Gabriel's Pretty [Rescue for Hire 6](Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Bellann Summer

  Putting his fingers on the side of the kid’s bloody neck, he sighed in relief when he felt a strong pulse. As he pulled his hand away, the kid’s pale blue eyes popped open.

  A second later Gabriel had a confused injured victim that didn’t really know where he was or what he was doing. It was all he could do to stop Eric’s violently thrashing arms and legs from opening up his injuries even more.

  “Eric, stop,” Gabriel ordered. Now Eric started making deep, hollow groaning sounds that seemed to come from the depths of his chest.

  Gabriel got right up into Eric’s poor bug-eaten face, situating his own face so Eric could see nothing but Gabriel. “Eric, my name is Gabriel Simmons. Let’s get you patched up enough to get you out of here.” Gabriel continued, “Your mom’s waiting for you.”

  Eric stopped flaying about and for the first time seemed to really see Gabriel. “My mom?”

  “Yeah, your mom is worried about you.” Gabriel kept his face where Eric could see him, but quickly took out a package of special bandages, that miraculously slowed down blood loss from terrific injuries. “She asked us to try and see if we could find you.”

  “She’s always worried,” Eric said. Gabriel kept an eye on Eric’s pupils and breathing for signs of shock as he took out a small scissors and cut the shredded material of Eric’s blood-soaked shirt away from his mangled shoulder. Gabriel could clearly see from the bloody claw marks covering the kid that this had been a vicious bear attack.

  “I think that the rules of being a mother are that you have to worry about your kids.” Gabriel gently pressed the bandages against the gaping wound, taking note that at the very least Eric’s collar-bone was clearly broken.

  Quietly he spoke into the mike, “Open wound, left shoulder. Possible compound fracture of collar-bone. Possible fracture of left shoulder.”

  “She’s going to be so mad at me.” Eric’s breathing was speeding up and Gabriel knew that the pain he was inflicting by helping the boy could very well throw him into shock. With efficient movements he cut the rest of Eric’s shirt off, revealing severe bruises to his entire left side. Gabriel softly ran his fingers over the skin.

  “Possible fractured ribs on left side of torso,” he said into the mike.

  “Nah,” Gabriel said. “She’s going to be so happy to get you home so she can cook your favorite foods. It’s a mother thing.” Gabriel carefully lifted Eric’s head and shoulders, searching for the cause of all the blood that had created a halo of red on the grass surrounding his head. Discovering weeping rivets of bloody claw marks running from the back of Eric’s head down his neck, Gabriel started pressing the self-sticking bandages against the wounds. Quickly he unstrapped the emergency neck collar from around his own thigh and placed it around Eric’s neck, knowing that it would help to keep pressure on the wounds.

  “Four open claw wounds on the back of patient’s head and down neck,” he said into the mike.

  “When I’m sick she makes chocolate-chip cookies.” Eric’s voice was getting weaker.

  Gabriel tried to put Eric’s head down gently, but the poor kid still cried out. Then the kid became real quiet and Gabriel moved into efficient high pace field medic mode.

  Gabriel spoke loudly trying to keep Eric’s attention. “I love chocolate-chip cookies, Eric. Do you think she would make me some?”

  Quickly he cut the camouflage pants away from Eric’s thigh frowning at the mess he had just revealed. Pulling out another package of special bandages he ripped them open and pressed the whole package of four thick bandages onto the top of Eric’s leg. Reaching deep into his pocket he found the roll of elastic wrap and ripped that open. Swiftly, he wrapped Eric’s whole upper leg tightly.

  “I’ll ask her, for you,” Eric finally answered, his words slurred.

  Gabriel didn’t bother talking quietly this time. “Compound fracture to left femur, open wound to left thigh muscle. I need the rescue basket, stat.”

  “Stay with me, Eric,” Gabriel ordered.

  “Getting tired.”

  “I know, buddy. But I need you to talk to me a little longer.”

  The helicopter was back above them, the rotor blades whipping dust and debris around. Gabriel automatically shielded Eric’s body with his.

