Page 37 of Run to Ground
That got a pained chuckle, but Hugh’s shaking hand obediently pushed more firmly against his leg. After a final glance at Hugh’s face to determine exactly how close he was to passing out, Theo yanked his uniform shirt over his head. Without bothering to remove his badge or nametag or even the pen in his chest pocket, Theo hurriedly folded the shirt into a rough bandage and wrapped it around Hugh’s thigh.
“Move your hand,” he ordered, and Hugh did, his arm dropping like a dead weight to his side. Theo pulled the shirt tight and then tied it on the side of Hugh’s leg. The improvised bandage immediately became stained with blood. “Think you can run with help?”
There was no answer, except for the continuous chatter on the radio. Glancing at Hugh’s face, Theo saw his partner’s eyes were closed and his head lolled to the side, looking so lifeless that Theo’s stomach twisted hard.
“No,” he said, although no sound emerged. It felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of him. Shaking off his terror that Hugh wasn’t just unconscious, Theo gritted his teeth and rolled his partner onto his stomach. Kneeling by his head, Theo hooked his arms under Hugh’s and stood, grunting with the effort.
“You’re a big bastard,” Theo muttered, his voice gritty with effort. All that bulk was dead weight, too, making him feel even heavier.
Theo winced at the term “dead.”
“Knock it off,” he muttered as he bent, taking Hugh over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. As he straightened, Theo took a second to steady his burden before blowing out a hard breath.
“Ready, buddy?” Hugh didn’t answer. “Me, neither.” Despite that, Theo stepped out from behind the safety of the sign.
He couldn’t run, not while wearing his two-hundred-plus-pound partner like a cape, but he moved as fast as he could. Each step felt exposed, every foot he covered in the seemingly endless space between him and the cluster of emergency vehicles made him want to duck back behind their stone cover. Why had he thought this would be a good idea?
Theo wasn’t worried about his own unprotected parts. It was Hugh. His partner’s vest seemed too small and useless. Sure, it covered some vital organs, but what about his head or his neck or that femoral artery Theo worried was already nicked?
He expected the lieutenant to be screeching at him, but his portable had gone silent. Blessard had probably ordered the radio silence, so as not to draw the shooter’s attention. There were no shouts coming from the first-responders’ camp, either—just an expectant, waiting silence.
His boots hitting the ground sounded too loud, as did each breath as it tore in and out of his lungs. The space between them and the police staging area was still too far—hopelessly far.
Clenching his jaw and tightening his grip on Hugh’s limp form, Theo kept moving, one step after the other, braced for the bullet that would bring him down, or worse, hit Hugh, ending Theo just as surely.
The thought pushed him to move faster, despite the unconscious man weighing him down. His feet shuffled forward in an attempt at a run. The vehicles were getting closer, near enough to see Otto’s distinctive form running toward them. Other cops grabbed at him, but he shook them off like they were pesky mosquitoes and kept running.
Stay back, Otto!Theo shouted in his head, but he didn’t have the breath for anything except taking one step at a time. He tried to hurry, tried to get Hugh to safety before Otto could get hurt as well, but his body would not obey, would not go any faster, and they were still much too exposed when Otto reached them.
Otto was a monster of a man—four inches taller than Theo’s six feet and with an extra fifty pounds of muscle. Between the two of them, they quickly shifted Hugh so his arms were over their shoulders, his weight divided between them. With enormous relief, Theo realized he could run that way, and he picked up speed. The staging area grew closer and closer, and a faint tendril of hope worked its way through Theo’s dread.
Theo felt the punch to his ribs before he heard the shot. He lurched sideways, only Otto and Theo’s grip on Hugh keeping him from falling. Otto visibly braced, supporting all three of them for a moment until Theo regained his balance.
“I’m fine,” Theo barked in answer to Otto’s concerned look. “Let’s go!”
They resumed their dash to safety, but every breath sent fire through Theo’s side. The distance between them and the staging area suddenly looked impossibly huge. His toe caught, making him stumble, and agony shot from his side through his whole body.
“You good?” Otto asked.
“Fine.” The word was a grunt. Theo needed all his air, all his energy, everything he had inside of him to keep going without dropping Hugh’s dead weight.No,he thought fiercely.Not dead.He had to believe Hugh would live, or Theo wouldn’t be able to make it.
“Stay with me, Theo,” Otto said.
Digging for his last reserves of strength, Theo plowed forward. The gap between them and safety narrowed with each painful, dragging step, and then they were surrounded, helping hands reaching for them, taking Hugh away, tugging on Theo’s arm in an attempt to get him to sit down.
Theo shook off the EMTs. “Help Hugh. I’m fine.”
“I’m concerned with how you’re breathing,” Claire, a serious-faced EMT in her forties told him.
“Bosco!” Lieutenant Blessard snapped, elbowing through the surrounding crowd. Theo braced himself for a lecture about ignoring orders and dragging Hugh into danger. “Sit your ass down and let them check you out.”
Surprised into compliance, Theo sat on the back bumper of a fire rescue truck. When an EMT—this one a redhead named Scott—reached toward the front of his vest, scissors in one hand, Theo waved him off and pulled at the Velcro fastenings, holding back a frustrated sound when his fingers wouldn’t stop shaking. “How’s Hugh?”
“Alive.” Although the LT’s tone was as gruff as always, the pat he gave Theo’s shoulder was almost gentle. An ambulance siren started to wail, making Theo jump and then wince as pain shot through his chest. Claire and the lieutenant exchanged a concerned look, and Theo held back an annoyed snarl, mentally cursing himself for showing his discomfort.
“That him?” Theo asked when the ambulance had gotten far enough away that the siren wasn’t deafening anymore. Frustrated by his fumbling fingers, he yanked at the vest, but all he achieved was an agonizing jolt through his ribs.
The lieutenant made an affirmative sound as he reached to help remove Theo’s protective vest. Theo started to protest, but swallowed his words as another shock of pain made all his muscles tighten. He wanted to skip the exam and go right to the get-to-the-hospital part, so he could find out the latest on Hugh’s condition.
