He clearly wasn’t waiting—he pulled open her jacket, scanned her vest. “She’s hit,” he shouted to someone. He met her eyes then, holding hers, reaching in.
Jericho.
She’d forgotten the power he possessed to pull her back from her chaos, to grab her up and right her, slow her breathing. To make her feel as if the entire world might slow down, all the way to peace. And stillness. And...
Love?
Maybe for him too, because emotion flashed into his eyes a second before he looked away. His voice emerged ragged, almost broken. “We need a medic!”
Stupid. No medics out here, but ... right ... he’d been in the military, ... so...
“Harley, hang on.” He slipped his hand under her neck. Then he pressed his fingers to her carotid artery. “She’s in tachycardia!”
Her vision blurred, her head throbbing, the world tilting as she blinked up at him, the sunlight glinting off his painfully handsome face, an aura of strength emanating off him.
Shoot, any strength she possessed to hold onto her fury at him simply loosed, shook away, leaving just the residue of regret.
And now he turned blurry—no, she wanted ... she wasn’t ready—
“Harley,” he growled. “Don’t you stroke out on me.”
He unzipped her vest, pulled it open.
I’m okay.She wanted to say it, but the words caught, burning in her throat.
More shouts now, but she couldn’t distinguish the voices.
He scooped up snow. “I’m sorry.”
Sorry for—
He dumped the snow onto her chest. The cold shocked her, caught her breath.What the—
The chill jerked her awake, long enough to see Crew run up. “What are you doing?”
“Her pulse is racing,” Jericho said. “Heart’s going too fast. I need more snow. Diving reflex—it’ll slow her heart.”
Nearby, Orlando whined, and Jericho’s gaze moved off her.Then back. “We need more snow,” he said to Crew. Then, to her, “This is probably going to hurt.”
Oh it already did. And it had nothing to do with being shot in the chest.
Well, mostly.
Above her, Crew pressed a snow-filled scarf to her forehead, the icy chill a shock against her skin, the faint scent of frost and wool filling her nose. Her breath hitched, her pulse thunder in her ears, but slowing slightly, the pounding easing.
But the dizziness swelled over her, her head throbbing, the world careening.
“I think I’m going to...”
Her vision darkened, the sunlight fading, the cold seeping into her bones as consciousness slipped away, Jericho’s voice a distant echo. “HT, stay with me! Stay with me!”
OH,HE WAS A FOOL.
The fluorescent lights of Copper Mountain Medical buzzed overhead, each flicker drilling into Jericho’s skull as he paced the length of the waiting room. Six steps to the vending machine. Six steps back to the window overlooking the parking lot, where fresh snow drifted down, light, like grace upon the day.
So much grace.
He wasn’t unaware of the fact that things could have gone desperately wrong if Harley hadn’t been wearing her vest.