Алисон Робертс – At His Service: Her Boss the Hero: One Night With Her Boss / Her Very Special Boss / The Surgeon's Marriage Proposal (страница 1)
At His Service:
Her Boss the Hero
One Night
With Her Boss
Alison
Roberts
Her Very
Special Boss
Anne
Fraser
The Surgeon’s
Marriage Proposal
Molly
Evans
About the Author
ALISON ROBERTS lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. She began her working career as a primary school teacher, but now juggles available working hours between writing and active duty as an ambulance officer. Throwing in a large dose of parenting, housework, gardening and pet-minding keeps life busy, and teenage daughter Becky is responsible for an increasing number of days spent on equestrian pursuits. Finding time for everything can be a challenge, but the rewards make the effort more than worthwhile.
CHAPTER ONE
‘I WON’T do it.’
‘Won’t do what? Hey, wait up, Tama!’
Tama James covered his head with a determined shove of his helmet. He scowled at his partner, Josh, as he swung himself into the rescue helicopter waiting for them on the tarmac, its rotors already turning.
‘I just won’t do it and that’s
‘Nice attitude, mate.’ The chopper pilot, Steve, grinned at Tama. ‘I’ll just radio ahead and let the cops know so they can tell that poor blighter in the car that’s rolled off the hill, shall I?’
‘I’m not talking about the job.’ Tama snapped his safety belt on.
Josh clicked his microphone into place. ‘He’s talking about whatever just went down in the station manager’s office. You should’ve seen his face when he came out of that meeting.’
Steve requested clearance, got the helicopter airborne and quickly turned onto a flight path that would lead them to the accident site—their fifth and hopefully last callout for the day.
‘What aren’t you going to do, then?’ he asked a couple of minutes later.
Tama made a growling sound that was magnified by the communication channel built into their helmets.
‘Babysitting,’ he said disgustedly.
‘I don’t get it.’ Josh sounded puzzled. ‘Weren’t you having a meeting with the boss and Trev Elliot?’
‘Sir Trevor?’ Steve whistled. ‘Doesn’t he
‘Yes on both counts,’ Tama responded gloomily.
‘So what’s that got to do with babysitting?’
‘Sir Trevor has a
‘And?’
‘And we’re not that far from Broken Hills.’ Tama clicked the mouse on his laptop. ‘I’ll check the GPS co-ordinates for the incident.’
‘Not required,’ Steve told him. ‘I can see beacons.’ He banked the helicopter into another turn. ‘Police, fire service and ambulance are already on site, they just can’t bring the victim up from the vehicle.’
They circled over the scene. A car had left the road and lay, upside down, several hundred metres from any kind of level surface. It was good for the helicopter crew that there were no trees on the hillside but the car must have been travelling at a good speed by the time it had hit the rocky outcrop, which wasn’t so good for the occupant. Emergency service personnel had scrambled down the hillside but it was obvious that conditions were tricky.
Tama pushed thought of Sir Trevor’s daughter from his head.
‘Definitely a winch job,’ he announced. ‘No way anyone could carry a stretcher up that hill.’
‘And we’re well over thirty minutes’ drive from the nearest hospital.’ Josh was also peering downwards as they hovered. ‘Nappy or stretcher for the winch?’
‘Let’s find out.’ Tama changed radio channels to put him in touch with the ground ambulance crew. ‘Update on status and injuries?’ he requested.
‘Open fracture of the femur. Chest and abdo injuries.’
‘Status?’
‘Two. His breathing’s painful, though. A few broken ribs at least. BP’s down. Moderate blood loss—he wasn’t found for a while. We’ve got fluids up, pain relief on board and a traction splint in place.’
‘Excellent. We’ll be with you asap.’ He didn’t need to confer with Josh to decide that a stretcher was necessary. It might be a lot quicker and easier to pick someone up with a nappy harness but this victim’s injuries were too severe to make that an option.
Steve had widened his circle as Tama was talking. ‘We can put down here and empty the back,’ he said. ‘The less weight the better with the way this wind’s picking up.’
Emergency-vehicle beacons twinkled from a distance as the light faded and Steve put the helicopter down on a nearby hill. Tama and Josh worked swiftly to remove the fitted stretcher, seats and any equipment not needed for the initial stages of this rescue mission. The more weight on board, the higher the risk of being caught in a downdraft. Dropping a hundred feet or more when you had a patient on a stretcher and a crew member dangling from the aircraft would be a disaster.
The task completed, Tama checked his gear and winch harness and climbed into his new position in the back of the chopper, ready for Josh to winch him down to the accident scene. Thanks to treatment already given by paramedics, there was no need to ready the trauma pack for deployment.
‘Ninety seconds,’ Steve commended as they lifted off again. ‘Not bad!’
Tama’s quick glance and raised eyebrow at Josh was a shorthand ‘thumbs-up’ signal. They were a slick team all right, and a lot of that efficiency came from a combination of experience and physical strength.
Neither of which Trevor Elliot’s daughter would possess.
The mental tug back to that extraordinary interview was not only annoying, it refused to get entirely banished and niggled away in the back of Tama’s mind.
‘Turning downwind,’ Steve announced.
‘Roger. Secure aft.’ Josh had checked the winch was operational. He was ready for the job. More than ready. Tama could almost see an aura of adrenaline around his colleague.
‘I have the target.’ He glanced at Tama and, satisfied his crewmate was as ready as he was, he turned to the winch control panel. ‘Checking winch power.’
On this final run, there shouldn’t have been any time at all to think outside the protocol. He’d done this a hundred times or more. Stepping into an arctic blast of air. Bracing himself. Leaning out—knowing how much space there was between his back and the ground below.
‘Clear skids,’ Josh confirmed. ‘Clear to boom out.’
‘Clear.’
Tama relaxed into his harness as the weight was taken and he got lowered to just below the skids.
The lightweight stretcher between his legs obscured his vision of what lay below. For now, he was totally dependent on Josh and Steve for his position and safety.
His own adrenaline levels kicked up several notches. He turned inwards to summon the calm strength that never failed him. This was no job for anyone who couldn’t face the fear and do it anyway.
He wouldn’t go as far as to say it was no job for a woman but she’d have to be an exceptional specimen.
Trevor Elliot’s daughter?
A princess whose bra size probably exceeded her IQ? Not a snowball’s chance in hell.
Dusk was a favourite time for fitness enthusiasts to hit the circuit built into the outskirts of Hagley Park in Christchurch.
Swinging from the rungs of a horizontal ladder—her feet well off the ground—was a slim woman with a determined expression on her face and curly blonde hair that was tied back in a ponytail damp with perspiration.
‘Give it a break, Mikki.’ A man stood to one side of the structure, bent forward, with his hands on his thighs as he tried to catch his breath. ‘This is embarrassing.’
Mikki hung on the last rung for a moment. She grinned down at her running companion and then refocussed, sucking in a breath and then expelling it as she pulled her body upwards. Once … twice … The burn in muscles in her arms and shoulders increased to real pain. Once more for luck and then she dropped to the ground, bending her knees to cushion the impact.
‘Ready, slug?’
The man groaned but caught up with Mikki’s steady jog as she continued along the track, past runners going in the opposite direction, cyclists heading home from work and the slower obstacles of people walking their dogs.
‘There’s no stopping you, is there?’
Mikki had taken another detour a few minutes later, to use fat stumps of wood as stepping blocks.
‘Not today, that’s for sure. I’m so excited!’
‘Yeah … I noticed.’
‘We can do our stretches now.’
‘Hallelujah!’
They shared the massive trunk of an ancient oak tree for support. Mikki bent one leg up behind her and held it to stretch her quads.