Conrad looked into Kenzie’s eyes, nodded. “They found him, and he’s going to be okay. He’s hypothermic from riding out the fire in a lake. Bear is okay, too.”
“Oh, thank God!” Relief blossomed on Rain’s face.
“I’m afraid there’s bad news, too,” Kenzie said.
Rain’s smile vanished. “What is it? Tell me.”
Eric’s bodyached for water, not even the morphine taking the edge off his thirst. It followed him into unconsciousness, gnawed at him, shredded him, his mind churning up images of lakes, creeks, rivers, glasses and bottles full of cool, clear water.
As a paramedic, he knew it was his body’s response to his burns, but that didn’t make it easier to bear.
He drifted off again until his own moans woke him. “Water.”
“Sorry, chief.” Silver took the cap off another autoinjector, jammed it into Eric’s right quadriceps. “We don’t have any.”
Then it hit Eric.
They’d only had seven morphine syringes, and he’d gotten four of them.
“You haven’t given yourself a shot, have you?”
“The pilot got one, but Ramirez and I are okay. We’re doing alright.”
“Yeah, man, we’re good.” The lines of pain on Ramirez’s face told a different story.
“Liars. Second-degree burns hurt more than third-degree burns. You should give yourselves a shot—now.”
“No, chief. You’ve got deep second- and third-degree burns. You’re in a lot worse shape than we are. There are two left. We’re saving them for you.”
Stubborn son of a bitch.
“You’re fired.”
Silver grinned with blistered lips. “Okay.”
Eric drifted again.
When he next woke, his face was turned toward the east where there was nothing but charred forest heading toward town. The sharp edge of regret cut at him. “Scarlet … It was my job to protect the town. I was supposed to—”
“Hey, you did your best. If that bastard Robertson had listened to you and handled initial attack the way you wanted, I doubt we’d be here right now.”
“I should have evacuated Mato Sapa myself.”
“Not even you can be everywhere at once, chief.”
But Eric barely heard Silver’s words, the pain trapped inside his chest beyond the reach of morphine. “I sent Taylor to Haley Preserve, and now …God.”
And then he was drifting again.
Vicki.
She held out a glass of water, smiled at him, touched a hand to her belly.
A baby.
“Chief! A chopper. Look.”
Eric jerked open his eyes, saw a helicopter circling high in the sky above them. “It’s about damned time.”