She was conscious of butterflies in her belly as it drew nearer to Garret’s usual arrival time. She hadn’t seen him all day, had missed him in her bed all night, and she ached to see his face and hear his voice. But she also knew she had to be prepared for him to be cool and reserved with her, like last night. She needed to be braced for that.
She drew in a big, deep breath when she saw the Lincoln driving toward the Tates’ reserved parking bay next to the hangar. She set her shoulders and adjusted the bill on her cap and hoped like hell that her inner turmoil and hurt didn’t show on her face.
His face was pale and tight as he got out of the car, and her hands twitched by her sides. Despite her resolve to accept his decision, she wanted to go to him. Wanted to put her arms around him and do what she could to soothe the worry marks from his brow and ease the tension from his shoulders.
Just do your job. Make it easy for him. That’s the greatest gift you can give him right now.
He was wearing his sunglasses, and he gave her an acknowledging nod before climbing into the passenger cabin. She secured the door and climbed into the cockpit. The preflight check went smoothly, and she took off minutes later after receiving clearance from the tower.
She checked the mirror multiple times during the flight back to Marietta but didn’t catch his eye even once. He was buried in his laptop, one hand kneading his forehead as he frowned at the screen, palpable tension rippling off him.
She swallowed her questions about his day and stayed focused on her role as his private pilot, a role she was performing for the final time today. She’d been so busy recovering from the unexpected blow of losing Garret she hadn’t had time to process the fact she’d have to explain the situation to Jack too.
She could think about that later, when she didn’t have to maintain her best poker face.
For the first time since she’d started flying for Garret, the sight of the helipad beside his parents’ house filled her with relief. She was reaching the end of her ability to pretend he was nothing to her and she wasn’t hollowed out inside. She needed him to be gone so she could stop swallowing back the tears she refused to cry in front of him.
She touched down and immediately killed the motor. Then she checked her oil levels and went through the rest of her postflight routine before climbing out and releasing the passenger cabin door. Garret stepped out immediately, sunglasses still hiding his eyes.
“Before you go, would you like me to put the word out at the airport that you’re looking for a new pilot?” she asked, aiming her gaze somewhere over his shoulder.
He paused. “Mandy’s organized someone for me today, but thanks for the offer.”
She pressed her back teeth together to stop herself from reacting to how easily she’d been replaced. “All right, then.”
She turned to shut the passenger door. She could feel Garret hovering there, waiting for her to turn back, and she willed him to walk away. He was the one who wanted it this way, and she was not going to cry in front of him.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, giving her the perfect excuse to ignore him, and she pulled it out and checked the screen. It was Casey, and she swallowed a lump of emotion at the thought of being home with her family around her.
She needed that right now, very much. Eva would pass the tissues and say all the right things, and Casey and Jed would be bewildered but kind, doing their best to make her feel better.
“Hey, Case—”
“Where are you? Still in Helena?” Casey asked, his voice sharp and urgent.
“Just landed in Marietta. Why? What’s wrong?” she asked, her hand tensing around the phone.
“Jed was out doing a fence repair on the western ridge today, said he’d be back by midafternoon. Figured it was taking longer than he’d thought it would when he didn’t show, but I just spotted Pedro hanging around near the main corral.”
For a second Sierra forgot to breathe. A horse coming back without its rider was every rancher’s nightmare. There was every chance that something might have just happened to spook Pedro, of course, forcing Jed to trudge home on foot. If he was walking all the way from the western ridge, it’d easily take him well into the night.
But there was also every chance that he’d come off and broken something. A leg. His back. His neck.
“Sierra, you still there?” Casey asked.
“I’m here.” She whirled to find Garret hovering near the edge of the helipad, a concerned frown on his face.
“I need to borrow the Bell. Garret’s horse has come back without him.”
Comprehension darkened his eyes. He’d grown up in Marietta. He knew the kind of accidents that befell cowboys. “You got binoculars on board?” he asked.
“There’s a pair in the desk in the hangar,” she said.
He walked to the hangar in a few long strides, pulling the rolling door open with a single powerful jerk. She returned her attention to the phone.
“I’ll be airborne in five,” she said, and she heard her brother sigh with relief.
“Man, you have no idea how much I wanted to hear you say that. Eva and I can go out and start searching, but that’s a lot of miles to cover.”
“Coverage might be patchy, but I’ll call if we can,” she said, pulling open the cockpit door and clambering back into her seat.
“He’s probably halfway home, cursing Pedro’s name,” Casey said.
“Yeah. Probably,” she agreed. “Any idea what he was wearing so we know what to look for?”
“I don’t know. Let me check with Eva, see if she remembers.” She heard Eva’s voice briefly, then Casey was back on the line. “She said a red shirt and a pair of jeans. She remembers because she gave him crap for looking like the Marlboro man.”
“Okay. Good. That ought to make it easier to find him from the air. I’ll call you.”
“All right.”
Garret pulled open the passenger door and climbed in, a pair of binoculars in hand.
“Belt on, please,” she said, handing over his headset.
