I Hear Voices (7 page)

Smoke billowed overhead. Frowning, I turned my head and saw that the helicopter was on fire. I bolted upright in horror and gasped as the world spun dizzily around me.

Derek grabbed me and carefully lowered me back to the hot, rocky ground. “I have a couple of Med Evac choppers coming in and I need to know if the Thunder God’s going to be a problem.”

“Granny?”

“I’m here, bella.”

I wiggled as a bunch of oven hot rocks dug into my backside. “Flip me over I’m done.”

Derek scowled and pulled me across his lap.

“The Thunder God?”

My grandmother had over-extended herself and I could barely hear her as a gentle arctic breeze blew over us. “Tell your man that he has two hours to get his people off the mountain.”

“Granny says we have two hours.” I swiped at the blood running into my right eye. “Everyone get out okay?”

“Yeah, my pilot’s pretty banged up and Sam’s got a busted arm but we were damned lucky.”

Sam must be the Marine. “Where’s my backpack?”

“It’s still in the helicopter.”

“What!” I shot up and cracked my head against Derek’s chin. “Ouch! Goddamnit that hurts!”

“Tell me about it,” Derek grumbled, rubbing his jaw.

I clutched my throbbing skull. Geezus, it felt like it was going to split in half. “Gotta get the stone,” I moaned, struggling to get my feet under me.

The Tomb Raider clamped me against his sweaty chest. “You’re not getting anywhere near that helicopter. It could blow any second now.”

“Listen to your man, bella.”

“But the treasure,” I wailed.

“You’re a smart girl, I’m sure you’ll figure something out,” Derek responded a bit too calmly.

What had Granny been telling him?

With a thunderous cracking boom the Black Hawk blew.

Sloan shielded me with his big body as pieces of burning debris rained down on us.

A thick column of black smoke rose high into the sky and dozens of brush fires erupted.

“I think we’d better call the Forest Service before we’re all a bit crispy fried.”

“They’re on their way.” Derek effortlessly picked me up. Okay, I was more than impressed.

Bet he could bench press five hundred pounds, too.

Not like I weighed anywhere close to that but wow!

He carried me over to a rocky overhang where Hank and his partner worked frantically on the injured pilot.

A little banged up? Blood soaked her platinum blonde hair and she made this awful rasping sound as she fought for breath. Derek sat me next to the Marine who cradled his broken arm. “Stay put.”

“Yes’um boss.”

Derek fixed an intimidating stare on me. “I mean it.”

One look at the heat waves quivered across the burning terrain like restless spirits and I sighed.

“Not going anywhere, boss.”

A convoy of helicopters appeared on the horizon.

I pointed. “The cavalry’s coming.”

“About fucking time.” Sloan jogged off to meet them.

My gaze fastened on the poor pilot as she moaned and thrashed around. I turned to Sam, “Where’s Ed?”

“He’s trying to clear a fire break,” the Marine answered, his face taut with pain.

A thrumming roar filled the air.

I looked up as a low flying Forest Service aerial tanker dropped its load. When the cascading waterfall stopped, the fires were out and Derek was sprawled face down on the ground.

A giggle escaped me as Sloan pushed himself upright. He was coated head to toe in thick, gooey, red mud.

Two Med-Evac choppers landed and teams of paramedics ran towards us with their rescue baskets.

A black Maricopa County Sheriff’s helicopter landed directly behind them. Wiping the mud off his face, Sloan went to meet the Deputies.

In the distance, thunder rumbled and growled.

Sam and I exchanged worried looks.

Hank took one glance at the building storm clouds and told the Med-Evac paramedics, “They’re all stable and we need to boogie now.”

The next thing I knew my head was wrapped in gaze, I was strapped in a basket and being carried to a waiting helicopter. “Really, I can walk.”

His arm in a sling, Sam patted my shoulder.

“No, you can’t.”

“But you get to walk.”

“I don’t have a head injury.”

“It’s just a really bad headache.”

“Headaches don’t bleed.”

He had a point. In the helicopter we went.

As we lifted off, I caught a brief glimpse of Derek, Ed and the deputies pulling skulls out of the wreckage.

Slashes of incandescent green danced across the towering black clouds.

“Sam, tell Derek that unless he wants to start picking pieces of fuselage out of his butt, they need to leave now.”

Sam nodded, tapped his ear piece and relayed my message.