  In his ear Gabriel heard, “Rescue basket descending.” The body-size rescue basket landed on the ground a few feet away from them. Gabriel was amazed by Pete’s precision.

  Gabriel unhooked the rescue basket and pulled it closer. “Okay, buddy. I’m going to have to lift you into the cage here. I won’t lie to you, it’s going to hurt.”

  Gabriel didn’t hesitate or give Eric any time to think about it. He easily lifted the teen and laid him into the rescue basket. Gabriel’s heart plunged into his stomach when Eric didn’t scream out in pain. After covering him with a protective blanket and securing the three safety belts into place, Gabriel was relieved to see the rivets of tears sliding down the sides of Eric’s face. Crying meant he was still awake and coherent. He was still alive.

  “Eric, you’re going for a little ride. My friend Cade will be waiting for you. He’s a good guy. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”

  A weak trembling voice responded, “Okay.”

  Grabbing the cable, Gabriel attached the rescue basket. “Basket secure. Ready for ascension,” he announced into the mike.

  “Affirmative,” was the response. “Basket ascending.”

  Stepping back, Gabriel watched the rescue basket rise with very little swaying, to the open door of the helicopter. Cade’s quick movements had the basket safely inside and the cable descending back to pick Gabriel up. All the while in his ear Pete’s sexy voice was confirming all of the events and arranging their arrival at a local hospital.

  Minutes later Gabriel was also inside the helicopter and unhooking the cable from his harness. Immediately he moved to Eric’s side and frowned. Something wasn’t right. He scanned the kid’s neck and torso, finding nothing out of the ordinary for the situation. Then his eyes landed on Eric’s leg and Gabriel sprang into action, pressing both hands down onto the bandage. “We have a bleeder, get us to the hospital, now!” he shouted. Eric’s eyes rolled back into his head.

  Chapter Three

  Pete pulled the shiny dark gray F-two-fifty Ford truck into the hospital parking lot, not quite sure how he ended up almost one hundred miles from home.

  After settling the helicopter onto the concrete surface, within the parameters of the painted helipad of the parking lot at the small hospital, a flurry of doctors and Gabriel whisked Eric into the hospital.

  Cade had then ordered him to head back to the Rescue for Hire headquarters. A worried-looking Bret had met the helicopter and Pete watched as Cade, along with his ever-present cane, was lovingly ushered into the house.

  By the time he had the helicopter back to the hangar and put away, his cellphone was ringing.

  “Hi, Pete. This is Cade Miller again.”

  “Hi. Is everything okay?” he asked.

  “I received word that Eric is going to be fine. But, we have the small problem that Gabriel is still at the hospital and I need someone to go and pick him up. Unfortunately my leg is not up to the trip.” In the background, Pete heard, “You bet your leg isn’t up to the trip. You’re on bed rest until the swelling goes down, bear.”

  Pete held back a chuckle as Cade sighed into the phone. He hadn’t been around the couple much over the last few years, but so far he’d found their dynamics fun to watch. Bret pushed as much as he could until Cade reacted. And from what Pete had seen, when Cade reacted, it was only in a mutually beneficial way for both of them, usually involving sexy kisses. Pete wished that he could have that one day. Too bad with his trust issues it would never happen.

  “I was wondering if you would consider taking my truck and going to pick him up?” Cade asked.

  Pete blinked and pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. He knew he couldn’t turn Cade down. Yet, the thought of being alone with the tall muscular
handsome Gabriel made tingles of fear dance along his spine. At least he thought it was fear.

  “Um, all right, I can do that,” he answered.

  “Great. Just come into the house and Bret will give you the keys.”

  “Sounds good,” Pete said. No, it didn’t sound good. This was a terrible idea. He wanted to be in the hangar working on planes, not picking up a man that was so far out of his league that they might as well be on different planets.

  So now he was maneuvering Cade’s truck so that it was exactly parallel to the lines of the parking space. Pete shut off the engine, got out of the vehicle and quietly shut the door before wiping any fingerprints off the door handle. Was he putting off going into the hospital? Maybe.

