Tommy’s brows furrowed, but before he could say anything, Sabrina came running through the door. “Refugees! And they need medical attention.”
The huddled group looked more like mounds of rags than people. Phin and Alvarez were eyeing them, guns pointed down but in hand. Gabriel was speaking with one of them, his head bowed, arms crossed.
There were five of them in total. Even with all their clothes, Blake could see they were thin. Desperation was etched in the tense lines of their shoulders and the way they pressed together like a herd surrounded by predators.
It made Blake angry.
“Get back,” he snapped, waving his hand at Alvarez and Phin. “Put your guns down.”
Gabriel turned to look at Blake. His mouth was set.Commander face.
“We don’t know these people. There are security risks?—”
“Of what?” he snapped, pushing past Gabriel to look at the man he was speaking to. “Fainting on you? These people need medical attention. And as I’ve been repeatedly told, that’smydepartment.”
Gabriel’s jaw worked, taking in Blake’s sullen expression. After a moment, he took an exaggerated step back and called for Phin and Alvarez. The whole thing was a ridiculous show of force. Judd had set up sentry points at the farthest reaches of the property. If the bedraggled group made it as far as the parking lot, they’d already been vetted and frisked.
Maybe if he had been in a better mood, Blake would have acquiesced to the whole show. He knew how important it was to show outsiders they weren’t to be messed with. But he had a job to do. And Blake never turned down an opportunity to be petty about it.
Blake approached the man Gabriel was speaking to. It was difficult to make out the details of his face under the dirt and grime, but he looked to be about middle-aged. His dirty hat had seen better days, leaning askew on a head that hadn’t seen hair in a decade or so.
“Hi, my name is Blake, and I’m the medic here. Would it be okay if I took you into our…inside and gave you medical attention?”
The man’s pronounced Adams apple bobbed as he swallowed. His yellowed eyes glanced between him, Tommy, and the armed guards before finally nodding. Tommy jogged ahead and opened the door for them. The bald man immediately placed himself between them and the women, his body turned so he could keep both groups in his peripheral vision.
Blake’s stomach sank.
Inside the conference room was gloomy. Blake hurried to light some of the candles and the stove, not that they cut through the thick gloom any better. It was a losing war.
The group of refugees made a beeline for the stove, crouching over it with their hands extended. At least most of them. The bald man and one other, Blake thought he might be the only other man in the group and had to be at least sixty, maybe seventy, stood between them.
Blake took a moment to look them all over. Much like the people at the motel, they were clothed in whatever they could find. Bits of a t-shirt had been ripped and wrapped around their shoes and hands, jackets that obviously didn’t fit were perched on their shoulders. Maybe they found them, or maybe they fit when they first put them on, Blake wasn’t sure.
But from what he could see of the fingers poking out from the long sleeves of the bald man's red jacket, they weren’t enough. Blake wanted to tell them all to disrobe so he could look them over, but they were too skittish. Not unlike wild animals in a slowly closing trap, they stayed together, shifting. The two men looked like they hadn’t slept in weeks, but they refused to sit, staying on the balls of their feet.
Blake didn’t take his eyes off the men, but he addressed Gabriel, “Leave.”
Gabriel scoffed. “I’m not leaving you alone with them.”
“I won’t be alone. Tommy is staying.”
“That does not reassure me.”
They both knew Tommy wasn’t worthless in a fight. Kid fought like a honey badger—completely unaware of his own size or ferocity, all teeth and ambition.
“You’re scaring them,” Blake emphasized, looking Gabriel in the eye. He knew he was the big, bad commander right now, but Gabriel wasn’t a monster. He could see what the presence of soldiers with guns were doing to these people.
“Stand just outside if you must, but I need to do my job, and I can’t do that if they don’t trust me. Look at them, Gabriel. They’ve been through hell.”
Gabriel looked at the group, his mouth set in a grim line. Finally, he ordered the other men out. “I’ll be right outside.” He let his voice carry.
Blake wasn’t hopeful enough to think they’d relax the moment the soldiers left. It didn’t work like that. He shared a look with Tommy.
“I’m Tommy,” the EMT said with a dazzling smile. He slowly approached the women. “Can I stoke that stove a little? Bring you some water?”
Blake took off his jacket. He wasn’t warm, but he thought the bulky material made him look less human. Bigger than he really was. And a jacket could conceal a weapon.
The unfortunate reality was that this wasn’t the first time Tommy and Blake had dealt with traumatized patients. They’d been on countless scenes of assault or domestic violence. It never got any easier. But as a team of two men, they’d found a way to minimize their patients' fear.
