Chapter 14 #2
Allison assessed the young girl. Her skin was pale and cool, clammy to the touch, and her heart rate showed clear signs of tachycardia. The chest wall sustained severe injuries and the girl was gasping.
She put her ear to the girl’s chest.
“Poor breath sounds, asymmetric chest expansion and percussion. Her left lung’s collapsed. I have to drain the fluid or she’ll die before the paramedics get here.”
The teen kneeling by the girl recoiled. “You can do that?”
“I’m a trauma nurse practitioner. You see anyone else around here who can do it, find them,” she snapped.
She looked at Rafe. “Any cops here yet?”
As she asked, a highway patrol vehicle pulled up and a state trooper emerged.
“How far out are the EMTs?” she asked the officer.
“At least twelve minutes behind me.”
The kid might not have that long. “I’ll have to inflate the lung.”
She glanced around. Diana was still on her bike, looking pale, but composed. “Di, give me the straw from your tumbler,” she called out.
As her sister rushed over with the straw, Sam joined them. “What can I do?”
“What do you need?” Rafe asked.
“Get the kit from my pack and open it. There’s a flask of alcohol in there.”
When he did, she poured the alcohol over and through the straw.
Allison glanced at Rafe. “I have to drain the blood from the cavity around her left lung. Open her shirt. And try to keep her still. This isn’t going to be fun.”
As Rafe and Sam squatted by the girl, holding her, Allison disinfected her switchblade with the remaining alcohol. Doing a chest tube was dicey under normal circumstances, after an X-ray and official diagnosis, usually, and with a doctor’s orders. Well, no doctor, and certainly no X-ray.
She pierced the skin between the ribs and the pleural sack. Thankfully, the girl was unconscious. But Jenny’s brother turned a shade of green. Allison slid the straw into the wound.
Ignoring everything except her work and her patient, Allison focused with intense concentration. The world faded away. She could hear the sound of her own breathing, the rapid but steady beating of her heart.
Once she began suctioning, blood began pouring out of the straw onto the ground.
As the sounds of sirens echoed, she saw the girl begin to breathe easier. Her eyelids fluttered.
“Wow, you are so chill,” the boy told her.
Saying a silent prayer of thanks, she looked up at the approaching EMTs.
The paramedics began treating Jenny as Allison rattled off the girl’s injuries.
The middle schooler, who seemed ready to faint at the blood, gave her an admiring look. “Man, you have the rizz. You are the GOAT.”
“Charisma. Greatest of all time,” Rafe said, winking at her. “I tend to agree.”
“I speak gen alpha slang,” she muttered.
Rafe gently pulled her aside, leading her away as they loaded the girl into a waiting ambulance.
“I want to follow,” she said, the numbness setting in. “I want to know what happens to her.”
“I know,” he said softly, sliding an arm around her waist. “Sam is finding out what hospital, and we can check in later from the road.”
Diana came forward and gasped. “Ally, your shirt.”
Glancing down she saw the pretty black-and-white embroidered blouse was drenched in crimson.
Jenny’s blood.
Hiding her feelings, she shrugged. “Wouldn’t be the first shirt I’ve ruined. Guess I’ll have to go shopping. I wanted to get a cute dress for your wedding, Di. I’m still your maid of honor, if you wish.”
Pale, but smiling, her sister nodded. “Of course you are. We can go shopping in town when we get to the cabin. But you should get changed before we leave.”
Rafe followed her to the bike. Rummaging through her pack, she found a plain olive green T-shirt. So much for looking good for Rafe.
It was silly anyway, these girlish flirtations with Rafe. They would never go anywhere.
Folding his arms, he watched her. “Are you okay?”
Then he pointed to the green shirt. “You’re going to change here, out in the open, in front of everyone?”
“I’m a nurse. Used to it.”
He scowled. “I’m not.”
Motioning to the others, he instructed them to block Allison from view of the lookie-loos stuck in traffic. With their backs to Allison, they stood guard.
Another shrug and Allison pulled off the ruined blouse. The white lacy bra was also stained red. The sticky warmth nestled against her breasts.
Well, it wasn’t the first time she’d worn a patient’s blood like a shield. The bra could wait. As she unrolled her olive green T-shirt, Rafe spoke over his shoulder.
“Let me know when you’re decent.”
“I’m always decent.” She studied the black leather covering his broad back. His cool, efficient manner proved soothing.
Chucking aside the stained, ruined blouse, she shrugged into the clean shirt. “You’d make a good nurse, you know. Good in an emergency. No panicking.”
A slight chuckle. “I’ll consider that if I ever quit my day job.”
“All set.”
Rafe turned. The others headed for their bikes, chugging water, eyeballing the traffic jam.
“You were great. As usual.” Rafe’s gaze was steady.
“We make a good team, Rodriguez.”
He reached up, touched her cheek. “We do. Happy to be your sidekick anytime, Lexington.”
Her breath hitched as his finger lingered on her cheek. Warmth filled her. She’d been cold, oh so cold, and focused on the girl, but aware of the man beside her, providing steady support.
Life had a habit of tossing the unexpected into her lane. She’d learn to deal, embraced the new and exciting, never been one to bond with anyone because loss hurt and she’d seen enough loss in her line of work.
So many jobs and shifts, burning through hours like a kid glutting himself on candy. Saving money, working until she was exhausted, all so she could keep herself from having time to reflect and think.
Because the more she thought about the pain of her life, of shallow men who promised and loved and left, ghosting her without even a damn text...
Or worse, men who dumped her to pursue her beautiful and stylish sister...
Or parents who barely glanced at her accomplishments but gushed over Di... It felt better not to feel.
Not to care.
Cold and calculating was the best approach to her job and life. People lived, bled, lived again or died. They promised to care and abandoned.
But now, for once, she wanted to feel. Feel the hard embrace of a man drawn to women with smarts, a man who riled her, poked at her, made her feel awake and aware and, damn it...
Alive.
I’ve been like a walking zombie through life, and I no longer want this.
It felt daring, and scary, more scary than the first time she was faced with a crush injury in nursing school and not sure what to do. Then, her training kicked in.
Now? Unchartered territory.
But life was about risks and adventure.
Sex. Allison trembled as Rafe’s simple stroke became a deeper caress. He cupped her cheek, his thumb lingering over her lip. Traffic sounds, impatient beeps, the screech of sirens, the cough of exhaust, all faded away.
Nothing mattered but Rafe, and his touch on her skin, bringing her back to life.
A gentle cough. Glancing away from the burning intensity of sheer want in Rafe’s gaze, she saw Sam standing close. He shuffled his biker boots in the red clay of the swale.
“Uniforms said they’d let us ride in the breakdown lane to clear all this traffic as thanks for what you did, Allison. Best we get on the road before they change their mind.”
Rafe still did not drop his hand. “Get the others ready, Sam. We’ll take the rear. Be there in a minute. Make sure Diana rides directly behind you.”
Sam’s mouth quirked into a smile. “You got it. Don’t take too long. If we’re to make the border by night, we need to get cracking.”
“Guess we’d better get cracking,” she murmured.
Rafe finally dropped his hand. “Yeah. Can’t wait to get to the hotel tonight and bed.”
But as they headed for their bikes, she knew the look in his eyes didn’t mean rest.