Page 43 of Jackson's Redemption
I had never been as scared in my whole life. Not even that first day in prison.
The plan was to stabilize her then have Doogie fly us to Nome. Norton Sound was a small hospital, only fourteen beds total, but still it was better then what we could offer her here.
She was going to need surgery to fix anything that might have been punctured and the wound had to be cleaned out before it could get infected.
At least we could transfuse her with blood. Me, Cal and Simmons were all O negative. They had already taken mine. I tried to think of that. My blood pouring inside her, giving her strength.
Willing her to come back to me.
I heard someone cough and I looked up to see Cal. He had a bandage on his arm, which meant he was done giving blood, too. One of the medics was trailing him with the new bag and didn’t stop until the door to the medical room was closed behind him.
Cal sat in one of the chairs next me.
“Want to tell me what happened?”
I shook my head. “Accident.”
“Then why do you look like a man on the rack?”
“She was my responsibility,” I said. “I failed her.”
Which was true, but it wasn’t why I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. Pounding hard enough that if someone came out of that room and told me she was gone, I knew it would flat-out stop.
“Why do I think there is more going on here?” Cal asked.
I shrugged. “Don’t know.”
“You know I thought it was crazy that you would have anything to do with Angel’s idea. Didn’t see you as the blind dating type.”
I had no answer for him. Mostly because he was right.
“Funny, too, when I saw you together at Bud’s that first night she got here. I thought, Daniels is looking at that woman like he’s known her for her whole life. Not like someone he met a few hours ago.”
“You’ve seen her. She’s beautiful.”
“She is.”
For some reason that rankled. Like I wanted to be the only man who saw her beauty. “Then how am I supposed to look at a beautiful woman?”
“You’re right. You two have a good week hunting? Before the accident.”
“Best five days of my life,” I said honestly.
“When she recovers from this, you think she’ll still want to leave?”
I looked at Cal directly. “The second she can, she’ll be on a plane out of here.”
“You going to be okay with that?”
I shrugged. “I don’t have a choice.”
He slapped me on the shoulder. “This fucking contest is wreaking havoc on my men. I’ll be glad when Ark’s lady arrives and puts an end to all of this nonsense.”
Cal stood and walked down the hallway. I considered telling him what Angel had done. How there was someone coming for Cal, too. How we thought it was time that he start to actually live again instead of grieving for those he’d lost years ago. Some harmless fun. Right. I should warn—
The door to the medical room opened, and Chris, who headed up the medical team, stepped out.
He nodded. “The good news is it missed the major arteries. If it hadn’t, she wouldn’t have had a chance. She’s got some blood in her now. Her pulse is more stable. I’m not crazy about her blood pressure, but I think it makes sense to get her to Norton Sound sooner rather than later. I can’t tell what organs might have been impacted.”
