12-Alarm Cowboys (10 page)

“Move aside cowboy, so I can assess the patient,” a female voice said authoritatively.

Austin’s eyes landed on a pair of heavy, well-used fire boots, glided up long, long,
very
long legs to the hem of a navy blue suit skirt, then flew up to meet narrowed bright blue eyes. The woman looked ridiculous in fire boots paired with the fitted business suit.

They’d sent a desk jockey trying to play fireman out here to help them? Or maybe the dispatcher hadn’t sent her at all. Austin had seen it before. Perhaps she heard the call on the radio while she was out for lunch and whizzed over here to show off the CPR
skills
she’d learned, but never put to use to add a little excitement to her life.

Well, he didn’t have time for her to practice.

“I’ve already assessed the wound, ma’am, and I’m keeping pressure on it to control the bleeding.” Austin let his eyes take another tour of her athletically curved body then met her eyes again. “Besides, you’re not dressed for the job. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to get blood on your nice suit if you’re going back to the office.”

Her lips tightened, and her blonde eyebrow lifted. “I was on my way to a job interview this morning, but heard the call so I came since I was closest.” Just as he suspected, this woman would be of no more help to him than Dyson. But her eyes glided over Tanner, and she squatted down beside him. “Move aside, before your friend dies,” she growled, nudging Austin with her elbow. “By the amount of blood, it looks like he may have an arterial or vienous bleed.”

Austin laughed. “No shit? You don’t think a band-aid will cut it, princess? Is that your professional assessment?”

She pinned him with hot blue eyes. “You’re wasting precious time this man might not have.” Her mouth pinched, and she elbowed him again. “Move your ass out of my way, so I can treat him before he
dies
!”

Tanner whimpered as he reached back again, but Austin caught his wrist. “He’s
not
dying—I have the bleeding under control, and his vitals are
stable
.” As stable as they could be considering he’d been gored in the ass by a bull, but this woman was upsetting the patient. She had the bedside manner of Nurse Ratchet. “We don’t need your help—we will be
fine
waiting on the medic truck, so feel free to go on to your interview…
ma’am
.”

“
Captain
,” she corrected angrily, glaring at Austin. “And I can’t leave now that I’m here. You called us, so
move
aside and let me do my damned job.”

Austin didn’t move, he continued to hold pressure on the towel, and held her impatient gaze until Ransom walked up to set his medic kit down beside him. Her eyes tracked to the kit, and she frowned.

“Are you a licensed paramedic?” she demanded.

Austin laughed, as he flipped the latches with his right hand. “Probably longer than you’ve been out of high school, sweetheart.”

She stood again, stepped closer to the kit and put a boot on top of it so he couldn’t open the lid. Austin took another tour of those amazing legs up to the hem of her skirt. “Move your damned foot, ma’am. I need my supplies,” he growled.

“Not in this dusty arena,” she replied with tight lips, and a lifted brow. “We need to move him somewhere else to treat him, and as far as waiting on the medic truck, it won’t be coming. Both our trucks are tied up on calls, so
I’m
the transport, unless you want to call a helicopter.”

The stubborn set of her chin, and her eyes challenged him to argue.

“Would y’all quit your damned bickering and get me to a
hospital
?!? My ass hurts, and I’m bleeding to death!” Tanner shouted hoarsely.

“I have a backboard in the back of my truck,” the woman said, turning toward the fence, giving him a prime view of her deliciously round backside, which formed a heart at her narrow waist. Without a thought to modesty, she put a boot on the lower rail and threw her leg over the top rail. Austin caught a flash of her white panties as she vaulted over the fence. It wasn’t until that minute, he realized she must be nearly six foot tall barefooted.

If that’s the way the local firefighters were built, Austin was definitely missing out by not volunteering. He’d like to volunteer for a lot more than fighting fires if they were. And if
she
was a Captain, according to the research he’d done when he got there, she was the only full-time paid firefighter other than the Chief and a Lieutenant at that station, which meant they must have a shortage of qualified people.

This woman was too pretty and looked much too young for the job to be effective. Add her abrasive, superior attitude to the mix, and he couldn’t imagine a bunch of rough and tumble experienced firefighters listening to a thing she had to say, much less taking orders from her. Maybe she was a political or relative hire, he thought. That happened a lot at rural stations, hell, his station at home was rife with that shit. Austin would just have to go in to town and check out the situation, maybe offer them his experience.

A minute later the woman, whose name he hadn’t gotten yet, handed the backboard over the fence rail to Ransom, before she hopped over the fence again. Without hesitation, she knelt in the dirt beside Austin, helped him turn Tanner so he was on his side on the board, then strapped him down securely.

“He needs to be in a C-collar,” she informed brusquely. “I have one in my truck, but forgot to grab it.”

“His neck is fine,” Austin replied, pulling the roll of silk tape out of his kit. “We’ll just tape the helmet to the board and leave it on in case he has a concussion.”

The woman’s hand dropped on his forearm before Austin could pull the end off of the tape roll. “How the hell do you know his neck is fine? And if we leave the helmet on, how will we get to his airway if we need to with that screen?”

“I assessed the patient,
ma’am
.
That
is how I know his neck is fine.” This woman’s attitude was wearing on Austin’s last nerve, and he had an hour of it to endure while they transported Tanner to the hospital. But she was right about airway access—and Austin’s face heated. “Ransom go get a screwdriver and a pair of tin snips so we can remove the mask, and grab a couple of horse blankets while you’re in there.”

Resting her ass on her heels, the woman put her hands on her trim hips. “We’re not doctors, we’re paramedics. Our job is to
stabilize
the patient for transport to the hospital where a
doctor
will diagnose him.”

