“Don’t let her die.”
“Won’t.” Von put his hand on Elias’s shoulder. “And I’m headin’ back out for your dog.”
Elias gave a single nod, lay back on the gurney where they poked something into his vein, and passed out.
***
Amka didn’t usually like strangers in her town, but these guys were okay. She was the one who’d called them after all.
They’d come in with their own damn medical team, which she sure appreciated. An attractive, fiftysomething ER doc and her big, hairy sidekick, who claimed to be a nurse but seemed more caveman than anything.
What followed was twenty-four hours of comings and goings, blurred medical procedures—on her godson and Leo. New faces, old faces, and scenes of Schink’s Station like something from a war zone.
Amka smiled as she hauled her ass up onto the cabin porch. Given that she was responsible for the worst destruction of property here, she couldn’t be too pissed about it. Well, she could, but she could also enjoy the memory of smashing through the lodge’s window. That would be a highlight she’d look back on fondly for the rest of her life.
A guy stepped out of the shadows at the door to the cabin. Tall, reddish hair, kinda looked like thatOutlanderguy, though without the pretty accent, and held a rifle in his hands like he knew how to use it. “Help you?” the man asked in a voice that had been run through a meat grinder. This guy had come in just a few hours ago. One of three groups to descend upon Schink’s Station in the past few days.
She cocked her head. “What’s wrong with your throat?”
His eyes widened before narrowing again. “Uh, people don’t usually ask me that the first time we meet.”
“I’m old. I’m allowed to ask nosy questions.”
One side of his mouth kicked up. “You’re Old Amka.”
“And you are?”
He smiled full-on now and she almost had to step back at the movie-star wattage of the thing. “Dr. Ford Cooper.”
“Doctor? Why aren’t you in there with my godson, then?”
“Not that kind of doctor. I’m a glaciologist.”
“Huh.” Useless, then. She lifted her chin. “I wanna see him.”
“He’s asleep, but…”
“You keeping me out?”
The handsome man lifted his hands and stepped away from the door. “Nope.”
She put her hand on the doorknob and turned. “What are you doing out here, exactly, Dr. Ford Cooper?”
“Guarding the cabin, ma’am.”
“Worried about the guy who got away?”
He shrugged. “We prefer to err on the side of caution.”
She lifted a brow and opened the door, then turned back. “Never told me what’s wrong with your voice.”
“Took some shrapnel in Afghanistan.”
She shook her head and snuffled out a laugh. “Glaciologist my ass.” She shut the door, turned to look at Elias, and let the tiniest bit of regret seep into her heart.
She hadn’t done right by the boy. Hadn’t gotten him out in time. He looked like hell. A black eye, cuts on his face, his cheeks sunken. From what that creepy-ass Von had told her—and Jack, her second-favorite pilot after Leo Eddowes—he and Leo had survived just about every possible danger this place could throw at them. And come out on top.
She smiled.
