Alex interrupted. “It looks like Kelsey’s been taking good care of you. How about we get you home now? Are you ready to go?”
Kelsey could have cried. Leave it to Alex to be just what she needed. Calm. Sure. And absolutely right.
Twenty-Four
“Call Life Flight again. Tell them we’ve got a cardiac emergency. Code blue. I need them here yesterday.”
Zack nodded and stepped away.
Judy knelt at Raymond’s side. Jeff was stabilized for now. Newton too, but both were in bad shape. But Raymond was worse.
She turned to Kelsey. “Talk to me. What are his symptoms?”
“He’s been having trouble breathing, more so tonight. He tires easily. Can’t walk far. He falls down a lot. The last couple times, his pulse was racing. He blacked out earlier.” Like every other panicky mother, Kelsey rattled off the highlights in typical civilian terms.
“Calm down. Think. How often has he blacked out?”
“Once. I thought he’d died.”
Judy looked across to Alex. “I expect you know CPR?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Me, too.” Harley crouched alongside Alex. “Count me in. I’m here to help.”
“Not you. You’ll tear your stitches out.” She looked to Alex instead. “Stand by. If things turn bad, keep your compressions steady. One hundred per minute. Go deep. He’s a big man. You’re going to get a work out.”
Zack stepped up. “I’m next.”
When she tried to undo Raymond’s shirt, he shoved her hand away. “Kelsey, She… scary.”
Kelsey clutched his massive hand in both of hers. “It’s okay. She’s here to help.”
Judy slipped her stethoscope beneath Raymond’s shirt. Anxiety she could not disguise radiated through her. This was not what she’d expected on a joy ride with Alex, damn it. Two men critically injured, one in obvious cardiac distress and a dead body? How was any of this supposed to help Harley?
“Judy is like the doctor I told you about.” Kelsey caressed his cheek while Judy finished unbuttoning his shirt. “She’ll take good care of you.”
“She is kinda pretty,” he whispered out of the corner of his mouth.
“She is, isn’t she?” Kelsey’s sad eyes met Judy’s.
Judy wished she could offer encouragement. There was none.
“No.” Kelsey shook her head, clenching his hand and denying Judy’s unspoken message. “You’re here just in time. You can save him. I know you can.”
“He needs a cardio-surgeon and a crash cart, not a nurse. Talk to him. Keep him calm.”
Raymond arched his back, angling his shoulders in pain. “Kel… sey…” He squeezed her fingers. “I is… a scared.”
“I know,” she crooned. “Red Rover. Red Rover. Let Raymond come over.”
A smile worked one corner of his mouth. “You… is… singing to me.”
She nodded, tears welling up and spilling over. Judy had to admit. Kelsey was one hundred percent mother, even to this child in an ungodly-sized body. Here in the middle of nowhere, she meant for him to know the peace he’d probably never known in life.
“Red Rover,” she murmured against his ear, tears glistening off her eyelashes in the stark glare of the high-powered LED lights.
A gentle baritone joined hers. Of course it was Harley, never ashamed to step up even if it made him look goofy. Judy sniffed back her tender emotions when he knelt alongside Kelsey and took Raymond’s hand while his other hand snaked around Kelsey’s waist.
“I’m here, darlin’,” he murmured into the side of her head
Judy blinked her jealousy away. He should have been kneeling alongside her, but of course he’d gravitate toward Kelsey. She was the nice one.
Zack added another level of baritone to the childhood ditty while he applied butterfly bandages to Kelsey’s cheek and chin. Her eyes were bright with appreciation, and Judy was ashamed. Judging by the light in Zack’s eye, everyone loved her simply because she loved them first. Who could resist a woman like that?
“Keep singing, Kels,” Zack urged, winking. “We’re with you all the way.”
“Thanks.” She sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her bloody hand.
“Red Rover, Red Rover.” Another voice joined in. That surprised Judy. She’d never heard Alex sing before, a first and possibly the last performance, but there he was, looking a little sheepish maybe, but deeply in love with his lady.
Peeling the sterile wrap off a long hypodermic needle, Judy got back to the business of saving Raymond’s life. “This is atropine,” she explained to Kelsey. “In case.”
