Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
brOOKS
“Yeah, pretty girl, I’m not going to lie to you, this is going to hurt. Actually, I can work on getting an IV going and put some pain meds in it. I can also get warm fluids going. That’ll help warm you up. I’m going to run out to the ambulance, and I’ll be right back.”
“He’s smart,” Jules says as she glances over at me. Fuck, her eyes are still so scared. They were glassy when I first got up here, with cold and shock and fear. All of that is still there, but with me here next to her, she’s calming down a bit.
I hate that she’s in this filth. It’s so fucking dirty up here. I saw a squirrel run across the other side, and there’s definitely some feces up here.
I do not want her anywhere near this mess.
“Blake will get you set up,” I assure her. “Baby, we’re going to burn this house down. We’re not going to live here. At the very least, I’ll sell it as-is.”
“You’re taking my house away?” Her beautiful blue eyes fill with tears again, and it’s almost my undoing. “No. Please, Brooks, it’ll be okay.”
“Baby, it’s so much work, and it hurt you.”
“It’s not the house’s fault.”
“I’m back,” Blake calls out. “Beck and Bridge are getting what they need to cut you out of there, so that gives us time to make sure you’re not in pain, sweet girl. Unfortunately, I have to put the IV in your foot.”
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter as Jules scowls.
“In my foot?”
“I can’t reach your arms,” he reminds her. “It’ll be a quick poke, and then it’ll be over. You have great veins here.”
She grins, and then giggles. “Stop tickling my foot.”
“Keep flirting with my wife, and see where it gets you.”
I can practically hear him roll his eyes. “I’m touching her foot,” he says. “That’s involved in placing an IV. Okay, quick poke.”
“That’s what he said,” she whispers, making me smile.
At least she still has her sense of humor.
She winces, but then her face calms.
“That was easy,” Blake says. “I’m going to pass the bag of fluid to you because they need to be up high. Can you reach down to grab it?”
“I think so.” She catches her tongue between her teeth and reaches down, and then she has the bag in her hand. “Got it. Wow, it’s warm.”
“I can add the medicine down here.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I feel a little floaty. And my leg doesn’t hurt.”
“Good. Hey, Brooks?”
“Yeah.” I wish I could see him, but I’m not willing to leave her. I need to be up here, by her side.
“She’s cut on the outside of her thigh from her knee to almost her hip. I can see where the wood has sliced into her. The bleeding is mostly stopped, but that wood is still sitting pretty deep in her upper thigh. I’m tempted to say we leave it in there and we get it out in the ER.”
“Jesus.” I pull my hand down my face.
“I want it out, Blake. I don’t want to wait for the ER.”
“Let’s see how things go down here, okay?”
Finally, Bridger and Beckett return with saws and tools, and after an hour of painstaking work, Jules is cut free, and my brothers lower her to the floor.
I back out of the attic slowly, not wanting to be the next victim of this cursed house. Finally, when I’m down with Jules, and she’s on the stretcher, I tug her against my chest and kiss the top of her head.
“I love you so much,” I growl into her ear. “You were so fucking badass up there.”
“Let’s get her to the hospital,” Blake says. “I can’t treat you there, sweetheart, because you’re my sister-in-law, but I’ll be there.”
Jules nods, and Bridger and his team whisk us out of the house, taking her carefully down the stairs that I’m so glad we reinforced last week.
“Oh my God!” Harper cries out as we step onto the porch. “Oh, sweetie, are you okay?”
“We love you so much,” Skyla says, brushing away tears.
“Jules.” Billie’s crying, but Jules reaches for her.
“I’m okay, Bug. I’m okay, friends.”
“Where is she?” Ava demands as she comes running onto the property. “Where’s my girl?”
“Hey.” Jules smiles at all of them, and then her pretty blue eyes fill with tears again. “I’ll be okay.”
“We have to go,” Bridger says. “She’ll be home soon, and then you all can spoil her.”
“Good,” Dani says, and they all huddle together as they watch us leave. “We’ll come see you as soon as you’re home!”
“I love them all so much,” Jules whispers.
“We all love you back, Wildfire.”