“Practiced,” she whispers, the volume of her voice becoming softer and softer. “Like we practiced.”
Her eyes flutter to a close as she succumbs to her pain and trauma.
“I know where Marco is.” I turn from her face, starting to assess her injuries.
“Where, Quinny?” Kade stands facing me, the scissors in his hand and raging determination etched on his features.
“We built a hideout. It’s basic.”
“Where?”
“Due east from the front door. As straight as a crow flies, nestled against our fence boundary, there’s a huge ponderosa pine. The hideaway is opposite.”
He takes off. I want to chase after him, and I will once I confirm Deena isn’t dying on me.
Kade and Santiago exchange a handful of words before Kade reappears next to me. “I’ll get some hot water,” he offers before I can ask.
“There’s an emergency kit on the top shelf in the kitchen cupboard.”
He races away, and by the time he’s back, I’ve already taken stock of Deena’s injuries. Her wrist is either fractured or broken,and I suspect her collarbone is too. That can all be set, but first I need to attend to the gashes on her side.
“Help me roll her so I can check her back,” I direct Kade, and he jumps into action.
I snap on a pair of disposable gloves and help as he rolls Deena so I can check her back for injuries. Her back is a tapestry of bruises and contusions, while a couple of slashes stripe down over her shoulders. She was running from her attacker when those happened.
“Okay. Nothing too bad there. The front is worse.”
Both Kade and I stand up straighter as the sounds of Aleksei yelling come then go as he races after someone. He’s furious. He’s also a very competent badass Alpha, so neither Kade nor I make a move to help.
Without doubt, I consider myself equally badass, but I fight against death with my medical kit as my arsenal.
Kade races off to wash his hands, even without me telling him. But that’s Kade—always reading the scene and knowing how to respond.
He reappears as I’m checking her vitals.
“Use anything sterile to clean the lacerations on her chest.” I don’t stop what I’m doing.
He works next to me quietly, and I rejoin him after checking that Deena’s vitals are stable and double-checking the rest of her body.
“It’s hard to know the extent without x-rays.”
Kade doesn’t reply and that's fine; I’m not looking for conversation. I’m thinking out loud.
I grab another sheet out of the linen cupboard, giving Deena as much modesty as I can. And then, with a small prayer, I examine her for sexual assault. Just because she was dressed doesn’t mean anything. The tops of her thighs show proof someone tried to grab her, but thankfully, it’s easy to see shemanaged to avoid the physical trauma. I’ll be close by, ready to help her get over the emotional gamut of the attack.
The kit is stocked with drugs I chose intentionally because Deena, Marco, and I don’t have any allergies to these. Grabbing a sedative and a broad-spectrum antibiotic, I load up a syringe, then put them to the side to focus on getting an IV set up.
“Kade, in the back room is an IV stand.”
He goes in search of it and rejoins us as I finish clearing the line. After he pulls the stand to full height, he takes the bag and hangs it up, making sure the lines aren’t tangled.
Deena starts coming to just as I finish administering my first lot of medication. I follow it up with a healthy dose of pain medication.
“Hey,” I say softly, leaning down to talk with her.
Her fear scents the air as much as the coppery tang of her blood. “Marco?”
“We’re finding him. Who was it?”
