“Three. We took care of one inside. I… I killed him, I think.” Her face fell and Hawk took over soothing her. Stone didn’t waste another second. He took off running, the rest of the driveway passing by underfoot. He wanted to vomit the instant he saw the fresh marks in the snow, boot prints and a sickening trail left by someone being dragged.
“Doc!” Gage called over to him. Sebastian was standing over a body, zip tying him up the same way Stone had done not even five minutes before. He saw the bloody face of the man who’d tried to kill him, and even though everything was screaming at him to make sure the asshole really was headed six feet underground, he couldn’t focus on anything until he knew Mae was okay.
And from how still her body was laying next to Gage. He wasn’t too late. He couldn’t be…
“She has a pulse, Doc. Her breathing’s good.”
Stone fell to his knees next to Mae, shucking his backpack onto the snow covered ground before grabbing all the warming materials he could get his fingers around. He rushed to get a reflective blanket over her, to trap in as much remaining heat from her body as he could manage. The goal was to get her warm, but not too quickly.
“Mae!” Stone’s hands landed on her bare arms. She was soaking wet from lying in the snow and ghostly white. He stripped his jacket off, laying it on the ground before he gently picked her up and set her on top of it. Fuck, her skin was like ice. And yet, she still flinched at his touch. Because that bastard had hurt her. He wanted to put his fist through Christopher’s face a hundred times, but getting Mae out of the god forsaken frozen forest was more important.
He needed to get her to wake up. To open her eyes and slip back into consciousness. If he couldn’t rouse her… No. He wouldn’t think about that. It wasn’t an option. “Mae! Michaela, baby, open your eyes. Fuck, please open your eyes.”
Stone reached back into his rucksack, shaking free the hand warmers he’d packed. A quick snap of the activation pod inside the packaging, and heat radiated into his hands.
He stuffed one heating pack up under Mae’s left arm, then worked on getting another pack ready for her right.
“Doughnuts…” Stone’s heart nearly fell out of his chest when he heard the whisper. Her eyelids were starting to flutter.
“Open your eyes and you can have all the doughnuts you want, beautiful. Just come back to me, okay? You’re safe now, baby. You’re safe. He won’t touch you again. Please just open your eyes and come back to me.”
Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, then finding their way to his face
“L-Laurel? Jessie?” shecroaked.
“It’s okay. It’s okay…”
“Here with m-me. H-hurt Lo.”
“We found them. They’re okay. So let’s just focus on you right now. Are you hurt?”
Her eyes fluttered shut, and his heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
“Mae, baby, I need you to keep your eyes open.” He shoved warmers into the extra pair of wool socks before drying her feet off and sliding them into the warm material. Then he cracked more warmers, placing them under her arms, on her belly and chest, before wrapping her up in his jacket. It wasn’t ideal, but that should bring her body temperature back up. He needed to get her to a hospital.
“The building’s clear.” Max called out as he walked up to Sebastian. “I called in for three ambulances. Mae, you okay?”
“F-Fine. Gave them… h-hell of a t-time.”
Max smiled. “I’m sure you did.”
Her eyes went wide as she sucked in a sharp breath. “What is it?”
“Bombs… bomb… the girls…. at home.”
“It’s okay. Breathe. Just breathe. We found it in time. Everything’s going to be okay.”
That seemed to settle her, at least, until her eyes went wide and she jolted at his touch.
“What is it?”
“Is he…” Her teeth chattered, and he hated the way her skin was still so gray.
“Michaela, we took care of him. You don’t have to worry, okay? He’s not going to hurt you.”
“Doc?” Sebastian’s question was clear.
“Yeah, let’s move into the vans. We can get them warm while we wait for the ambulances.”
