Chapter 4
four
. . .
Armin
I lay Mia on the couch, cradling her head and neck immobile as best I could. She breathed, her lips parting, chest rising, though shallow, and her pulse was slow but present. I didn’t think she’d inhaled much water.
But she wasn’t responsive. Total loss of consciousness, and her lips were blue. Her body felt icy in my arms. I dragged the sofa closer to the fire.
I checked her head and neck for blunt force trauma, again.
I couldn’t find any swelling or bleeding, but I was paranoid I’d missed something, though I’d checked when I pulled her from her SUV, and again when I lay her inside my truck.
She had a few cuts and scrapes, and an awful bruise had already sprung up where she’d been suspended by the seatbelt, but she hadn’t taken any major lumps that I could find.
I had to get her to a hospital. I had to. But there was no way off the mountain, not in this rain. The only road down was blocked by an enormous felled tree. We only had one route in and out up here. All other paths led up to the top before they dead-ended.
Even if I could chop through that tree across the road, the way beyond it had become a stream.
But fuck it, if she was hurt, I’d find a way. I had to triage whatever had caused her to lose consciousness, whether it was the cold or the trauma or the blood rush from when that godawful little SUV of hers overturned.
Christ. I’d only wanted to spend some time with her. Now I’d nearly killed her.
Hypothermia. It had to be. That or plain old shock.
Either way I needed to get her core temperature up, stat.
I pulled her soaked coat and dress off and covered her with a blanket.
“Mia, can you hear me? You’re safe, Mia.
We just need to get you warmed up.” No response.
I ran and grabbed a towel from the bathroom to dry her soaked hair, cursing myself all the way there and back.
I picked a twig out of her tangled curls and worked to squeeze the water out.
I needed more blankets.
I needed her to be okay.
I threw a few more logs on the fire until it crackled and roared. I knelt by her side to check her pulse again. Still too slow, and God, she was so cold.
“I’m sorry,” I said out loud. “There’s no other way.” I picked her lifeless body up in my arms and clutched her to my chest. Her head lolled back, horrifically. Dead, she looked fucking dead, and it was my fault. I took the hallway at a run and lay her down on my bed.
The rain hammered loud on the roof, unforgiving.
If I had to I’d bundle her up and get on the ATV. I’d figure a way off this mountain somehow. I cursed myself for getting rid of the landline last year. It was the only connection to civilization if something went wrong up here.
But it never mattered before. I never had anybody precious to me up here, and certainly not a woman I loved.
This is how you showed her. By scaring her so bad she fled into the woods and got herself killed.
She’s not dead, she won’t die. I won’t allow it.
I was panicking, something else that had never happened to me before, besides falling in love with a woman after taking her into my arms for mere moments a few months ago, and vowing that somehow I’d improve her lot in life.
And look now. Some protector you turned out to be.
“Forgive me, Mia.” I stripped off my clothes, slipped the bedsheets out from under her, slid in beside her, and covered us over.
I turned on my side and pulled her to me, cradled her against my chest. Then I held her tight and rolled over, so she lay on top of me, skin to skin.
It was the best chance for her survival, if she was suffering shock and hypothermia.
If she lived, I’d have to rejoice and be glad in the fact that she was alive for the split second before she murdered me for this. I couldn’t blame her.
I wrapped my arms around her, and I listened to the rain pour down. And I prayed that she’d wake up.