Page 101 of Tide and Seek
“Max,” I mumbled, closing my eyes.I’d never felt more helpless than the last six hours of my life.If Max hadn’t been such a strong swimmer, and so damned determined to save my ass, I’d be dead right now.Another ten minutes down in that cave would have been the end of me.I’d run out of fight, so Max had done the fighting for me.
“I found you.I can’t believe I found you.”He kissed the side of my head, his breath hot against my chilled skin, his arms tightening.“Jesus Christ.You’re alive.”
Flashlight beams cut through the darkness as firefighters and paramedics scrambled toward us, their voices calling out instructions to each other.I was still in shock that I was out of that cave.On solid ground again.All because of Max and his unwillingness to back down to the sea.
A paramedic dropped to her knees beside me, two fingers pressing against my neck.“Carotid pulse, weak but present,” she called out.She tipped my head back, checked my airway, then snapped open a small suction device before discarding it.“Airway clear.Let’s get him on O2.”
I groaned, feeling like a ragdoll as I watched her through bleary eyes.
A mask slid over my face, cold plastic against colder skin.“Patient’s responsive but altered,” she said, flashing a penlight in my eyes.“Pupils equal, pinpoint.Keep that O2flowing.Watch his breathing.Sir, can you tell me your name?”
I winced at the bright light in my eyes.
“Sir, can you tell me your name?”she asked again, her voice calm and professional.
“Royce,” I managed, my voice muffled by the oxygen mask.
“Good.I’m Sarah.We’re going to take care of you.”She was already wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm while her partner appeared on my other side with an armload of thermal blankets.“BP’s low, respirations shallow.Get those blankets on him now.”
The second paramedic began layering silver emergency blankets over me, tucking them around my shivering body.The crinkly material felt impossibly thin, but I could already feel it trapping what little body heat I had left.
“Have you taken any drugs tonight, sir?”she asked.
“He was injected with fentanyl,” Max was saying from somewhere nearby, his voice hoarse and urgent.“He’s been in that cave for at least five hours, possibly hypothermic.”
“How much fentanyl?”Sarah interrupted, pulling out an IV kit.
“I don’t know the exact dose,” Max said.“Enough to keep him incapacitated for a long time.”
Sarah’s eyes flicked to her partner.“Respiratory rate?”
“Twelve per minute,” he called back, counting as he watched my chest rise and fall.
“Okay, his pupils are pinpoint but reactive,” Sarah said, making her assessment.“He’s conscious and breathing on his own.We’ll monitor closely, but I’m holding off on Narcan for now.”She was already prepping an IV line.“This is going to pinch,” she told me, finding a vein in my arm.I barely felt it.“We’re getting fluids in you and we’ll have you transported in just a minute.”
More flashlights, more voices, the organized chaos of an emergency response team doing what they did best.I caught sight of Ethan standing further up the beach near the trucks, a sheriff’s deputy beside him.His face was white with shock, hands behind his back.Handcuffed.
“Sir, I need you to step back so we can assess him,” the second paramedic was saying to Max.
“No,” Max said, his voice hoarse.He held my hand in a vise-like grip, his eyes pinned on me.“I’m not leaving him.”
“But sir—”
“I’ll stay out of your way, but I’m not going anywhere.”Max’s face was hard.“We can argue about it some more, or you can do your job.”
“Be nice, Max,” I mumbled.
“No.”His voice wobbled alarmingly.“I don’t feel like being nice right now.”
I might have laughed if I’d had the energy.
Sighing, the first paramedic nodded at her partner to back off.“Okay, just do try to stay out of our way, please.”
The darkness that had been threatening at the edges of my vision was rushing in again, overwhelming everything.But I felt safe now because Max was with me.His strong, warm hand wrapped around mine, comforting me in a way nothing else could.By all rights I should have been dead.Would have been except Max had come for me.He’d bullheadedly refused to leave me even if it might have cost him his life.
So finally, at long last, I let everything go.I let the darkness take me, knowing Max would probably follow me through the gates of hell if he had to, just to pull me back out again.
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