CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“But…I’m not his girl,” she whispered as Harris took off. Hopping down, she rushed after him.
Getting into the cabin, she shut the door on the cold outside.
Where did he go? She ran down the hall, past the kitchen, toward the safe room.
Harris was pressing a button and one of the metal walls swung out. A metal table swung out from behind it. Behind that… shelves of supplies. All medical: glass jars, cotton balls, gauze, alcohol and so many other implements, like a mini hospital.
He carefully laid Adam down and stepped back, unzipping his armor.
Riley watched as he dismantled the Call of Duty look and was left in a tee shirt and boxers.
He turned, opened a drawer, took out a pair of sweats and put them on. Sighing, he stepped forward, grabbing the jacket and carefully removed it from Adam.
Adam hadn’t moved or opened his eyes the entire time.
Riley felt so bad. The man may have given his life to find her. She bit at her lip. God, she never wanted him to be hurt.
Grabbing scissors, Harris cut his shirt and undershirt away.
Riley watched with her stomach turning. Blood was everywhere. God, can a person lose that much and still live?
Harris worked silently though he cursed a time or two.
Walker came in and moved her over. He stood next to the table then he began helping. He pulled out a saline drip and injected Adam’s hand with the needle. He hung the bag up on a stand.
Riley was stunned. These two acted like doctors. Would she ever know what all they could do? One was her brother, the other her lover and they held secret lives, secret training. The way they took out those men coming up the mountain. She watched it all like it was a movie on the small screen. Harris was a crack shot and the way he lunged down the rope and back up while carrying full grown men? She had been impressed.
Then Walker, the way he swung that copter to and fro, dangerous moves. Trained to the hilt both of them. Cold as steel doing it too. No fear, no hesitation.
“Dammit,” Walker swore as he looked over at Riley. “This will help him, but he needs a surgeon Ridge.”
Her eyes rounded. “I-is he going to d-die?”
He shook his head. “I’m gassing up the bird. We gotta fly him out of here to an ER.”
Harris nodded as he staunched the blood then checked Adam’s eyes. “You got maybe 30 minutes, then he…” He looked up at Riley.
Her eyes were full of tears. She may have gotten an innocent man killed.
“I got Faulkner in the ice room,” Walker told him.
Harris nodded.
Riley snapped out of her haze. “Ice? You mean you’re freezing him?”
Walker let out a tight laugh. “No, it’s a phrase, like putting him on ice to hold him.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Her eyes swung up to Harris.
His expression looked blank, no emotion. “I will stitch him up and then get him to talk.”
“How?”
Harris shook his head. “Bastard here, remember? You don’t want to know.”
“Okay, getting the little bird ready,” Walker interjected. “Then bring him in about 6 minutes, Harris.” Her brother left.
Harris said nothing as dressed the wound that looked to be very near Adam’s heart. “You will be going with him.”
Her head rose up. “What?”
“Walker has to fly. You need to keep Groves stable…Press his dressing, change his bandages, watch his IV.” The entire time he spoke, he did not look at her.
“Harris—”
He shook his head. “You have to leave.”
Riley bit at her lip. She did. Adam was in this shape because of her. She needed to see this through. She wanted to say something to Harris but he sure didn’t look like he was in a mood to talk. She’d brought a real mess to his mountain—more chaos to his life.
“He will need you. If he makes it. It will be a week before he can even sit up.”
“If?”
He nodded as he moved around the table and injected something into the IV. “A surgeon or surgeons are going to have a helluva time getting this bullet out. It hit very close to his heart.”
Riley trembled.
“Okay, bundle him Harris and bring him,” Walker’s voice came over the com on the control panel.
“Okay Ridge, do you know how to check for a pulse?”
She nodded. “Yes and standard CPR But—”
“Good,” he cut her off and then went to a wall pressing another button. It slid out with shelves full of blankets, sheets and linens. He bundled Adam up. Then went over to the same wall and pulled out a gurney.
“Wow. A full triage unit,” she noted.
