Her Mistletoe Protector(30)

He opened his eyes and nodded wearily. "I shouldn't be surprised. Guess we'll have to try and make it to the highway by walking."

"Nick, you're bleeding!" Joey exclaimed.

He glanced down and winced when he saw the dark stain of blood smeared across the palm of Joey's hand. "Yeah, but it's just a scratch," he said, downplaying his injury. "I'll be fine as soon as the ambulance gets here."

Joey still looked horrified, and he hated knowing he was causing the child to be afraid again. Hadn't the poor kid been through enough? He'd never forget the way Joey went charging after Errol with the tree branch. The kid was a true hero. "Listen, Joey, can you hear the sirens? The police will be here soon. Everything's going to be all right."

"Let's go, Nick." Rachel slid her arm around his waist, putting her shoulder under his arm to help support him. He silently prayed for strength as they made their way down the rest of the gravel driveway. The hazy smoke made it difficult to see and to breathe. The three of them coughed as they walked. He could barely see a few feet in front of his face, so he had no way of knowing if they were anywhere close to the highway.

After about ten minutes, he could feel his strength waning, even with Rachel trying to take most of his weight. He stumbled on a large rock and knew he was going to fall. Instantly, he let go of both Rachel and Joey so he wouldn't take them down with him. He groaned loudly when he hit the ground, hard. For a moment everything went black and he stopped fighting, stopped struggling, welcoming the darkness.

"Nick! Are you all right?" From far away, he could feel someone shaking him and calling his name. Rachel? He didn't have the strength to reassure her.

Once he'd prayed for the Lord to take him so he could be with his wife and daughter again. But it hadn't been his time. Was God going to take him now? Just when he'd found Rachel? He didn't want to leave Rachel and Joey, but he didn't have the strength to fight anymore.                       
       
           



       

"Take me home, Lord," he whispered. "I'm ready to come home."

* * *

"Nick!" Rachel tried not to panic as she stripped away his coat so she could look at his arm. Not that she would be able to see much in the darkness.

"Is Nick going to die?" Joey asked, his voice trembling with fear.

"Not if I can help it," she muttered. Nick's jacket wouldn't come off and she soon realized he'd tied a string around the upper part of his left arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.

"No, God wants me home...." he muttered, weakly pushing her hands away.

Rachel couldn't believe Nick was just going to give up. She remembered him mentioning his wife and daughter were up in heaven. Was he willing to give up his life in order to be with them again? Didn't she and Joey mean anything to him?

Maybe not, but that was too bad. She wasn't ready to let him go. She untied the string and yanked the jacket sleeve off. His blood-soaked sweatshirt confirmed her worst fears.

He was hit badly, far worse than he'd let on.

Working quickly, she felt for the worst part of the injury, trying not to wince when her fingers sank into the open wound. Once she'd found it, she retied the string around his arm above the injured area. What else could she use to stop the bleeding? She shrugged out of her coat, took off her sweatshirt and then put her coat back on. Using the sleeve of her sweatshirt, figuring it was cleaner than the hood, she balled it up and pressed it against the gouged area across Nick's biceps.

"Come on, Nick. Help me out here," she urged as she leaned all her weight against him, hoping to slow the blood loss. But Nick didn't move, didn't so much as flutter an eyelash.

"Wake up, Nick," Joey said, shaking Nick's other arm. "You have to wake up!"

The sounds of sirens grew louder. "Hang in there, Nick. The ambulance is almost here!"

Still, Nick didn't respond, not even when the ambulance and the firefighters arrived. Two paramedics came over to help Nick while the rest of the firefighters headed in with a huge water truck to the wooded area to douse the fire.

"He's lost a lot of blood," Rachel cautioned, when the two paramedics nudged her aside.

"Let's get an IV in, stat!" the female paramedic said curtly.

"I've got it," the younger man replied. "Fluids wide open until we can get the O neg blood flowing."

