“No, but I didn’t find that out until a few days later. The whole scene was carnage, and the casualties got sent all over. Jed got shipped out to Boston before I caught up with him.”
“How many did you lose?”
“Two. Paul died at the scene and Kip a week later, but everyone took a hit. Jed, Luke, Beau… all of them had life-changing injuries. I was the only one with barely a scratch. I remember looking around after I loaded the last one onto the chopper and thinking I was the only fucker left in the world. I sat down in the dirt and cried like a bitch until this little lady found me.”
Glenn whistled. Saja rose and padded over to him. He knelt and ruffled her fur. “I took her to Kuwait to be with Kip, and when he died, we flew to Louisiana to be with Luke. It took me a while to find out Jed had come back here. No offense, but I kinda figured it was the last place he’d want to be.”
Max shuddered. He knew Glenn was right, but the thought of never knowing Jed horrified him even more than the weight of his perilous situation. “Jed said Iraq was a different kind of war.”
“That it was,” Glenn said. “That’s why I’m kinda surprised you didn’t know what happened. There was a French news crew embedded with one of the teams in the convoy. That shit is probably on YouTube—”
Saja barked. A window above them opened, and Carla leaned out.
“Max! Get in here.”
Chapter Thirty
MAXFLEWthrough the hospital. Footsteps pounded the stairs behind him, but he didn’t look back. The corridors flashed past him in a blur. ICU nurses saw him coming and stepped out of his way.
He reached Jed’s room and came to a sudden halt in the doorway. A low cry escaped him. Faceless medical staff surrounded Jed’s bed, manually pumping air into his lungs and compressing his chest. The shrill alarm of the cardiac monitor pierced the air, signaling the absence of a heartbeat.
Jed’s heartbeat.
Max cried out again.
Glenn shot past him with an unnatural speed. A commotion behind him told Max that Dan had been prevented from doing the same.
Dr. Greene called for clear and pressed the paddles of a defibrillator hard against Jed’s chest. Jed jerked from the bed, his back arching in an unnatural, violent spasm. The world paused as every ear in the room strained to hear any sound of Jed’s heart restarting.
Silence.
Dr. Greene raised the paddles again and hovered over Jed. Beneath the paddles, he lay lifeless, his body at their mercy, to do with whatever they pleased.
Something inside Max protested. He started forward. Strong arms held him back.
Luke.
“Do it,” Luke growled. “Shock him again.”
The aggression in his tone broke through the horrified haze in Max’s mind. He didn’t know Luke from Adam, but his gentle Creole accent wasn’t made for anguish like that.
No.
Max lurched away from him and stumbled to the corner of the room. He slid down the wall and covered his ears.
This couldn’t be happening. Not now, not yet. He needed more time. He wasn’t ready for this.
He wouldneverbe ready for this.
Chapter Thirty-One
LUKEKNELTin front of Max. He pried his hands from his ears. “You can look now, brother. It’s over.”
Max’s own heart stilled. For a moment, he misunderstood.It’s over. He’s dead. He’s gone.Then the steady beep of the cardiac monitor reached his ears, the shrill, maddening noise that represented his whole damn world.
Jed was alive.
Max scrambled to his feet. The room was almost deserted. Only Luke, Glenn, and a single nurse remained.