Page 13 of Countdown

“I’ve got it.” And she did.

Within minutes, Raina was on the ground racing toward the paramedics—Greg and Tracey—working on a young woman. She had a tourniquet on the upper part of her thigh and blood soaked her lower leg. “Hey, guys, who goes with us?”

Greg looked up. “Not sure, but this one’s going to lose the leg if she doesn’t get into surgery ASAP.”

She nodded. “Got it.”

An ambulance pulled to a stop and two more paramedics bolted out of the front. Another woman in a white coat followed. “I’ve got her,” the woman said. “I’m a surgeon and have what I need to take care of this.”

Raina raised a brow at Greg, who shrugged.

“Over here!” A police officer Raina recognized as Jean waved at them. The doctor took over the patient, and Holly darted toward the car wedged under a city bus.

“According to witnesses,” Jean Tagget said, “that’s the driver who caused this mess.”

Raina nodded, swallowed hard, and followed after Holly.

The drunk driver who’d killed her father hadn’t lived to face the consequences of his deed. Her jaw tightened. But this guy would if she could help it. She tamped down her emotions once more and curled her fingers around the medical box. Jean and Griff Jett were the two officers on the scene. “What do we have?”

Holly knelt next to the man behind the wheel, who blinked up at her while blood ran down the side of his face. “Sir?” she said. “Can you talk to me? Tell me what hurts besides the head?”

“He just woke up,” Jean said to Raina. “He’s under arrest, but we didn’t want to move him until someone could figure out how to get him out of the car alive. According to the plate, this is Felix Hamilton.”

Raina nodded and walked around to the other side of the vehicle. “Is he the one you called the chopper for?” The Honda Civic’s front end was crushed. If his vehicle had gone any farther under the bus, he would have been decapitated. She shuddered.

“Yup. Got a piece of broken steering wheel jammed in his thigh. Firefighters need to cut him out of there but, like us, didn’t want to do anything until they were sure you were onhand to get him airborne and to the hospital before he bleeds out.”

“Well, we’re here now,” Raina said.

The guy was coming around a little more. She worked fast to get his vitals, then looked at Holly, who frowned. “That leg looks bad,” Raina said, keeping her voice low. “Let’s knock him back out and get him out of here. He doesn’t need to know how close he is to—” She bit her tongue on the rest of the words when she realized his eyes were on her. Unfocused, hazy green eyes. The same green eyes as the smiling little girl in the picture taped to his dash. The woman next to her looked radiantly happy and held a toddler on her left hip. He had a wife and kids. Wow. She felt sorry for them. Maybe they’d be better off if he—

No. She refused to think those kinds of thoughts. Ever. She’d worked many DUIs and managed to keep her emotions out of it. This one was no different.

“Meds are in,” Holly said.

The man’s eyes closed once again and his head lolled to his right shoulder.

Raina backed up to let the firefighters in.

“Okay,” Holly said, “here’s the plan.” She outlined how she and Raina would be ready with a lifesaving plan of action once the steering wheel was removed from the leg.

“No,” Raina said. “Wait.”

Holly’s eyes collided with hers. “What?”

“Leave it in. I think it’s acting as a plug, so you need to bind it to him and cut the area around it, leaving that part in his leg.” Raina checked the man’s heart rate and breathing once more. “Pulse is fast.” She looked at Holly. “We need two large bore IVs in the ACs, and 1000 ml of normal saline administered.”

Holly nodded. “And we’ll push TXA and two units of blood.”

The TXA should be enough to stop the bleeding. “Please let it be enough,” Raina whispered. Hopefully, the blood flowing inwould counteract the blood that was getting ready to flow out. Because no matter how careful they were, he was going to bleed.

Once everything was ready, Holly looked behind her. “All right. I’m moving out of the way. Raina’s got him for now.” Then she pulled a tarp over the unconscious man, and Raina and the firefighters went to work. Raina monitored his vitals, watching for bleeding while she did her best to tune out the sound of the saw.

And then he was free, a firefighter’s gloved hand holding tight to the part of the steering wheel still attached to the leg. “All right, let’s move!”

At the firefighter’s shout, Raina passed the IV and other items to Holly, who followed the victim as he was lifted ever so gently out of the vehicle. Raina started to back out of the car when the picture on the dash seemed to call to her. She hesitated and grabbed it, then scrambled out to beeline for the chopper.

Only her attention was snagged by a man on the fringe of the onlookers. She had no idea what made her stop and try to get a good look, but she did, only to see him turn and walk away.

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