  Walking around to the passenger side Pete reached in and grabbed the small duffle bag that Bret had given him, with Gabriel’s clothes in it. Did he notice that when he lifted it out of the truck that it smelled like a mixture of nice cologne and musky man? Maybe. Absently he made sure the passenger side door handle was clean.

  Not able to put off the inevitable any longer, Pete headed to the sign that read “Emergency.” The automatic sliding glass doors opened for him and he took a deep breath before entering the building. Pete went up to the receptionist counter and stood there, waiting for the gum-chewing woman to finish her phone call.

  “No, Thursday at two won’t work. How about Friday morning?” There was a pause as she listened to whoever she was talking to. “It’s just a six-month cleaning. The kid is only eight. It shouldn’t take very long.” The lady sighed and started fiercely chewing on her gum while doodling on a piece of paper in front of her. Pete was sure glad he wasn’t having a heart attack and would have to interrupt the woman’s important phone call. Where did they get these people?

  Finally she put down the phone and looked at him with one penciled-in eyebrow raised. “Can I help you?” she asked around her gum.

  “Earlier this afternoon I flew a patient here. I believe his first name was Eric. I’m looking for the rescuer who accompanied him.” Pete watched as the lady’s bored face lit up like a Christmas tree.

  “Oh, Gabriel went up to the surgery waiting room with the family. I believe the patient just left the recovery room, so you need to go up to the third floor, room three-nineteen.” The woman with a wedding ring on her finger smiled. “Gabriel is such a nice man.”

  Pete kept his opinions to himself. “Thank you,” he said. Heading to the elevator, he just shook his head at Gabriel’s obvious magnetism.

  * * * *

  Gabriel left Eric’s room relieved and smiling. The doctors had managed to repair the kid’s shoulder and leg. Eric would face a lot of rehabilitation, but eventually he would be back to normal with the addition of a few screws, wires and warrior scars.

  The day got even better for Gabriel when the elevator doors opened and the pretty Pete stepped out into the hall. With the flight suit nowhere in sight, Gabriel could see Pete was truly long and lean, just the way he liked his men.

  The green T-shirt with a bunch of fish on the front of it and the words “fishy, fishy, fishy,” across the top, was just snug enough to emphasize Pete’s slender shoulders and small waist. Crisp, dark blue jeans gave Gabriel a great view of long thin legs and tight hips. Gabriel was glad his flight suit hid the reaction his dick was having at the sight before him.

  Pete walked up and stopped just a few feet away. His lower pouty lip was pulled from between straight white teeth, as he looked up at Gabriel. When their eyes met, Gabriel felt the hair on his arms rise.

  “Cade asked me to pick you up,” Pete said, breaking their eye contact. “How is Eric?”

  Gabriel watched Pete’s clear blue eyes dart around the hall and then come back to him. “Eric’s doing great,” he answered. “The doctors managed to repair his leg and shoulder. They also stitched up all the rest of his injuries. Barring any infection, he should do well.”

  “Good, he’s so young. I was hoping he would be okay.” Pete smiled, and Gabriel swore the hallway lit up.

  “A lot of the credit has to go to you. That was some impressive piloting you did up there,” Gabriel said.

  Pete’s smile disappeared and his blue eyes searched Gabriel’s face. “You mean that, don’t you?”

  Gabriel frowned. “Of course I meant it. I wouldn’t have said it if I hadn’t.”

  Pete looked at the floor, and then shyly glanced at Gabriel, before he held out a small green and gold duffel bag. “Bret packed you some clothes to change into if you want.”

  Gabriel reached out to take the duffel bag, making sure his hand covered Pete’s on the handle. Pete froze, looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a car.

  “Thank you, I’d like that,” he said. “Would you like to stop and have some dinner together on the way home?”

  Gabriel watched in fascination as two round red blush spots appeared on Pete’s cheeks. If anything Pete was even more attractive with the contrasting colors of tan skin, red cheeks, clear blue eyes and white blond hair. Something clicked inside and Gabriel had a feeling his wild days of bed-hopping were over. “Come on, pretty Pete, have dinner with me,” he urged.

