Hard Line - Pamela Clare Page 0,80

showed only worry. “I don’t know.”

Thor spoke, his voice barely a whisper. “A… p-pos.”

“A pos,” Malik repeated. “We’ve got you, brother.”

It took Samantha a moment to realize they were talking about his blood type—A positive—but then she was so sleepy.

“We are here to help,” Vasily told Lev. “I killed that whoreson.”

Lev knelt beside Samantha, examined her aching cheek. “Is he telling the truth?”

“Y-yes.” Samantha struggled to keep her eyes open. She’d stopped shivering and no longer felt the cold. She knew that wasn’t good, but she couldn’t seem to care. “Don’t worry about me. Save Thor.”

Then Lev and Malik lifted Thor and carried him between them into the elevator, Lev staying with him, keeping pressure on the gunshot wound.

Samantha tried to stand but couldn’t. She was so sleepy, so painfully tired. She wasn’t even cold any longer.

Vasily moved toward her, but Malik stepped in.

“I’ve got her.” He scooped her into his arms and carried her into the elevator.

And then they were moving, machinery humming.

“You’d better not die on us, Viking,” Lev said.

The words brought Samantha’s eyes open. “Thor?”

Please, let him survive!

When the doors opened, it was organized chaos.

Malik lay Samantha down on a stretcher, concern on his face.

Someone covered her with a heated blanket.

“Stay awake, Samantha!” Ryan seemed to be in charge. He was talking into a radio. “They’re both hypothermic, but it looks like Isaksen has a bleeder in that GSW. Tell Decker to prep for emergency surgery. We’re on our way to medical.”

“He’s A positive.” That was Malik. “Do you have blood?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure we’ve got enough.”

Their words swirled around Samantha, but she understood, panic trilling through her. “Thor! Is he… Will he be okay?”

She couldn’t lose him—not Thor, too. She loved him.

“You’re going to be okay, Samantha.” Malik was there, one of four men carrying her stretcher toward the infirmary, the lights of the hallway sliding by overhead.

The next thing she knew, she was lifted onto a bed, something warm beneath her.

“You came to the right place to be treated for hypothermia. That’s one thing we do well here at the South Pole.” Ryan covered her with another warm blanket. “I’ll get an IV going for heated fluids. Start warmed oxygen.”

From nearby, she heard Decker. “Open those fluids wide. Warm all the A and O we have on station. Let’s prep for surgery.”

“Thor!” She couldn’t lose him.

Then her eyes closed, and her awareness faded.

22

Thor opened his eyes, fluorescent light above his bed making him blink, an oxygen mask on his face, the pain in his shoulder sharp.

“Thor?”

Samantha.

“Hey.” Warmth swelled in his chest at the sight of her, the sound of her voice.

She sat beside him, her hand resting on top of his, a blanket around her shoulders, a woolen hat on her head. One cheek was bruised and swollen, and there were patches of red on her face from frostbite. “How do you feel?”

“Det gøre fanden ondt.” It hurts like hell.

“In English maybe?”

“It … hurts.”

“I bet it does.” She raised her voice. “Kristi, when can he get more morphine?”

“Is he awake?” Kristi appeared wearing blue scrubs, a wide smile on her face. “Welcome back. I am so happy you’re still with us. Are you in pain?”

He nodded.

“I’ll be right back.”

Samantha stayed with him. “They got the bullet out, along with some fabric from your shirt. The bullet nicked a small artery. That’s why you lost so much blood.”

“The posterior humeral circumflex artery,” Kristi said from the other side of the curtain. “We had to give you six units of blood.”

“They said that your carrying me, going down the ladder to the ice tunnel, and fighting with that bastard did more damage and made the bleeding worse.”

Kristi ducked inside the curtain, injected something into his IV. “You had also developed an infection, so you’re getting IV antibiotics for that. Luckily for you, you had the best medical team at the South Pole at your side.”

Samantha rolled her eyes, a hint of a smile on her lips. “That’s the only medical team at the South Pole.”

“But, hey, we’re top-notch. Decker’s a trauma surgeon. I’m an ER nurse. I have to say, I never thought I’d be treating GSWs—gunshot wounds—here.”

The pain in Thor’s shoulder began to fade. “Thank you, Kristi—for all of it.”

“You’re welcome. Now that you’re awake, maybe you can tell Samantha to get back into bed. She’s been sitting at your side all morning, so I made her wear a wool hat. She’s still a little hypothermic. Hardin or Delaney or whoever he was fractured her