A freaking command center had been set up in the parking lot of the Lost Dutchman’s park. I sure hoped they hadn’t towed my car off. The sooner I got the tracker removed, the sooner I could ditch the Tomb Raider.

The minute the helicopter touched down Sam and I were whisked inside a tent set up like an emergency room. They wheeled me behind a gauzy curtain and plopped me on a bed. “Thanks guys.”

“Our pleasure, ma’am,” the paramedics responded and left.

My eyes widened when a Patrick Dempsey clone walked in with a clipboard. He grinned at my startled expression. “Yeah, I look a bit like that actor.”

“A bit?”

The doctor held up a pen light and flashed it in my eyes. “Got a headache?”

“I was in a helicopter crash, what do you think?”

Flashing me a dimpled, Hollywood smile, he examined my head laceration. “A little dab of surgical glue should fix this. Derek wouldn’t want your pretty face scarred.”

Huh? Like he gave a shit. It was time for me to play the harmless, slightly ditzy patient. In other words, act like a bimbo. “Derek has been such a comfort. I don’t know what I’d done without him,”

I gushed.

Doctor Hollywood cleaned the blood off my face. “There’s nothing Derek can’t handle.”

Wanna bet? “Oh, don’t I know it. He’s such a take charge kinda guy.” The bossy prick.

“The Commander does expect his orders to be followed.”

Well, fuckadoodledoo, the jackass could bark all the orders he wanted but it didn’t mean I had to follow them. “He’s a hero. He pulled all of us from that burning helicopter and went back in for that poor pilot. Do you know how she’s doing?”

The doctor swabbed my forehead. “They took her directly to St Joseph’s Trauma Center.”

I let my voice tremble. “She isn’t going to die, is she?”

“No. She’s stable. They’re just concerned about the compound fracture in her left femur.”

Tears rolling down my cheeks, I latched onto to his arm and sobbed, “Are you sure? There was so much blood.”

“Head injuries always bleed a lot.” The doctor pried my fingers off his arm and shot me a suspicious look.

Shit, my acting abilities were definitely on the fritz. I gave him a wobbly smile. “I’m sorry to be such a baby but blood makes me want to hurl and

there was so much of it. It drenched her hair and her face. The way that bone poked through her coverall.” I gagged and made nasty retching sounds.

He picked up a hypodermic needle. “Maybe I should sedate you.”

What!? “I thought you couldn’t sedate people with head injuries?”

“I’ll make an exception in your case.”

Amusement gleamed in his eyes as he picked up a vial, inserted a hypodermic needle and slowly drew down the fluid.

“Had a bit of a talk with Derek, huh?”

“Yeah, I did.”

I held up my hands. “I’ll be good.”

“Sloan said you were a smart girl.” He exchanged the needle for a silver tube and leaned over me. “This might sting a bit.”

Liquid fire spread across my forehead. Holy Mother of God! Sting a bit? “You’re a sadist, aren’t you?”

“It comes with the territory.” He covered my burning forehead with a large bandage. “All done.

Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“Just color me happy. Do I get a lollipop?”

The doctor laughed. “Sorry, all out.” He picked up a suture tray. “Let’s take a look at that arm.”

“My arm’s fine,” I protested, cringing back on the bed. “Hank already fixed it.”

The sadistic doctor glanced at my chart.

“Nope. It says right here you need stitches and a head x-ray.”

Who knew Hank was such a narc? “You brought an x-ray machine with you?”

“We’re a mobile trauma team and we’re set up to handle all sorts of disaster scenes.”

Rats! There went my chance of sneaking out of a busy emergency room.

The beast picked up the hypodermic needle and tapped it.

“I thought you weren’t going to sedate me?”

“This will deaden your arm so I can sew you up without a lot of screaming.”

“You should do stand-up comedy.”

He inserted the needle. “I have a weekly show at the Laugh Factory.”

Was he pulling my leg?

With an amazing dexterity, the sadistic Doctor Giggles quickly put five stitches in my left arm.

A pretty nurse stuck her head around the curtain. “Doctor McKenzie wants you to take a look at some x-ray films, sir.”

“I’ll be right there.” Flashing me a dazzling smile, the scummy creep quickly handcuffed me to the gurney.

I held my right arm up. “What’s this for?” Like I didn’t know.