A minute later they were in the air, flying on a northwestern heading. It didn’t take long for the familiar roof of her family home to come into view and she took a westerly heading, dropping her altitude at the same time to give Garret the best view of the terrain.
“He’s wearing a red shirt. On foot, obviously. I’ll head for the ridge, and we can work our way back.”
“Sounds good.” He pulled off his sunglasses and glanced toward the clock on the control panel.
She knew what he was thinking. They had about another hour of light before the sun went down. If they didn’t find him now, they’d be searching on horseback for the rest of the night.
“We’ll find him,” Garret said reassuringly.
She nodded and concentrated on the ground below, correcting her heading whenever she recognized landmarks. Scrub and trees flashed by as she divided her attention between flying the Bell and searching for her brother.
They made it all the way to the western ridge, the furthest corner of Carmody land, without spotting Jed. She passed her phone to Garret. “Can you see if you can get a signal and call Casey, check that Jed hasn’t turned up?” she asked.
Garret checked for reception then gave a shrug. “One bar. I’ll give it a shot.”
She kept scanning the fence line as he waited for the call to connect.
“Call failed. I’ll try again.”
Sierra turned her head to respond and caught a flash of something blue in her peripheral vision. She straightened, craning her neck, but they’d flown too far for her to see whatever it might have been. She took the Bell in a sweeping turn, doubling back.
“Where am I looking?” Garret asked, picking up on her tension.
“Near the trees. I thought I saw something . . .”
“There. Against the tree.”
Sierra’s heart gave a painful squeeze as she spotted Jed leaning against a twisted tree. His chest was bare, his leg stretched in front of
him. The red shirt Eva remembered had been wrapped around his calf to create a bandage over his jeans, and the options ran through Sierra’s mind as she looked for a safe place to land.
Broken leg or snakebite.
Please let it be a broken leg.
Because the only truly dangerous snake in Montana was the prairie rattlesnake, and its bite could be deadly if a person didn’t get medical treatment fast enough. Five years ago, one of the Johnson kids had been bitten while out hiking and hadn’t been able to get to help in time. His organs had shut down one by one over the next few days before he’d died.
Panic rose up, choking her. Then she blinked and got a grip. She had to land the Bell and get to Jed.
She concentrated on putting the Bell down on the uneven ground. It wasn’t her best landing, but it was more than adequate and she switched off the engine and wrenched the door open in almost the same move.
She ran the short distance to the tree, alarm racing through her when she saw that Jed hadn’t changed positions since she’d spotted him from the air.
“Jed!” She fell to her knees beside him, her fingers going to his neck to find a pulse.
His skin was hot and clammy to the touch. She sagged a little when she felt his pulse beneath her fingertips, steady and strong.
He was alive. Thank god.
Garret knelt beside her, and she saw he’d stopped to grab the helicopter’s first aid kit.
“He’s breathing. Hot and clammy,” she said.
“I’m guessing snakebite,” he said.
She nodded, then touched her brother’s hand. “Jed. Can you hear me? Just give my hand a little squeeze, or open your eyes if you can. Whatever you can do.”
His eyelids fluttered and she felt his chest rise and fall as though he was trying to speak.
“Don’t speak if it’s too hard. It’s okay. We’re going to get you to the hospital,” she said.
Garret was inspecting the makeshift shirt-bandage Jed had wrapped around his left calf.
“I don’t want to disturb this. Based on what I can remember about snakebite, the less movement the better, yeah?” He started rolling elasticized bandage over the top of Jed’s shirt, reinforcing what her brother had done.
“Zero movement, limb at heart level, medical care as quickly as possible,” Sierra said as she lifted Jed’s heel very gently to allow Garret to pass the bandage under Jed’s leg.
“Think you can help me carry him?”
Sierra considered her brother’s six-foot-three form. As fired up and terrified as she was, she was tempted to say she could handle her share of his weight, but he was a muscular guy.
“There’s a tarp in the hold,” she said.
Garret leapt to his feet and took off, understanding without her asking that she wanted to be the one to stay with her brother. Leaning closer, she pressed a hand to his forehead and winced when she felt how hot he was.
How long had he been sitting out here like this? How long had the snake venom been seeping into his body, poisoning everything it touched?
“Jed . . . I love you so much. Please be okay,” she said, a horrible fear gripping her.
What would she do if he died? He’d been mother and father to her for thirteen years. He was the steely spine of their family. She couldn’t imagine the world without him in it.
“Let’s spread this out, get him onto it, and get back in the air ASAP,” Garret said as he ran back to join her.
She nodded, glad of the instruction and the chance it gave her to pull herself together. Together they spread out the tarp, then Garret grabbed Jed beneath the armpits and swiveled him around on his butt to get him away from the tree trunk. He shifted behind Jed then and dragged him the short distance onto the tarp. Jed stirred a little as his injured leg bumped along the uneven ground. Sierra told herself it was a good sign—he was still conscious, albeit barely.
