Page 10 of Montana Freedom

Liam nodded. “Why the insistence on the car?”

“We don’t know where she’s been. It could tell us something if we need to know.” I also didn’t want her to feel trapped once she recovered. And shewouldrecover.

“All right. We’ll be back shortly. Call if you need something.” Noah looked behind me at the unconscious woman with worry before he left the cabin, and I walked with Liam toward the door.

He lingered for a moment. “Are you all right? Because… Holy shit. You were just saying…”

“I know.” I shook my head. “Am I all right? I have no idea. All I know is I need to keep her alive. Anything else can come later. Thank you for doing everything so quickly.”

“No problem. Like Noah said, we’ll be back soon. You should call everyone else and get them here. Not because she’s here, but because of where we found her.”

He had a point. The Riders had dropped off the radar, but we still had our ears to the ground for any information that might come our way, as did our friends. We didn’t discount the threat Simon had leveled at us before he’d tried to murder Noah. That kind of threat didn’t disappear simply because the person went to ground.

Regardless, when she was well enough to speak, we needed to talk to her. Gently, of course, but any information she had would be valuable.

“Yeah. I’ll get them in.”

A car—a sedan—was driving down the road toward us. Most of us had trucks, which meant this was Dr. Gold. The relief I felt was palpable.

Liam clapped me on the shoulder, and I waited for her to get out of the car. She didn’t look happy, and I wouldn’t be either if I were rudely summoned on my day off. Not that I really had any days off.

“Daniel,” she said. “What’s going on?”

She grabbed a bag from the back seat and met me on the porch. “A woman. She has a wound on the right side of her torso, clearly infected. Temperature of 104 and a heart rate of 140.”

“Jesus.” The word was muttered under her breath. As soon as we entered the room, she got to work, confirming my facts.

Kate was still here, too, and pale as a sheet. “You all right?”

“Yes. Just…everything.”

Seeing this woman again would bring up painful memories for Kate. Noah had nearly died, and she certainly would have been next if we hadn’t made it in time to intervene. “Step out if you need to,” I said.

“Daniel, help me get her shirt off so I can see this.”

I only hesitated for a second. It felt wrong to undress someone when they weren’t conscious, but if we didn’t do this and she died—

It was easy to lift her up and help Dr. Gold slip the shirt over her head. The woman moved in response to the fabric brushing the wound, and Kate gasped as it came into view. It wasn’t pretty.

Not particularly long, but a decent depth. It was so inflamed it looked much larger than it was. “Daniel, she needs to be in a hospital. I’ll call an ambulance.”

“No,” I said.

She looked at me, shocked. “Excuse me?”

I told the doctor briefly how I’d found her—caught sight of her walking across the parking lot and did a double take at seeing the woman I’d been searching for. Noticing her about to fall and barely catching her before she cracked her head on the pavement.

“She wasn’t completely out, and when I told her I was taking her to the hospital, she fought me like a wildcat.” I didn’t like to say the words out loud, but I did. “I think she would have let herself die instead of going to the hospital. If she was that desperate, she has to have a good reason.”

“That’s not always my experience.”

Slowly, I took a breath in and out. “If there’s no other way, fine. But whatever it takes. I’ll pay whatever needs to be paid to have her fully taken care of here.”

Dr. Gold closed her eyes. “I’ll do my best, given those are her current wishes. But if she gets any worse, there will be an ambulance here, and I won’t ask permission before calling it. You have emergency fluids?”

I pointed to the crate in the adjacent kitchen filled with our emergency supplies, which included far more than the average first aid kit. Fluids and antibiotics were only part of the contents.

She got the line of fluids started and cleaned and dressed the wound faster and more efficiently than I could have, but the antibiotics we had weren’t in liquid form. “I need more than you have,” Dr. Gold said. “Watch her. If her pulse gets faster or her temperature rises any more before I get back,bring her in, Daniel. And if she shows any sign of consciousness, get those pills in her. The fever reducer too.” She pulled a sample of blood from the woman’s arm. “I need to run some tests and get antibiotics. I’m also stating once again, keeping her here is a bad idea. And when I can talk to her, I will make that very clear.”

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