The Last Letter(127)

“Cut his pants around it. I need to see the skin.” Not good.

“Gutierrez, this is Rescue 9. Please note we are midrefuel. On our way immediately.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Colt, you in there, bud?” I asked, stroking his face. “Can you wake up for me?”

His eyelashes fluttered. “Beckett?”

The sweetest sound I’d ever heard was Colt’s voice at that moment. He was alive and able to speak. Thank you, God.

“Hey!” I hovered over his face, locking his head in place as his eyes opened. His right pupil was slightly larger than his left. Concussion. “Hey, don’t move, okay? I’m here.”

“Where am I?” he asked, his eyes scanning from left to right.

“You had a really bad fall, so you can’t move, okay? You might have hurt your neck. Mark is here with me, and the doc is on his way. Just don’t move your head.”

“Okay.” He winced. “I hurt.”

“I bet you do. Can you tell me where?”

His eyes shifted. “Everywhere.”

“Gotcha.” I looked down to where he was pinned. “Colt, can you wiggle your toes? Just your toes?”

“Yeah,” he said.

I looked up at Mark, who shook his head with a pursed mouth.

Don’t panic.

“Good job, bud. Can you do it again?” I hoped I sounded way calmer than I felt, because I was about to crawl out of my own skin.

“See? Toes are fine. They don’t even hurt,” Colt said with a little smile.

Mark shook his head again, and my soul crumpled into a little ball.

“Your legs don’t hurt?” I asked.

“No, just everything else.” His eyes started to drift shut.

“Colt. Colt!” I gripped his face. “You have to stay with me, okay? Wiggle your fingers.”

All ten wiggled. I can work with that.

“I’m tired. Is Emma okay?”

“She sure is, but she’s worried about you. You did great, Colt. You saved her.” I took his pulse again. Shit, it was faster and lighter.

“We protect smaller people,” he said with a weak smile. “I’m cold, Beckett. Is it cold?”

“Look under that rock. Is there blood?” I ordered Mark. I stripped out of my fleece jacket and draped it across Colt’s chest. “Better?”

Mark crouched down. “I can’t see. I bet we could get it off him.”

“We need to tourniquet it first. There’s every chance he’s got a crush injury. It’s been almost two hours, we can’t just lift it off him. There’s one in Havoc’s pack.”

“Shit, Beckett,” Mark said softly. “Blood.”

I grabbed the tourniquet and knelt next to Mark. Dark red blood oozed out from beneath the rock. “Where the hell is the helo? Tell them to get the basket here.”

“Rescue 9, this is Gutierrez and Gentry. What’s the status on getting that basket?”

“Gutierrez, this is Rescue 9. We’re inbound with a five-minute ETA.”

“Fuck,” I muttered. There was no better word in this moment.

I dug just beneath Colt’s thigh, enough to slip the tourniquet through, and then yanked it tight, securing it right above where the rock had him pinned.

“Don’t move it,” I warned Mark.

Then I knelt at Colt’s other side. His lips were blue, his skin pale, clammy, and cold. His pulse was fast and weak.

“Hey, bud, I got your bleeding stopped. You just gotta hold on for the helicopter, okay?”

He gave me a small smile. “I get to ride in a helicopter? Cool.”

“You do. Plus you’re kind of a hero. Everyone’s going to think you’re cool, but I’ll still think you’re the coolest,” I promised. “Anywhere else hurt?”

“No, nothing hurts.”

I froze. Shock. Bleeding out. We’d stopped the bleeding in his leg, but there had to be a secondary bleed, if not a dozen of them after that fall.

He’s hurt. I can feel it.

Twins. Just like he’d woken up when she had the infected PICC line.

“Okay, just keep talking to me, buddy.” I took my fleece off him and lifted his shirt. Deep purple bruising discolored the entire left side of his chest. His belly was swollen.

I sat back on my heels and put my head in my hands.

Ryan. You gotta help me here. Please.

“Where are we?” Colt asked, his voice soft.

I stood quickly and grabbed onto Mark’s arm. “He’s bleeding out internally. My guess is spleen, which means minutes. Run to the nearest place you can see the sky and pop smoke.”

He was the very picture of anguish as he looked at Colt, but he turned and ran.

I hit my knees beside Colt, and then I lay down next to him, curling my body around him. “I love you so much.”

He turned his head, and I didn’t yell at him about neck injuries. There was no point. “I love you, too, Beckett.” He opened his eyes, and I rested my forehead against his.

“I was thinking maybe we’d add that zip line to the tree house. What do you say?” I ran my fingers through his hair.

“Yeah. I think you should make it go into the lake. That would be cool, and Mom wouldn’t worry about falling so much.”