Chapter 45
FORTY-FIVE
Zephyrine
We’re racing across the field to the base of the mountains, and it’s taking everything I have just to hold on to my horse as it breaks into an all-out gallop.
I’d been too afraid to practice this speed more than once or twice with the horses at the ranch, and they all felt much smaller and safer than this one.
The wind whips through my hair and I swear I’ll be thrown from the saddle with one wrong move.
But I don’t have time to think about my own fate. I’m too worried about Levi as I see his head bobbing from side to side and the way he tries to hold the reins and apply pressure to his wound at the same time. This was an ill-fated plan from the start. My father only making it worse.
I glance back over my shoulder toward the house and don’t see anyone following us. My guess is that even if he did wake up, their first instinct would be to make sure he received medical attention. But it won't be long after that before he has the entire resources of the state hunting us down.
I have no idea how we can escape that. Our plan relied on going in and out relatively unnoticed.
Shutting down and rewriting all the camera footage.
Leaving no prints or evidence behind. A small security presence.
We never had a plan for me stabbing my own father, or Levi knocking him unconscious and having his guards force him into a panic room.
For now, though, all we can do is keep riding.
Hoping that we make it to the mountain and up it in time to meet the helicopter.
I sneak another wary glance in Levi’s direction.
I have no idea how he’ll make the climb.
It feels impossible. I’ll never forgive myself if he dies from trying to save me.
I should have planned for my father. I should have known what to do.
These things were my responsibility to handle, given that it’s my family we’re dealing with.
Rowan, Bishop, and Levi handled every other aspect, planned it down to the minute, and I couldn’t even manage my small part in this well enough to keep him safe.
I don’t have time to keep berating myself, though, because I see Levi start to slump out of the corner of my eye.
He’s slipping to one side and clearly struggling to stay seated and maintain his grip on the reins.
I see the horse start to slow, and I pull back and turn to meet him, thankful when my horse complies readily.
“Levi!” I scream his name as he starts to nod off. “Levi!!” This time, he hears me and sits up straighter. He blinks and shakes his head.
“I’m fine.” He’s barely audible when he speaks; I read his lips more than hear the words.
“Give me the reins.” I reach out as I sidle up next to him. “Hold the pommel so you don’t fall off, and give me the reins. I can pony your horse.”
He starts to refuse, but I can see how pale he is, how exhausted. He’s lost too much blood.
“You have to listen to me right now. It’s the only way.
It’s an order not an ask,” I insist, and he finally yields.
He hands me his glasses too, and that’s how I know for sure how dire it really is.
He feels his way to another rope, reaching for it and wrapping it around his middle as he winces in pain.
He ties a knot to the saddle, giving himself an extra measure of safety.
“Go,” he says, his voice so weak it hurts to hear it.
I tuck the glasses in my shirt before I resituate us both, taking his reins in my left hand and holding mine in my right before I click my tongue to get the horses going again.
He holds on to the horn and lets himself settle forward enough that if he nods in and out, he won’t completely fall off.
We have a few thousand more yards to go before we reach the tree line, and then I’ll have an entirely different set of problems on my hands.
“Zephyrine!” I hear my name called from just beyond the trees and look up to see Bishop standing there as I try to help Levi down from his horse.
“Bishop!” I shout back, never more relieved to see someone in my life.
“What the fuck happened?”
“He got shot in the upper chest. Through the Kevlar. It’s bad. He’s been close to losing consciousness. He needs a doctor. I have no idea how he’ll make it up the mountain to the helicopter,” I explain, and Bishop steps in to help Levi down.
Levi tries to speak and fails, pale as a ghost and barely able to hold his head up. Bishop lays him out on the ground and pulls off his shirt and bulletproof vest. He wipes the blood away to reveal an ugly wound.
“Fucking hell. It’s a sucking chest wound. We have to get this patched. His lung is collapsed, and he can’t breathe.” Bishop roots through a pocket in his vest and extracts a foil packet. He rips the corner with his teeth and pulls the patch free.
“Will he be okay?” My heart drops to my stomach. I knew it was bad, but a collapsed lung sounds dire. Like he’s about to die, and I cannot lose him. Not now. Not ever.
“He’s gonna be good. We’re gonna get him patched up.” He peels the protective layer off and smooths the patch over his chest, his eyes meeting his friend’s. “I can’t believe you got this far like this. You’re fucking tough as nails. You keep that shit up, okay?” Bishop tells Levi.
But Levi’s lips are turning blue, and his head lolls to the side.
“Tell me the truth.” I look at Bishop.
