Page 100 of Asystole

My body shakes violently with rage as my adrenaline spikes and my heart stutters in my chest. It’s what I imagine a heart attack feels like.

“This conversation clearly isn’t going to be productive over the phone. Your mother and I will see you at the Addario wedding this weekend. I’ll call Declan Porter and tell him your presence is mandatory, but you’ll be back on Monday.”

“NO! God! Can you just let me handle my own shit?”

“I tried, but it seems you’re incapable of doing so. We’ll see you this weekend.”

The bastard hangs up on me.

If I see Logan now, I’ll collapse in his arms and just want him to hold me, which he can’t do here.

Instead of distracting him before he potentially has to fly in bad weather, I make my way to my Jeep and head home. As soon as my head hits his pillow, I’m already half asleep.

Chapter 37

Logan

“This makes no sense!” I say, growing more frustrated by the second. It definitely doesn’t help that Chase and I’s conversation got interrupted at lunch, leaving things unresolved. I’m worried about him, and it’s shortening my fuse.

“Look, I know you’ve flown in worse weather,” the aviation director says. “Before we merged, this call would belong to me. But when they restructured, they stripped me of that power. If they ground you, there’s nothing I can do.”

I hold out the phone with the call from dispatch still connected.

“Tell that to the lady who’s bleeding out on a back road down south and needs a fucking helicopter to save her life.” Putting the phone to my ear, I tell dispatch to stand by, then look back at my boss. “Give me their number,” I demand.

“Whose number?”

“The person whose call it is. I’m going to relay every detail you and I just sat here and listened to while they try to tell me a little wind and rain are enough to keep me on the ground. Don’t you remember that shitstorm I flew in a few months ago? I should have been grounded then, but you sent me out.”

“You know I can’t give you that number. We’ll both lose our jobs.”

I think back over some of the runs I’ve made. All I’ve wanted was for this job to matter, and tonight it does.

With my mind made up, I look my boss dead in the eye and say, “If the paycheck takes precedence over a patient, maybe we should.”

I need him to leave. I need him to get the hell out of my flight locker so I can pull on my flight suit, disobey orders, and get to the woman who needs to be airlifted to safety.

I knew I was crossing a line when I accused my boss of valuing his paycheck over the patient, but as it turns out, that’s exactly the reason they tried to ground me. More budget cuts meant they didn’t want to pay for the fuel to get my chopper to the crash site and back. It was as busy a flight day as I thought it would be based on what I saw when I drove into the hospital.

I went anyway.

The weather was a nonfactor. EMS loaded my patient, and one of them even rode back with me to monitor her after learning I’d come out alone.

Once I touch down on the roof of the hospital, they can’t turn her away. The trauma team is standing at the ready, and I recognize Dr. Porter at the front, as usual. While the team straps the patient down, I apologize.

“I was told not to go out for her, but she’s someone’s daughter, mother, sister, friend. Do what you can. I’ll take the heat.”

Dr. Porter nods, and I know it’s the only acknowledgment I’m going to get.

Hell, it’s all I need.

I finish the restock and head to the flight locker to strip out of my flight suit when my boss bursts through the doors.

“What the fuck was that, Kirkland?” he shouts. “You think it’s funny to disobey orders and make me get my ass chewed out in the middle of the goddamn night just to remind you that you don’t have the authority to run off with a helicopter whenever you please?”

“Funny isn’t the word I’d use to describe a woman whose femoral artery was severed, and the help she needed was being kept from her due to fucking budget cuts,” I snarl.

“Cut the shit, Kirkland. We can’t save everyone. You know that,” Mark fires.