Chapter 44 #2
“Sutton!” I cried. “Trey, I found her!”
Without waiting for him, I headed around to the other side, reaching for the door handle.
Naturally, it didn’t budge. Heedless of my own safety and despite Trey’s pleas for me to take a breath and wait for emergency services, I hoisted myself up and slid into the backseat through the busted-out window.
It was a tight fit, the vehicle seeming to have shrunk about three feet in the crash, but I managed to angle myself across the seat so I could reach Sutton.
As hard as it was not to drag her out of there and pull her into my arms, I knew moving her was the worst thing I could do for her right now.
Instead, I brushed her hair out of her face, my eyes filling with tears as I took in her battered features.
Her eyes were closed, lashes sooty crescents across her pale cheekbones.
Cuts and scrapes marred every inch of her skin, some deep enough to bleed profusely, others more surface level.
Purple bruising had already taken up residence around her eyes.
“Please, baby. Please be alive.” I silently begged. Sifting through her mass of hair, I found her neck with a shaking hand and pressed my fingers against her carotid.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Tears flowed freely now. Though it was weak, she had a pulse.
She was alive, and I could work with that.
“She’s still breathing,” I told Trey.
“Help is on the way.”
I nodded but didn’t answer, instead letting my hands roam Sutton’s body, searching for any signs of further injury.
There was an impressive lump on her head, near her temple, which I knew would trigger concussion protocol and other testing for brain injuries.
My gaze traveled lower, and I gently shifted her top arm out of the way to assess her torso.
Rookie mistake on my part.
I couldn’t tell at the moment what caused it, but there was a deep wound on her abdomen, and when I moved her arm, it began gushing blood. A hole had been ripped in the sweatshirt and through her skin.
“Fuck, Trey, she’s bleeding bad,” I said, my voice shaking as I took off my jacket, then removed my flannel and pressed it to the wound.
It soaked instantly.
Looking up, I met my brother’s eyes through the blown-out window.
“We have to get her out of here.”
“We can’t move her!”
“We have to,” I pressed. “I can’t…” I choked on a sob, swiping at my damp cheeks with my forearm. “I’ve seen wounds like this, Trey. We don’t have time to wait.”
“What about Addie?”
“Any serious injuries that you can see?”
Seemingly reluctantly, he shook his head. “Other than being unconscious, no. She was wearing her seatbelt.”
Clearly, Sutton hadn’t been.
“I’ll radio on the way and let them know there’s still a vic at the scene but knew Sutton couldn’t wait.”
“You’re fucking insane, and you’re probably going to lose your job for this.”
I stared straight into his eyes as I said, “I don’t care. There’s only one thing in this world I can’t stand to lose, and it’s her.” Trey nodded in understanding, and I returned the gesture. Then: “Now help me get this fucking door open.”
We managed to get Sutton’s neck stabilized, pulled her out of the SUV, and carried her up the hill to my truck—barely.
That fucker was steep. Using the supplies in the medical kit I kept under the backseat of my truck, we packed her wound enough to—hopefully—get us up to Boise.
Still, the medpack seemed to soak up blood at a much faster rate than I was comfortable with.
Trey drove, constantly glaring at me in the rearview when I urged him faster, ignoring the fact that he was already pushing a hundred miles an hour on the straight stretches.
I sat in the back, cradling Sutton in my arms, murmuring to her, begging her not to leave me.
“You gotta radio in about Addie, and you should probably warn Boise we’re coming in hot.”
He passed my remote mic, tuned into the Dusk Valley emergency response system.
“Sheriff Lane Lawless to dispatch.”
The line crackled to life, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Bertie spoke. “Dispatch here. What can I do for you, Sheriff?”
“Trey called in a bit ago about sending an emergency response team and two ambulances out to a scene on Highway 48. We’re only going to need one now. Female victim, driver, trapped in a vehicle in a ditch.”
“Okay,” Bertie said. “I’ll cancel that second ambo from Boise and relay this information to the team.” She was silent for a beat, then asked, “Everything okay?”
“It will be.” I hoped. Thanks Bertie.”
Then I called Boise’s hospital, warning them we were bringing in a victim with a severe abdominal wound and head trauma.
When we pulled into the emergency bay less than ten minutes later, a crew waited for us.
We got Sutton out and onto a gurney. The team wheeled her into the emergency department, and I moved to follow, but Trey held me back.
“You can’t do anything else for her,” he said.
My head drooped in defeat. Hell, my entire mind, body, and fucking soul drooped. Trey loaded me into the truck so we could head around to the front and enter through the lobby, but mentally, I was a million miles away.
My entire heart had gone into that emergency room with Sutton, and if she didn’t come out alive, I couldn’t see the point in going on without her.