  Pete was still searching his face, like he was looking for the answers of life. Gabriel was starting to wonder who had hurt this guy standing before him so badly, that a simple dinner invitation would be such a monumental decision.

  “Okay, I guess we could stop somewhere,” Pete finally said.

  Gabriel frowned, thinking Pete could have sounded a little more enthusiastic. Shaking his head, he decided that he was going to ignore the attitude and try to really get to know the man. Taking the bag he followed the signs to the bathroom down the hall and went in to change his clothes.

  Forty-five minutes later Gabriel was pleasantly comfortable, sitting on the thick cushioned seat in the booth of a diner that was part of a highway travel plaza. If Pete needed gas or junk food, lottery tickets or toiletries, the place had it.

  A young waitress had already taken their orders and now Gabriel watched the nervous pretty man across the tan laminate table, use his fingertip to arrange his silverware so that the bottoms of the handles were precisely even in a straight line.

  “Have you ever been here before?” Gabriel asked. He thought starting with an easy question would calm some of Pete’s nerves.

  “Once in a while,” Pete answered.

  The man now put his plastic glass of ice water exactly three inches above the tip of his butter knife.

  “Have you been flying long?” Gabriel was starting to feel like he was pulling teeth now.

  “Damian started giving me lessons when I was eighteen.”

  Gabriel watched the tan skin of Pete’s Adam’s apple move when he took a drink of the ice water. Gabriel had to wonder how far that deep tan skin went. Did Pete sunbathe in the nude? Gabriel found himself wanting to touch, feel and taste every inch of Pete Kenyan.

  “Can I ask how old you are now?” Gabriel had to take a drink of his own ice water to combat the sudden dryness in his throat that all of his sexy thoughts had created.

  Pete grabbed a white paper napkin out of the silver dispenser and wiped up the condensation ring on the table before setting his water glass on top of the napkin.

  Beautiful blue eyes looked at Gabriel. “I’m twenty-four.”

  Gabriel let out a small sigh of relief. Pete looked much younger and had an air of vulnerability about him. Gabriel had been worried his own twenty-nine years would be too much of a gap. Gabriel had to suppress a snort. Who was he kidding? Even if he was an old man and there was a twenty year age difference between them, Gabriel would have still went after the pretty little bird.

  “So Damian taught you to fly and now you work for him,” Gabriel said. “That worked out for both of you.”

  “Damian bought his place during the last year of his tour in the air force. He hired me to keep an eye on things. I moved above the hangar when I was nineteen.”

  The blue in Pete�
�s eyes grew warm when he talked about Damian. Gabriel wondered how much competition he was going to have in claiming the pretty Pete.

  “Are you and Damian an item?” he asked. He might as well find out now and start planning on how he was going to deal with it.

  Stark fear covered Pete’s face and the man looked ready to either jump up and run, or hide under the table. “Oh shit, no. Damian is with Treb.” Pete looked around frantically like he was searching for the boogeyman or something. “I have to warn you right now. If you think you want to make a play for Damian, be prepared for Treb to cut your balls off, literally.”

  “I wasn’t thinking of making a play for Damian. Hell, I haven’t even met the man yet.” Looking straight into Pete’s clear blue eyes Gabriel found himself getting lost again. Deciding that it was better to just state his intentions, he said. “You’re the one I’m interested in.”

  Pete stopped moving and Gabriel wondered for a minute if the man was even breathing. Their eyes locked and it took a minute, but the fear in Pete’s was replaced by disbelief. Gabriel continued to hold those beautiful blue’s and watched the disbelief turn to confusion, and finally understanding. Gabriel hoped that Pete finally got it that Gabriel was staking his claim.

  A plate of steaming roast beef and potatoes was set in front of Gabriel, breaking the moment. An equally hot plate of roasted chicken was placed before Pete. After thanking the waitress, Pete picked up his fork and to Gabriel’s amusement started to separate the portions of food so that nothing touched together. Gabriel was starting to get the feeling that Pete had a little obsessive-compulsive disorder going on.