“In case what?”
“In case his heart stops,” Judy whispered. She turned on Zack. “How long before the chopper? You did tell them we have a cardiac emergency, didn’t you?”
“They’re on their way, and yes, ma’am, I did.”
Kelsey offered the only lullaby she could, her unlikely choir of war-hardened soldiers blending in with the mellowest accompaniment Judy had ever heard. She blinked the tears away.
Soon the hack-hack-hack of a far off helicopter filtered through the dark night sky. Zack stepped away to greet it, but Alex stayed fast, his arm stretched over Raymond’s broad chest to clasp Kelsey’s hand. When Raymond groaned, Judy’s heart pinched. It was happening.
“Kel—sey.” He stiffened, crunching her fingers in his mighty grip. Drawing in a deep breath, he squinted as if he couldn’t see anymore. Judy held her breath wishing miracles were real, that good people did not have to die before their time. But most of all, she wished she were smarter and more skilled. More capable. Just more, damn it!
“I’m here,” Kelsey answered faithfully. “I’m right here, Raymond.
“You... gots... tiny hands.” The softest blue eyes searched for her in the darkening shadows.
She leaned into his cheek, sobbing. “I love you, Raymond. I will always love you. No matter what happens, you will always be my Red Rover.”
He smiled, his eyes unfocused, the light in them fading. His head slumped to his shoulder, his wide square jaw slack against his thick neck, and, “My... bestest... friend,” whispering out of him on a sigh.
Judy yanked his shirt open and plunged the hypo directly into his heart. Alex knelt forward and positioned the heel of his right hand in the center of Raymond’s chest. Placing his left hand over the right, Alex interlocked fingers and began, his hands sinking into the big man’s ribcage.
Judy bit her lip, her heart screaming what she would not let her tongue speak. Inserting a sanitary mouthpiece between Raymond’s lips, she began resuscitation. Anything was possible.
Kelsey sat back, her gentle cries lost in the frantic race to save this man’s life. The scene turned surreal when the EMTs arrived.
“Oxygen. Now!” Judy barked at them. “Defib!”
“Yes, ma’am,” the blond-haired medic said as he knelt alongside Raymond. Thankfully, they’d brought oxygen and a portable defibrillator. Alex kept pumping. The EMTs spoke too seriously into their shoulder radios even as they obeyed her orders.
“Step back!” Judy ordered. God, she sounded like the Gestapo, and she did not care.
Alex enfolded Kelsey into his arms and moved out of the immediate shock zone. She buried her face in his chest, a slow sad whine crawling out of her mouth while she watched.
The medic applied the paddles. “One. Two. Three. Clear!”
Raymond’s body arched off the ground, and Alex pulled Kelsey farther away.
Judy pressed her stethoscope to Raymond’s chest, hoping her eyes did not betray her fear. Please breathe, Raymond. For Kelsey. Come on. You can do it.
When no pulse answered her prayer, she leaned back, and the medics leaned forward. Another order of, “Clear,” and the second shock entered Raymond’s poor body. Judy could not bear to look at Kelsey. The terror-filled expression on her face matched her brother Joshie’s from years ago. He’d been so close to dying that day, and now here Judy was again—unskilled
for the job at hand and desperately fighting the unforgiving laws of nature.
Further communication was not necessary. Judy pressed the stethoscope to the emptiness in Raymond’s chest, and Zack stepped up to continue compressions. He never looked her in the eye, just dug in to the relentless chore of pump, count, pump.
Moving Raymond to the gurney proved arduous. The medics rolled him to his side just enough to get a backboard beneath him. Lifting him strained every vertebra between Alex, Judy and the medics. The gurney squeaked in metallic protest. Zack never missed a beat.
“Climb aboard,” a medic instructed, so Zack straddled the unconscious body on the gurney, his hands locked together and working relentlessly, a light sheen already on his forehead and down the middle of his back. Determination chiseled his face.
Moving the over-laden gurney to the waiting chopper proved tough despite its rugged, balloon tires. Alex helped. Judy too, but when Harley stepped forward, she came unglued. “I’m not telling you one more time. Back off.”
