“No. Check. Exit.” Her teeth were chattering, preventing her from finishing a sentence. At least he hoped that was all it was. He glanced at the monitor. Heart rate high—to be expected, but blood pressure and pulse ox were okay. For now, at least.
“This is gonna hurt,” he told her as he took her shoulders to lean her forward and check for an exit wound. Nothing. He let her lie back. “No exit wound.”
“Shit,” she gasped. “Get. Seal.”
He was already one step ahead, ripping open a sterile package, revealing the clear, adhesive chest seal.
“Make. Sure?—”
“Shut up, Alyssa. Used enough of these while in the shitshow. I could do it in my sleep,” Blake snapped, wishing she’d conserve her energy.
“Boss.” She aimed a thumb at herself.
“If you think I give a fuck about my license right now, I need to check you for brain trauma,” he said as he positioned the seal over the wound, pressing down firmly around the edges.
“Jesus!”
The valve in the center fluttered as Alyssa exhaled, releasing the trapped air. With each breath, Blake watched, checking if the seal would hold. All good. But he’d seen guys with similar injuries go downhill fast.
“How’s your belly?” He palpated it, hoping the bullet’s trajectory hadn’t sent it into her liver or kidney. But she had no guarding or rebound tenderness. That was good. He wrapped two emergency blankets around her as he debated: take the time to start an IV here—he was nowhere near as fast and slick as Alyssa was, but he could manage it—or hit the road and get to Potsdam as fast as possible.
“Go,” she ordered, making the decision for him. “BP’s stable. Gas pedal?—”
“Is sometimes the best medicine,” he finished for her. Trauma patients had a much better chance at living when they arrived at a trauma center quickly. They used to say within the “golden hour,” but in reality, even sooner was best.
He checked to make sure both Alyssa and Thomas were strapped in. Thomas appeared shaken and worried, but otherwise fine. Blake moved to the front seat, keying the radio as he fastened his seatbelt, but it was still on the fritz. He searched his pockets for his cell—gone, probably vanished in the snow while he was dealing with the impostor cop. Shit.
Alyssa’s had been in her hand… He fished around under the driver’s seat and found it. But the screen was cracked, and there was no life behind it. Well and truly dead.
“I’ve got no comms,” he called to Alyssa as he drove to the strip mall’s exit. The storm had worsened, visibility was less than shit. He put the turn signal on and squinted to make sure there was no traffic. “Next stop, Potsdam.”
“Hey,” Thomas said. “Wasn’t the shootout between us and Potsdam? How do we know there’s no more of those guys between us and there?”
Blake stopped. He had been so immersed in treating Alyssa that he hadn’t thought about what was staring right at him. He turned to face them both.
“That county SUV, driving like a bat out of hell. It wasn’t headed to Potsdam, was it?” Real cops would know Eastfork wasn’t the right destination for serious injuries. Real cops would have left someone at the shootout and not just abandoned a crime scene.
“No,” Alyssa said. “Eastfork.” She twisted to meet his gaze. “We gotta go. Eastfork. Now.”
She knew as well as Blake that meant potentially delaying her care if she needed more than what Sara could do with the basic equipment available in the Minor Care clinic.
But then she voiced what he’d been worrying about. “Maybe not cops.”
“One guy didn’t kill all those officers,” he filled in the blanks, then glanced at Thomas.
Alyssa shrugged, leaving the decision—for once—to Blake. Helluva time to give up being the boss.
“Thomas, you get a vote. Eastfork or Potsdam?”
“If Dr. Sara’s in trouble along with the rest of the folks at the clinic, hell yeah, we gotta go. What’re you waiting for, hit the gas!”
Blake’s foot was on the accelerator before the old man finished talking. Sara was in danger, his gut was certain. She and her staff didn’t stand any chance against gunmen who had just taken out half a dozen cops.
These guys were dangerous.
Very dangerous.
And they had a serious head start on Blake.