“Yes, we were always prepared.” He set the man on it very gently and stuffed in gauze, dressing and pads around the blankets.
Riley watched how very gentle Harris was being. There were sides to this man she never knew was there. She intended to explore all of those in the future. She opened her mouth to tell him she would be back.
“Come on, we got snow in an hour!” Walker again yelled through the control panel.
Walking back over to the small pharmacy, Harris grabbed a small bottle and a needle. “This.” He held it up. “If he goes into cardiac arrest and CPR presses don’t work. Shoot this into his IV.”
Riley felt really scared now. “Y-you think his heart will stop?”
Shrugging, he tucked that in and swung the gurney around through the door. “Anything can happen.”
Riley followed him. She felt like a huge chasm had just opened up between them. He wouldn’t even make eye contact with her. His expression remained blank. Well, he was distracted with trying to fix Adam up, but—
They made it outside. Riley finally snapped to it when the cold hit her face and quickly grabbed the IV bag walking alongside the gurney.
They got to the copter and Harris got in tugging it over.
Riley pushed from her end and Adam was inside now. Small flakes started to come down.
“Let’s do this.” Walker looked back at Harris. “Five-fifty in two.”
Riley looked over at him and then to Harris.
“Five-fifty in two. But seven hundred in three,” Harris replied.
Walker’s mouth fell open. “But Harris—”
“I mean it.” Harris glared at him.
Riley looked back and forth. “What the hell is all that babble about?”
Walker turned his head and gaze to his stick and gauges. “We gotta go, Riley. NOW.”
Harris buckled the gurney to the seat. “Remember Ridge. The IV, pulse, dressings. Every 3 minutes take his pulse. Every 10, check his dressing. Use the needle if his heart won’t start again.” He backed out of the copter and jumped to the round.
Riley felt the chopper move. “HARRIS!” she yelled over the sound of the whirring blades.
He looked up at her his green eyes stormy.
“I will be back!” she shouted over the sound of the blades.
Harris raised his hand and gave her a salute.
He was so tall and commanding still, even from the height of the copter. Smiling, she blew him a kiss. The chopper bumped and she grabbed the IV to steady it. She glanced back up.
He’d already disappeared.
It figures. He was always disappearing. Riley sat next to Adam as tears filled her eyes. A salute? How odd. But he did it instead of smiling. She couldn’t shake the dread inside of her. Harris had just shut himself off from her. More than he had the entire time she’d been here. She wanted to ask what that number coded message meant, but she couldn’t talk to Walker from here and she couldn’t leave Adam at all.
The helicopter rose up.
Riley peered out the widow to see the huge cabin from above. It was far larger than she’d assumed. But the trees all around it hid it well. She remembered Google earthing the place and it was barely there. Now she knew why.
The cabin got smaller and smaller. The white of snow was all around and blurred any images of the ground or trees. Her chest tightened. She felt like a part of her heart had just been cut out. She just felt the loss of being near Harris, right? She loved him, she knew this for sure now. Too afraid to admit it and now, she wouldn’t be able to until Adam was better.
She checked Adam’s pulse. It was weak, but there. Too slow for her liking.
The trip was quick. Adam looked paler by the minute and his bleeding had slowed. She’d wondered if the was a good sign or had he bled out all he could? Fear staked a place in her heart and wouldn’t leave.
Then they landed on the roof of a hospital where there was a flurry of medial teams taking over the gurney and whisking him away.
Riley found herself standing in the waiting room wringing her hands.
Walker put his arm around her.
“I h-hope…” Her voice fell away. She turned her face to his shoulder.
“He’s in good hands, kiddo. We did the best we could.”
Sniffling, she cried. “Why did he come up that mountain?”
“He loves you apparently.”
Riley felt so guilty. She left Adam after that ultimatum he’d given her. Then she never warned him that she might be gone for a while. She’d figured he was so disgusted with her that he wouldn’t even care at that point. She’d been wrong. To put a cherry on top of this sundae of guilt, she didn’t love him back.