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“Jake! Where’s the helicopter? We need to get her to a hospital. Now.” His voice broke, and tears slipped down his cheeks. “I can’t lose her.”
“I’ve notified 911 and called in a couple of favors with a medical flight organization. They’re on their way. Should be here soon.”
“I hope it’s soon enough,” Griff said. “Please, let it be soon enough.”
“I also called the lodge. Thorn and Gunny are headed this way. They’ll contact someone to collect the body.”
That body could rot in hell for all Griff cared. The man had almost killed Rachel.
Jake positioned all three of the four-wheelers to point their headlights at Rachal’s position.
Griff checked her pulse and her breathing again and again.
A few precious minutes later, the thumping sound of rotors echoed against the hillside.
A spotlight shone down on them. As the helicopter hovered overhead, a flight medic came down on a cable, carrying a medical equipment case. He sent the cable back up. While the medic worked with Rachel, the cable came down again. This time with a basket attached.
Griff knelt on the other side of Rachel, still applying pressure to the wound while the medic established an IV.
They quickly transferred her to the basket, and the cable pulled her up into the aircraft, coming back down for the medic.
Gunny and Thorn arrived as the spotlight blinked out and the helicopter rose into the night sky.
Jake spoke briefly to Thorn and Gunny, then yelled, “Let’s go!”
Griff hopped onto an ATV and followed Jake back down the trail and all the way to the lodge.
RJ was waiting with Jake’s truck running.
The two men left the ATVs in front of the lodge and jumped into the truck.
RJ drove, exceeding the speed limits but carefully negotiating the curves through Ute Pass.
Jake found out which hospital the helicopter would take Rachel. They blew into Colorado Springs thirty minutes later and went straight to the hospital’s emergency room.
Rachel had arrived and been wheeled directly to the operating room, where a doctor had been on standby.
Griff, Jake and RJ had nothing else to do but wait.
Griff paced the length of the OR’s waiting room several times before his leg started aching. He sat in a chair, buried his face in his hands and prayed for the first time since his entire team had died.
Sunlight warmed Rachel’s face.She shouldn’t be lying in bed. Wasn’t she supposed to be on day shift today?
Her eyelids fluttered open to bright sunshine streaming through a window she didn’t recognize.
“Hey,” a voice beside her said.
She turned to see Griff leaning close to her, with dark circles beneath his eyes and thick stubble on his chin.
“Where?” she asked, her voice no more than a croak.
His lips twisted. “In the hospital in Colorado Springs.”
Her brow furrowed.
“You were shot,” Griff said.
“I thought I shot Al.”
