Chapter Fourteen
Levi
At the bottom of the hill, Reaper stood with Iris and Craig, waiting for word on what had happened on the trail.
Sweaty and out of breath, Gwen stepped forward to keep her mom from fussing over Tess and slowing the extraction.
Goose gave Reaper a rundown of events.
With no connectivity, Goose pulled up the documentation on Gwen’s phone and then his. Goose held them out for Reaper to take pictures of the pictures and video of the video. Then, Reaper took pictures of the field notes delineating their actions.
Back at the winery, Reaper would convey that information to the hospital, giving them a heads-up that an urgent patient was inbound.
Meanwhile, with Tess in his arms crushed against him, Levi leaned back against the sun-heated surface of the vehicle, catching his breath.
Goose performed the second blood draw, and Enrico opened the hatch on his Etosha vehicle, rounding to lowering both passenger benches to make a flat area for Tess to lie in.
The team moved Tess into the back, putting Mojo on one side of her and Levi on the other. “We’re going to be going fast,” Goose said. “We were longer on the trail than I wanted. If you’re getting rocked around too much back there, Tess, tell me. We don’t want you clenching your muscles or expending effort to keep yourself from getting slung about.”
“I’ve got her,” Levi said.
Seat belts pulled into place, the engine roared to life as Enrico catapulted over the bumpy stretch of dirt and onto the highway.
They were all exhausted and silent for a long stretch until Goose called out, “When we drove past the Etosha guard station, I had Wi-Fi just long enough to pull up the zebra cobra page on Tess’s snake app. This looks right.” He turned in his seat to flash the picture to Levi. “Tess, we won’t be a hundred percent sure what kind of snake bit you until we get the blood tests back. It could be that one snake bit you, and another slithered by. We won’t make any assumptions. It’s a matter of taking the right diagnostic steps.”
“Go ahead and tell me what it’s saying about zebra cobras,” Tess said. “My imagination is absolutely worse than anything you could read to me from that page.”
“The good news is that if it is a zebra cobra, they are cytotoxic. That means that their venom affects cell activity.”
“And that’s good why?” Levi asked.
“This is not an immediate life or death situation. Tess has an opportunity to get to the hospital for the anti-venom in time.”
“In time for what?” she asked.
“I’ve got bars,” Levi called out.
Goose looked down at his screen. “Yup. Me, too. Tess, in time to get you help before the DNA in your cells gets affected. I’m calling the hospital. Even though Reaper has conveyed everything we documented by now, I’d like to know if I missed any first aid steps.” He made the call, spoke with their specialist, and gave the hospital an updated ETA.
Enrico understood the assignment. Barring slower-moving traffic ahead, they’d make the hour-long drive in forty minutes.
As the sun went down, the wind picked up, buffeting the sides of their vehicle.
“Levi,” Goose called out.
“On it.” Levi pushed his boots into the back hatch, sidling closer to Tess. Once she was tightly sandwiched between him and Mojo, Levi reached across to Tess’s immobilized leg, catching hold of the brace, then he pressed his elbow into his ribs and his back to the side of the vehicle, cutting down the jostling as much as possible.
Mojo rested his head on her chest, and Tess rested her hand on Mojo’s neck. Levi knew that she was gaining calm from the K9’s empathy. And Levi was grateful that she was getting emotional support from a source that didn’t have baggage attached.
Levi was struggling.
In the long minutes of breakneck driving, he had time to think and for memories that he’d pushed away to resurface.
All of them were wonderful.
The good, the bad, and the ugly, with Tess, it was all wonderful up until the letter arrived.
“I’m engaged to marry Abraham. I’m so sorry.”
For fourteen years, she’d been a widow. She hadn’t looked him up. In Levi’s mind, he’d always thought Tess’s marrying Abraham was an act of duty. She was living her ethos. He’d imagined that something very bad had happened, and Tess marrying Abraham was the only solution to making it better.
Levi had imagined that, given the choice of free will without moral pressures, Tess would have chosen to marry him as they’d planned from the day they met.
But if that were true, Levi reasoned, wouldn’t it follow that once Abraham died, Tess would find him, explain everything to him, and return to his arms?
The story he’d been telling himself for the last sixteen years was merely a fantasy bandaging his heart.
Yeah, he was struggling.
Enrico shouted back, “We’re here. Levi, when I pull up, just stay where you are.”