“Commander Sloan wants to make sure you don’t wander off.”

“How far does he think I’ll get with a concussion?”

“He said you were a slippery little thing and I shouldn’t take any chances.” The doctor patted my shoulder. “I’ll be right back.”

And I would be long gone. I pulled a lock pick out of the nifty belt buckle Uncle Aldo had given me and quickly unlocked the cuffs. Easing the IV

needle out, I swung my legs over the bed and stood.

“Whoa!” I waited until everything stopped spinning and the funny black dots went away before peering around the curtain.

Doctor Giggles and another man in combat khaki were busily examining x-ray films of what had to be Sam’s arm. Yeow! That was a pretty nasty break. I snuck past them and peeked out of the tent.

Yippee! The coast was clear and thankfully my car hadn’t been towed. I staggered over to it and let out a growl of rage. That bastard had flattened all four of my tires. Like that would stop me. I eyed his Hummer and smiled. I’d never driven one before.

Retrieving my hide-a-key, I popped the trunk, got my emergency bag and tool kit. Uncle Aldo had made me a special electronic car key that would override any security system. With one push of a button, I was in Derek’s Hummer. I inserted the key and it started right up. Boy was he gonna be pissed.

Especially when he found the note I left him.

A black Maricopa County Sheriff’s helicopter landed on the far side of the parking lot. With a grin, I cranked up the AC and drove off.

“You ungrateful child,” Granny Annabel chided, “your man risked his life for you and this is how you repay him?”

“Risked his life? When and where did this wonderful event happen? Cuz I think I missed it.”

“That Apache warrior would have killed you if he had not intervened.”

“Possibly, but at no time was Derek in any danger.”

Granny snapped, “He risked his life to pull you from the burning helicopter.”

“Wow and how did he manage to do that without getting his shirt singed or his hair mussed?”

Okay, I was being a cranky butt, but geez, she was like a broken record.

The temperature dropped fifty degrees. Great, I had pissed her off. I shot a cautious look at the passenger seat. Granny was back in her gypsy garb.

I always wondered where she got all those bracelets. Ghosts R Us?

“I insist you go back and apologize.”

“Apologize for what?”

“For stealing Derek’s cookies, shocking him with your stun gun and getting him attacked by a swarm of angry bees.”

I rubbed my throbbing head. “The jerk deserved it. Did you forget he had Uncle Aldo, your son, arrested?”

The temperature in the Hummer dropped another twenty degrees. “You owe him.”

“For putting a tracker on me like I was some migratory elk?”

“He saved your life.”

“And I saved his butt when I took down the Thunder God. So, we’re even.”

“You have not completed your training. Until you are powerful enough to defeat Sophie, you need a strong man…”

I turned up the radio to drown out her lecture.

The radio crackled and died abruptly. “For God’s sake, give it a rest. Aunt Sophie’s my problem and I will deal with her.” Sometime in the next fifty years.

Granny suddenly cried, “Derek’s very angry, bella.”

Rolling my eyes, I pulled onto the freeway and kicked it up to eighty. “So?”

An image abruptly formed in my mind.

Frustrated rage simmering in his eyes, Derek stormed out of the emergency medical tent. He spat a foul curse when he realized his Hummer was gone.

A grinning Ed followed him into the parking lot.

“Aw, she left you a note.”

Sloan’s furious gaze settled on the piece of purple paper flapping under the windshield wiper

blade of my Sonata. He snagged the note, read it and wadded it up.

“What did it say, boss?”

“Outclassed, my ass.”

Ed laughed. “She’s a feisty little thing and the only woman who hasn’t fallen all over herself trying to please you.”

Derek smiled. A menacing, you’re-so-going-to-die kinda smile. “That ‘feisty little thing’ is about to learn who’s boss.”

The bellow of an air horn snapped me back to the here and now. Shit! I swerved back in my lane, barely missing a tanker truck.

The truck driver flipped me the bird.

I waved at him and yelled, “Sorry.”

“You will be,” Derek’s cold voice announced from the speakers.

I just loved cars equipped with On Star. It made life so interesting. “Your Hummer pulls to the left.”

“Turn my Hummer around and get your ass back to the command center.”

“And if I don’t?”

“I’ll have you arrested for grand theft auto.”

“I’ll just bet you have the County Attorney in your pocket and you’ll get me released into your custody.”