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Chapter 26
Forty minutes later, sweat dripping down her face, her back and her sides, leg muscles burning, Alex turned the treadmill speed up a notch. She’d already logged more than five miles, and she wanted six. Six miles had been her goal when she ran at home, whether it was on the street or at the gym. And unless she dialed up the speed, she’d never make it to six miles.
The treadmill rumbled faster. She picked up her speed for a few minutes, but her legs wobbled. They couldn’t match the pace of the belt beneath her feet. She stumbled, and her toe caught on the rubber. Threw her to the side, where she crashed into the small handle near the console. As she flailed, the treadmill threw her backward and she flew through the air. Crashing to the floor, she instinctively put out her left hand to break her fall.
Her arm hit the floor with the weight of her body behind it, and the sharp, searing pain made her scream. Sucking in shallow, panting breaths, she curled into a ball. Cradled her arm against her chest and tried to breathe through it. But the agony was all-consuming. Everything disappeared but her throbbing arm.
Her vision blurred. Blood roared in her ears. Her heart battered against her chest in hard, rattling jolts. Nothing existed but the stabbing ache in her arm.
Something was seriously wrong. She’d never felt pain this intense. This extreme. She needed to stand up. Get help. But she could focus on nothing but protecting her arm. Nothing beyond drawing her next breath.
After long moments with her arm cradled against her chest, she knew she needed to stand up. Find help. But even rolling onto her back sent waves of pain rolling through her, so intense her stomach heaved.
“Alex?”
A voice. Above her. Alex forced her eyes open and saw Brynn squatting beside her, her gaze fixed on the arm she cradled to her chest.
“What happened?” Brynn asked, her voice sympathetic.
“I… I was stupid on the treadmill,” Alex managed to say. “Set it too fast, and it threw me off. I tried to break the fall. Did something to my arm.”
Brynn nodded. “Yeah. Looks like you broke it.” She touched Alex’s shoulder. “Do you think you can sit up?”
“Maybe. Yeah.” She drew in a deep breath. “Can’t lie here for the rest of my life. Even though I really don’t want to move right now.”
“Yeah,” Brynn said with a tiny smile. “I totally get it. Okay if I try to help? Steady your right side? Help you get your feet beneath you?”
Alex suspected it was going to hurt like hell. She grimaced. “Got to do it sometime.”
“Okay. Take a couple of deep breaths,” Brynn said, holding her gaze. “Focus on me. I’ll help you lift your upper body.”
Alex nodded. Even that small movement sent shock waves down her arm.
Brynn gripped her right shoulder and upper arm. “On three, lift your torso,” she said. “One. Two. Three.”
Alex used her core muscles to sit up, and her arm swung away from her chest. Her hand moving like lightning, Brynn stopped Alex’s arm before it could bounce back against her chest. Moved it slowly and carefully into place.
She studied Alex for a moment, then stood up. “Before we get you on your feet, I’m gonna get a splint. Immobilizing your arm, even a little, will help. Be right back.”
She hurried around a corner, and Alex stared down at her broken arm. A huge lump distorted her forearm. Was that a piece of her bone poking at her skin? The mental image made her stomach churn.
A few minutes later, Brynn returned, carrying an arm’s length, semi-circular piece of plastic, an equally long roll of cotton, some gauze and a folded piece of blue cloth. Kneeling beside Alex, she tore off two lengths of the cotton, folded them into quarters and used it to line the plastic. Then she fitted it to Alex’s arm.
“I need to wrap the gauze around the splint to hold everything in place,” Brynn explained. “That’s a two-person job, so I called Gideon. He was on the other side of the compound, but he said he’d hurry. In the meantime, I’ll put your arm in the brace. That should give you a little relief.”
Gideon. Alex didn’t want him to see her like this. Injured because of her own stupidity. Helpless. In pain. But she also didn’t want Brynn to know about their rift. What had happened between her and Gideon was no one else’s business. So she nodded.
Brynn placed the brace beneath Alex’s arm, then lifted it until her forearm rested on the cotton. Then she steadied Alex’s arm as she lowered it to her lap. “Better?” she asked.
Alex nodded. Although her arm still ached, the piercing, shrieking pain was gone. As she began to reply to Brynn, the gym door crashed open and Gideon rushed inside. Stopped. Looked around frantically. When his gaze locked on her, sitting on the floor, he ran over. Knelt down beside her. “Oh my God.” He touched her right hand. “You hurt anything besides your arm?”
“Only my pride,” she said, staring down at Gideon’s hand on her arm. His chest was still heaving. If he’d been on the other side of the compound when Brynn called, he must have sprinted all the way to the gym.
“What happened?”
Brynn nudged his shoulder. “Save the chit-chat, Wolf. We need to put gauze around that splint to hold her arm in place and then get her into a sling.” She nodded at his hands. “Hold the splint steady, one hand in the middle and one at the end. I’ll let you know when to move your hand.”
“Got it, Gordon.” He removed his fingers from Alex’s hand, and her aching heart wanted him to put it back. Instead, he supported the splint as Brynn began to wind the rolled gauze around her splinted arm. In minutes, the gauze had secured her arm in the splint. It still hurt, but stabilizing it had eased the worst of the pain.
