Devante (Laurel Springs Emergency Response Team Book 6) Read online

  Devante

  Laurel Springs Emergency Response Team #6

  Laramie Briscoe

  Contents

  Also By Laramie Briscoe

  New Release Alerts

  Moonshine Task Force Members

  Summary

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue One

  Epilogue Two

  About the Author

  Report Errors/Reviews

  Connect With Laramie

  Also By Laramie Briscoe

  Copyright © 2021 Laramie Briscoe

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, distributed, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, without express permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and storylines are created from the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

  Editor: Elfwerks Editing

  Beta Readers: Danielle Wentworth

  Cover: Laramie Briscoe

  Cover Photography: Furious Fotog

  Formatting: Laramie Briscoe

  Created with Vellum

  Also By Laramie Briscoe

  The Haldonia Monarchy

  Royal Rebel

  Royal Chaos

  Royal Love

  Heaven Hill Series

  Meant To Be

  Out of Darkness

  Losing Control

  Worth The Battle

  Dirty Little Secret

  Second Chance Love

  Rough Patch

  Beginning of Forever

  Home Free

  Shield My Heart

  A Heaven Hill Christmas

  Heaven Hill Next Generation

  Hurricane

  Wild

  Fury

  Hollow

  Restraint

  Bishop

  Heaven Hill Shorts

  Caelin

  Christine

  Justice

  Harley

  Jagger

  Charity

  Liam

  Drew

  Dalton

  Mandy

  Rockin’ Country Series

  Only The Beginning

  The Price of Love

  Full Circle

  Hard To Love

  Reaper’s Love

  The Nashvegas Trilogy

  Power Couple

  Breach of Contract

  Platinum

  The Moonshine Task Force Series

  Renegade

  Tank

  Havoc

  Ace

  Menace

  Cruise

  Laurel Springs Emergency Response Team

  Ransom

  Suppression

  Enigma

  Cutter

  Sullivan

  Devante

  Archer

  The MVP Duet

  On the DL

  MVP

  The Midnight Cove Series

  Inflame

  Stand Alones

  My Confession

  Sketch

  Sass

  Trick

  Room 143

  2018 Laramie Briscoe Compilation

  2019 Laramie Briscoe Compilation

  New Release Alerts

  JOIN MY MAILING LIST

  http://sitel.ink/LBList

  JOIN MY READERS GROUP

  fbl.ink/LaramiesLounge

  TEXT LARAMIE TO 88202

  Moonshine Task Force Members

  Ryan “Renegade” Kepler – Married to Whitney and father to Stella and Nick. Best friend to Trevor.

  Trevor “Tank” Trumboldt – Married to Blaze, brother to Whitney, uncle to Stella and Nick. Best friend to Ryan.

  Holden “Havoc” Thompson – Married to Leighton, father to Ransom and Cutter. Best friend to Mason.

  Anthony “Ace” Bailey – Married to Violet.

  Mason “Menace” Harrison – Married to Karina, father to Caleb and Kelsea, grandfather to Molly and Levi. Best friend to Holden.

  Caleb “Cruise” Harrison – Married to Ruby, father to Molly and Levi, son of Mason, brother to Kelsea.

  Summary

  Sometimes home finds us when we aren’t looking…

  Devante Soles

  Laurel Springs was nothing more than a dot on the map when I decided I needed a change from the fast pace of Atlanta.

  I’m more surprised than anyone when I look around one day and realize I have friends who have become family, a city that’s become a home, and a girl who decided to make me believe in love.

  Unlike me, her past follows her here.

  A community that I once never thought I’d have comes together with me to save her.

  Eden Murphy

  Chicago wasn’t for me - the bright lights, the embezzlement, the gun shots. I never felt safe there. Little Laurel Springs, though? It’s everything I hoped it would be and more.

  My coffee shop, A Whole Latte Love, isn’t doing well, but I’m close to turning a profit.

  And Devante? Well, he’s more than I ever could have asked for.

  But Mario? He’s the one I didn’t count on coming back and demanding what I stole…

  Author’s Note

  Hi Reader!

  This book was very hard to write. As with most of my LSERT books, the job itself is background to whatever happens in the story.

  Knowing that I am a southern white woman writing Black characters, please know I did it with the utmost care.

