Page 45 of Sheltering Instinct

Chapter Fourteen

Levi

At the bottom of the hill, Reaper stood with Iris and Craig, waiting for word on what had happened on the trail.

Sweaty and out of breath, Gwen stepped forward to keep her mom from fussing over Tess and slowing the extraction.

Goose gave Reaper a rundown of events.

With no connectivity, Goose pulled up the documentation on Gwen’s phone and then his. Goose held them out for Reaper to take pictures of the pictures and video of the video. Then, Reaper took pictures of the field notes delineating their actions.

Back at the winery, Reaper would convey that information to the hospital, giving them a heads-up that an urgent patient was inbound.

Meanwhile, with Tess in his arms crushed against him, Levi leaned back against the sun-heated surface of the vehicle, catching his breath.

Goose performed the second blood draw, and Enrico opened the hatch on his Etosha vehicle, rounding to lowering both passenger benches to make a flat area for Tess to lie in.

The team moved Tess into the back, putting Mojo on one side of her and Levi on the other. “We’re going to be going fast,” Goose said. “We were longer on the trail than I wanted. If you’re getting rocked around too much back there, Tess, tell me. We don’t want you clenching your muscles or expending effort to keep yourself from getting slung about.”

“I’ve got her,” Levi said.

Seat belts pulled into place, the engine roared to life as Enrico catapulted over the bumpy stretch of dirt and onto the highway.

They were all exhausted and silent for a long stretch until Goose called out, “When we drove past the Etosha guard station, I had Wi-Fi just long enough to pull up the zebra cobra page on Tess’s snake app. This looks right.” He turned in his seat to flash the picture to Levi. “Tess, we won’t be a hundred percent sure what kind of snake bit you until we get the blood tests back. It could be that one snake bit you, and another slithered by. We won’t make any assumptions. It’s a matter of taking the right diagnostic steps.”

“Go ahead and tell me what it’s saying about zebra cobras,” Tess said. “My imagination is absolutely worse than anything you could read to me from that page.”

“The good news is that if it is a zebra cobra, they are cytotoxic. That means that their venom affects cell activity.”

“And that’s good why?” Levi asked.

“This is not an immediate life or death situation. Tess has an opportunity to get to the hospital for the anti-venom in time.”

“In time for what?” she asked.

“I’ve got bars,” Levi called out.

Goose looked down at his screen. “Yup. Me, too. Tess, in time to get you help before the DNA in your cells gets affected. I’m calling the hospital. Even though Reaper has conveyed everything we documented by now, I’d like to know if I missed any first aid steps.” He made the call, spoke with their specialist, and gave the hospital an updated ETA.

Enrico understood the assignment. Barring slower-moving traffic ahead, they’d make the hour-long drive in forty minutes.

As the sun went down, the wind picked up, buffeting the sides of their vehicle.

“Levi,” Goose called out.

“On it.” Levi pushed his boots into the back hatch, sidling closer to Tess. Once she was tightly sandwiched betweenhim and Mojo, Levi reached across to Tess’s immobilized leg, catching hold of the brace, then he pressed his elbow into his ribs and his back to the side of the vehicle, cutting down the jostling as much as possible.

Mojo rested his head on her chest, and Tess rested her hand on Mojo’s neck. Levi knew that she was gaining calm from the K9’s empathy. And Levi was grateful that she was getting emotional support from a source that didn’t have baggage attached.

Levi was struggling.

In the long minutes of breakneck driving, he had time to think and for memories that he’d pushed away to resurface.

All of them were wonderful.

The good, the bad, and the ugly, with Tess, it wasallwonderful up until the letter arrived.

“I’m engaged to marry Abraham. I’m so sorry.”

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