“That’s whathesaid,” she whispers, making me smile.
At least she still has her sense of humor.
She winces, but then her face calms.
“That was easy,” Blake says. “I’m going to pass the bag of fluid to you because they need to be up high. Can you reach down to grab it?”
“I think so.” She catches her tongue between her teeth and reaches down, and then she has the bag in her hand. “Got it. Wow, it’s warm.”
“I can add the medicine down here.”
“Oh, that’s nice. I feel a little floaty. And my leg doesn’t hurt.”
“Good. Hey, Brooks?”
“Yeah.” I wish I could see him, but I’m not willing to leave her. I need to be up here, by her side.
“She’s cut on the outside of her thigh from her knee to almost her hip. I can see where the wood has sliced into her. The bleeding is mostly stopped, but that wood is still sitting pretty deep in her upper thigh. I’m tempted to say we leave it in there and we get it out in the ER.”
“Jesus.” I pull my hand down my face.
“I want it out, Blake. I don’t want to wait for the ER.”
“Let’s see how things go down here, okay?”
Finally, Bridger and Beckett return with saws and tools, and after an hour of painstaking work, Jules is cut free, and my brothers lower her to the floor.
I back out of the attic slowly, not wanting to be the next victim of this cursed house. Finally, when I’m down with Jules, and she’s on the stretcher, I tug her against my chest and kiss the top of her head.
“I love you so much,” I growl into her ear. “You were so fucking badass up there.”
“Let’s get her to the hospital,” Blake says. “I can’t treat you there, sweetheart, because you’re my sister-in-law, but I’ll be there.”
Jules nods, and Bridger and his team whisk us out of the house, taking her carefully down the stairs that I’msoglad we reinforced last week.
“Oh my God!” Harper cries out as we step onto the porch. “Oh, sweetie, are you okay?”
“We love you so much,” Skyla says, brushing away tears.
“Jules.” Billie’s crying, but Jules reaches for her.
“I’m okay, Bug. I’m okay, friends.”
“Where is she?” Ava demands as she comes running onto the property. “Where’s my girl?”
“Hey.” Jules smiles at all of them, and then her pretty blue eyes fill with tears again. “I’ll be okay.”
“We have to go,” Bridger says. “She’ll be home soon, and then you all can spoil her.”
“Good,” Dani says, and they all huddle together as they watch us leave. “We’ll come see you as soon as you’re home!”
“I love them all so much,” Jules whispers.
“We all love you back, Wildfire.”
Chapter Thirty-One
JULIET
