hour and a half, and still no Colt. I looked up the mountain. We were out of the tree line, right beneath the slide zone, and there were plenty of rocks around us that all looked the same. I couldn’t tell what was new and what had always been here.
We’d seen the helo drop a couple teams, and Mark had handled radio coordination, making sure we chose different grids. My grid was wherever Havoc decided to go, and they could all deal with it.
Havoc was sniffing like crazy toward the south, so we followed along the tree line.
“Colt!” I saw the bright patch of blue just as Havoc took off at a dead run.
I covered the ground quickly, jumping rocks, ducking pine tree branches as I ran. Havoc sat next to him, whining.
“Colt,” I called, but he didn’t respond. His upper half was clear, but his lower half was obscured by fallen foliage.
“Good girl,” I told Havoc, handing her a treat from my pocket out of sheer habit before dropping to my knees next to him.
“Colt, come on, bud.” His skin was pale, blood trickling from small cuts on his face. I put my fingers to his neck and waited.
Please, God. I’ll do anything. Please.
He had a pulse, but it was rapid and thready. His skin was cold.
“He’s bleeding somewhere,” I told Mark as he dropped to Colt’s other side. “We need to get these branches off him, but only the lighter ones. If it’s heavy, wait for me.”
Mark nodded and started pulling the smaller branches off Colt. “Rescue 9, this is Gutierrez and Gentry. We’ve found the male. Pulse is present but thready. Please send in medics ASAP.”
Static came through Mark’s radio as I unzipped Colt’s fleece.
“Shit. Gentry.”
I looked back to Colt’s lower half, and bile rose in my throat, but I looked up at the sky and forced it back down. Colt’s right thigh was pinned under a large, jagged rock roughly half the size of a car engine.
“Cut his pants around it. I need to see the skin.” Not good.
“Gutierrez, this is Rescue 9. Please note we are midrefuel. On our way immediately.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Colt, you in there, bud?” I asked, stroking his face. “Can you wake up for me?”
His eyelashes fluttered. “Beckett?”
The sweetest sound I’d ever heard was Colt’s voice at that moment. He was alive and able to speak. Thank you, God.
“Hey!” I hovered over his face, locking his head in place as his eyes opened. His right pupil was slightly larger than his left. Concussion. “Hey, don’t move, okay? I’m here.”
“Where am I?” he asked, his eyes scanning from left to right.
“You had a really bad fall, so you can’t move, okay? You might have hurt your neck. Mark is here with me, and the doc is on his way. Just don’t move your head.”
“Okay.” He winced. “I hurt.”
“I bet you do. Can you tell me where?”
His eyes shifted. “Everywhere.”
“Gotcha.” I looked down to where he was pinned. “Colt, can you wiggle your toes? Just your toes?”
“Yeah,” he said.
I looked up at Mark, who shook his head with a pursed mouth.
Don’t panic.
“Good job, bud. Can you do it again?” I hoped I sounded way calmer than I felt, because I was about to crawl out of my own skin.
“See? Toes are fine. They don’t even hurt,” Colt said with a little smile.
Mark shook his head again, and my soul crumpled into a little ball.
“Your legs don’t hurt?” I asked.
“No, just everything else.” His eyes started to drift shut.
“Colt. Colt!” I gripped his face. “You have to stay with me, okay? Wiggle your fingers.”
All ten wiggled. I can work with that.
“I’m tired. Is Emma okay?”
“She sure is, but she’s worried about you. You did great, Colt. You saved her.” I took his pulse again. Shit, it was faster and lighter.
“We protect smaller people,” he said with a weak smile. “I’m cold, Beckett. Is it cold?”
“Look under that rock. Is there blood?” I ordered Mark. I stripped out of my fleece jacket and draped it across Colt’s chest. “Better?”
Mark crouched down. “I can’t see. I bet we could get it off him.”
“We need to tourniquet it first. There’s every chance he’s got a crush injury. It’s been almost two hours, we can’t just lift it off him. There’s one in Havoc’s pack.”
“Shit, Beckett,” Mark said softly. “Blood.”
I grabbed the tourniquet and knelt next to Mark. Dark red blood oozed out from beneath the rock. “Where the hell is the helo? Tell them to get the basket