These Ties That Bind

“Shh. You’re safe now,” Rem crooned, the same way he would to a balky horse. He wanted to rest his head on hers to soothe her, but he feared hurting her damaged scalp. Or maybe he wanted to soothe himself.

“Who are you? Where’s my mom?” She should be crying more, he thought. Her scalp had to hurt like crazy. She was probably going into shock.

“I’m Rem. Your mom’s okay. She got out of the car.” No sense mentioning her mother had been injured. Or that she’d stumbled out of the car on her own, likely forgetting about her daughter because of shock and a head injury.

Rem laid the girl on the grass, but hesitated to let her go. Maybe if he held on tightly enough, he could keep her safe.

The child looked older than her tiny body would indicate—about eight or nine, at a guess.

This close he could smell her burned skin and it gripped him with the talons of a familiar helplessness.

Sara was a nurse. She’d know what to do for the child. He searched for her.

“Sara?” She still knelt beside the injured woman wrapping her arm against her chest with gauze.

“Sara!” he barked. “Get over here. This girl’s hurt.”

Sara ran over.

“Fix her,” he said.

Gingerly, she checked the girl. “I can’t. They both need to get to the hospital.”

“I’ll take them.”

“We shouldn’t move the mother. The ambulance is on its way.”

“Ambulance is probably still on the other side of Ordinary. How long will it take?”

“Twenty minutes.”

“Each way. Too long.” He gestured toward the injured woman. “She’s already moved, sat up just as I got here. If one of those ribs punctured a lung, she’ll get bad fast. We need to go.”

He ran to the still-disoriented woman. “I’m going to lift her.”

“Careful,” Sara said.

Reaching under the woman’s legs and with one arm across her back, Rem picked her up as if she were a porcelain doll, trying to keep her in the same position she was already in.

He was beyond gentle, but she cried out anyway. There was no way to do this without hurting her.

While they placed her into his Jeep, Sara supported her bloody head. Before resting the woman back onto the seat, Sara shimmied out of her sweater and balled it up to cushion her head.

“That sweater will be ruined,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter.”

She’d never had a lick of vanity.

“We can’t put her seat belt on,” Sara said. “Drive carefully.”

Yeah, right. While I speed like a demon. “I’ll do my best.”

“Do you keep a gun in the Jeep?”

“Yeah. A rifle. Why?”

“That stag’s in pain. He can’t be saved and he’s dying too slowly.”

“Let me get my kit and I’ll give him an injection.”

“We don’t have time. Where’s the gun?”

“I’ll get it.” Rem rushed to the back and reached in for his rifle.

When Sara tried to take it from him, he said, “Move.”

“I can do it. Get those two to the hospital. Go. Now.”

Here in full force was übercapable Sara. She charged through life taking care of everyone and everything around her.

Rem and Sara had practically grown up together. He knew she loved animals as much as he did and he wanted to spare her this ugliness. But he also knew that look of determination. Fine. She could do it.

He shoved the rifle into her hands, then returned to the sobbing child, whispering inanities as he lifted her. A little bit of a thing, she whimpered against his chest like a kitten. So vulnerable. So helpless against life.

Rem cleared his throat of the fear blocking his breath. She’ll be fine. Have faith.

He put her into the front passenger seat where he could keep an eye on her. Her chest seemed to be fine, so he buckled her in, ran around to the driver’s side and pulled onto the highway.

As he sped off with his window open, he heard one rifle shot.

Sara had been a thorn in his side over the years, but he couldn’t deny she had guts.

Sheriff Kavenagh’s cruiser approached, barreling down the highway from the opposite direction, toward the cloud of dirty smoke the car threw into the air.

Easing to a stop, Rem rolled down his window. Cash did the same in the oncoming lane.

“I’ve got an injured woman and a burned child. I’m taking them to the hospital.”

“I’ll give you an escort.”

The woman in the backseat moaned. Rem needed to get moving.

“Don’t worry about it. You have a fire extinguisher in the trunk?” Rem asked.

“Sure,” Cash answered. “I always keep a couple on hand. They won’t put out a fire that size, though.”

“Fire department isn’t here yet. I’m worried about the brush on the side of the road. Last thing we need is a grass fire.”