by Kim Turner
Aaron tossed the gloves he’d removed from his hand at his brother, but grinned. “Sleep’s overrated.”
His brother shook his head, picking up the gloves from the ground and handing them back to his brother. “Well, come up for air now and then. Can’t believe you are gonna really do it.”
“Had no choice. Can’t get her out of my head.” He still couldn’t believe he’d asked Jenna to marry him. “We’ve no set plans.”
“You got it bad, bro.” Gabe laughed, shaking his head.
He glared at his brother. “Enough already.”
Gabe waited. “Well, congratulations then, but best we figure this bullshit out with Hanson first.”
His brother’s gaze held more than he was saying.
“What?” He grabbed Maxus by the reins and followed.
Gabe scratched his jaw, turning to face him, his deep blue eyes serious. “Look, uhh…we ran a check on Jenna too and I don’t want you blindsided. She’s clean all except the part where her name used to be Jennifer Amiker. Looks like she changed it about that time she took the beating, I get that. But the trail is still there. Be careful, Aaron. There’s a couple of political figures who have kinda bought the dust somewhere in relation to Vince Hanson. He’s lethal and you really don’t know what political crap she just might be involved in as well because of him.”
Aaron narrowed his gaze. “Whatever his issues, they aren’t Jenna’s. She was scared half to death, changing her name was a good start. You and Tucker find him, so we can put an end to this.”
Gabe held his gaze, his eyes going dark. “That’s just it, Aaron. It might be he finds us first.”
****
Aaron nodded, turning Maxus to the barn. His brother was right. If Tucker and Gabe thought Vince Hanson was bad news, then he was without a doubt some kind of dangerous. All the more reason to make sure Jenna was free of the situation. He let Maxus go in the corral, hanging onto his bridle.
Looking toward the medical tent, he headed that direction. He hadn’t seen Jenna since morning as she had been needed with make-up to help dress up the injuries for an Indian massacre.
Reaching the tent, he looked inside and she was sitting across at her table writing again. Watching her for a long moment, he could tell she was lost again in one of her stories. It occurred to him he might need to read her full script when he had the chance. And there was still that bit of guilt at having sent the script off without her permission.
“Hey.” He walked inside, capturing her gaze.
She set her laptop aside on the table. “Hi.”
“I saw a few cowboys sporting arrows and blood.” He smiled.
“The people who took arrows back then didn’t die right away. They died slowly of the bleeding or infection weeks later, but apparently television needs to move a bit faster.” She giggled, warming him inside.
“Most likely Horace needs to move faster,” he agreed.
She leaned back on the table looking at him. “So Maxus is ready and you are too?”
He nodded. “The wind and lighting will be right. Maxus is being himself but a good day for him. You coming?”
She shuddered. “Apparently, I’m getting paid to watch.”
“It’ll be fine. Besides it’s not the fall, it’s the landing and we’ve got that covered now don’t we.” He pulled her against him in a tight hug. “Isn’t that right Mrs. Decker?”
“Well, you seemed to have landed pretty well last night. But I still have to pinch myself about the Ms. Decker part.” She glanced at the ring on her finger
“Are you happy?”
“Yes.” The hint of a smile traced her lips. “I called Brianna. I’ve shared with your mother and Sally here on the set. A girl has a right you know.”
“I’ve got Tuck watching out for Brianna and Ms. Lucy but calling too often isn’t safe for now.” He wasn’t sure just how long he might keep saying the same thing. They were all waiting like sitting ducks and he hadn’t liked any of it.
She shook her head. “Apparently, Gabe gave her a new phone to use.”
“Jenna, look at me.” He spoke softly, trying to convince her. “It’s going to be all right. It is.”
“I know.” She tried for a smile.
“Hey, I’m going to do some last-minute planning with the film crew, get into make-up, jump the horse and kiss my girl at the bottom of that landing.” Aaron winked at her. “I thought later I could take you out, let Sarah keep the children.”
Jenna hopped from the table. “I’ll be waiting for that kiss and dinner. I love you, Aaron.”