  I have done my absolute best to remain true to the author I am, the stories you crave as my readers, and be mindful of what these characters represent.

  Thank you for reading.

  Laramie

  Prologue

  Devante

  “I’m scared.”

  The fear in Eden’s eyes hits me square in the chest. A fear I’ve never felt before follows. Usually when I’m out on a call, I’m helping people I don’t know. I’m on auto-pilot. There’s a repetition to the care I give. The automatic movements that have been ingrained; I can do them in my sleep. In the moment, I’m always able to push through anything distracting me from the periphery, but not this time.

  This is dif
ferent. She’s different. I’ve grown to care for her, and damned if her dark eyes don’t kill me.

  Reaching down, I cup her cheek in the palm of my hand. “I know. I’m gonna take care of you.” She nods, closing her lids tight against the pain. “I went to school for it and shit.”

  There’s a laugh with an almost smile. Barely there, but enough to make me feel better about the situation.

  “Thank you, Devante.”

  “No need to thank me. I’d do almost anything to hear you laugh.”

  “You ready?” Cutter asks from where he stands at the back of the ambulance. “I’ve called us in.”

  “Just get us there.”

  He nods before closing the door, tapping on it twice out of habit. Turning my attention to Eden, I do my best to take my personal feelings out of the situation. It’s hard, impossible not to notice my hands shaking, the nervous fluttering I have in my stomach.

  “On a scale of one to ten, how is your pain?”

  She bites her lip, pressing her palm to her sternum. “It was coming and going, but now it’s constant. I’d say an eight to nine. I ache so badly. It’s agony.” She measures her breathing, presumably trying to control the pressure she’s putting on her chest and stomach.

  When I grab the blood pressure cuff I go into the zone. This is the stuff I can do in my sleep. Pulse oximeter on her finger and thermometer in her mouth. Quickly I hook her up to an EKG monitor because of the chest pain complaint.

  She moans loudly, eyes closed, moving around on the gurney.

  Reaching out, I grab her hand with mine, rubbing the back of it with my thumb. “You’re going to be fine, I promise.”

  Her eyes pop open, and she nods. The light brown depths that have always intrigued me, since the first day I met her, are dark now. Highlighting more than anything else for me how uncomfortable she is.

  Reaching over for the radio, I go to call into Laurel Springs Medical, when I realize I don’t know how old she is. “How old are you?”

  “Twenty-four,” she presses out between clenched teeth.

  Younger than I thought. Three years my junior. Filing that information in the back of my mind, I continue. “Excuse me for making the generalization. You’re bi-racial?”

  “Black and white, got the best of both worlds.” Her smartass grin is somewhat lopsided.

  “Laurel Springs Medical come in.”

  “Go ahead.”

  I notice the voice is that of Stella Thompson. I’m beyond relieved she’s on duty. “Ambulance thirty-five sixteen in route with a twenty-four-year-old bi-racial female complaining of chest and back pain. EKG is negative. Blood pressure is one eighty-five over one-fifty. Slight fever of one hundred point one. Oxygen at ninety-five percent. Preliminary thought is gallbladder. Requesting permission to administer pain medication to bring the blood pressure down.”

  “Devante, is it Eden?” she asks softly.

  We’re not supposed to have patients we like more than others. We’re trained not to get personally involved, but Laurel Springs is such a small town, it’s inevitable. Day in and day out, we work, eat, have coffee, hang out together. This core group somehow becomes more like family than those who share the same blood as you.

  Then there’s the others. The ones who get under your skin, burrow deep, and you want them to hang on for dear life. They’re the people who make your day better by just being around, and that’s who Eden is to not only me, but everyone. “Yeah,” I answer just as softly, still in denial this is happening.

  She clears her throat, and it’s almost as if I can see her straighten to her full height and start paying more attention. “Go on with pain medication, and continue with…” she rattles off a blood pressure medication. “How far out are you?”

  Cutter hears from where he sits in the driver’s seat. “ETA four minutes.”

  “Got ya,” she says loud and clear. “We’ll be waiting.”

  I put the radio back on its base and turn to Eden. “I’m going to take care of the pain for you.”

  “Thank you,” she breathes deeply. Relief flashing across her furrowed brow. “I’m glad Stella’s there. It’ll be nice to see another friendly face.”

