“Nothing.”
Jesus. What good would it be to save the girl if he couldn’t save her parents, too? Gage picked her up and stood—his knee screamed with pain. He knelt back down and cursed.
“Don’t leave me,” April whispered. “Please, don’t leave me.”
He brushed his hand against her face. “I’m not going anywhere, sweetheart.”
Gage needed to get April to the hospital, then go back out there to help find the parents.
After a half hour walk back to the main site, darkness had fallen and East was waiting with another medic and ambulance to see to the girl.
He set the girl down, and the medic looked at her while East checked out Gage.
“Jesus, we need to get you to the hospital.” East examined his leg and the hole he’d cut in his pants to get to his knee. Which was now settling with a nasty bruise over it.
“It looks worse than it is,” Gage said.
East crouched down and lifted his pant leg. “You could have a major tear in your ACL,” he said. “Come on, you’re going to need X-rays.”
“I’m good,” Gage insisted. “My damn knee just comes off the track now and again.”
“Which is not normal,” East said bluntly. “So go get it checked out.”
“Can’t,” Gage said. “The parents are still missing.”
“And there’re teams searching. Including the one you trained yourself. You have to get this looked at. I don’t know how you’re walking right now.”
“No.”
“Soon as it’s checked out, you can come right back to the search, assuming you can walk. Getting yourself lost and hurt out there isn’t helping anyone.”
Gage sighed. Truth was, it’d help to get his knee wrapped, because it was starting to hurt like a motherfucker. “One hour, max.”
“Let’s go, smart-ass, before I cut off your leg just to spite you.”
As the adrenaline wore off a few minutes later, the pain hit hard, radiating up and down his leg. East was right—it was a good thing he hadn’t gone back out into the woods. Maybe it was worse than he’d thought.
“No, no, no, that son of a bitch, no.” Chloe hustled through Beaufort Medical Center, her dress constricting and her hair falling from the fancy updo. People would arrive at the restaurant in an hour for the twentieth anniversary event.
She should have been there. Her restaurant, the town, her mother’s memory—they were all depending on her. Instead, she was running down a hospital hallway, her heart beating in her throat with worry.
East had called to tell her Gage had been hurt on a mission and was in the hospital. Then the call dropped before he could finish, but that information alone was enough to steal the air from her lungs.
He had to be okay. Had to be. She’d kick his ass if he wasn’t.
He was all she cared about. And she prayed with every step she took that he was okay.
“Please…please…” She rounded the corner and found his room. Chloe burst through the door and found him sitting on the side of the bed as a doctor wrapped up his knee.
Gage’s eyes widened. “Chloe? What are you doing here, sweetheart?”
How dare he act so casual? She glanced at his knee, then at his whole leg. He was okay. He was alive. He was hurt, but alive.
She sighed a breath of relief. “East called me and said I had to get here right away. He said you got hurt, and the call was over before he could tell me how bad, and…I was afraid you were…”
She glanced at his knee again as the doctor finished wrapping it.
Gage frowned. “Doc, can you give us a second alone?”
The doctor looked at them both and must have seen something he didn’t want to get in the middle of. “Two minutes. I need to get you a shot of cortisone.”
Once the doctor was gone, Chloe couldn’t help herself. She grabbed Gage and held him close. “You’re okay?”
He held her tightly. “Yes.”
But she pushed against his chest and backed away, shaking her head. “I was so worried you were hurt. Or worse. Maybe even…” She couldn’t finish the thought.
“I’m fine,” he insisted. Part of her wanted him to tell her she was silly. Stupid. He was fine and he was here and he was never going to leave her again. But his eyes were distant, like he didn’t see her at all. His mind was elsewhere. “I have to go.”
“What?” she asked. “You’re hurt. Where are you going?”
“Back out.” He stood and snatched his clothes off of a nearby chair.
Chloe couldn’t believe her eyes. Was he serious? “You can’t go back out.”
“Yes I can,” he snapped. “There are still two people missing.”
She’d never heard his voice so gruff before. “Still? Meaning you found someone already?”
“The little girl. But her parents are still out there.” He shoved his bad knee into one of the dirty, ripped pant legs.
The stupid heels digging into her pinky toe and the flowy dress she’d gotten for the occasion felt silly now. She was standing in lace and silk and had never felt more scared in her life.
“Gage. I know you care about me. But you have to take care of yourself, too.”