He glanced at her once more, smiling and made his way out of the tent, leaving her to her work and thinking he’d make his jump, kiss her, take her to dinner and then make love to her until he had her writhing beneath him in his bed once again. That would be his reward for a hard day’s work. He chuckled as he took off on a trot for the set.
****
The view was right, the lighting and sunlight hitting the ramp with no glare. Horace gave Aaron a thumbs up, standing with the crew closer to the jump. He glanced around from the top of the ridge. Actors and extras were below to watch him and Maxus jump. He took a deep breath, his chest pounding, now in costume, dark jeans, light shirt, vest, and hat. A complete cowboy package. He chuckled to himself. Hardly.
He eyed the ramp, tracing the path along the wooden incline and then peered across to the other side. There wasn’t any real challenge for Maxus; the length of the jump was about ten feet, nothing for the horse. The end of the ramp was level with the ground on the opposite side, though there was about a fifteen-foot drop to the river.
He turned Maxus away from the set, taking him on a short gallop and turned the animal back. Below, Jeremiah sat on the medical cart with Jenna, but it was Gabe’s warning that still echoed in his mind where Jenna was concerned. The fact she had changed her name wasn’t surprising. Women did that all the time after a divorce, especially one such as she’d been through. Most likely she’d done it to protect her son and he understood that one well enough. He took another deep breath trying to clear his mind.
He rode Maxus for another quick gallop returning and looking into the sun. It was about time and he’d gotten the thumbs up. There would be no call for action, but he’d jump when he and the horse were ready.
“All right boy, let’s get it done.” He spoke to the horse, Maxus urging ahead, ready.
Taking a deep breath and pressing the cowboy hat to his head tighter, he waited a second before hitting the reins. “Up boy…up!” He kicked and Maxus took off down the ridge toward the ramp on a gallop picking speed.
Aaron focused, blocking out all below except the mouth of the ramp. Adrenaline surged through him and the animal beneath him took the reins, unrestricted. He was on his mark and Aaron gripped his thighs tighter to hang on as Maxus took the footing to the ramp, the shoes on the horse’s hooves clapping hard across the thick wooden boards. The world slowed in motion. He and the horse moved as one, as easy as before. Maxus pulled up the steeper part of the ramp, the take off several feet away.
“Up!” Aaron shouted as a reminder to the horse, but then the crack of thunder lifted him and the horse, tossing them forward and sending him from the saddle, dust exploding around him taking his breath and the blast muffling his hearing. All of a sudden, he was falling, fighting the air trying to right himself.
Bend your knees, land on your feet, grab something to break the fall, anything to slow the impact of the ground.
He reached out, bending his knees, not knowing his position as he fell backward, trying to turn. His body hit the ramp mid-way, jolting pain ripping through his side and he curled to the pain, falling further. He’d lost his bearings, trying to suck in a breath he couldn’t take. What in the hell, some kind of explosion? He braced himself, as the hard earth took him, the air he did have pushed from his lungs, the world closing him off around him. Maxus?
Chapter Nineteen
“Aaron!” Gabe ran toward Aaron who lay
unmoving on the ground below the broken ramp, white smoke filling the air. “Call Nine, One, One!”
Jenna stood up on the cart, her heart in her throat, not believing what had happened. There had been an explosion of some kind and Aaron had fallen. “Oh my God!”
She put her hand to her mouth, bile rising in her throat. He had been thrown from the horse and fell to the ground, while the horse remained on the ramp rearing in the confusion. The explosion had been deafening across the set, startling all those watching. Now panic crossed the set with people running and screaming. She had to get to Aaron, but couldn’t think to make her body move, frozen for the briefest of seconds.
Jeremiah jumped back to the cart with her, yelling. “Go, Jenna!”
She nodded, slamming down in the seat and turning the key to crank the engine. She couldn’t breathe and her heart pounded inside her chest as bolts of sheer terror rode through her. Would Aaron have survived the fall?
She pulled the cart as close to Aaron as she could get, his body unmoving. The camera and lighting crew hovered around him, shouting and pointing. She fought the tears that threatened. Oh please God!
