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Luke stood there shaking his head, he couldn’t allow her to put her life in danger any more than she already had. “No. Get back to shore.”
“Luke! Please!”
“Brit get your ass back here!” Kim howled over the wind. “The cops are on their way.”
“It’s Luke!” she yelled back.
Kim looked at Jasmine as the two stood on shore watching Brit and the stranger. “What did she say?”
“She said it’s Luke.”
“Luke?! Good lord, Jasmine, get up to the house and get Dean, I’ll get out and help her.”
Brit watched as Kim dropped to her stomach and started crawling towards them, she stopped a good ten feet away and said, “Luke do you think you can break more ice?”
“I... I think s..so,” he said, his teeth chattering beyond his control.
“Why?!” Brit cried. “We are wasting time!”
“Because the closer he comes to shore the shallower it is. I know for a fact it’s waist high right where I am.”
“Okay.” Brit spun back around on her belly and looked Luke in the eyes. “We will do this together, okay?”
Luke could no longer talk; he just gave her a shaky nod.
She took a deep breath, steeling herself for what she knew was coming. Closing her eyes, she raised her fists then smashed them against the ice. Opening them, she screamed out his name when she saw him close his eyes and sway.
Desperate, she flipped over onto her back with her feet facing him and started hitting the ice with the heel of her boot. Finally, it started to break away, but Luke wasn’t moving. Without a thought to her own safety, she slipped off the ice into the bone chilling water and thanked God that her feet touched the bottom. She reached for him just as he started to slip under. “I got you,” she panted. With all her might, she leaned back pulling him with her as the ice broke around them. She took a step back and then another, then suddenly, Dean and Vince were reaching for Luke. Together they lifted him into a rubber dingy. Once he was safely inside, Dean pulled her out from the water and plopped her down beside Luke.
Brit grabbed Dean’s arm. “Kim, where is she?”
“Over there.” Dean pointed. She was standing on the shore along with a dozen or so people that were pulling the dingy back to the shoreline.
Relief flooded along her veins until she looked at Luke. He was covered with a foil emergency blanket, but he was so pale and shivering like a leaf. Snuggling against him despite their sopping clothes, Brit whispered to him. “Don’t you dare leave me like this.”
He cracked an eye open and looked at her. “I’ll try not to...”
They finally reached the shore where paramedics took over and put Luke on a stretcher. Strapping him down, they covered him with a blanket. Then the one that seemed to be in charge, looked at Kim as he took Luke’s vitals and said, “His temp is 91.6°F. We have no choice but to take them to the clinic, all roads are closed leading to Springbank where they should be going.”
Kim nodded her understanding at the grave situation Luke was in then looked at Dean. “Can you call Abbi and let her know? I’ll go with them in the ambulance.”
He had a grim look on his face. “I will. Get going.”
Brit knew nothing about hypothermia, but she knew enough that it couldn’t be good. Especially when she got into the back of the ambulance with Luke.
The first thing the medic did was take her vitals too. “Temp is 95.9° F,” he said to his partner. Then he looked at Brit and handed her a blanket. “Strip your clothes now, then wrap yourself in this.”
Brit darted questioning eyes to Kim as she climbed in. “It will start warming your blood faster. If you stay in those wet clothes, it will only get worse.”
Brit glanced at Luke who was watching her as the other medic stripped him of his clothes.
She gulped. “Everything?” she asked as the medic that handed her the blanket got behind the wheel and set the vehicle in drive.
“Ideally yes, but just leave your underwear on,” Kim said. “You can strip them off at the clinic.”
“It’s okay, Brit. I won’t look.” Luke told her, barely above a whisper.
All the same, she turned her back towards him and quickly shimmied out of her clothes.
