Page 42 of Gabe (Blue Team #2)

We’d only been walking ten minutes when it happened.

I’d been chattering quietly asking Gabe questions, trying to keep him from passing out even though each word he spoke sounded like it was being tortured out of him.

I didn’t know a damn thing about concussions except the person with the head injury needed to be woken up every few hours.

But now Gabe was slowing, stumbling more, and slurring his words.

We needed to stop.

I’d found the creek and hoped we’d gone east. The falling sun was behind us so I was eighty percent confident I’d gone the right way. If not, Zane and Cooper would just have to search. I looked about for someplace for us to hunker down and wait.

There was a large log near the creek, which incidentally wasn’t a creek as such.

Maybe when it rained it would swell or in the spring when the snow melted it was full but for now, it was an ankle-deep trickle of water.

Not only would Zane be following it but I needed to clean some of the blood off Gabe’s face.

So the log resting against a tree near the creek was a perfect place to stop.

“I found us a place to stop.”

“How long?” Gabe slurred.

“We’ve gone far enough. ”

“How long?”

“A good long while, Gabe,” I lied. “We can stop now.”

I walked us to the log and when we got close I realized it was indeed the perfect spot. The way the trees were positioned Gabe could rest in the corner and there was a very large tree trunk that would provide some cover.

“I need you to turn around and face me. You’ll take two steps back and you’ll be against the tree. Can you slide down it? I don’t think I’m strong enough to lower you down.”

“Yeah.”

His quick acquiescence told me how bad off he was. No inflection, no more frustration, there wasn’t even resignation. All I heard was exhaustion and pain.

I helped the best I could. Unfortunately, Gabe was big, and being as injured as he was, he was dead weight when he slid down. Not only did his t-shirt pull up and his back grated against the bark, but he pitched forward. To control his fall I went down with him.

Son of a motherless goat, that hurt like a motherfucker .

One of my knees hit soft dirt, the other landed on a rock. And Gabe’s shoulder smacked me in the nose. The only plus-side to all of that was he was on his rear end where I’d intended and the shoulder I’d face-planted into was not the side with his gunshot wound.

Gabe groaned and his head lulled to the side, and a flashback of us in the cabin when I first went to him hit me hard.

“Gabe? You with me?”

He mumbled something incoherent and the fear I’d been about to tamp down rushed back with a vengeance.

I was somewhere out in the wilderness, with no phone, no food or water, no shelter, and the sun was low in the sky. It would be dark soon and Gabe was damn near catatonic. I had no medical training. He’d lost a good amount of blood. He had a concussion. And his ribs were broken.

Punctured lung.

Oh, God.

“Gabe, I need you to open your eyes for just a minute, baby.”

More illegible mumbling .

“Please, Gabe. Just look at me. Can you breathe okay like this? Should I lie you down?”

“No,” he garbled. “Need…upright…hurts…but…okay.”

All right. Okay. What next? Think, Evette. What next ?

Blood was trickling from the large, gaping gash on his forehead. I needed to stop that. Then I’d check his shoulder.

With a plan—albeit not a complete or good one—I took off my shirt, turned it inside out, and inspected the sleeves.

I abandoned the notion I could use them to tie around his head and instead worked to rip the tee up the side seam.

This was much harder than I thought it would be.

It was then I decided I needed to stop watching action flicks that made everything look so damn easy because it wasn’t.

Tearing a shirt into shreds was hard. So hard it took me a long damn time and I was almost out of light.

Once I had the shirt taken apart, I tore the front of it in half.

I took one of my two pieces of material to the creek and soaked it.

The water looked so damn enticing. I was thirsty as all get-out and I might’ve chanced drinking it if Gabe hadn’t told me help was on the way.

I just had to hold out a little while longer.

With that thought, I realized I knew nothing about survival.

If I had, I would’ve checked the cabin for some bottles of water. Or maybe filled a jug.

God, I was so stupid.

I went back to Gabe and did what I could to clean his forehead.

“God, I hope I’m not giving you some weird flesh-eating disease from the creek.”

Gabe didn’t answer.

He didn’t even groan.

I made quick work of cleaning up his face, even though I had to go back to the creek three times to rinse out the blood. When I was down, I folded the second strip of my shirt and wrapped it around his head, tying it off in the back, and gently rested his head against the log.

A chill swept over me, making me acutely aware I was only in my bra, and for some reason that made me feel extra vulnerable and cold.

With only minutes to spare before the darkness settled in I lifted Gabe’s shirt and what I found had me sucking in a stuttered breath.

There wasn’t an inch of him that wasn’t purple, black, green, red or some combination or variation of the four.

Welted. Inflamed. Bruised. And upon seeing the evidence of just how badly he’d been tortured I could no longer hold back my tears.

Blood had soaked through the bandage on his shoulder.

So much blood it was leaking from under the tape and streaming down his chest.

I gathered what was left of my shirt, folded it, then pressed it against his chest. With my other hand, I pulled the gun from where I’d stowed it in the back of my jeans, dropped to my hip, and pressed as close as I dared into Gabe’s side.

Then I waited. And I waited some more. I waited so long with only Gabe’s occasional groans to cut the awful silence.

