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Asha looked to Kimmy. “What happened to her?”

“Not your concern,” I growled. “Considering you’re the reason she’s in this state.”

“What?” Asha looked back and forth between me and Kimmy.

“Your friends at the Delta came back,” Kimmy said coldly, arms folded over her chest. “They heard your radio calls, and it turns out they were as interested in Claire as the Order is. They tracked her and kidnapped her while she and John were on their honeymoon. Because of you.”

Asha had the gall to look stunned. Dom’s expression was blank.

“She’s now suffering from broken ribs and a punctured lung,” Kimmy continued, “and I can’t operate out here. The infection’s already setting in. She could very well die over the next few days. Because of you.”

Kimmy was close to tears by the end, but they were tears of rage. I swallowed the lump in my throat at her words. I wouldn’t let myself think about what I would do if…

“We need to take her to Leo.”

Asha’s jaw was set now, her expression resolute, as she looked to Dom.

“Who the fuck is Leo?” I asked, exasperated. “Claire is going nowhere with you.”

“Leo’s a doctor,” Asha answered, and there was a frantic quality to her voice that I didn’t understand. “He’ll be able to help.”

“The captain won’t like it,” Dom said, impassive. “He’d want to vet them first.”

“Yeah, well, there’s a lot of things I’ve done that Cade doesn’t like,” Asha shot back, and her haughtiness sounded more like herself. “He’ll get over it.”

“We’re not going with you,” I said. “Haven’t you done enough, Asha?”

Asha’s temper flared. “Your attitude is going to get Claire killed. Just listen to me, for once—”

“Impotent, misdirected rage,” I cut in. “There’s the Asha we know and hate.”

“Fuck you,” Asha replied, then turned to speak directly to Kimmy. “Kim, please. Leo is a real doctor. He’s from the Delta, and he still has modern medicine from the compound in his kit. I know he can help Claire.”

Kimmy hesitated, and I hated that I did, too. If they had compound medicine, that was better than anything we could give Claire. We had homemade antibiotics at the clinic, and they worked fine for most things, but…Claire was in bad shape. And at the pace we had to travel, we may not even make it in time for them to be of any use.

Still, we had zero reason to trust Asha, and it could be a trap.

“How about this,” Asha said, breaking the silence. “I’ll get Leo. He’ll come out here and take a look at Claire. He’ll bring his medical kit, so you can see what he’s got. We can go from there.”

I frowned. It sounded too good to be true.

“Why would you help us now?” Kimmy asked, sounding strained. “You…you just…”

“Isn’t it the least I can do?” Asha replied, to my surprise, she looked sad. “After everything?”

I met Kimmy’s eye. Neither of us knew what to say to that.

“Fine,” I said at last. “But listen, if you—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Asha said impatiently. “If I try anything, you’ll kill me, etcetera. We’ll be back with Leo as soon as we can.”

Dom shot us a distrustful look as he and Asha left. I wanted to be a smartass and make myself feel better about the situation, but I was too damn tired. Not just in the sleep-deprived way, either. In the bone-deep way, the kind of tired that comes from stumbling through life even as it chews you up and spits you out.

Kimmy and I walked back to Claire. Shockingly, she’d drifted off again even with the commotion, and I was worried about what that meant. Since the rain had stopped, I moved the jackets off her and dropped to her side.

Her face was so pale, but her cheeks were flushed bright red, burning with fever. My heart sunk as I wiped sweat from her brow. Her breathing was shallow and uneven, and every inhale still brought that horrible crackling sound.

She’s dying. I knew it, as surely as I knew that I couldn’t save her. The pain that sliced through me at that thought felt lethal. And one look at Kimmy, sitting on Claire’s opposite side, confirmed it. Her dark brown eyes were filled with unshed tears.