Dani glanced up at him. “Are you going to be okay?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He gripped Stone’s hand in his and grunted when Stone squeezed hard.

“Then I need you to shine the flashlight on the leg wound. It’s worse than the wound in his chest. That bullet hit closer to his side and it’s a through-and-through. He’s lost more blood from his leg, and he’s still bleeding.” She glanced up again. “Keep holding his hand, because this is going to hurt like a bitch.”

“Thanks, Doc,” Stone gasped. “Such optimism.”

“Would you rather be surprised when it hurts like a bitch?” she asked, not sparing him a glance as she searched the stuff she’d emptied from her purse onto the ground. Coming up with a foil packet, she tore it open and Diesel caught a whiff of alcohol. Leaning over Stone, she found the knife Diesel had brought out and cut Stone’s pants up the inside of his leg, slicing at the fabric at his upper thigh.

“Guess not,” Stone gasped. “What else you got in that bag, Doc Poppins?”

Dani snorted. “Only my emergency stash of M&M’s, but there’s no way I’m giving them to you, Detective Stone.”

Stone’s laugh turned into a moan as she swabbed the area around the wound with the alcohol wipe. “Mean. You’re so mean.”

Diesel looked between them, missing the joke. “Why did you call him that?”

“Private joke,” Stone said, then moaned again when Dani pressed a clean towel against the wound. He was squeezing Diesel’s hand so hard that Diesel swore he felt his bones pop.

“I need your belt, Diesel,” Dani said.

Without a word, he set down the light, pulled off his belt, and handed it to her. He repositioned the light and took Stone’s hand again.

“Stone, Scarlett said you called 911. When was that?” Dani slid the belt around Stone’s thigh above the wound and tugged it, then tested to be sure the towel soaking up the blood was still in place.

God. Stone was still bleeding. And he wasn’t squeezing Diesel’s hand as hard. He’s getting tired. That couldn’t be good.

“Few minutes before you came out,” Stone ground out as Dani balled up the blanket, using it to elevate his legs. “Shitty signal out here, Diesel. You need to live closer to town.”

“Sorry,” Diesel said because he didn’t know what else to say. “Where’s your phone?”

Stone pointed vaguely to the ground. It took Diesel a moment to find the phone because it was black and turned on its back. It was a flip phone. Glancing at Stone’s foot, Diesel saw that his boot was gone. Somehow Stone had managed to kick his boot off and contort his body so that he could get his hands on the burner he always kept hidden there.