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The desperate plea spurred him into action. “Did she fall?”
He rushed over to her side.
“I don’t know,” Beth said. “I heard something and came in to investigate. What do we do?”
Pale and visibly shaken, Simon stood in the background. His eyes were wide and unblinking. He was probably in shock, but Jared didn't have time to deal with him at the moment.
“We need to get her to a hospital.” Jared hunched down on the other side of Delta and took her vitals the best he could without having the proper equipment. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and her pupils were dilated. “We need to call an air ambulance service. Hopefully, they won’t take too long to get here.” He lifted Delta in his arms. “Dammit! No one should live out here! I knew this was going to happen.”
His hatred for the ranch grew.
“We can fly her in on our own chopper,” Beth said. “We don’t need outside help to get her there.”
He blinked. “Chopper? Since when do we have a chopper?”
They didn't have time for explanations, so he didn't demand one. Beth raced out the door, and he followed with the unconscious woman in his arms. They jumped into the truck with Beth behind the wheel. He sat in the passenger seat with Delta in his arms and barely got the door closed before they shot off like a bullet from a gun. Beth stomped on the gas pedal. She drove them past the barns and the house she used to share with her father. They traveled a few miles down the road to an enormous structure. Why hadn’t he noticed the new building when riding Breaking Storm?
She slammed the brake when they reached the building his father must have built after Jared’s last visit. She jumped out of the truck and pushed open the enormous metal doors before he could offer to help. They parted to reveal a shiny black helicopter.
Reserving his questions for a later time, he carried Delta to the helicopter. They piled inside with Beth in the pilot's seat and him in the back. She seemed to know what she was doing. Amazed, he watched her flipping switches and checking gauges without hesitation. Was there anything this woman couldn't do?
He took Delta's pulse again, checked her breathing, and raised her eyelids to look at her pupils. They were still dilated. He tapped her cheek a few times and spoke softly to her. “Delta? Can you hear me?”
Beth easily maneuvered the helicopter out of the building.
He held his breath.
They shot up into the wild blue yonder, and his stomach flipped.
Beth yelled over the sound of the heavy blades rotating above their heads. “Your father bought this chopper so what happened to your mother wouldn't happen to anyone else he loved! He insisted every man and woman on the ranch learn how to fly.”
Raw emotion clogged Jared's throat. He wished he'd known. After leaving the ranch for college, he hadn't spoken to his father very often. When he did, they always wound up in a loud argument over his choice to become a doctor. In fact, he couldn't remember the last time his father had talked to him without yelling. His father never agreed with any of his choices.
Big Jim would have blasted him for seeing a shrink. Maybe that was why he had continued his therapy sessions, even after he got the answers he sought. Being able to talk to someone about his mother's death and his father's harsh way of dealing with him had helped. Somewhat.
Jared had tried to undo some of the damage his father's domineering parenting style caused to no avail. Talking to his shrink once a week hadn't helped in that department. He didn't know what else he could possibly do. Those teachings were ingrained deeply within his psyche. Part of him wanted to open up to Beth and share things he hadn't been able to share with anyone else. Unfortunately, his father's voice was always there, telling him to be a man and shut those feelings down.
“Why didn't you tell me about the helicopter?” he asked. “When I told you how my mother died, you didn't mention it.”
Beth shrugged, eyes on the sky. “Didn't think it mattered. You had your mind made up about this place and about your father.”
Delta moaned.
“Hey, can you hear me?” he asked their housekeeper and stand-in mother. “We're on the way to the hospital. You're going to be okay. Just hang on.”
Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn't open them.
He prayed with everything in him that he was right. He couldn't stand to lose another important woman in his life. At least this time, he had medical training. He couldn't count how many late nights he had lain awake in bed, wondering if he could have saved his mother with a little medical knowledge. That question would haunt him forever.
Beth flew them to the nearest hospital, and he watched with admiration growing in his heart as his wife landed the helicopter safely on the roof. Medical personnel rushed outside with a gurney. Jared placed Delta on it while giving them her vitals. When he glanced up, he saw Beth watching him with the same awe that he felt for her.
The urge to tell her he loved her grew in his heart.
Unfortunately, it would have to wait for a less stressful time, when someone they loved wasn't on the brink of death.
∞∞∞
Halfway back to Jared with two coffees from a nearby vending machine, Beth froze at the sight of him with Delta's doctor. She focused on Jared's expression. Was he hearing bad news? Good news? She couldn't tell by the look on his face. She waited for the doctor to walk away before approaching him.