She wasn’t sure what she would find with Aaron, but falls like that… She wanted to panic and run, but there was no choice. She was the nurse. She was the professional and she was going to be his wife. Everything was up to her. Aaron’s survival was in her hands, if he was alive. And the horse, Maxus was still on the ramp, saliva hanging in streams from his mouth as crew struggled to get him off the twisted smoking ramp.
She gripped a fist to feel the ring on her finger. She couldn’t lose Aaron like this, not now, not after thinking she would never find love or her life again. She slammed the cart into park and grabbed her bag, working through the small crowd.
Aaron lay motionless on his back, surrounded by crew and Horace Leland who was on his radio calling for rescue.
“Aaron, Aaron…breathe, brother. He’s not breathing.” Gabe looked up at her as she hit her knees on the ground beside them, opening her bag and grabbing her stethoscope. Oh God, I can’t do this.
“Aaron?” She touched Aaron’s neck, feeling for a pulse, wiping tears from her eyes with her sleeve. Remember your training girl, you can do this.
Aaron’s eyes flickering open and closed again, his mouth seeking a breath he wasn’t taking. He was alive.
She reached to hold his chin, keeping his neck aligned. “Aaron, take a breath, go ahead. It’s all right, I’m here.” Her voice cracked as she turned to Jeremiah beside her. The look of shock on his face, told the story.
“I’ll get a C-Collar.” Jeremiah jumped up heading to the cart.
“And oxygen. Breathe, Aaron!” She tried again as his body jerked several times, and he gave in to a gasping breath, letting out a crying growl, shuddering in pain.
“That’s it Aaron. Come on another.” Gabe was encouraging him, hanging on tightly to his shoulder.
Aaron sucked in another breath, grabbing the left side of his chest with his right hand, groaning as he took another struggled breath.
“No, Aaron, don’t move. Please don’t move.” Jenna held his head and neck still. The chance of spinal or head injury was no doubt the biggest issue, that and internal bleeding from such a fall. Her body shook with adrenaline and the picture of the explosion replayed in her mind. How had this happened? But then—she knew.
Jeremiah arrived with the C-collar and a back board from the cart, an oxygen tank and two medical bags over his shoulder. He helped get the collar around Aaron’s neck, while Jenna held his head steady.
Aaron continued with gasping breaths, grunting with each, fighting and trying to move himself, grabbing at the air as if he were still falling. He was moving arms and legs and that was a great relief, but there could still be neck or spinal injury but the next thing was assessing him and making sure he continued to breathe as they stabilized him from moving.
“Aaron, lie still.” Jeremiah fought to hold him down, along with Gabe.
Blood ran from Aaron’s nose, his eyes glazed in fear. Scratches and scrapes covered his arms, face, and neck. He was pale and his body shook hard in spasms. Shock.
“Start the oxygen and get an I.V. line in. Push normal saline wide open,” Jenna shouted as she probed his body wither hand searching for further injury.
Jeremiah prepped the I.V. tubing, though his hands were shaking. She grabbed her stethoscope again, listening to Aaron’s chest. He was clear on the right side and diminished on the left. He probably had broken ribs and a collapsed lung, but what scared her more was that falling that far could mean damage to his heart or aorta. She listened to his heart, the beat rapid and strong.
She pulled the stethoscope away from her ears and let it hang from her neck, placing the mask over Aaron’s mouth and nose and then grabbing the scissors to cut his shirt away from his chest. The bruising there was already evident though he continued to breathe.
She ran her hand around Aaron’s cheeks and to the back of his head, finding a large lump behind his left ear. Head injury no doubt, but there was no bleeding. She used her penlight to check his pupils, finding them both reactive and equal, which was a good sign, though his confusion wasn’t.
“Aaron, do you know where you are?” She spoke getting close to his face.
He blinked his eyes, trying to focus from what she could tell. He finally growled through the mask, “…the ground. Jenna?”
“It’s me Aaron, can you squeeze my hands?” She gripped both his hands eliciting a yelp from him.
His left hand was swollen with a small protrusion on the back of his hand, probably broken. She felt along the bones from his shoulder to his elbow and then his wrist. Aaron groaned and tried to pull his hand away.
