Eric’s control slipped as he spied the car on the bridge, careening from side to side before it tilted over the edge. The headlights from his vehicle illuminated the scene in front of him, and he could see the occupants inside the car fighting.
“I can’t tell if it’s her!” Logan called out, stopping on the bridge about twenty feet behind the car.
“It’s her,” he said, certainty moving through him as swiftly as fear. He leaped from the vehicle and ran forward, but he was too late. The passenger door opened, and a figure tumbled out into the black waters below.
Rank angled his vehicle so that his headlights were illuminating the water, closest to the bridge and bank. Logan rounded the driver’s side, his weapon aimed sure and true, and called out to the man inside, “Hands where I can see them!”
Eric watched Ji-Ho lift his hands and immediately raced to the guardrail. There was no time to waste, so without hesitation, he dove off the side of the bridge.
He ignored the jolt of cold when his body hit the water. It may have been several years since he was a SEAL, but the training was so ingrained, it was like the time had never passed. His only priority was getting to Lydia, knowing that she was much weaker and would not be able to survive the cold.
His head broke the surface, the water illuminated by the headlights of Rank’s SUV. He saw movement to his left and dove under, his strokes powerful despite the temperatures, quickly sending him in that direction.
His hands struck something soft, and he immediately grasped the material. With his free hand, he pushed up through the water, his head breaking the surface once more. Feeling Lydia limp in his arm, he easily lifted her head above the water as well.
“Lydia,” he cried out, squeezing her with his arm banded about her chest.
Her body shook violently as she sputtered, sucking in a gasp of air before she began to cough. He powered toward the bank, observing Rank striding into the water to aid him. Together, they hauled her easily to shore, where Bart met them and pulled her from their arms.
He scrambled up and dropped to his knees beside her, grateful to see Chris already wrapping her in blankets. The rain had thankfully ended, but the night air was chilly, and the wind was still blowing.
He bent and picked her blanketed body up and stalked over to the SUV, where the heater was runnning. Placing her in the backseat, he climbed up next to her, and Rank jumped in the driver seat, cranking the heat up to high.
Chris jumped into the passenger seat, and said, “Bart and Logan are with her kidnapper. We’ve identified him as Ji-Ho. You were right, boss…he’s not who he purported to be. I’ve called ahead to the hospital in Olympia, and they’re expecting us. It should only take us twenty minutes to get there. I figured you guys can drive faster than waiting on an ambulance.”
He barely heard Chris’s voice, his attention focused solely on Lydia. Reaching over the back seat, he unzipped one of the duffle bags and grabbed a towel and a thick, woolen knit cap. Turning back to her, he rubbed her head briskly, before pulling the cap over her hair.
Her lips were blue, and her eyes shut. “Fuck. Chris, help.”
Chris leaned between the front seats and helped hold her body, while he unwrapped her top half from the blanket and, with scissors grabbed from the medical kit, cut her scrubs away from her. Chris jerked the wet material, slinging it to the floorboard, while Eric shoved her arms into a thick, dry sweatshirt. Grabbing a dry blanket, he wrapped that around her top half.
“You going to try to get the bottom half as well?” Chris asked. “Our ETA should be fifteen minutes.”
“Yeah, I want to get as much wet clothing off her as I can.” Shifting in the seat, he laid her down and breathed a sigh of relief as her eyes fluttered open. Immediately, her teeth began to chatter. “Lydia, baby can you hear me? It’s Eric. I’ve got you and you’re safe.”
Her eyes jerked about wildly in the dark interior of the vehicle, and her arms began to flail. As an overhead light came on, she stilled and blinked rapidly.
Nodding his thanks toward Chris, who was holding a strong flashlight, he said, “Lydia. Look at me. Baby focus on me.”
“C…c…c…cold,” she stuttered, her body bucking violently with another shiver.
With Chris holding the light, Eric tugged off her shoes and socks and cut her scrub pants away as well. Her legs felt like ice as he pulled a pair of thick, cotton, sweatpants up them. Leaning over the back seat again, he found woolen socks. Keeping a running monologue going, hoping to maintain her focus, he said, “Okay, Lydia. You’ve got sweatpants on, and now we’ve got your feet covered in warm socks. Gonna get you all dry and warm, baby. You’re safe, now. You’re safe with me.”
