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“She trusts us to take care of her. You need to take care of her, Marshall. None of us will survive without her.”
His words gave me the confidence I needed. I turned my attention back to Lea, making a small incision between her ribs, cutting through her skin and then her muscle. “I need the pipe. Make sure you point the end you’ve cleaned with the vodka toward her. It needs to be sterile.”
The pipe appeared in my hand. “Fuck, gloves. We don’t have time. Pour the vodka over my hands.” The stench of alcohol hit me and I couldn’t help letting my eyes flit over the tattooed words on my arm, wondering if that was why this was happening. “Okay, Sugar, this is going to hurt us more than it hurts you.” I poked my finger into the cut I’d made, making sure the pipe would fit and I didn’t need to make the hole bigger. Then I pushed in the clear plastic tube, listening for the air escaping, almost crying out when I heard the telltalewooshof it working. “Someone find the tape in my bag. I need to make sure this pipe can’t move.”
I tore the tape with my teeth, securing it in place, before I pulled my stethoscope from around my neck, placing it against her now rising and falling chest, letting out the longest sigh when I heard normal breath sounds on both sides.
Before I could say anything, the sound of sirens in the distance and the blades of a helicopter cutting through the air stole my words. My body slumped forward, Fox and Dawson catching me.
Chapter 31
Fox
“Shewascomingback?”I repeated.
Her driver nodded. “She’d taken her seatbelt off to lean forward to ask me to turn around.”
I slumped back into my chair and Dawson reached for my hand, but I shrugged away.
“I just wanted to let you know. I’m being discharged, but can you let the car service know that she’s okay?”
Someone must answer him because seconds later, I heard the door open and close, leaving the three of us alone in the silence.
“She was coming back for us.” I was so confused. Nothing made sense. She was gone. Then she was hurt. Then Marshall was like a superhero, saving her. They’d brought her in by helicopter and we’d followed in a car that Matt had sent. By the time we got here, she was in surgery where she’d been for the last few hours.
I lifted my head, focusing on Marshall, who was sitting across from Dawson and I in the small room. “How did you know… what to do… how to tell the paramedics what was wrong with all those people?”
Marshall’s face paled. “It was my job.”
“What was?”
“I was an EMT. Like a paramedic over here. I specialized in trauma situations; car crashes, terrorist attacks, war zones.”
My mouth fell open, feeling like I’d slipped into an alternative universe where nothing was as it should be. “So, why did you give that up to become a bodyguard?”
I watched his Adam’s apple move slowly. “Can I tell you when Lea wakes up? I want to be honest with y’all, but it’s a lot and I’ve never really spoken about it, so I don’t want to have to say it twice.”
Dawson sighed loudly. “Maybe we all need to be honest, but I agree, Lea needs to be a part of that.”
Just then, the double doors opened, and a doctor entered, his face grim as he stared between us.
“You’re all here for Lea Lewis? I can only speak to her next of kin.”
We’d called Nee when we arrived, but her and Arch were in Edinburgh. She’d called Lea’s family, but none of them answered, so until they arrived, we were all she had.
“We’re her next of kin. Please, is she okay?” I begged.
He pushed his hands into the pockets of his white coat. “Lea has been incredibly lucky. It looks like the windscreen broke before she went through it as her head CT was clear. Her chest seems to have taken the brunt of the damage, hitting the dash and then the hood. I’m told one of you diagnosed the tension pneumothorax and treated it in the field.”
Dawson and I both turned to Marshall.
“You should be proud of yourself, young man. You saved her life. If you’d not done what you did, we would be having a very different conversation right now. Her lung re-inflated and she had some internal bleeding that we’ve fixed so we can’t see any reason that she won’t make a full recovery in a few weeks. You helped all those other people as well… leaving the notes for the paramedics allowed us to help them so much quicker.”
Dawson stood from his seat. “Thank you, doctor.”
“You should be thanking your friend. He did an amazing job. As soon as Lea is out of recovery and back in her room, one of the nurses will come and get you.” Offering Marshall a professional nod, he left.
Silence surrounded us until Dawson moved to the door of the waiting room. “I’m going to go update Addi and Matt and get some coffee. You guys want some?”
