The Romance Revival(15)

“I need you to listen to me,” I say, pressing heavily on the gas pedal. “Don’t ask questions, just listen, okay? Are there still gurneys at the loading dock at the back of the building?”

“The ones we use for veterinary emergencies? There should be.” She pauses. “Girl, please do not tell me you stopped for a wounded animal on the way to—”

“What about cameras?” I interrupt, veering around a slow-moving car. “Is it still just the one?”

“As far as I know. They talked about adding more because of the blind spot behind the concrete pillar, but I don’t think they ever did.” She hesitates. “Is there a reason you’re asking me this?”

“I need you to meet me out there. Don’t talk to anyone, just bring your key card—” I look down at my clothes and see my probability dress is covered in Luca’s blood. “And an extra lab coat and meet me outside. When you see me pull in, bring me the gurney.”

“Wha—”

“Just do it, okay? I’m almost there.”

A minute later I come to a screeching stop just shy of the BioNEX loading dock and breathe a sigh of relief when I see Annie silhouetted against the building.

Opening the door, I climb out and kneel next to the car. Luca still hasn’t moved, and I pull back the blanket and press my palm to his cheek. It’s cool, but that’s to be expected; Compound Y lowered his body temperature to prevent pallor mortis and protect his brain and vital organ systems. It’s the faint pulse in his throat that I need to confirm, and I find it with my fingers. The drug is working. It’s keeping his heart beating and his brain firing just enough to maintain respiration and prevent livor mortis.

But a glance at my watch tells me we have less than thirty minutes to get him into the BioVIVE. We’re running out of time.

“Don’t you dare leave me,” I whisper.

I look over my shoulder at the clatter of a gurney on asphalt behind me and stand as Annie nears the car.

“What sweet baby do we have here?” she says, expecting to see an injured animal in my back seat. When I take a step to the side, she stops, her hands coming to her mouth with a terrified gasp. “Oh my God. Is that… is that Luca?” Her medical training kicks in and she rushes forward, looking for injuries. “What happened to him?”

“He was hit by a car.”

“Have you called 911?”

Reaching for the gurney, I roll it to the car. “There wasn’t time. Help me get him out.”

Spinning around, she grips my arm. “Emery!”

“He didn’t have a pulse. He died, Annie! Do you understand?”

She goes still, realization slipping over her features in a mixture of horror and heartbreak. “You… you took it home. Oh my God, Em. Honey. Please tell me you didn’t inject him.” When I don’t answer, she rakes a hand through her hair, spinning in a half circle, breath coming out sharp and fast. “Holy shit, this is bad. Emery, this is so bad.”

“I need you to help me.”

“You don’t even know if the compound will work!”

Bending, I reach for his hand. “It is working. Feel him. He’s cold!”

Slowly, she does, her fingers coming to rest gently on his palm, before moving to the inside of his wrist, feeling for a pulse. “How long ago.”

“About ten minutes.”

“There’s barely any respiration.”

“I started the protocol within a minute of his last breath. Honey was in respiratory arrest at least five times longer before being injected.”

“She wasn’t bleeding out.”

“Which is why we need to get him inside,” I say with urgency.

“How exactly? We’re just going to roll a body into one of the most secure facilities in the state of California?”

Luckily, I’ve given this some thought. “Security is used to us bringing in veterinary patients at crazy hours.”

“True…” Annie says, her eyes wary with the need to be reassured that we are not, in fact, about to be arrested by a secret army and sent back in time to serve out a life sentence in a Soviet gulag.

“And we know there’ll be a guard at the entrance—probably Carl.” I glance back at Luca again. A paralyzing, strangling fear rises up inside me, and I force myself to push it down. Not yet, I tell myself. I can’t fall apart yet. “And then the BioNEX security clearance.”

“Probably Michelle,” Annie says.

“Which is good,” I tell her, “because she has that giant Stanley cup and always has to pee. You can offer to watch the desk while she goes, and I’ll slip in with Luca.”

“What if she doesn’t have to pee?” Annie asks, voice high and edged with hysteria.

“Then—then, I don’t know. We hit her over the head?”

“Emery.”

“Do you have any other ideas?”

“Fuck. I hate you for this.”

“Don’t worry, I hate me enough for both of us.” Conscious of the angle of the security camera, we heft Luca out of the back seat, grunting with the effort.

Without an ounce of coordination, we manage to get most of him on the gurney, his deadweight landing awkwardly, one arm flopping over the side, his uninjured leg hanging off the other. My stomach twists as I rearrange his limbs under the blanket; we’ve saved dozens of injured animals, but none of them ever looked as corpselike as Luca does right now.