
It was all just a little too similar to Cammie’s attempted abduction—and easily could’ve been a crime of opportunity. “Do you usually work this late on Thursdays?”
“No. I normally leave with everyone else.”
One more point in the opportunity column. But I had to ask one more thing. “Do you think this could’ve been Ian?” I wasn’t sure Allen had the strength to overpower Everly. She was much stronger than her size suggested.
Pain danced across Everly’s eyes, and this time, it wasn’t from the gash on her head. “I don’t think so. It’s not his style. Attack me? Sure. But try to kidnap me? That’s not him.”
“Okay. I’ll need to talk to him anyway. I’ll tell him to keep his distance, but you may get blowback.” I hated that there was almost nothing I could do to shield her from it. Nothing legally, anyway.
“I’ll be prepared.”
“I really need to take her in, Hayes.”
“Go.” I forced myself to release Ev’s hand, but it hurt like hell. She looked so damn small and alone on that gurney. “Take care of her.”
“You know I will.”
I looked at Everly. “Text me and let me know what the doctor says. Or if you remember anything else.”
“Okay.”
The single word was soft—quieter than I’d ever heard Ev before. And I had to fight the instinct to climb into the back of the ambulance they were loading her into. Instead, I turned to my officers. The way I could help was to find whoever had done this.