Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 331(@200wpm)___ 265(@250wpm)___ 221(@300wpm)
Gray got a nod in confirmation, and then he was hauling himself up the unsteady rope ladder with Darius right behind him.
The three newcomers had to be on the other helicopters, because this was clearly their temporary infirmary. Kyle was the pilot, and his only two passengers were Cullen and Ryan.
Gray spotted a large medic kit secured to the floor, so he grabbed the seat closest to it and buckled in.
Darius signaled to Kyle for them to get out of there, and then the entire helicopter went sideways as it turned around and headed out to sea.
Cullen was clearly in pain, and he had to come first. Gray needed to check his bleeding. Pulling himself up on the ladder must’ve raised Cullen’s pulse to the max, which obviously could’ve caused more damage.
Once they were level again, Gray jumped into action and readjusted the straps holding him in place. Rather than having them over his shoulders, he attached them around his midsection so he could move freely.
Darius received two sets of headphones from Kyle, and Gray got one of them. He removed his earpiece and put them on. Fuck, much better. Noise-canceling for the win. They could finally communicate too.
“Cullen, I need you to be as specific as possible about the exact location of your pain,” Gray directed. He opened the medic kit and was relieved to see so many supplies and tools.
“The bullet’s lodged deep,” Cullen managed to grit out. “Doubt you can grab it.”
Gray wasn’t even going to try. That was for a surgeon to determine. “In ten days, I’m marrying a man who’s got two bullets in his body. Going through airport security with him is always an adventure.”
Cullen chuckled through the pain. “My wife’s married to a man with a similar condition.”
Of-fucking-course.
Gray turned on the flashlight attached to his beanie again, then removed his gloves to put on a new pair of the surgical variety before he cut up more of Cullen’s pant leg. He needed to see the wounded area better.
Having studied so much these past eighteen months, Gray always found it interesting to think back on all the things they’d done wrong in the past, which he could perform correctly now. But there was always one thing textbooks couldn’t determine accurately, and that was the circumstances that brought an injured patient to a field medic. Or a field medic in the making, in Gray’s case.
If he’d told his instructor that his fiancé had once given him heroin and removed a bullet from his thigh in the field, the instructor would’ve lost his shit. Probably. But then…it’d been their best option at the time. Gray had been bleeding out on that godforsaken island once the bullet had shifted.
He didn’t want to remove Cullen’s dressing now, but he had to clean it again. The TQ was still firmly in place, though, so that would help. Otherwise, changing the dressing risked halting the coagulation process and kick-starting the bleeding once more.
He dumped the dressing to the side, happy not to see too much blood, and immediately went to work disinfecting the wound.
“You seem to know what you’re doing,” Cullen said.
“I’m a sponge for knowledge, baby.” Gray jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “I’ve had a lot of practice on that one.” He heard Darius’s tired chuckle in his headphones.
“I’d like to think I’ve given you practice too,” Ryan mentioned.
“Lord, don’t get me started,” Gray muttered. He unwrapped a couple sterile cotton swabs and applied antiseptic cream in and around the wound.
A lot had changed back home, one of them being their new neighbors. Ryan and Angel’s partner, Greg, had, with help from Darius, bought a chunk of land adjacent to Darius and Gray’s property. It’d been a gift for Ryan’s birthday last year. He’d been so overwhelmed that he’d had to excuse himself.
It’d been sweet.
Ryan loved San Francisco, but he was missing Washington. He missed the small-town feel. He missed his family.
It’d be a while before they moved up permanently, probably a couple years, but now they had land to build on. They had a new cabin, which would one day be a guesthouse once their home stood ready. And the best part? They’d be literally five minutes away from Gray and Darius and their kids.
Angel had become a Pinterest junkie in her plan-making for their future, and Darius was working hard to recruit her as a prepper.
She wasn’t all that different from Jayden. They’d both lived on the streets and now found comfort in self-reliance. Angel was going all in.
Gray was surprised by Greg, however. The man was nice as hell but had always preferred the comfortable city life, with all its conveniences and luxury. He was a lawyer who wore Armani and felt right at home in restaurants with sixteen fucking forks and knives flanking his plates. But…he was also a masochistic submissive devoted to his Master, and Greg had undergone some kind of change when they’d started building their cabin last year. He was discovering he really loved seeing the results of things he could create with his own hands. And he’d admitted to feeling more at peace after a week up in Westslope.