“But I—”
“But nothing. Stay with Kelsey.” Judy nodded curtly at the poor woman left standing alone.
“Damn. I was just going to help.” He sloughed off his jacket to cover Kelsey’s bare shoulders as they followed. “You’re cold,” he whispered, pulling her under his arm.
Judy looked away. There it was again, his overwhelming kindness for another woman. She hated and loved him for it.
At last, Raymond’s gurney was onboard with Zack still firmly planted on top and working steadily. The medics couldn’t risk losing precious heart muscle in the time it would take to swap him out. Judy covered him with a light absorbent sheet to absorb the sweat pouring off his shoulders as much as to keep him semi-warm. Helicopter rides were fast, drafty, and cold.
“Sorry, ma’am.” The paramedic stopped Kelsey and Alex at the door. “I know you’re hurt, but this guy’s in bad shape. We don’t have the room. We’re going to Georgetown—”
“No, you’re not,” Judy shouted over the rotors. “You’re going to Washington Central.”
He shrugged his compliance. “Like the lady says. We’re going to W.C.”
Alex pulled Kelsey against him. “It’s okay. Meet you there.”
“But I need to be with him.” Kelsey sagged into Alex, biting her lip and crying.
Judy dashed her own tear away. This ride was going to be crowded. She stripped off her soiled gloves and tossed them aside, donning another pair quickly as she turned to do what she could for Jeff Watson. Soon Newton Bridges was safely aboard. Zack kept pumping compressions. Alex debarked to stand with Kelsey. The life flight helicopter lifted vertically from the meadow.
Judy latched onto a handgrip dangling from the ceiling to steady herself. Harley and Alex stood with Kelsey between them looking upward. Judy was not even able to wave goodbye. This was no mercy flight. She just could not bear to break Kelsey’s heart by telling her the truth.
Raymond was already gone.
Twenty-Five
Harley stared out the chopper window. He, Alex, and Kelsey ended up staying long enough to answer a few questions with the sheriff. For the most part Harley was spare baggage, just along for the ride. All he seemed to do was irritate his grumpy nurse.
Things did not add up. Alex was the boss, but Miss O’Brien sure bossed him plenty. And he’d snapped to and obeyed every time. Well, almost every time. The oddest sensation lingered. She looked so familiar.
Rain hit the windshield when the lights of D.C. glittered ahead. Kelsey still wore his coat, and he shivered, only he wasn’t cold. Scared more like it. He just did not know why. Maybe he should have stayed in bed. Maybe coming with Alex wasn’t so smart after all. Harley scrubbed a hand over his face, tired down to his bones. The ache in his chest had grown more noticeable. A bed would be nice. That bossy nurse might have been right.
Efficient. Expert. Enticing.
All kinds of E words kept showing up in his head.
She’d sure been kind to Kelsey. He’d watched her hands while she worked on Raymond. A ring sparkled on her right hand. So—she wasn’t married. Not like he cared, but something about the ring rang a bell.
Another E word showed up. Engaged.
Well, that solved it. Nurse O’Brien was probably engaged or maybe promised.
Exactly.
A blanket hit him in the face.
“You look cold.” Alex had Kelsey on his lap and snuggled into another blanket, his arms protectively around her.
“Thanks, Boss.” Harley pulled the blanket around his shoulders like a shawl. Warmth settled in and the nervous feeling disappeared. The Potomac glistened like a dark shiny snake below. Lighted bridges spanned the river, and of course, the monuments always impressed. The pilot’s voice crackled to life in his headset, requesting permission to land at Washington Central. Even the name of the hospital sounded familiar.
“Mr. Stewart,” the pilot said. “I’ve got a woman on another frequency requesting permission to be patched through to you.”
“Let me guess. Her name Mother?”
“Yes, sir. She said you’d want to talk to her.”
“I guess. Patch her through.”
It didn’t take Mother long. “Roy got him, Boss. Roy got the sniper.”
Harley raised his brows. What sniper?
“Where? How?” Alex asked.
“Caught up with him over in Arlington. Name’s Emmet Grant. Guess he worked with Roy in Vietnam. They grew up together too.”
