Page 42 of Justice for the SEAL
Vitals are stable,pulse is elevated. Minor burns and external injuries—scrapes and bruising. Pulse ox is rising, currently ateighty-five.
The smell of smoke clung to Logan like a campfire as he worked to make sense of the voices hovering over him. He must be on rounds in thehospital.
Someone had been inafire.
He remembered the dead weight of Jax in his arms, felt the heat of the flames so close to his body. His eyes shot open just as the ambulance doorsclosed.
“Breathe deeply, sir,” said the EMT, a bald man with dark brown skin trying to fasten an oxygen mask overLogan’sears.
Logan pulled it off. “Where’s Jax?” hecroaked.
“The other big guy?Darkhair?”
Logannodded.
“Already on his way to the hospital. I hear you savedhislife.”
Logan leaned back, allowing the other man to put the oxygen mask on him. He remembered crawling on his hands and knees, searching for Jax. He remembered firing a bullet into Stewart Cole. He remembered arguing withGemma.
She didn’t want to see himanymore.
The ambulance started to move. Logan sat upsuddenly. “Wait!”
“Sir, youneedto—”
“Where’sGemma?”
“I don’t know who Gemmais,sir.”
“Stop theambulance.”
“We need to get you to thehospital.”
Logan pulled the mask completely off his head and ripped an IV out of his arm. “I said stop it, now.” He cleared his throat and immediately regretted the action as the raw sides of his trachea rubbed against one another. “I need to get out. I have to make sure she’s okay.” He turned toward the driver. “Stop this vehicle,goddamnit!”
The ambulance came to a stop. Logan stood and wrestled with the door until it opened. Five hundred feet away stood Cowboy, and Logan took off at a jog. “Where’s Gemma?” heasked.
“Back at headquarters. She didn’t comewithus.”
“Yes, she did. She was in the vanwithJax.”
Cowboy’s eyes went wide. He and Logan ran across the property searching for the vehicle parked on the other side, a full moon lightingtheway.
If she’d gotten hurt because of him, he’d never forgivehimself.
Logan reached the van before Cowboy. Gemma was slumped over in the passenger seat, what looked like dark stains all over the upholstery in the light off the moon. Logan opened the door and she fell into his arms,lifeless.
Blood.
Those stains areblood.
It was splattered along the back of the seat in a pattern that was all-too familiar from his medical school days. “She’s been shot! Get that ambulanceoverhere!”
Cowboy took offrunning.
Logan rested her on the ground and felt for a pulse. It was weak and racing. “She’s in hypovolemic shock. She’s lost too much blood.” He didn’t know who he wastalkingto.
Hedidn’tcare.
