explain upfront than have some ass decide he was a thief and try to interfere.
He pressed against the right pocket of Tag’s jeans. No bulge, so no keys. Stretching out, he leaned across Tag’s torso, close enough to the woman he caught the clean, fresh scent coming from her hair. Although how the hell he could smell that above the metallic stench of blood—but the scent was unmistakable, like rain, or maybe baby powder.
He flinched from that last thought and zeroed in on locating those damn keys. He found what he was looking for in the left pocket. Dragging the key ring loose, he gained his feet and jogged around the hood of Tag’s truck to the passenger door. The door was unlocked when he yanked on it. Not so the glove box. But then he’d expected that.
The smallest key fit the lock perfectly. He popped the box and dragged out the red and white canvas bag inside. A hand towel between the passenger and driver’s seats caught his eye as he straightened. He grabbed the damp cloth before slamming the door shut. They’d need something to mop up the blood before applying the chest seal.
He dropped to his knees beside Tag. After placing the damp hand towel next to the woman’s hands, he unzipped the canvas kit.
“Not yet.” His voice sharpened when she glanced at the towel, her fingers flexing like she was going to swap out the cloths.
His t-shirt wasn’t nearly as bloody as the fabric she’d used first, which meant the bleeding had slowed.
A good sign.
He swallowed hard when he saw the six-inch-long, 14-gauge needle in its sterile wrap. The sucker was hard to miss. It was that mother fucking huge—easily the size of a frozen drink straw.
But first things first. He grabbed the dark green package with the chest seal, a package of gauze, and a roll of medical tape. He dropped the tape and gauze pad next to the woman’s hands and ripped open the chest seal envelope. After removing the square plastic, he stripped off the adhesive on the back.
“We need to seal off the wound,” he said, turning to the woman. “He’s sucking in air. Open the gauze pack, then use the towel to wipe away as much blood as you can. Once you have the area clean, place the gauze pad over the wound.” Thank Christ the woman had a cool head. She didn’t question, didn’t balk. Simply did exactly as he directed.
Whoever was on the phone had jumped into sharp, urgent questions, but the woman was ignoring the distraction in favor of following Dev’s directions.
Thank you, Jesus, for giving him someone with discernment and common sense.
“That’s good. Now the gauze,” Dev said as soon as she’d cleaned most of the blood off. He waited for her to lay down the gauze pad.
The wound still bled, but this was as good as they were going to get. Once her hands were clear, he centered the chest seal so the adhesive edges were an inch or so further out than the edge of the gauze and pressed down firmly.
“Tape the edges. All the way around.” While the plastic had adhesive on the back, the continued bleeding would weaken the resin. “Good, that’s good,” he said once she’d taped around the entire perimeter of the wound. “Fold the towel into another pad, then trade places with me.”
A quick glance at Tag’s face proved the situation was dire. His lips were bluer, so was his face. His breathing was shallower too, so shallow, Devlin could barely hear it. He needed to get that needle in and release some of the air build up. And he needed to do it now. No time to wait for the ambulance.
“Are you a paramedic?” the woman asked.
“No. But I know enough triage to get by.”
He’d gone through the same advanced triage courses he’d sent his platoons through. And thank Christ for that. He was doubly lucky it was standard procedure these days to train operators on the treatment for tension pneumothorax.
Picking up the needle, he stripped the sterile packing from it.
“What is that?” For the first time the woman’s voice rose. He glanced at her, seeing the fascinated horror glittering in her eyes. She glanced at the needle and then down at Tag. “You’re not going to use that on him, right?”
He couldn’t blame her for her reaction. The motherfucker did look like something a crazy scientist would use in a horror flick. Hell, half of his men—hardened SEALs