“I got you,” a man said, appearing by her side. Together they moved the man to the yellow container.
Kenzie didn’t take her eyes from the smoke. The tall man still hadn’t appeared and the sirens were still a minute or so away. She grabbed a half-empty water bottle and wet her shirt again. She grabbed a handful of rags people had used to clean their faces and then ran straight into the smoke.
The heat was oppressive. The smoke burned her eyes, but Kenzie pushed forward. “Hello? I’m a nurse. I’m here to help!”
“Here!” she heard a man shout. Now, where was here? Kenzie turned all around and didn’t see anything.
“I can’t see you. Keep shouting!”
“Here! Here!” a man shouted.
Kenzie followed the voice blindly as she dropped her rags along the way so she could find her way out. Then she literally stumbled over the man, although it wasn’t a man. It was men. Two of them. The large man she’d seen before was lying face down with an injured man sprawled on top of him.
“Help us! He came back to rescue me and then passed out. I think my pelvis is broken. Machinery fell on me and he got it off of me,” a man said between coughing fits.
“Okay, I’ve got you.” The man wasn’t nearly as large as the rescuer. The man with the broken pelvis looked to be a hundred and fifty pounds. Kenzie rolled him off of the rescuer so he was on his back. “I’m sorry, this is going to hurt.” Then she grabbed him under the arms and dragged him backward out of the smoke. She followed the trail of the rags she left and as soon as the smoke began to thin, she set him down. “Help!” she called out as people raced forward to help her.
“Thank you!” he yelled after her before the coughing overtook him. The second they had the man she turned and went back into the smoke.
Kenzie dropped to her knees and crawled from rag to rag until she found the unconscious man. Goodness, he was huge. He had to be at least six foot three. His body was muscled, but his muscles didn’t respond when she grabbed his arms and shook.
“Can you hear me?” she yelled before she had to cough. Nothing. The man wasn’t moving.
She pressed her fingers to his neck. There was a pulse. Okay, this wasn’t going to be easy. Kenzie rolled the man over onto his back. His eyes were closed and the black soot on his face and the color of his hair seemed to match. She tried to lift his shoulder and drag him as she had the man she’d just rescued, but she wasn’t making much progress.
She needed to drag him by the ankles. Kenzie took off the wet shirt around her face and wrapped it around the man’s head. “Hang on. I’ve got you. You’re safe,” she told him as she tied off the shirt to protect his head. “You’re safe. I have you.”
Kenzie grabbed his ankles and pulled as if she were pulling a sled behind her. The man groaned as they moved and it was only one small step at a time, but they moved. Her legs throbbed. Her lungs burned and coughing fits racked her body, but Kenzie wasn’t going to stop until he was safe.
She was bent over as she hooked his large loafered feet through her arms. Kenzie battled for every inch that she dragged him. Every rag she passed was a victory. Through the smoke, the red flashing lights of the fire trucks could be seen. She was almost there. “We’re almost there. Hang on!”
The smoke began to thin and then she was out of it. She set down his legs, wanting to do nothing more than collapse herself but instead she dropped to her knees and began CPR as firemen ran toward her.
“You’re safe. Come on and breathe for me,” Kenzie said in her nurse’s voice that was both authoritative and gentle.
Then she bent back down, placed her mouth over his and breathed for him. “I need you to breathe. Do it now. Breathe!” Kenzie ordered and she did three chest compressions. The man coughed and sputtered and finally sucked in a deep breath. “Good job!” Kenzie praised him as he began to breathe even as his eyes stayed closed. “You’re safe now. Just keep taking those nice big deep breaths.” She propped him up on his side as he coughed and she gently rubbed his back. “You’re going to be okay. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”
“EMT.” A fire and rescue EMT dropped to the ground across from her.
“Hi, Charlie. Looks like smoke inhalation. He was pulling people out of the fire. Administered CPR for only twenty seconds and he came around.” Working in the ER had its benefits—like knowing every EMT in the area.
“Thank goodness you’re here, Kenzie. I see you set up triage and have everyone color-coded for us. Much appreciated,” Charlie said with a smile as he slipped some oxygen onto the man. “We have two helicopters on the way for the worst of the injuries, and ambulances from every hospital within a thirty-mile radius are on the way. We need to move him, though.”
Kenzie grabbed the man’s legs once again as Charlie grabbed under his shoulders. They were carrying him toward the ambulances as the firemen began dousing the flames.
Kenzie spent the next thirty minutes helping the worst of the inured as they waited for helicopters or ambulances. There were eighteen critical, twenty-four serious but stable, and then she lost count of the scrapes and minor burns. Sadly, she knew several never made it out of the fire.
Kenzie turned her attention to the less seriously injured as soon as the critical were on their way to the hospital. As she worked, she felt the man’s eyes on her. They were a cool green and stood out amid the soot-covered face and dark hair. It had been over an hour since she’d pulled him from the fire. His eyes had fluttered open about five minutes after they had him on oxygen. A minute after, she saw his eyes open, he’d stood up and begun to help the people who had minor injuries. He also talked to the fire chief and the police. He must be the night manager. Boy, she’d hate to be him when the boss showed up. Ryker Faulkner had a reputation of being utterly ruthless.
The sun had come up some time ago, but Kenzie worked on with the EMTs. She had been placed in charge of the makeshift triage by some unspoken vote. The EMTs deferred to her as she ran the section of concrete and steel jungle as if it were her ER.
“And then there was one,” Charlie said with a sigh as he ran his hand over his shaved head. “He’s refusing medical transport.”
Kenzie didn’t need to look to see who it was. She knew it was the man with the light green eyes who hadn’t stopped staring at her since she saved him. “Don’t worry. I’ll get him into the ambulance.”
Charlie chuckled as he followed behind with his gurney. Kenzie saw that the man was talking to the fire chief, but she didn’t feel bad for interrupting. “Excuse me. This man needs to go to the hospital.”
He was even taller than he looked when she’d dragged him unconscious from the fire. He stared down at her with such scrutiny she felt as if he were able to see inside her. That stare might intimidate others, but she was an ER nurse. It took a lot to intimidate her.
“Don’t give me that look. Get on the gurney, please, sir.” Kenzie placed her hands on her hips and looked from him to the gurney. Charlie shifted uncomfortably as the sneer the injured man gave the innocent gurney was one you’d give a vile creature.
“I have work to do here. I’ll have my doctor check me out.”