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The paramedic nods, but that doesn’t mean she’s out of the woods. He doesn’t have to tell me that. I can see it on his face. She’s still at risk of increased intracranial pressure from her head injury.
The men lift her onto the backboard and secure her to it.
I go with them to the base of the steep slope, stroking her hair, touching her shoulder, reluctant to let her go. By the time we get there, several members of my SAR crew are climbing down the incline, guide ropes attached to their harnesses. Kellan and Lucas are with them.
They’re waiting for us when we arrive at my truck.
“We’ll take her up first, and then come back for you.” Sheldon shakes his head like a disappointed parent. “You just had to try to rescue her, even though you’re off duty for the next few months because of your injured shoulder.” His expression also says he didn’t expect anything less from me.
“I couldn’t stay up there”—I jerk my chin toward the road—“knowing she was probably injured.”
I want to hold Jess’s hand, so she knows she’s not alone, but her hand and body are bundled securely in the yellow blanket. I lean down and kiss her on the forehead. “I’ll see you soon.”
I watch as the men carry her up the steep incline with the help of the guide ropes and harnesses.
“You think you can get up the slope with the harness and without reinjuring your shoulder?” Ethan asks. “Or should we get them to lower a stretcher?”
“I should be able to walk up it with the harness. I can do it one-handed.”
“You sure about that?” His tone disagrees, challenges, insinuates that I’m being an idiot.
“I’ve dealt with tougher while injured.”
“I don’t doubt it.” His tone remains the same, and I roll my eyes. He’s not a Marine. What does he know?
Ethan helps me get into the harness since that part is challenging when you only have one operational hand.
Once I’m in the harness, I walk up the slope. Lucas walks alongside me, either as encouragement or to ride my ass for hiking down the slope when I’m injured, I’m not sure. Or maybe he’s here to ride my ass to distract me from what happened to Jess.
She may have been located, but she’s barely breathing. She might develop a brain injury, or she might have some life-threatening injury the paramedics don’t know about yet. Christ, let her be okay.
10
Troy
June, Present Day
Maple Ridge
* * *
Time trudges slowly when waiting for news about a loved one.
Lucas, Kellan, Garrett, and I have been camped out in the ER waiting room since we arrived forty-five minutes ago. And still we haven’t heard a word about Jess.
Movement near the ER doors pulls me away from my pacing. Simone, Zara, and Emily rush toward us. Avery and Noah are right behind them.
“What happened?” Emily asks me, worry widening her eyes. “Is Jess gonna be okay?”
“Code Blue!” a female voice announces through the hospital speakers. “Room Five. Code Blue!”
My heart feels like it’s the one going into cardiac arrest. It’s not Jess. It can’t be Jess.
Memories of the night Colton ended his life rush in. Of sitting with Olivia in the waiting room while the ER staff worked on him. That feeling of helplessness, of frustration at not knowing what’s going on.
It takes everything I have not to go rushing through the doors leading to the ER exam rooms and demand to see Jess.
“We don’t know,” Garrett responds, not at all fazed by the code blue. I’m not in the mood to talk, so I let my brothers do it for me. “As far as we’ve pieced together, she went hiking. But for some reason, she lost control of Troy’s truck on the way back and went through a guardrail.”