He encircled her in another warm blanket and assisted her to sit as he pulled her onto his lap, wrapping his arms around her. Glancing outside, he saw that they were entering civilization, and knew the hospital would be prepared for them.
“Eh…Eh…Eric?”
Her voice was weak, but her eyes were strongly focused on his face. He brought his lips directly to hers, infusing her icy skin with his warm mouth. He kissed her lightly, knowing it was still hard for her to breathe. “I’m here, baby. Hang with me, and we’ll get you to the hospital.”
“But…” Her voice faded as she tried to speak. Barely whispering, she managed to ask, “How?”
“Don’t worry about that now, Lydia. I promise, you’re safe, and I’ll explain everything later.” He watched as her eyes closed once again, her body wracked with shivers. Looking toward the front, he said, “Chris. Come here.”
Chris scrambled his tall body between the two front seats, almost kicking Rank in the head. His eyes held questions, but instead of answering Eric motioned for him to get on the other side of Lydia. They sandwiched her body between theirs, each holding on to her cold, but now dry, body, infusing as much warmth into her as they possibly could.
Rank screeched to a halt a few minutes later in front of the ER, the inside of the SUV like an oven with the heat blasting. As the hospital personnel pulled Lydia from his arms and placed her on a stretcher, he could only pray that it had been enough.
Lydia had been conscious when she entered the hospital, but as her body warmed, she found herself drifting in and out of sleep. An older nurse named Pearl, with a sweet face and a kind manner, explained what they were doing each time she awoke.
Finally, the cold that seemed to fill her veins, freezing her from the inside out, was no longer present.
“How do you feel, Lydia?” Pearl asked.
“I’m not shivering anymore, so I figure that’s a good thing.”
Pearl laughed. “You’re right, that’s a good thing. The doctor will be in in a little bit to go over everything with you, but I can say we were able to treat the hypothermia with warm intravenous fluids, heated blankets, and the humidified oxygen that you are breathing in. Your body temperature is back to normal, and it appears that there’s no skin damage or internal organ damage.”
“Is it bad that I just want to stay underneath these heated blankets?” she joked, her voice still weak. “Right now, I feel like I could sleep like a hibernating bear.”
Pearl laughed again and, after checking the IV, patted her blanket-buried leg, and said, “I’m gonna let your man come back now. He’s been in and out checking on you with some of those other handsome men he’s with. It’s my understanding he’s the one that rescued you when you went underwater. Mmm mmm, you’re a lucky woman.”
Pearl winked and walked out before Lydia could think of anything to say.
The curtain-covered doorway swished back, and Eric walked through. He immediately walked to the side of her bed and bent to place a gentle kiss on her lips.
“Thank God,” he muttered, his lips still next to hers. “The last time I kissed you, your mouth was freezing, and your lips were blue.”
As he leaned back, she whispered, “Eric, I don’t understand any of this.” Wincing as she swallowed, her throat sore, she continued, “You. I don’t understand you.”
He leaned back over and placed his hand on top of the blankets. “I’m reaching for your hand, but I have no idea what I’m actually touching,” he grinned.
“I’m kind of mummified, aren’t I?” she laughed, then glanced down. “You’re near my hand. Here, let me wiggle my fingers if I can.”
He must have felt the movement, because he gave her hand a squeeze over all the blankets. The smile slowly left her face, as she stared back up into his. “I feel like I’ve awakened from a very long dream. Some of it more like a nightmare…parts of it very foggy…some of it really nice, at least, the part about you. The problem is, Eric, I don’t have a clue what’s real and what’s not right now.”
“I promise I’ll tell you everything, Lydia,” he said, one hand still holding hers over the blanket and his other hand cupping her cheek, his thumb rubbing over her now-warm skin. “Just know, everything that was between us is real.”
Her voice a whisper, she asked, “You’re not a journalist, are you?” Seeing the hesitation on his face, she begged, “Please, tell me.”
Shaking his head, he said, “No, baby, I’m not a journalist. I was on an assignment to see if I could find who was trying to breach the NBAF’s security. You were never part of that mission. You were a gift I could not believe I’d been given.”
She considered his words but found fatigue muddling everything in her head. Closing her eyes once more, she succumbed to sleep. Still, she heard him whisper, “Sleep for now, babe. I’ll be here when you wake up.”