Page 70 of Tormented Hearts

As soon as she climbed out on shaky legs, the women engulfed her. Willow and Ayla and Rhae all reached for her, pulling her into a knot of arms before her boots had even fully found the stability of the ground.

She let them draw her away from the chopper. When they hugged her, she didn’t have the strength to resist, to tell them that Hawk was the one who was hurt and they needed to see to him.

Her gaze never left her lover as the men rushed him into the veteran’s lodge. She tracked him like he might vanish the second she looked away.

“Come on.” Willow hooked her arm around Sinead. “Let’s get you inside too.”

“Why are we here instead of a hospital?” Panic nipped at her words.

On her other side, Ayla clutched her arm, supporting her. “We’ve got a combat surgeon on staff. Doctor Hitchcock’s tended to Hawk before. He’s the best.”

The knot in her chest didn’t loosen, but she could breathe a little better as the ladies rushed her inside.

As soon as the guys settled Hawk on a gurney in the center of the room, she tried to break free so she could hurry to his side. But Willow’s strong arms held her back.

“Let them work,” she said in her ear.

“Sit here.” Rhae’s soft touch urged her onto a second gurney.

Ayla moved to draw the curtain across the room, intending to shut her out of what was going on.

“Don’t shut the curtain! I need to see him!”

Hawk’s head turned at the sound of voice. Though his eyes were electric with pain, his stare found hers and held.

“Close it,” he ordered.

Before he was closed off from her, she saw hands at work, cutting his shirt off and exposing the thick gauze pressure bandage Gray applied the minute he reached them at the mouth of the mine.

Panic swept through her. She needed to see him—to see what they were doing to him. If she could see him, she would know he was okay.

Someone pressed a cup into her hand. “Drink, Sinead.”

She did, listening like a child, her attention fixed on the white curtain separating her from the man she’d fallen in love with somewhere between a snake bite and a gold mine.

Low murmurs came from the other side as the team working on Hawk gave updates.

“Are you injured?” Ayla asked, her tone gentle.

She shook her head, hardly processing the question.

The curtain suddenly twitched aside and Gray stepped into sight. He looked straight at her. She searched his face for some sign of what was going on over there. Then she glanced down at his hands, to the cloth he held. Covered in blood.

She jumped off the gurney. “Heath!”

Ayla grabbed her and held her, surprisingly strong for her petite size.

“You have to let them work.”

“Sinead.” Hawk’s voice came from the other side of the curtain, stronger than it had been a minute before.

“Heath, I’m here!” She tried to take a step around Ayla, but she blocked her path, her fiery hair matching the spark in her eyes that warned Sinead not to try it.

“Tell her…I’m all right.”

She broke into tears, and suddenly a new woman was entering the door at the far side of the room. A tall brunette, her hair pulled into a low ponytail, wearing a blazer and slim trousers, quickly stepped up to the gurney. “Sinead, I’m Bella. I’m the resident psychiatrist.”

Bella. Gray had looked at Sinead and called for her. They must think she needed trauma support. But she’d seen bad things before, like when her guide was attacked by the lion.