need to keep her head steady,” he said.
“Are you sure—?”
“Occluded airway. I don’t see a better option.”
Maddie was about to offer to take over, but the doctor seemed suddenly confident about doing an intubation in the middle of a national forest with a heavy wind swirling around them. Maddie positioned Gwen’s head just right.
“Ready?” he said, making eye contact.
“Are you?” she said.
The doctor ignored her question and used a laryngoscope to hold the tongue aside while inserting the endotracheal tube. Done properly, this would allow air to pass to and from the lungs.
Maddie realized she was holding her breath. It seemed like it was taking forever.
“I think...” His voice trailed off.
Gwen’s skin suddenly looked better, pinker, and her chest began to rise and fall.
“Whoa, what happened?” a man said.
Maddie recognized her cousin Aiden’s voice behind her but she remained focused on the patient. Although employed as Echo Mountain Resort Manager, Aiden also volunteered for search and rescue. Boy was she glad SAR had officially arrived.
“Spence?” Aiden said.
“Occluded airway. Had to intubate,” Dr. Spencer said. “We need...” He hesitated before saying, “A helicopter.”
“I’m on it.” Aiden called it in.
Maddie studied the doctor. He seemed a little off and not acting like his usual charming self.
“Someone needs to monitor her pulse and...” He glanced at Maddie.
Her breath caught in her throat at the confused look in his eyes.
“Bag her,” Maddie offered.
“Yes, bag her,” Dr. Spencer said.
SAR volunteer Luke Marshall knelt and monitored Gwen’s pulse, while local firefighter Sam Treadwell helped her breathe using the vinyl bag.
“Helicopter is on the way, Doc,” Aiden said. “Why does Maddie have a gun in her jeans?”
Dr. Spencer glanced at Maddie as if he wasn’t sure.
“A guy in a black ski mask attacked Dr. Spencer,” Maddie started, hoping the doc would join in. He didn’t, so she continued, not taking her eyes off him. “I got the guy’s gun and he ran. Fell off the trail over there.” She pointed. “They’ll want to send another search team, with police officers.”
“Why’d he attack you, Spence?” Aiden asked.
The doctor shot him a confused look. Maddie’s skin pricked with goosebumps.
“That’s the twelve-thousand-dollar question,” Maddie recovered. She felt protective of the doc, probably because she owed him a debt of gratitude for protecting her cousin Cassie last year from mob thugs.
“What are you doing out here?” Aiden asked Maddie.
“I was hiking and saw the text. The guy was crazed, Aiden, beating Dr. Spencer like they were mortal enemies.”
Aiden narrowed his eyes at the doctor, who was also a good friend. “Who was he, Spence?”
“I,” Dr. Spencer started. “It doesn’t matter. We need to focus on getting Gwen to the hospital.” He stood and wavered.
Maddie jumped to her feet. She and Aiden caught him as he went down. Kneeling beside the unconscious doctor, she took his pulse.
She glanced up at her cousin. “It’s too slow. We need to get him to a hospital!”
“Bobby!” Spence peered over the edge onto the cliff below. His younger brother’s body lay motionless, his eyes closed. Spence had to get to him, but he had to get help.
Spence glanced down the trail. No, he couldn’t abandon his brother.
“Help!” Spence shouted. “Somebody help!” His voice echoed back at him.
The wind whistled through the dense forest. He didn’t know what to do.
“You know what your most important job is in the whole world? Take care of your baby brother,” his mom said on a weekly basis. Bobby was a trouble magnet, everyone knew it. But still...
Spence shifted onto his stomach hoping to climb down to the ledge where his brother had landed. With a solid hold of a tree branch, he lowered his left foot to a knot in the mountain wall.
The branch snapped.
And he fell the remaining ten feet onto his back. The wind knocked from his lungs, he struggled to breathe as he stared up at the pine and cedar trees filling his line of vision. He forced himself to breathe, rolled onto his hands and knees and looked at his brother.
“Bobby?” he gasped.
He hadn’t a clue what to do, how to help him. What had he seen on that medical show Mom always watched? Spence tipped Bobby’s head back to keep him from swallowing his tongue. He grabbed his brother’s wrist and felt for a pulse.
“Where is it?” he muttered, trying the other wrist.
Panic coiled in his gut.
“Bobby! Wake up!”
* * *
“Wake up!”
Spence gasped and opened his eyes, struggling to get his bearings. The lush trees and whistling wind were gone.
His brother...
Was gone.
A ball of pain knotted in his throat.
“Breathe,” a woman said.
He blinked, and Maddie McBride’s round face framed with rich auburn hair came into focus. She offered an encouraging nod and squeezed his shoulder.
He glanced past her and realized he was in a hospital room, but he wasn’t the attending physician. He was the patient.
“You’re okay,” she said.
There was something in her voice that didn’t sound so sure. Her green eyes studied him with concern.
“Who’s Bobby?” she asked.
Right, he’d been sucked down into the childhood nightmare. He shook his head and closed his eyes, hoping she’d leave him alone with his shame.
“Are
