Page 1 of Dr. Alaska
Chapter One
Monday midmorning andDr. Lee Tipton knew she’d been bitten by the bad-decision bug when she walked to her rental car and her nostrils immediately froze on the first inhalation of crisp Fairbanks, Alaska, air. In early January, no less.
Crisp air? More likeshatteringly frigid air.
File this last-minute family-medicine-locums assignment underseemed like a good decision at the time. She patted her leather purse. Thank God the job would be lucrative. The only thing keeping her credit card functional was a generous credit limit, which was good news and extremely bad news.
Criminelly, Lee hadn’t felt her toes for at least a hundred miles as she steered the sedan west along a two-lane state highway that paralleled the Tanana River, soon to join up with the Yukon River. Not that her view would change—all rivers were frozen solid this time of year.
The relentlessthuddidda-thuddiddarumble of studded tires on glazed, uneven asphalt rocked her into a mind-numbing haze. Low clouds blended with the snow-covered pine trees, barren hills, and mountains, visible out the fogged windshield in an unending white and gray scene of hypothermia. Every so often, there was a break in the terrain revealing two tracks that led off into the hills or stopped at an isolated house. The only humans who survived out here had to be rugged, resourceful, and unable to quit.
So, the exact opposite type of person as Lee.
Good life choices?Ha. Lee let out a hollow laugh in the car. No way. This assignment served as an escape, pure and simple. She had gone as far as possible from everything back home. This job would also be the ladder for her to climb out of the financial hole she’d fallen into. Why else would she ever travel to Alaska’s interior in January?
She rolled her achingly cold fingers in the Thinsulate gloves she’d found at an outdoor store before she’d left Georgia. Apparently, when the product advertisedTEN BELOW, that number didn’t indicate comfort, just survival.
A gust of wind buffeted the rental sedan. The subzero chill permeating the vehicle fought against the meager warmth from the heater vents. At least she had some comfort. She shifted her butt on the warm seat—oh yes, she’d set the tush-warmer toinferno, second-degree gluteal burns be damned.
What she’d give for a hot and steamy ninety degrees in Alpharetta, Georgia, land of sundresses, sandals, mimosa brunches, and the glow of perma-sweat.
Instead, she had perma-freeze.
Lordie knew her socialite mother would curl up like a frozen doodlebug if she could see Lee now, shivering in her thick gloves, shapeless puffy coat, and static-y hair shoved under a yarn cap.
Mom. Bless her heart, but her image-preoccupied society parent was focused on what damage Lee’s divorce might do toMom’swell-being and the damage a divorce would do to a family that kept up appearances at all costs. That one fact played a big part in why Lee was currently driving this tin can over swirling snow. Still, Lee wanted even more distance between herself and her bad decisions. She stared out the window and blinked in the bright yet low light.
In her rearview mirror, a truck that had been creeping up to her for miles finally pulled around and sped away, with a diesel growl and puffs of fading exhaust, replaced once more by wind and mind-numbing studded tire road noise. Lee shook her head as red taillights disappeared in the distance. The posted speed limit didn’t exist as a challenge on a wintry day like this. Common sense still counted for something.
She squinted ahead, expecting to see the outskirts of the town. Not much else other than frozen tundra.
What a place to run away from that money-sucker her parents had pushed her into marrying. Worst of all? She had found out that Preston Dupree IV had not only used her family connections to get a seat on the Alpharetta City Council, but he’d had an affair while Lee was in her early years of practice in Dahlonega. Then, he had drained her hard-earned savings account drier than Lake Lanier in a drought. His need to project success had required a big house and bigger toys and exclusive golf memberships and vacations in places with expensive hotels.
Mom and Dad had approved of the show of wealth. Of course they did. Lord forbid, they should ever decline hosting a cocktail party to support the local political campaigndu jour.
The whole time, Lee had been too buried in three years of family medicine residency, then the rural obstetrics fellowship for a year, then practice. She hadn’t seen what occurred right under her nose. At least not until last fall when, at the age of thirty-five, Lee’s carefully planned world crumbled under her. All the while, her parents were more worried about the financial and social impact of Lee’s divorce onthem.
She rubbed her eyes. Hard to believe her parents had encouraged her to stick with Preston. Heck, after the divorce went through, he had even tried to raise funds by filing a HIPAA suit with her employer. He falsely alleged that Lee had discovered the affair by going into the chart of a patient—his girlfriend—whom she didn’t treat. The only time Lee was thankful for an electronic medical record that tracked every log-in and click was when she sat in the office of the hospital’s human resources department to defend herself.
Bull crap and good riddance to him.Fool me once, as the saying went. When Lee trusted any man again, it’d be a cold day in hell.
Welp. She peered out the frosted window, careful what she wished for.
Brake lights glowed red and grew larger. She took her foot off the pedal. All Lee knew about traveling during Georgia ice storms was to stay home. That and, if you had to drive, maneuver like Granny was sitting in the passenger seat, wearing her best Sunday dress while holding an open container of church potluck gravy on her lap. Lee let the speed drop and gripped the wheel, easing over to what she hoped was the road shoulder.
Four wheels of the upside-down truck spun slowly, the cab resting at the bottom of a short embankment. Her heart pounded. Someone was in there, possibly hurt. She stopped the car, zipped up the neck of her puffy Columbia jacket, and secured the gloves. One step out of the car, and she bit back a curse as the wind cut plumb through her twill pants.
But Lee was a doctor. Ignoring an accident with no one else around? Not an option. A burst of adrenaline along with the ABCDEs of trauma assessment flashed through her mind.
Distant sirens echoed eerily over the otherwise empty landscape. Faint flashes of red lights penetrated the blowing snow.
A weak groan coming from inside the vehicle got her attention. No time to wait for EMS. She gritted her teeth and scootched down the few feet of snowy embankment to the forty-five-degree upended cab. The front grille had quite a dent in it.
Her ankles chilled as snow worked under her pant legs.
Reaching the driver’s-side door, she peeked down into the busted window and gasped when a bloody hand waved, next to an upside-down face.
Adrenaline giving her extra strength, she pulled on the inverted door. A man, looking to be in his late sixties, reached toward her, and she yelped. “Hold on, sir. Don’t move. Let’s get you stabilized.”
