Page 29 of Duty Devoted
“Then I’m not going to make it.” The words came out steadier than I felt. “You’ll have to send the helicopter back again later. My parents will pay for it.”
“It’s not a question of payment. There’s a hurricane coming in that will make coming back impossible for a while.”
I shrugged. “Then I’ll just have to find a way to stay alive and stay hidden from the Silvas until you can come back. But I’m not leaving this young woman and her baby to die.”
Logan’s jaw tightened as he ran calculations I couldn’t see. Finally, he turned to Tyler and Jace.
“Change of plans. Get the other doctors to the extraction point. Establish overwatch and we’ll catch up to you.”
“What about you?” Jace asked.
“I’ll procure another vehicle, and we’ll meet you at the landing zone as soon as we can. Tell the pilot to hold as long as possible. But if we’re not there when the safety threshold passes, extract without us. No exceptions.” Logan’s voice carried the kind of authority that ended arguments.
Ty didn’t like it, but he agreed. “Copy that.”
“You don’t have to come with me,” I said to him as the others gathered their gear. “I understand the risks and am willing to take them. It’s not fair to ask you to take them too.”
“Someone has to keep you alive long enough to save people.” He adjusted his radio frequency and clipped it to his vest. “That’s me.”
It wasn’t poetic, but I didn’t need it to be. He understood why I had to go, even if he disagreed with the choice. And most importantly, he wasn’t letting me go alone.
Sophia appeared at my side as I prepared emergency supplies. “Are you sure about this?”
“No. But I’m sure about what happens if I don’t try.”
She pulled me in for a hug. “Be careful. We’ll see you at the helicopter.”
I hugged her back, hoping that was true.
Logan established his rules as we prepared to leave. “You stay where I can see you. If I say move, you move immediately. If I say we’re leaving, we leave—medical situation be damned.”
“And if Lucia’s bleeding out when you make that call?”
“Then she dies, and you live.” His voice was implacable. “I won’t apologize for prioritizing your survival.”
The brutal honesty should have angered me, but instead, it felt oddly comforting. He would keep me alive, even if it meant making impossible choices.
“Understood. As long as you give me as much time as you can.”
A few minutes later, we followed Elena through the afternoon heat, leaving the clinic’s relative safety behind. The air felt thicker, more oppressive—whether from the approaching storm or my mounting anxiety, I couldn’t tell.
Logan moved with that controlled awareness I was learning to recognize, positioning himself where he could monitor approaches while maintaining visual contact with me. His competence was reassuring in ways I was only beginning to understand.
Lucia’s house sat at the village’s edge, small and cramped. The moment I stepped inside, medical training took over. Worried voices, the smell of blood and sweat, a young woman’s labored breathing—this was familiar territory.
Lucia lay pale and exhausted, dark stains spreading across the sheets beneath her. Her grandmother hovered nearby, wringing her hands and murmuring prayers.
“Lucia,” I said softly, moving to her side. “I’m here.”
Relief flooded her face. “Doctora, something’s very wrong. The baby won’t come, and there’s so much blood.”
I worked quickly, assessing vitals and examining the source of bleeding. Pulse rapid but strong. Blood pressure low but stable. The hemorrhaging appeared to be from trauma rather than internal rupture—frightening but manageable.
“The baby’s positioned incorrectly,” I explained as I prepared for manual repositioning. “I can fix this, but it’s going to be painful.”
“Do whatever you have to do,” Lucia whispered.
As I worked, I was acutely aware of Logan’s presence in the doorway. His attention split between monitoring my progress and watching for external threats, but somehow his steady competence made the chaotic situation feel more controlled.