"His blood pressure is low-I'll get the packed red blood cells out of the ambulance," the woman continued. She darted away and returned with a small cooler less than two minutes later. She quickly opened the cooler and took out what looked like packages of blood.

Rachel kept Joey close to her side as they watched the two paramedics work on Nick. Once they had the blood infusing into his veins, they brought over a gurney and began to strap him securely onto it.

"Could we go with you? Please?" Rachel asked, stepping forward. "Our car has been tampered with and we don't have a ride out of here. There's also a man who tried to kill us still back in the woods."

The two paramedics grimaced. "I'm sorry, but that's against the rules," the younger man said.

"Besides, the police will want to talk to you, especially if there's still a threat here in the area," the female paramedic added kindly. "We're taking him to Madison General Hospital and I'm sure one of the officers will give you a ride."

Her heart sank, but she also knew they were right. She had little choice but to stand there with her arm around Joey and watch as they bundled Nick into the ambulance.

"Do you think God will listen if we pray for Nick?" Joey asked, after the paramedic jumped into the driver's seat, started the engine and pulled out onto the highway.

She gathered him close and nodded. "Absolutely, Joey," she responded. "Dear Lord, we ask You to please keep Nick safe in Your care. Amen."

"Amen," Joey echoed.

Tears burned her eyes as she realized that no matter what happened moving forward, her son was going to be hurt by Nick's leaving. Because he already cared about Nick, already saw him as some sort of surrogate father.                       
       
           



       

And she couldn't blame him, because if she were honest with herself, she'd admit she was falling for Nick, too. Maybe he didn't feel the same way, but she couldn't imagine a life without him.

Please, Lord, let him live!

* * *

"What do you mean you can't find Karl?" Rachel asked, her tone rising incredulously. With the smoke growing thicker in the woods despite the firefighters' attempt to douse the raging flames, the police officer had stashed her and Joey in the squad car while they went searching for the scientist. "He was lying on the ground about twenty feet away from the car. You found the car, right?"

"Yes, ma'am, we found the vehicle. And we looked all over but didn't find any sign of the research doctor or the weapon." The tall, dark-haired police officer had introduced himself as Sean McCarthy.

Rachel shivered and hugged Joey. The thought of Karl Errol being out on the loose in the woods with his rifle wasn't at all reassuring. She wished now that she had taken the gun with her. She glanced through the passenger-side window, hoping that Karl had taken the opportunity to escape rather than to seek revenge.

She could still barely comprehend that Gerry Ashton had decided to kill her and Joey as retaliation for her father giving her the company. And because he thought she was onto him. She felt sick to her stomach, thinking about how she'd been duped by the man she'd trusted.

Once again, her instincts had led her wrong.

"You say you believe Karl Errol was secretly working for Global Pharmaceuticals?" Officer McCarthy asked.

"That's what he admitted to. I'm still having trouble understanding how two people hated me enough to try and kill me."

"Can't say that I have much experience with corporate espionage," McCarthy admitted.

"Me, either," she murmured. She didn't want to think about greed and corruption anymore. Right now, she wanted to see Nick. To make sure he was all right.

"Officer McCarthy, will you please take us to Madison General Hospital?" she asked, willing to beg if necessary. It seemed as if hours had passed since the ambulance had driven away with Nick. She wanted nothing more than to get far away from this place where Nick had almost died and where she and Joey had feared for their lives, too. "We've given you our statements. It's not like we can't discuss this in more detail later, right?"

Officer McCarthy hesitated but then nodded. "All right. We'll head over to the hospital. If Detective Butler is awake, I'll get his statement, as well."

Her shoulders slumped with relief. She didn't bother telling the officer that the likelihood of Nick answering any questions was slim to none. She wouldn't be at all surprised to find that Nick was already in surgery, having the injury to his arm repaired. If he survived long enough to get to surgery.

No, she refused to believe the worst. God was surely watching over Nick. He'd been a good Christian his entire life.