“How’d it go down?”
“According to the fire marshal—”
“What fire marshal?”
“The one at the fire, Boss.”
“What fire?”
“The one from the explosion.”
Alex straightened in his seat and rolled his shoulder. “What explosion, damn it?”
Harley leaned back and listened. The picture of a trim, white-haired woman with blue eyes came to mind. Mother. She thought she ruled the world and the boss along with it. The more Alex questioned, the more she led him by the nose. Finally, he had enough.
“Has the FBI been informed?” he asked curtly.
“Well, of course, Boss. I took—”
“Is Roy alive?”
“Well, sure. I’d have told you right away if he’d died. Fire didn’t touch him. Mostly, he’s just got a minor concussion. Nothing to worry about with his hard head and—”
“Where is he?”
“Washington Central.”
Alex clicked his headset off, tossed it aside and hugged his wife. The chopper felt kinda like home in a really weird way
“Hey. You in there?” Connor leaned over Roy’s face as he nudged his sleeping senior agent’s shoulder one more time. “You ready to go home yet?”
“Huh?” Roy looked up groggily at the young man peering down from somewhere high above. One more nudge and Connor would be sporting more than dark glasses.
“Come on. Wake up and start moving, old man. I’m tired of waiting for you to get your beauty sleep.” Connor poked his shoulder again.
Roy closed one eye and then the other as he decided which viewpoint improved Connor’s looks. The dark glasses perched on the kid’s nose did not help. Neither did the burn ointment glistening on his cheeks, forehead and nose. To make matters worse, he smelled like bad hospital coffee and his hands were bandaged. Plus, he was hyper, the product of too much time spent in the hospital waiting room compounded with caffeine.
Roy pushed himself into a better sitting position. “What are you still doing here?”
“Well, let’s see. As I recall, you said you’d come visit me after they hauled me off to the emergency room. And, oh yeah, you were also supposed to give me a ride home.” When Connor adjusted his dark glasses, Roy could see the gauze-covered eyes beneath the rims. “On account of I kind of got a little flash burn on my retinas, and I’m bblliinnddddd. Any of this sound familiar?”
“You’ve been waiting all this time? How long I been in
here?”
“A couple hours. You scared the hell out of me when they first brought you in. Why’d you take that guy on all by yourself? You should have called for backup.”
“My backup was in the hospital.” The last thing Roy recalled was the sad look on Emmet’s face. His friend hadn’t faltered once, just stood there while the flames took what was left of his heart and soul. “Besides, he was my friend. I didn’t want just anyone out there with me.”
“He’s dead,” Connor said quietly. “Not sure why you aren’t. The explosion blew out the entire front of the house, but it mostly just knocked you down. You’ve got a concussion is all, of course I can’t see to be sure. You might have less hair.”
“Doubt that.” Roy rolled his shoulders to ease the ache of lying still too long. A man who shaved his head every day couldn’t lose much of it to fire. He’d learned that early as an EOD guy, back when he had hair.
“How’d you know he was the sniper? How’d you know where to go?”
“I didn’t. Just had a bad feeling. The magnesium fire made me think maybe we were looking in the wrong direction. We were focused on malcontents not heroes.”
“Emmet Grant was a hero?”
“You bet. One of the best.”
“Good call,” Connor murmured. “Damned tough way to go though, blowing yourself up.”
Roy shook his head. “Not when a man believes he’s already living in hell.”
“How far back did you two go?”
“We grew up together in that same Arlington neighborhood. Played Little League baseball together. I’ve known him almost my whole life.”
“I’m sure sorry for your loss.”
The picture of two little boys playing soldier together filled Roy’s mind. Like best friends and blood brothers, they spent every summer day at the local public swimming pool. When they weren’t there, they were Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio on the neighborhood baseball diamond. Superman and Batman on bikes with playing cards stuck in the spokes with clothespins and pillowcases for capes. Best friends and wannabe brothers.
“How you doing, boy?” Roy changed the subject. Looking back never made a man feel any better, but this spunky kid always did.
Harley (In the Company of Snipers Book 4) Page 21