She moaned but didn’t wake up.
Shota whined, inched closer to the victim, licked her cheek.
Chaska tried again. “Are you okay, ma’am?”
Her brow furrowed, but her eyes didn’t open.
He grabbed his hand mic again, switched his radio to FTAC 2, the county’s tactical and rescue channel. “Lupine Command.”
“Lupine Command, go ahead.”
“I’ve tried to rouse the victim without success. Her clothes are damp. I suspect she’s hypothermic. There’s also blood loss from unknown injuries.”
“Lupine Command, copy. Six-twenty-two.”
He set the radio aside and reached into his pack for hand warmers. “We need to get her core temp up.”
Hypothermia killed people every summer in Colorado’s mountains.
He bent the metal discs at the bottom of the gel packs to start the exothermic reaction and handed them to Win. “Massage those to distribute the crystals evenly, and then tuck them inside her jacket. Don’t put them against her bare skin.”
While Winona did that, he reached into his pack again and drew out an emergency blanket.
“Look.” Win held up a leather cord that hung around the woman’s throat, a small beaded medicine wheel dangling from it like a pendant. She tucked it back inside the woman’s jacket. “Do you think she’s Lakota?”
Win might have time to wonder about such things, but Chaska didn’t.
“I think she needs to get to the hospital.” He knelt over her, about to tuck the emergency blanket around her, when he noticed something in her clenched fist. He pried her fingers open and took a small, needle-sharpsomethingfrom her hand.
“Is that a knife?”
He handed it to Win. “It looks like a file.”
“Maybe she was trying to defend herself.”
“Maybe.” Chaska studied his sister for a moment. “Are you okay?”
Two years ago, she’d been assaulted by an injured fugitive who’d forced her to give him medical aid at her clinic. The bastard had paid her back by drugging her with an overdose of animal tranquilizer that might have killed her had help not arrived. Chaska wouldn’t be surprised if seeing a woman in this state dredged up those memories.
“I’m fine.”
Chaska covered the woman with the blanket, tucked it around her. It would help hold in her body heat and the heat from the hand warmers. “Ma’am, can you hear me?”
This time, the woman’s body went stiff, and she cried out. “No!”
Chaska found himself staring into a pair of terrified blue eyes.
Chapter 2
Awareness crashedover Naomi in a wave of pain and fear, nothing around her making sense. “Stop!”
She tried to strike out, tried to get away from the man who seemed to be on top of her, but pain lanced through her arm and leg, bringing her up short.
“Easy, ma’am. It’s okay. No one’s trying to hurt you. We’re here to help.”
“They have a gun. I have to go!”
“Whohas a gun?”