She said it casually as if she hadn’t just gone beyond, way beyond, what most people would’ve been able to do, and saved his life.
He pulled her lips down to his with his good arm. “Thank you. You saved my life.”
“I should’ve done more. I should’ve—”
“You did enough.”
She helped get him up and to the bed. He was barely able to walk, and dizziness assaulted him immediately. Once there, she removed the T-shirt she’d used to stop the flow of blood.
Looking at it, he realized the wound was worse than he’d thought. Skin ripped open and still bleeding. It was already swollen and ugly. Infection was going to be a real worry.
The game was up. He needed to call Omega and get some medical attention out to them. They could have someone here on Jet-Skis within twenty minutes.
Natalie’s concerned face was already going in and out of focus. Hell, how was he going to explain this to her?
“I need my phone,” he croaked out. She’d covered him with a blanket, but he kicked it off, feeling too hot.
“Ren, we don’t get a signal, remember? You’ve already tried.”
He shook his head, the movement causing him to fall back with a groan. “I have to tell you something. But I need my phone first. Pants pocket.”
She moved to the pile of clothes by the door, hanging them over the couch to dry as she came back, but was shaking her head. “I’m sorry, it’s broken. The fall in the river and then probably as I dragged you back to the cabin.”
When she handed it to him, he realized it was true. There was no way to make a call with this phone. Damn it, they were going to need to walk out of here. As soon as possible.
“You’re going to need to stitch this,” he told her, struggling to stay upright as everything pitched around him. “There’s a first aid kit in one of the kitchen cabinets.”
She got it and came back. Ren already knew it was fully stocked, including some supplies for sutures.
She cleaned out the wound, wincing as he bit off a curse at the pain.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she whispered as he showed her what she would need to do and helped her prepare the sutures.
“You can.” He tried to smile at her but everything was so blurry. He could feel fever beginning to course through his body. “It doesn’t have to be perfect. We just need to get it closed before infection sets it.”
Although he was pretty sure it already had.
His breath whistled out his teeth as the needle pierced his already inflamed skin. But he swallowed all signs of pain when he saw the tears leaking out of Natalie’s eyes.
“You’re doing great. You’re the most amazing woman I have ever met,” he told her after what seemed like hours later when she was almost finished. Her face had long since blurred into an unrecognizable blob as his eyes glazed over from pain. The sound of her voice—the sound ofeverything—starting toseem farther and farther away. He fought every second to stay conscious.
He needed to tell her. Tell her how close they were to civilization. Less than four miles. What if something happened to him and he couldn’t lead her out? She could make it. This wasn’t just about Freihof anymore.
“Nat, you need to know... I have to tell you...”
“Ren?” Panic was clear in her voice.
And then there was nothing.
Chapter Fifteen
By the time she’d tied off the stitches like he’d shown her how, Ren was completely unconscious.
And burning up with fever.
She touched his forehead but she didn’t even have to know for sure how high his temperature had climbed. His face was already a bright red and he’d kicked all the covers off his body. She spent the next few hours alternating between trying to cool him down with a wet washcloth and attempting to get some ibuprofen in him by grinding it into powder and mixing it with water.
Nothing seemed to help.