Austin huffed a breath and pinned her with his eyes. “I know what my job is here, and I’ve been doing it long enough to know that his neck is
fine
. However, I am going to
stabilize
it by making a neck roll with those horse blankets since you
forgot
your C-collar in the truck.”

Tanner issued a pained grunt. “Call the damned helicopter, because you two will probably kill each other before we get to the hospital and I’ll be left on the side of the road.”

Ransom returned with the tools and blankets, handed them to Austin and he removed the mask. Rolling the blankets tight, he slid them between Tanner’s shoulder and ear, then looked up at his ranch hand. “Ran, can you lift the board for me?”

“I can do it,” Blondie hissed, moving to Tanner’s head. Austin was not going to argue with her, so he waited while she grabbed the edges of the board and lifted it. Scooting into position, holding the helmet steady he wound the tape roll around several times until he was sure it wouldn’t move.

He stood, and Blondie pushed to her feet at the head of the board, gripping the edges. Before Austin lifted the end though, he looked at his unwanted partner. “You want me to take the head?” he asked, knowing that was where most of the weight was distributed. The woman might be tall, but she didn’t look like she had it in her to carry two-hundred pounds of surly cowboy any distance. Especially in a long-sleeved business suit in this heat. “We have to go the long way through the barns to your truck.”

“I’m fine,” she replied lifting her chin. “Just make sure you don’t drop your end,
cowboy
.”

The way she said cowboy was an insult. Austin was sure she meant it to be, and he wasn’t taking the bait. Her implication was because he worked with his hands, he didn’t have a brain. Well he would love to dissuade Blondie from that notion, but he had nothing to prove to her, and a patient to care for. Let her think what she damn well pleased.

With a grunt, Austin lifted the end of the board, and tightened his grip because his hands were coated with blood and sweat. “Ransom, bring my kit and those towels, will you? And open the gate.”

Blondie led the way, and Austin was surprised at the ease with which she negotiated the turns through the barn until they were out back. When they stepped outside into the sun again though, he saw she was paying a price for her stubbornness. Her dirt-streaked face was flushed bright red from heat and exertion, and strands of her pale blonde hair had escaped her ponytail to stick to the beads of sweat at her temples.

Let her sweat, and strain, he thought, almost laughing when he also noticed her arms were shaking. He wasn’t about to offer to help her again. Austin kept his mouth shut, and a tight grip on his end as he followed her around the second barn to her Suburban.

Stopping, they let Ransom open the door, then maneuvered the backboard into the Suburban, eliciting several groans from Tanner as they jostled him. Austin climbed into the truck before she could and took his kit from Ransom. The door closed and he could see Blondie wasn’t happy about driving as she skirted the truck to the driver’s door and got behind the wheel.

She turned on the sirens, and roughly threw the truck into gear. When she slammed her foot on the gas, Austin lost his balance and his grip on the backboard, and it slammed into the back seat pulling a long, low moan from Tanner.

“Take it easy, will you?!?” Austin shouted, moving quickly to reapply pressure on the freshly bleeding wound. He’d almost had it stopped before they carried and loaded Tanner, but the dark red pool forming on the floorboard of the truck near the edge of the backboard told him it had started again. That meant the bleed
could
be arterial, which could spell trouble if he didn’t get it stopped quickly.

If it kept up, he’d have to find the bleeder, and like the little boy with the dam, put his finger into it to apply pressure until they got to the hospital. Austin put his fingers on Tanner’s neck and checked his pulse again. It was steady, but not very strong.

“We need to get the patient to the hospital,” she replied, seeming unconcerned with the steady moans coming from Tanner with each rut she dipped into on her way down the driveway.

“In
one
piece and
alive
!” Austin growled back, letting go of the towel to open his kit and pull out a bag of saline and tubing. “I’m trying to start an IV back here, and you’re not making that easy, Mario. He’s
not
a Code Three, so back off!”

Tanner wasn’t a balls-to-the-wall transport at this instant, but he could be if Austin didn’t get that damned bleeding under control again. He’d lost enough blood to need an IV, which might help keep him stable until they got to the hospital. If he could just keep steady enough to get the damned needle inserted, that might happen.

But Blondie still wasn’t making that easy. His teeth rattled when she hit the cattle guard, but when she turned onto the roadway, things finally smoothed out enough for him to start the IV and hang it on the clothes hook above the door to get downflow.

Austin knew he only had about five minutes to get the patient buttoned up before they turned down the rutted gravel road to get them to the main highway, so he hurried to pack the wound with thirsty gauze to try to staunch the flow of blood, but it quickly turned red.

Way too quickly.

Things were going down the crapper, and he needed to stop the bleeding fast.

Searching through his kit, Austin found his small vial of morphine and a syringe, then shoved the needle into the cap. “I’m giving you some pain meds, Tanner, so you’ll sleep through the roughest part of this ride.” And through the pain when Austin stuck his hand inside the wound to apply arterial pressure, which was the only way he saw now to stop the growing pool of blood on the floorboard.

“Thanks, boss man,” Tanner replied groggily, which worried Austin more, because the pain meds he’d just inserted into the IV joint had not had enough time to take effect yet. The slurring and the sleepiness were probably from blood loss, or the beginnings of shock.

He had lost a lot of blood. Maybe two pints now. It was definitely about time for Code Three on this transport. When Tanner’s body relaxed, and his breathing evened out, Austin sanitized his hands, and removed the gauze from the wound. After he swabbed with a towel, so he could see the right location, he jammed his thumb inside the wound.

“I think it is an arterial bleed, so I’m doing arterial pressure,” he said and her eyes met his in the rearview. “Once we’re on the highway put the pedal to the metal—we’re Code Three.”

‡