Page 81 of One Kind Soul

“No.” He squeezed her to his chest.

“Christian—” Her words got cut off when he squeezed her again, harder this time.

“The police are investigating the field now. Maybe they’ll find something.” He didn’t want to hear another word about Nicole seeking out Lynda herself. He couldn’t take it if something happened to her. It’d make him crazy.

“Let’s go inside then,” she said. “You look as if you need a beer or five.”

They turned toward the farmhouse, but something pinched the back of Christian’s neck.

“Fuck.” He slapped at his neck.

“What’s wrong?” Nicole asked.

He wanted to answer her, but his tongue tingled and his body grew warm. His chest tightened, his breathing reduced to a wheeze as his throat swelled. He coughed a few times.

Tight, so tight. A moment later, he couldn’t swallow as his pulse drummed loudly in his ears. A wave of dizziness sent him to the ground.

The last thing he heard was Nicole calling his name.

Chapter Fourteen

“Christian!” Nicole dropped to her knees beside him.

A strangled sound came from Christian as hives appeared on his neck. His lips were swollen and his face was bright red. A second later, his entire body stilled as he passed out. It took her a minute to understand what was happening.

Bees!

“Shit!” She sprung to her feet as Rada ran over from the store.

“What’s happened?” Rada asked.

“He was stung!” Nicole yelled, already on the porch steps. “I need the epinephrine!” She’d moved it from the barn loft and had stashed it in the downstairs bathroom in the farmhouse. She blew through the house, yanked open the top drawer of the vanity in the bathroom, and grabbed the dispenser.

Nearly killing herself on the porch stairs when she missed a step, she stumbled to a stop at Christian’s prone body.

“Do you know how to use that?” Rada asked.

“I think so.” She’d spent several minutes this morning reading the instructions on the box. Just in case. Freeing the dispenser, she uncapped it, found the fleshy part of Christian’s left thigh, and jabbed the needle tip into him. Holding it for a solid ten seconds, she withdrew and searched Christian’s swollen face for any signs of improvement.

“I called for another ambulance,” Rada said. “He told me once that any time epinephrine was administered, an emergency room trip was to follow.”

Nicole had read something similar when she’d searched bee allergies online this morning. “C’mon, Chrissy. Breathe for me, baby.”

After a few moments of nothing happening, Christian sucked in a wheezy breath, then coughed raggedly. His eyes couldn’t open all the way as his eyelids were swollen now as well, but he reached out his arm, his hand landing clumsily on Nicole’s thigh.

“Stither,” he rasped.

“What?”

He struggled to move his arm, his hand angled to his neck. “Stither,” he said again.

Stither? Was that a medical term she didn’t know? Was it more medication he needed?

Christian zigzagged his index finger in the air then poked that finger into her leg. “Stither.”

“Stinger!” Right. She’d also read that if the stinger was still in, it could continue to pump venom into its victim. Remembering Christian had swatted at the back of his neck before passing out, she rolled him to his side as he drew in gaspy breaths and coughed on each exhale.

“Rada, run inside and get me the tweezers in the bathroom drawer. It’s already open.”