“Wilco.”
“They have medical staff and a gurney,” Goose said.
Enrico glided to a stop, checked the time, and said, “Close to your timeframe, Goose. We’re here three hours and five minutes post-bite.”
Goose grinned. “Hell of an effort.”
“Thank you,” Tess called out.
As soon as they pulled up and Enrico put the vehicle in park, the hospital staff swarmed in the practiced choreography for moving emergency patients.
The men stood at their vehicle as the nurses pushed the gurney through the automatic doors, then ran down the corridor and away.
Mojo, standing in the cargo area, moved forward and draped his head over Levi’s shoulder. “Thank you, buddy,” Levi whispered as he scritched Mojo’s ears, then turned so he could give a double-handed reward. “You did an amazing job today. I’m grateful for you.”
Mojo gave a whining yawn, releasing stress. He’d been part of the team. And like the team, he’d felt the mission pressures and met the needs in ways both commanded and intuited. As Levi looked into Mojo’s eyes, he thought that he read compassion there.
It was really something for Levi to finally find the dog of his heart and, at the same time, realize that the connection he’d always felt with Tess had been a figment of his imagination. It spun his head.
Goose petted a hand down Mojo’s side. “Damned impressive training.”
“I’m not taking credit for everything today. Yeah, it was part training. But a whole lot of that is heart. Once Mojo understands a mission, he gives it his all. He’s a solid partner.”
Because of Mojo, the men stayed on the benches outside the hospital. The nurses knew where to find them with any updates.
While Levi passed what information they had to Reaper and Gwen, Enrico took off to find some grub to replenish their depleted systems.
They’d eaten in silence.
After sitting long enough, the adrenaline that had fueled the rescue left their bodies, and they were too tired to speak.
As the sunset and the stars blinked against a crisp black sky, a man in a white lab coat, stethoscope draped around his neck, strode through the automatic doors.
“Levi Elliot?” He lifted his brows.
The men stood.
“Miss Dagomba has asked that I tell you where we are in her care.”
“Thank you.” Levi’s heart was in a vice.
“We have identified the bite as a zebra cobra.”
“She’s receiving anti-venom?” Goose asked.
“Right now, we are observing and waiting for lab results,” the doctor said. “We’re balancing the risks and have decided to take a conservative approach.”
“Why?” Levi asked,
“Her wound seems stable, and anti-venom has its own risks.”
Levi opened his hands. “Like?”
“People who have allergic reactions to the anti-venom can go into anaphylactic shock, and there’s the potential that they would die. This is why anti-venom is only administered in the hospital.”
Anaphylaxis. And death.
Hearing that was a gut punch.
“If it was a dry bite—a bite where no venom is released—then we do not wish to stress her system further,” he explained. “The good news is, I don’t see any redness or swelling. Of concern is that the fang marks are larger than we’d expect. It means that it is an older, larger snake that could put the venom deep within her gastrocnemius.”
Levi wrapped a hand behind his neck. “That means?”
“We might miss something by observation alone. The lab results will give us another piece of information.”
“But it's possible it was a dry bite.” Levi pinned his hopes there.
“Studies put the chances of a dry bite at around fifty-fifty. That, of course, depends on the species. We don’t have good clinical data about zebra cobras. The nurses are attentive, and I have asked them to inform you once the labs are up. This should be very soon.”
“Thank you,” Levi said.
With a nod, the doctor went inside.
Alone again, Enrico turned to Goose. “So what do you think? What’s our game plan?”
“Why don’t you two head home, and I’ll hang back?” Levi suggested. “Someone needs to be here to advocate for Tess. A friend’s face might be helpful if they need to give her some bad news.”
Enrico stood and raised his hand as a car drove in and parked under the light. “That’s my staff. I need to get back and file a report. And that needs to be in place before the morning meeting so our personnel at Etosha know about this and can be vigilant.”
“Goose and Mojo could go with you if you don’t mind leaving the park vehicle with me.”
Levi didn’t know what to do with the sensations coursing through his body. He had never wanted to see Tess again, but now that he had, Levi felt the internal conflict. Even though his wounds were raw again, Levi also knew he couldn’t leave her side. Not while she was endangered.
Before they landed on a plan, a nurse poked her head out the door. “America?”
Levi turned. “Yes.”
“Miss Tess would like to see you all if that is all right.”