  Taking a moment, I reach out, gently grabbing her chin with my fingers. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “It’s okay, Devante. I know you have a job to do.”

  My throat tightens, but I manage to clear it. “Nothing is more important than you.”

  In most situations I’d be worried about revealing my feelings. Relationships haven’t been my strong suit. Monogamy is the game I play, and the last girl did a number on not only my car, but my confidence. I’m a close to the vest type of guy, but in this one, it’s important for her to know she has support. I don’t know what her home life is like. We’ve never talked about it in the private moments we’ve had at the coffee shop. The only thing I know for sure is she moved here from Chicago for a better life. Same thing I moved here from Atlanta for. It’s the thing we’ve bonded over in the time we’ve spent alone.

  “I appreciate you.”

  Tearing my gaze away from hers, I get prepared to give her the shot that will make her feel better. “Little stick and then you should be more comfortable.”

  She flinches slightly, but otherwise takes it like a champ.

  “We’re here,” Cutter announces.

  The ambulance lurches to a stop, the only sound in my ears is that of him getting out of the front seat and coming around to the back. When he opens the doors, I can see the tension in his shoulders. Neither one of us like to transport people we know, and Eden’s made an impact on the friend group, since we started including her.

  He helps me get her lowered, and as I turn to help take her into the hospital, I see Stella running forward. On instinct, I yell out everything I’ve already done for her, so the emergency room staff knows what they’re dealing with.

  “We’ve got it from here.” Stella looks at me, giving a reassuring smile.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “You’ve gotta stay out of the way, Devante.”

  We have a whole conversation between us as we look into each other’s eyes. There aren’t many I can do that with, but Stella is good people. “I promise to sit over here in the corner. Just let me be here for her.”

  “Okay,” she relents.

  Against my better judgement I have a seat, watching as they work on her. Cutter is standing just outside the door. He makes a motion with his hand, letting me know he’s going back to the ambulance. We’ve worked together long enough that he knows I’m not leaving. I don’t worry about anything to do with my job; I know he’ll take care of all of it.

  He’s the best partner I’ve ever had, and an even better friend. When I first moved here, I got Rowan, but in the past few months, they’ve put me with Cutter. I’ve never had a partner I could call a friend. Especially not some southern white boy who goes hunting. But he and I? We’ve hit it off and I feel more welcome in his home than I did in the one I had in Atlanta. He sees and appreciates me for who I am.

  “Is there anyone we can call for her?” Alisa, another new transplant to Laurel Springs asks. She’s worked with Stella for a while, and we’ve all gotten to know her as well.

  “I don’t know.” I shrug. “She’s never talked about her family to me. She’s from Chicago,” I offer, hoping that helps some.

  “Yeah, she never talked about her family on girl’s night either,” she sighs. “We’ll have to see what we can find out in case decisions need to be made for her well-being.”

  I hate the way she makes that statement. I don’t want to think about decisions of that magnitude having to be made. Not when the two of us have basically just found one another. “Yeah, whatever she needs, I’m here.”

  “You’re a good guy.”

  Before I can answer, she moves around to make room for the ultrasound machine. While I sit, making myself small, and for someone who’s typically helping, feeling the most helpless I ever
have in my life.

  Chapter One

  Eden

  The world is hazy as I struggle to open my eyes. It’s extremely difficult but I fight against the fatigue plaguing my body. The last thing I can remember is feeling like shit at the shop. Correction, I’d been feeling rough for a few days, but there’d been no way I could take time off or close early. A Whole Latte Love has been barely making it since I opened a few months ago, but business is finally starting to become consistent. The money I managed to bring with me from Chicago has quickly been running out. If only I’d planned to get more.

  I’d been debating on what my choices were with the shop when I started to believe I was really sick. And then I’d panicked because I’d been alone.

  No wait, Devante was there. He was there, and I’d ridden in the ambulance.

  There’s a beep, beep, beep, in the background and I wonder if this has all been a dream of some sort and I’ve slept through my alarm. If I have, I’m late for opening, and I can’t afford that. With a burst of energy I somehow manage to summon, I fight to sit up. Something is preventing me from doing it though, there’s a heaviness holding down my wrist and hand. Reaching down, I try to disentangle myself from it.