And he deserved any help she could give him.
Caroline tucked her bottom lip between her teeth as she pinched together the edges of his flesh and threaded the needle through. The thicker resistance of his skin was nearly her undoing. She actually had to put some effort behind her movement. Blood immediately covered the needle and thread and her hands.
The bile she’d been holding back surged and she swallowed again and again to keep from throwing up right then and there. She couldn’t afford this kind of weakness right now. Reaper needed her to be strong and steady; he needed to be able to trust her with his life the same way she trusted him. She could bear a little squeamishness if it saved his life.
Biting harder on her lip, she forced herself to continue, over, under, and through, pulling the edges of his flesh together with every stroke. By the time she finished, her fingers were numb and there was blood on her lip from where she’d bitten down too hard, but Reaper’s bleeding had slowed to a minimum. She wiped the needle clean and returned it to the kit with the remaining thread. Next she pulled out the small vial of clotting powder and sprinkled it on his wound. Minutes later the bleeding appeared to stop, relief making her knees weak.
Next she pulled the small squares of bandage free from the package in his kit, laid them over his wound and then wrapped his old blood-soaked bandages around his shoulder to hold everything in place. All in all, she hadn’t been a total failure.
Caroline shoved a hand through her hair, her wet fingers smudging across her cheek in the process, reminding her that she was covered in his blood. That tiny thing was the straw that broke her back and she rushed out of the hut and expelled the contents of her stomach into the thick grass outside.
That was something she never, ever, wanted to do again. A shudder worked down her as she thought about the way the needle had felt going into his skin. She slammed that thought into a room in the back of her mind, locking and barricading the door. Reaper was alive, and keeping him that way was all that mattered. If she had to stitch him up again, she would do it, even if she had to take a break to throw up during the process.
The blood had dried on her hands by now, and every time she moved her fingers they caked and cracked, reminding her of everything they’d been through. She needed a bath, or even just a bowl of water to clean herself. What she wouldn’t give for her giant clawfoot tub back home, filled with her favorite jasmine oil.
The sound of trickling water reached her ears. She hadn’t heard that before, maybe because she’d been too busy running for her life. Even if it were a small stream she’d rejoice.
She maneuvered through the vegetation, following the sound past the back of the house about twenty yards into the jungle. When she saw the source of the sound she gasped.
A perfectly round pour of translucent blue water lay before her. The sloshing sound was a natural waterfall a few feet above it, re-supplying fresh clear water over worn gray rock. Dear God, it had to be a mirage. There was no way this was real. No way.
She fell to her knees and scooped the wonderfully lukewarm water into her hands, marveling at the way the droplets glinted in the sunlight beaming down from overhead. The lagoon was the most beautiful sight she’d ever laid eyes on. Without thought, she stripped naked and stepped in, the warm water sluicing over her body. She ducked her head in, completely submerged, and her world went silent for one blissful moment.
Something bumped into her ankle. Terror knifed through her chest. She bolted from the water and up onto the shore, gasping for breath.
Images of crocodiles and anacondas big enough to eat a cow swirled through her mind and she scrambled around to stare into her interrupted paradise. Thousands of tiny rainbow-colored fish swarmed around the bottom, just above the shelf rock lining the pool. She searched again, looking for any deadly reptiles ready to rip the flesh from her bones, but all she saw was a tropical paradise.
Idiot. Why hadn’t she looked before jumping into a pool in the middle of the jungle? Even she knew there were anacondas in this area. She could’ve just jumped to her death, been eaten alive and no one would have ever known what had become of her.
She studied the depths of the water for a few more minutes before daring to dip a foot back into the heavenly liquid. She didn’t have any soap, but she didn’t care. As long as she wasn’t eaten alive, she’d stay in this place for hours.
After dipping her head back under the water and scrubbing herself as much as humanly possible, Caroline let out a resigned sigh and pulled herself from the pool. She needed to check on Reaper and she needed to eat.
But now that she was scrubbed clean, she couldn’t bring herself to put the wretched hospital gown back onto her body. It was too much a reminder of what she’d been through. It was covered in filth, dirt and dried blood.
The robe, however, had remained mainly clean, and she quickly slipped it over her head, ignoring the course linen grating across her sensitive skin.
By the time she made it back to their hut, the sun was setting and a chill had taken hold of the air. She didn’t dare make a fire and risk signaling their location, not that she could start a fire from scratch anyway. After tossing her hospital gown into the corner of the hut, Caroline placed a hand at Reaper’s forehead and nearly collapsed from relief when she felt that his fever had begun to subside slightly.
The sun disappeared behind the tall treetops around her hut, casting long shadows and a drop in the air’s temperature ensued. Caroline shivered, on the verge of succumbing to her exhaustion. She grabbed Reaper’s gun and propped it near the headboard and then, carefully testing her weight, crawled over Reaper to lie down between him and the wall on his uninjured side. He moved his arm so that it was behind her and she used his chest as a pillow, his body like a heated blanket calling her name.
Double-checking that the gun was easily within reach, Caroline snuggled up to his side and let her eyes drift shut.
