But there was relief in the competence of the team surrounding her.
The size of the helicopter surprised her; the way the men jumped and moved.
They had spine boards for transitioning Marna and Abbie onto the helicopter.
They gathered the gear and stowed it away.
Gabriel’s arm was around her waist, and his hand was on her head, reminding her to duck because all this happened before the rotors stopped spinning.
Sommer sat on the floor nestled against Gabriel with Whiskey in her lap when they took off for the few minutes in the air to take them down to the field near the ranger station.
While Iniquus would helicopter Marna and Abbie to Marna’s hospital for care (wouldn’t the staff be surprised when they found her on the gurney?), she, Gabriel, and Whiskey dismounted so they could get their cars.
Sommer was numb.
This would take time to process through.
Setting her pack on the ground by her car, Sommer fished in the top pouch for her key fob.
“No,” Gabriel said.
Sommer looked up. “What, no?”
“You’re not driving home. You’re a traffic hazard,” Gabriel said.
“You’re no better,” she countered.
“I think I am. I slept last night. We’ll come back for your car tomorrow. Give me a second.”
Sommer beeped her car unlocked, but it was too hot from the trapped air from the day to sit in comfortably. She shut the door and sat on the ground.
Whiskey was back in her lap, and Sommer was soothed by stroking her velvety ears.
“Here’s a compromise,” Gabriel said. “There’s a hotel ten minutes up the road that allows dogs. I drive us there. We get ourselves cleaned up, we eat, sleep, recover, and tomorrow I drive you back here to pick up your car.”
“That sounds like a plan.”
“Okay, I’m booking two rooms,” he said, tapping the screen.
“Two?” she asked. “One will be okay, don’t you think?” Sommer didn’t want to be alone. She wasn’t ready to leave Gabriel’s support quite yet.
He looked at her for a long moment. “One then,” he said, a smile tracing over his lips.
Sommer honestly didn’t register the ride to the hotel, their check-in, or how she found herself standing in a hotel room’s bathroom with the shower water running.
She’d been standing there for a while because the mirror was already fogged.
Hot water and cleanliness would feel so good. Sommer hadn’t cleaned herself since Tuesday night.
She stank.
She wasn’t sure how Gabriel could stand it when they were in the car on the way here.
Sommer crossed her arms and reached for the bottom of her shirt. Halfway off, with her face covered in fabric, hershoulders protested with pain and refused to let her move up or down.
“Gabriel?” Her call was muffled by her shirt.
His voice was right outside the door. “Yes?”
