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“We’ll take care of it,” Kayde promises, his voice steady.
“Send Darcy and Shawn our way if they’re, umm, unoccupied?” Daniel sounds unsure, but that doesn’t shock me. He’s always been the worst counselor in a crisis and never quite knows what to do. That’s fine; he’s a follower, not a leader, but as long as he’s delegate to, he’s reliable as hell.
“Darcy is in Liza’s cabin,” Kinsley interrupts, looking up with wide eyes. “I’m not sure about Shawn. At the lake, I think, with his cabin and mine?” She stares at me like I have all the answers, but all I can think of is how reliably unreliable Shawn is as a counselor.
God forbid he helps out when we need him. A shitty attitude and questionable crush really aren’t excuses to be such an asshole, but he’s proving that he doesn’t give a damn about that. One more look at Kayde shows me he’s shepherding the kids to follow my cabin, and Daniel is bringing up the rear with a pale, bewildered look on his face.
“Come on,” I murmur, wrapping an arm around Kinsley’s shoulder. “Wipe the blood off on my shirt, okay? As much as you can. Then, umm…” I look at her shirt, biting my lip. “You’re going to have to change. The kids can’t see that, Kins.”
“I know.” She blinks and swipes a blood-smeared arm across her face in a move I’m pretty sure is to prevent tears from falling. “I know; I just needed help.”
“What happened?” Her quick strides match mine, and while we aren’t running, we’re certainly not taking our time on the way back to Liza’s cabin. Whatever it is, I hope it isn’t as bad as it looks from Kinsley’s shirt and arms because it’ll take an ambulance thirty-five minutes to get here.
“I don’t know,” Kinsley all but wails. “Summer, I don’t know. I don’t even know the girl. She’s one of Darcy’s, and she got lost, or ran away, or something, but Darcy came to me saying she couldn’t find her, and none of the kids knew where she went either. Then one of my girls said she’d seen her heading off into the woods toward the south hiking trail.”
Fuck. Fuck, I think, my eyes closing hard for half a second. With the south trail being off limits for campers and mostly grown up after a big storm four years ago made it unsafe, we don’t even mention it to campers anymore. Most of them don’t even know how to get to it, let alone its existence in the first place.
Not to mention, the trail had never been a very safe one. It was for more advanced hikers, with cliffs and drop offs on either side of it that had always made me nervous back when we did take a few groups on it every year. I’d been thankful when the storm had hit and knocked a few huge trees down into the path, rendering it impassable.
“She fell.” The words chill me to the bone, and sound loudly in my head even though Kinsley has barely whispered them. “It can’t have happened that long ago. All the blood…it’s still wet.” She spits the word like it offends her, and shudders. “It was when I found her, I mean. I was too afraid to leave her out there, even though I know we’re supposed to because of a possible neck injury.” Her words pick up pace and volume until she’s nearly hysterical and I can see the tears burning in her eyes.
“But I didn’t know what to do. There was so much blood, and her head—” Kinsley chokes off as we finally get to Liza’s cabin, and I stop her, my hands gripping her arms.
“Go to your cabin and change,” I tell her firmly, eyes never leaving hers. “Grab me a shirt too, please. Calm down, Kins. I get this is so hard, but I need you to calm down. You, me, Kayde, and Liza are all we’ve got. The others are shit in a crisis, and you know it.” I try to joke with her, and I try to smile to get her to do something other than shake.
But the fact I can’t distract her whatsoever, and that Kins is too busy staring at the door of Liza’s cabin like it’s going to bite her, tell me that this is going to be worse than I thought. She nods once, then again, and nearly stumbles down the stairs while I watch, teeth clenched as I steel myself and force my body to not run away.
With Kinsley down, it’s just me and Liza. I have no doubt Kayde will be here when he can, but I can’t fall apart and leave Liza to deal with the situation on her own. Taking a deep breath, I pull open the door to Liza’s cabin, only to jump to the side as Darcy rushes past me, her face pale and bleak.
“Is that you, Summer?” Liza, thank God, sounds as calm as always. There’s no trace of terror in her voice, or anything other than determination and focus.
“Yeah,” I tell her, hesitating as I close the door. “It’s me.”
“If you can, I need you not to freak out. Or I need you to get Kayde, if you think you are going to panic.” I’ve never heard her sound so careful. So…deliberate. It puts me on edge, but I walk through the infirmary cabin, to the bed in the back that she’s leaning over.
Whatever I’d been preparing myself for, this is worse. I don’t know the girl by name, but as I look at her bloody, bruised face and the deep scratches that litter her arms and legs, I wonder if it’s a blessing or a curse that she’s currently unconscious. One of her arms is definitely broken, and I have no doubt that if she were awake, she’d be screaming.
I can also see the long, deep gash that starts at her temple and moves back into her hairline, peeking out from the bandage Liza has pushed against it. Two black eyes have already risen to her skin, and if her nose isn’t broken, I’ll eat my shoes; dirt and all.
“Okay,” I breathe, forcing myself to stay calm. If I let my heart pound, if I start breathing fast and start wondering about the what ifs, then I won’t be any help at all. “What do you need from me, Liza?”
“I need you to put pressure on her head. I want to look her over again and check her breathing. Darcy called an ambulance twenty minutes ago now. We’ve still got time before they show up.” Liza moves away as I come close, and I replace her hands on the wads of bandage against the girl’s head that are slowly being dyed red with blood.
I press down, harder than I want to, and set my teeth against the mental discomfort. I don’t want to hurt this girl. That’s the last thing I want, truth be told. But I have to keep the bleeding under control, if I can. “Did anyone call Fink?” I ask, realizing belatedly that would’ve been a smart move.
Liza hesitates, looking up at me as she puts her stethoscope to her ears. “I don’t know,” she says at last, and I nod, grabbing my phone out of my pocket and texting Kayde. Initially, I’d balked at him putting his number into my phone two nights ago. But he’d only kissed me, pinned me down, and told me oh so sweetly that this way, I wouldn’t get the wrong idea and could always ask where he was or why he’d done something.
When I’d responded that seemed a little obsessive of me, he’d seemed even more thrilled at the idea.
Now I’m glad for it, and I shoot off a quick message that reads, Find out if anyone contacted Fink. Its one of Darcys girls.
Belatedly, as I watch the message send, I add, Its bad. Dont bring anyone else here.
His response is a quick confirmation, telling me he’ll find out if Fink got called.
I’ll take care of it and be right there. Darcy, Shawn, and Daniel can keep the kids in Otter. He’s right about that, and they’re the ones I want help from the least.
Hell, I don’t even think Daniel and Darcy are capable of giving us real help. Especially if it involves being in here.