“The truth is, we need to move fast. There’s a medic on the heli. The faster we get him there, the better this will go.”
“He can’t walk.” I point out the obvious and feel ridiculous the second the words leave my mouth.
“I’ve got you, brother.” Bishop reassures Levi as he lowers himself and hoists Levi over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.
“Are you sure?” I ask Bishop, worrying my lip between my teeth as I see him stagger for a minute before he readjusts the weight of Levi’s body.
I can only imagine what it must feel like to have that kind of weight on your shoulder and walk over a flat road.
I can’t begin to fathom climbing the boulder riddled mountain this way.
“I’ve got him,” Bishop reassures me. “This way. As fast as you can.”
I follow behind, in awe of what Bishop is accomplishing, keeping my eye on Levi as I scramble to keep pace. Bishop grabs his walkie and opens comms.
“We’re headed up the mountain now. We need the medic ready. Will be a minute or two longer.”
“We don’t have two extra minutes. One tops. Move!” Rowan’s voice orders through the static.
“What do we need ready?” the medic calls back down.
“It’s a tension pneumothorax.” His voice is labored from his heavy breathing as we weave through rocks and brush up the mountain, branches scraping over my arms and forcing me to dip and dodge as we hurry.
Allegedly, there’s a cleared spot of jutting rock at the top where the helicopter was able to land, but this terrain makes it hard to believe.
“Roger that,” the voice calls back.
“Fast as you can.” Bishop glances back at me one last time, and I nod, not wanting to waste precious breath on speaking. The altitude and exertion are taking all I have.
Bishop picks up his pace, making it hard for me to even keep up. I suppose he's had to run hundreds of drills like this over the years, maybe even carried a man just like this. But watching him has me disbelieving as my lungs burn in my chest, and I struggle to keep up.
Somehow, by a complete miracle, we make it in time.
The helicopter blades whir over our heads as we duck low and are pulled on board by the medic and Rowan, who are already waiting along with the pilot.
I barely have time to strap in before the pilot’s taking off from the mountain.
I watch the treetops disappear from below our feet, and my head swirls with vertigo.
My father’s house in the distance still lies dark, but I see the tiny looking car headlights that are moving outside it.
He called for backup, and he got it—quickly.
So quickly, in fact, I see why Rowan told us we didn’t have time, as three more men surface on the mountain at the exact spot we just took off from.
Rowan and I exchange looks, and he shakes his head. There’s nothing he can say that I haven’t already thought of myself.
“You’re lucky. He’s a better man than most,” Rowan mutters, his eyes returning to the chaos at our feet.
My heart twists in my chest as I look at Levi.
I’m dying for the chance to tell him how much it means to me that he came back for me, and I hate myself for not telling him last night.
I feel my stomach tumble as they struggle to get his body in a position where they can start to assess the damage, a red medic’s bag perched next to him as Bishop and his friend work to save his life.
“Is there something I can do?” I offer, desperate to be helpful in some way. I feel like all I’ve done is act like extra baggage—a burden the rest of the team wishes they could get rid of. Besides my initial role in getting them into the compound, I don’t know that I’ve been any help at all.
“No. Just stay clear.” Bishop shakes his head as he assists the medic. They work in sync like they’ve done this a million times before, probably because they have.
“I feel useless,” I mumble.
“You got us inside. That was your job, and you did it well,” Bishop reassures me. I don’t have the heart to tell him I might have doomed us all by killing my father. I can’t think about him right now. His life seems inconsequential compared to the man lying on the floor of this helicopter.
I watch as the medic pulls out a giant needle and moves the tip to Levi’s chest. I turn away just as he slides it in.
“Is he going to live?” I force the question past my lips. I’m not sure I want the answer, but I have to ask it.
“He’ll live.” The medic answers instead of Bishop this time. The shock of it seems to be finally setting in as Bishop slumps back against the closed door of the helicopter.
“Thank fuck.” Rowan shakes his head. “I wasn’t going to be the one to tell Grant we let his stubborn ass get himself killed.”
I think, despite his unbending pragmatism, deep down the man sees Levi as a brother. Someone who irritates and confounds, but he loves underneath it all. Not that he’d ever admit it. He and Levi are both stubborn that way.
“I just hope his stubbornness saves him,” I say softly, and Bishop looks up at me, patting my knee and giving me a reassuring look.
One I need. Because I want the chance to tell Levi how much he means to me and thank him for coming back for me.
I want to tell him how grateful I am for all the time we’ve had together and how he’s made me believe that good things are possible again.
Most importantly, I need to tell him how madly in love with him I really am.