Page 19 of Crash Over Us
He shook his head. “I’m not worried about my face. I’m worried about Gabe. I need to check on him.”
My eyes widened. “Where is he? Isn’t he with you?” I had been blinded by my own relief to notice that his best friend wasn’t on the cutter with him. My stomach rolled with queasiness.
“He took a pretty hard hit. He’s right there.” Caleb pointed to another vessel, docking now. I didn’t recognize it as a Coast Guard ship. It looked like a fishing boat. The medical crew boarded, and assessed a person who wasn’t moving. That was Gabe?
“Oh God, Caleb.” I gripped the front of his shirt in my hands. Why did it feel like the world was falling out from beneath me when he was here? Safe. Unharmed.
“Come on.” He took me by the hand. His grip was firm and warm. He helped me off the boat and onto the pier.
Jacob strolled toward us. I stepped aside just as his older brother yanked him into a big bear hug. He patted him hard on the back.
“You had us worried. Little shit,” Jacob teased. He stepped back and wiped his nose. “I’m going to call Mom right now.”
“Okay. Dad’s coming in too. I think the entire island was out there.”
Jacob grinned. “You know they were. I can’t wait to hear about this.”
Caleb’s fingers threaded against mine felt like the only reason I could stand upright. Now that he was here, my body was starting to fill with exhaustion. I had been running on adrenaline and coffee. Bad coffee.
“Later. I’ll tell you about it later. I’ve got to find out where they are taking Gabe.”
Caleb and I hurried to the next set of boat slips. Gabe was already loaded onto a stretcher, and the straps were tight against his chest.
“Any alertness?” he asked the medic. “Has he woken up at all?”
The woman shook her head. “Pulse is steady. We’re taking him to Pointe Harbor.”
We stood back to give them room to wheel Gabe toward the ambulance that was waiting in the parking lot of the marina. I noticed Commander Guthrie was positioned next to the ambulance doors. He was talking to the sheriff.
It was then that I started to realize the base was dotted with police cars.
“Caleb, what are they doing here? What happened?” My eyes darted back and forth.
Another medic hurried up to us. “Officer O’Connor. We have to look at your face. You need stitches.”
The swirl of activity was dizzying. We couldn’t finish a sentence. It felt like we couldn’t finish a thought before another urgent message was delivered or a request was made.
Jacob appeared. “Hey, I’ll wait with Margot while you get your face stitched up. I already talked to Mom.”
Caleb looked reluctant to leave. His face was bleeding again. “Go,” I urged. “He’s right. They all are. You need to get stitches or you’ll have a scar.”
“You think I care about a scar?” he grumbled. “I want to go home.”
There was nothing I wanted more than to take him home. I wanted to wrap my body around his and hold on to him until the sun came up, the sun went down, and it came up again.
“I would still love your face with a scar,” I teased. “But it’s bleeding again and you don’t want it to get infected.”
“Listen to her, little brother,” Jacob chimed in. “She’ll be fine. I swear. I’ve taken care of her all night.”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “All right. I’ll head to medical. Can you tell Dad he doesn’t need to stick around?”
“Sure. Anything else?” Jacob asked.
Instead of storming off in defiance, Caleb turned and hugged his brother a second time. “Thank you. For staying with her. And, you know…just thanks.”
He sauntered off toward the second ambulance that had waited behind after Gabe left. But he didn’t go inside. They loaded another person.
I looked at Jacob. “What happened out there?”