“Hold still brother.” Gabe leaned near Aaron to speak. “I know ya hurt.”
“I.V.’s in.” Jeremiah handed off the bag of fluids to someone behind him, who held it in place.
“His hand is broken along with his ribs and the lung is collapsed,” Jenna spoke to Jeremiah.
“I got it.” Jeremiah sprinted away and returned with a brace, taking care to put Aaron’s left arm and hand into it.
Jenna traced along each of Aaron’s legs, feeling for fractures, finding none. He’d been moving both his legs in trying to fight. He’d hit the ramp on the way down most likely saving fractures to his legs, but it would be hard to tell at this point about his back or neck.
“No!” Aaron let out a stern whisper, his face grimacing in pain as he tried to stop her when she touched his chest where the ribs had been hit.
“That was an explosion, fucking…damn. Gotta get the horse.” Gabe glanced behind him where men on the ramp were having trouble controlling Maxus from what Jenna could tell in her quick glance.
Jeremiah scooted down Aaron’s body and pulled Aaron’s boot carefully from him one at a time. “Aaron, move your toes brother, wiggle your feet.”
Aaron was still growling to breathe but a moment later, both socked feet moved.
Jenna grabbed a blood pressure cuff and pumped, shoving the stethoscope into her ears. Listening carefully, she watched the dial fall lower than she had expected. One-hundred over sixty. Grabbing his right wrist, she counted his pulse at one-hundred forty and his breathing was rapid at forty-six. With his low blood pressure, he could be losing blood but it was most likely shock.
Aaron tried to talk, pulling at the mask. “Maxus?”
Jeremiah shook his head. “They’re getting him off the ramp, he didn’t fall, Aaron.”
Aaron grabbed his side, tears streaming from his face as he cried out in pain, gulping for air in rasping breaths.
Jenna continued with Aaron, applying a dressing to his bleeding elbows and counting his pulse again. He fought for a moment to glance toward Maxus, grimacing with the effort.
“Lay still, Aaron. Gabe’s got ’em.” Jeremiah tried to calm his brother, who gave up and lay unmoving, his body shaking and tears streaming the sides of his cheeks.
&nb
sp; “Son…of a…bitch,” he whispered with a struggle and closed his eyes.
“Get the blankets across his legs and raise them.” Jenna palpated Aaron’s abdomen, finding no tenderness or rigidity. The oxygen had helped his breathing little and he’d begun to shake harder.
“Let’s get him on the back board.” Jeremiah slid the board in place.
Jenna picked up Aaron’s splinted arm. “We need several men helping, we’re going to roll him slightly toward me and get the board under him. We need to move him all as one, keeping his back and legs straight.”
She held Aaron’s arms across him and leaned down to look in his eyes, getting his attention. “Aaron, we have to roll you to get you on the back board, don’t try to help, let us move you.”
He blinked hard and gave her a slight nod of the chin against the cervical collar.
“The chopper’s five minutes out, get a landing area cleared.” Horace’s voice rang out. “Clear this area if you are not involved. Is anyone else hurt?”
“All right, on three all together,” Jeremiah directed. “One, two, three.”
Aaron’s body began to roll toward Jenna, the men holding him and others sliding the back board under him.
He growled and went rigid trying to fight them, pushing at Jenna.
“Don’t fight, Aaron.” She held him tightly as the board was lowered back down. He cried out again, closing his eyes, gasping to breathe, trying to pull the mask away from his face.
Jenna leaned over him, holding the mask in place. “Look at me, Aaron. It’s fine now, a helicopter is coming to get you to the hospital, they’re almost here.” Her voice cracked. “Breathe Aaron, breathe sweetie.”
Aaron grimaced and took a breath.
“That’s good, try again,” she coaxed and Aaron followed her command, taking another breath and grunting with the effort.
In the distance, the batting of the chopper closed in. “They’re here, Aaron. I probably can’t go with you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. I love you.” She had to yell in his ear, letting tears roll down her cheeks, pulling his mask back to kiss his lips softly. Oh, God what if she never saw him again…