Once he was on the tarp, she and Garret each grabbed a corner and put their backs into pulling it and Jed toward the helicopter. It was by no means easy or smooth, but it was for sure better than them having to force Jed into walking or her trying and failing to carry him. Garret manhandled Jed into the passenger cabin once they arrived, stretching him out on the floor between the two bench seats before getting in and positioning himself so he could support Jed’s head against his chest and brace both of them with his feet if need be.
The moment they were settled, she slammed the door shut and scrambled into the pilot’s seat. The main rotor fired up with its usual mechanical roar and she did the quickest preflight check in the history of mankind before opening up the throttle and lifting the collective for takeoff.
Her palms were sweaty on the controls as she turned toward town. By car, it was a twenty-minute drive. By air, she should be able to make it in close to five if she went hard, and that was exactly what she intended to do.
She opened up the throttle and picked up the radio, finding the frequency for Marietta hospital. It was hard to keep her voice from shaking as she told them she was inbound, ETA five minutes, with a thirty-two-year-old male with suspected snakebite. Fever, clammy skin, semiconscious.
“Roger that. We will be standing by,” the hospital replied.
One question kept bouncing around her head as they flew: what if they were too late?
The thought made her stomach lurch and she blinked away tears.
Don’t you dare lose it, Carmody. Jed needs you to be at the top of your game.
She sucked it all back in, forcing herself to calm down, and pushed her fears away. There would be plenty of time to engage with them once she’d gotten Jed safely on the ground.
She checked the mirror and could see Garret had his head bowed as he spoke near Jed’s ear. Reassuring him, she imagined.
She flashed back to the moment when she’d done the same thing for his father not so long ago, urging him to be okay, assuring him help was close. This time she was the one in the pilot’s seat, though, and she hoped she could live up to Jack’s calm, efficient competence.
The first houses on the outskirts of Marietta flashed into view, then she was flying over Main Street, aiming for the hospital and the well-marked helipad on the roof. She could see hospital staff standing by with a gurney, their faces pale blurs as she approached. Then she concentrated on landing as quickly and gently as she could. The moment she felt the thud of the landing skids hitting the rooftop she switched the main rotor off and signaled for the medical crew to approach.
Clambering out of the cockpit, she pulled the passenger door open and stood back to let them do their thing.
Garret stayed in place, supporting Jed, until the team eased Jed out and onto the gurney. Sierra had to press her hand to her mouth when she registered that his breathing had become shallow and labored, his chest rising and falling rapidly. She remained frozen in place as they wheeled him toward the hospital entrance, terror rushing through her body in a cold wash.
“He only started breathing like that as we were landing,” Garret said, his arms coming around her.
She allowed herself to sink into the comfort of his embrace for a full five seconds before pulling back. “I have to tell Casey.”
Garret pulled her phone from his pocket and passed it over. She made the call, feeling shaky now the flight was over.
“We’re on the way to the hospital,” Casey said when he picked up. “We saw you fly over, heading for town. Figured you’d found him.”
“He’s been bitten by a snake. Case . . . He’s not good. I don’t know how long it’s been since he was bitten, but he was having trouble breathing when we landed.”
For a moment the only sound was the car engine. She guessed Casey was grappling with the same panicky thoughts she was, dread and hope and fear all mixed up in a chaotic tangle.
“We need to call Jesse,” Casey finally said, his voice tight.
“I’ll do it,” Sierra volunteered.
He was driving, and she’d prefer he concentrated on the road.
“Here.”
A folded cotton square was pressed into her hand, which was when she realized she was crying. She looked at Garret in despair, unable to stop the flow now she’d acknowledged it.
“I’ve got to call Jesse,” she said.
Garret took the handkerchief from her, then wiped her cheeks and pulled her back into his arms. “Deep breaths. In, then out. That’s right. Give me another couple for good measure,” he said, his voice vibrating through his chest and into hers.
She sniffed, then blinked as the out-of-control feeling passed and he let her go.
“Thanks,” she said, not quite meeting his eyes. Then she pulled up her brother’s number on her phone.
Jesse answered just as she was starting to worry she’d be flicked across to voice mail, and she passed on the bad news as succinctly as she could.
“We’re in Plentywood. We’ll dump the trailer and find a stable for Major and be with you guys in six hours,” Jesse said in his no-nonsense, decisive way.
“Okay. Drive safely. I love you,” Sierra said.
“Love you, too, Squirrel.”
For once Sierra didn’t wince as her brother used her childhood pet name.
“How long can we leave the Bell here on the roof?” Garret asked.
“Not long. But I’m not going anywhere until I’ve had an update on Jed,” Sierra said, turning toward the hospital entrance.
Chapter Twenty-One
Garret walked beside her as they made their way into the emergency department. The nurse at the busy emergency reception informed them that Jed was being assessed and treated and they needed to wait for further updates.
Sierra wanted to argue, but Garret’s arm came around her shoulders and steered her toward a couple of empty seats. “They probably haven’t got anything to tell you just yet. They’ll be getting the antivenom into him, stabilizing him, making him comfortable . . .”
More Than a Cowboy (The Carmody Brothers Book 3) Page 26