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When she straightens up, her eyes are closed and her breathing still labored, but a moment later, when Rick stumbles out of the woods with that man over his shoulder, she forces her eyes open and plasters a smile on her face.

“Come on, let’s keep going,” he urges, gasping for air. “I gotta keep moving.”

“You go ahead. We’ll be right behind you,” I tell him, wrapping an arm around his mother’s waist.

He pauses for a brief moment, his eyes stern on me, before nodding. “Shouldn’t be far now.”

Then he starts moving ahead, the unconscious man’s head lolling against Rick’s back. His shirt is drenched with sweat and blood.

Theresa and I follow behind at a much slower pace.

“Let me know if you need to stop,” I offer, even though I’d much rather keep going.

We may be out of the trees, but we’re not safe from the fire yet. When I glance to my left, the smoke is thick over the trees and the red glow of the flames doesn’t look that far away.

Theresa is looking as well and answers me with a sharp shake of her head. She sees it too.

Ahead, Rick seems to have picked up a gear and we soon lose sight of him in the overgrown weeds. Theresa has a hard time keeping her footing on the uneven ground, and I end up bearing most of her weight as we make our way down.

Luckily, it’s not long before we hear voices up ahead and moments later Rick is hurrying back our way, no longer carrying the guy.

“Not much farther,” he says, as he bends down and scoops up his mother in his arms.

Two sheriff’s cruisers and an ambulance are parked on a narrow trail when we walk out of the field. A couple of EMTs are already strapping the injured man to a stretcher under the supervision of Rick’s partner, Tessa Androtti.

“Hey,” Rick calls out to get their attention. “I need one of you guys to have a look at my mother.”

It’s then I notice Theresa’s gone completely limp in her son’s arms.

Chapter 27

Rick

* * *

“I would suspect a combination of exertion and lack of oxygen put a strain on your mother’s heart, causing a myocardial infarction, or heart attack.”

I caught Dr. Sharma just as I was coming in from calling my sisters. I’d hoped to be able to avoid that, but Dana urged me not to waste any time. Any argument I might’ve had fell flat at the look she gave me. She stayed with Ma, while I slipped outside to make the calls.

Of course my sisters had a million and one questions and I didn’t really have much news to share, limiting myself to just telling them she’d overdone things today and passed out. If I’d gone into the whole running from a wildfire, being held up at gunpoint, and bashing in a man’s skull with a steel pipe, I’d be on the phone forever, and I wanted to get back inside.

So instead, I promised I’d send them a group text with updates the moment I had any.

“A heart attack? She’s never had any heart issues before that I know of.”

Or that she told me about; I wouldn’t put it past her to keep information like that to herself.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t always come with warning signals. What it means though, is we have to move fast. I already have the interventional cardiologist on his way in, and we’re getting your mother ready for an urgent angioplasty to restore full blood flow to her heart.”

“Okay, so when is that happening?”

“We have a relatively short window, so as soon as he gets here. Thanks to legacy donations, we’re lucky to have a fully equipped and functional cardiac catheterization lab for such a small hospital, otherwise we’d have to medevac her to Spokane, and that would’ve cost us precious time.”

“Can I see her?”

He claps me on the shoulder and looks me up and down. “Probably better to wait until after. Gives you a chance to clean up. Hopefully, we’ll have her out of the woods soon.”

With that he walks off, and I look down at myself. I’m covered in blood, dirt, soot, and I reek of smoke.