Page 3 of Crucified By the Dark
“It’s my special charm.”
“Alright, Jeremy, if Dean here says you are worth the effort, I’ll take his word for it. I’ll get you checked in and have one of the other enrollees show you around. Dean, you staying the night?” Convinced that Jeremy didn’t intend to try anything stupid, she turned to Dean.
“Yeah.”
“Well, then, let’s go.”
She led the way, and it felt like old times having Dean here. She wished he were closer but understood why he chose to live in the middle of buttfuck nowhere, Kansas. If she had a father like his, she would’ve stayed hidden as well. She glanced back at Jeremy. There was no telling what she was getting herself into this time; with Dean, it was always an adventure.
Present Day
“Hey, asshole, you better not die,” Morry said as she knelt and looked in the smashed window. Wolf’s eyes opened slightly and then closed again. At least he was still breathing. “How the hell did you end up like this?” she mumbled as she crawled inside the Hummer that looked like a crushed soda can.
“Mae…” he whispered, his lips barely moving.
She felt his pulse and flicked a flashlight over his wounds, trying to assess the best way to get him and Duke out of this. She ran her hand over Duke’s head. He opened his eyes and then closed them again. Fuck. She couldn’t lose any more teammates. The emotion that she normally pushed down lower than her stomach was lodged in her throat as she stared at Wolf’s bloody face.
“Here you go,” Jeremy said. He was pushing the backboard through the window. “No luck getting the door open?”
“No, the damn thing is jammed. Fuck, I wish I had more room to work in there. I’m going to need a second board. Duke is still alive.”
“Who’s Duke?”
She turned her flashlight so it shined on the dog, and Jeremy made a face like she’d lost her mind.
“Don’t look at me like that. Duke is a soldier and a fucking good one. He gets the same treatment, and if you’re going to be a medic, you better learn. You never leave one of yours behind. Two- or four-legged.”
“Alright.” He stood and yelled for a second backboard as she slid the other one in as far as it would go before she ran out of room. Closing her eyes, she pulled on all her old training and felt around Wolf’s neck. He didn’t seem to have anything broken in his neck, but until they got him into an evaluating room, there was no way to know for sure.
“Wolf, I need to move you. I have no idea how injured you are.”
“Mae,” he said again.
She had no idea what he was dreaming about, but there wasn’t enough time to worry about it. He’d already been out here too long, and not only did every minute mean the difference between life and death, but the authorities were notified. A passerby saw the skid marks on the road and called in that someone had gone off the road.
“You need me to get in there and help?” Jeremy offered, but it was already too tight.
“No, stay there. Once I get him into position, you need to reach in and help me roll him onto the backboard. Do you have the neck collar?”
“Yup, right here.” Jeremy handed in the white piece of plastic, and she set it aside.
“Okay, Wolf, here we go.”
Grabbing his shoulders, she eased him forward, keeping his neck aligned. It seemed like forever before she got him stretched out and in a position where she could safely get the neck brace on Wolf.
“Gently brace his head, then we roll him toward the back of the Hummer on the count of three.”
Jeremy reached in and took Wolf’s head in his hands. Hands that had changed so much in five years. “Ready.”
“One, two, three,” she said, and with a single fluid motion, they got him on the board.
“Hey, boss, we got police and fire closing in. No more than, say, ten minutes,” Judd said as he looked through the smashed windshield at her. She could hear Butch talking to Jeremy which was good she was going to need her two strongest to help carry Wolf.
“Okay, we need four to take Wolf up to the Bus, and I’ll steal Jeremy to help with Duke. We will be right behind you.”
Judd nodded as she tightened the last of the straps.
“He’s good to go.”