I was scared to death. I was scared of bears, and wild cats, and bad guys coming to find us.

I was scared Gabe was going to die and there would be nothing I could do to save him. I was scared of everything.

“We’re gonna get through this, Gabe,” I whispered.

Gabe didn’t say anything.

But his heart was beating.

That was all I had to give me hope.

And there in the cold dark with nothing else to do, I pondered my life.

All that I had accomplished but mostly what I hadn’t.

And as I had done my whole life, my pondering turned into analyzing every decision I’d ever made.

My mind took me back to when I was ten and I read my first Encyclopedia Brown book.

When I was a kid my family wasn’t rolling in it, nor were we poor, but my parents still felt it when one book turned into all twenty-nine.

After that, with my love for reading obvious and there being no end in sight, my mom got me a library card.

And that was when I devoured Nancy Drew.

Between Leroy Brown, boy detective, and the Clue Club I fell in love with a good mystery.

And from then on I knew who I wanted to be when I grew up.

Only, my ten-year-old self had no clue about the dangers that lurked.

If I had, maybe I would’ve wanted to be a chiropractor.

Maybe if I’d known that my love of a good mystery would mean that all these years later I’d be in the dark next to the man I loved near death, I would’ve found a way to curb that thirst.

But if I hadn’t looked into Kalee’s disappearance, I never would’ve met Gabe.

I pressed closer and listened. Labored, wheezing breaths filled the silence.

How was it in such a short amount of time, I could love someone so thoroughly?

Two weeks ago I was in California surrounded by a million people yet I was so lonely and miserable I couldn’t see my way out of it.

But then I met Gabe and it was like everything clicked.

He didn’t complete me in some sort of romantic-comedy-hero-sweeps-heroine-off-her-feet way. It was so much deeper than that.

Kismet.

Magic.

And for once in my life, I wasn’t deliberating all the choices I made that led to regret and missed opportunities, and instead, I was comforted in the knowledge I was exactly where I was supposed to be.

I was with Gabe.

We’d get through this. We had to. We had a life to share.

A relationship to grow. I had to call my boss and tell him I was moving to Maryland.

I had friends in Riverton I needed to say goodbye to.

I had parents I needed to call. I had a mom who would be beside herself with glee that I’d found a good man.

And a dad who would come to Maryland to check out the man in my life.

I had everything to live for and so did Gabe.

My thoughts were quelled when I heard a twig snap. I held my breath and waited. One beat, two, and I heard it again. Someone was out there.

I scooted away from Gabe’s side, positioned myself in front of him, and raised the gun. I should’ve taken the time to check how many bullets I had.

Damn .

Quiet fell all around—thick and heavy and oppressive.

Someone was close. I could feel it. All the hair on my arms stood up and goose bumps broke out.

There was a shuffle and another snap and I could take it no more .

“One more step and I’ll shoot you.”

“Evette?”

“Don’t come any closer.”

“It’s Zane.”

No, it wasn’t. It didn’t sound like him.

“I swear to God I’ll shoot.”

“I’m castrating the rest of the goddamn team.” I heard someone mutter and I started to doubt myself. “It’s Zane. Put the gun down and let me get to Gabe.”

“No!”

“No?”

“Back the fuck up and turn on a flashlight so I can see you.”

“For the love of all things holy. She wants to confirm my identity. Gabe couldn’t have picked some sniveling woman who obeys orders?” There was a pause then a thin stream of light lit up the darkness and he turned it to illuminate his face. “Better? You still gonna shoot me?”

“Maybe. But only because you’re pretty much a jerk all of the time.”

The light flashed in my direction and I flinched before I cast my gaze to the ground.

“Jesus fucking hell.”

Zane stepped forward and I didn’t know what came over me but when he offered me his hand to help me stand I broke down.

The relief was so palpable my body bucked with it. And a cry ripped from my belly and escaped in a rush of release.

“Hey,” Zane cooed. “I got you, darlin’. Everything’s good. We’re gonna get Gabe down this mountain and to the hospital.”

I nodded and Zane gave me a careful squeeze. “You did good, Evette. Real good.”

I nodded again and let Zane go.

“What am I working with here?”

“His shoulder’s still bleeding. It went through the gauze and my shirt.

I think the gash on his forehead slowed.

Broken ribs. Concussion. He was dizzy, stumbling, and slurring; that’s why I couldn’t get us farther.

If he fell I couldn’t carry him. He said he could breathe before he passed out.

Every once in a while he moans but I haven’t been able to wake him up. ”

“How long has he been out?”

“I don’t know. Best guess over an hour.”

“Ten-minute walk to here, maybe a little more, and it’s been two hours, thirty minutes since I talked to him.”

Wow. That long.

“That’s not good,” I whispered.

Zane Lewis didn’t acknowledge my statement. Instead, he said, “One last thing I need you to do is walk out of here. Can you do that for me?”

“Absolutely.”

“Let’s go.”

I stepped out of the way. Zane leaned down and with superhuman strength, he picked up Gabe like he was a baby.

Then we walked through the woods.

Gabe was silent the entire way.