by Jo Grafford
He hoped like heck she hadn’t hit her head too hard on impact. Visions of various traumatic brain injuries and their various complications swarmed through his mind, along with the possibility he’d just moved a woman with a broken neck. Please don’t be broken.
Since the road was barricaded, he carried the woman to the far right shoulder and up a grassy knoll where Officer McCarty was depositing the other injured victims. A dry wind gusted, sending a layer of fine-grain dust in their direction, along with one prickly, rolling tumbleweed. About twenty yards away was a rocky canyon wall that went straight up, underscoring the fact that there really hadn’t been any way for the hapless van and pickup drivers to avoid the collision. They’d literally been trapped between the canyon and oncoming traffic.
An explosion ricocheted through the air. Matt’s back was turned to the mangled pile of vehicles, but the blast shook the ground beneath him. On pure instinct, he dove for the grass, using his body as a shield over the woman in his arms. He used one hand to cradle her head against his chest and his other to break their fall as best as he could.
A few people cried out in fear, as smoke billowed around them, blanketing the scene. For the next few minutes, it was difficult to see much, and the wave of ensuing heat had a suffocating feel to it. The woman beneath Matt remained motionless, though he was pretty sure she mumbled something a few times. He crouched over her, keeping her head cradled beneath his hand. A quick exam determined she was breathing normally, but she was still unconscious. He debated what to do next.
The howl of a fire engine sounded in the distance. His shoulders slumped in relief. Help had finally arrived. More sirens blared, and the area was soon crawling with fire engines, ambulances, and paramedics with stretchers. One walked determinedly in his direction through the dissipating smoke.
“What’s your name, sir?” the EMT worker inquired in calm, even tones. Her chin-length dark hair was blowing nearly sideways in the wind. She shook her head to knock it away, revealing a pair of snapping dark eyes that were full of concern.
“I’m Sergeant Matt Romero,” he informed her out of sheer habit. Well, maybe no longer the sergeant part. “I’m fine. This woman is not. I don’t know her name. She was unconscious when I pulled her from her truck.”
As the curvy EMT stepped closer, Matt could read her name tag. Corrigan. “I’m Star Corrigan, and I’ll do whatever I can to help.” Her forehead wrinkled in alarm as she caught sight of the injured woman’s face. “Omigosh! Bree?” Tossing her red medical bag on the ground, she slid to her knees beside them. “Oh, Bree, honey!” she sighed, reaching for her pulse.
“I-I…” The woman stirred. Her lashes fluttered a few times against her cheeks. Then they snapped open, revealing two pools of the deepest blue Matt had ever seen. They held a very glazed-over look in them as they latched onto his face. “Don’t go,” she pleaded with a hitch to her voice that might’ve been due to emotion or the amount of smoke she’d inhaled.
Either way, it tugged at every one of his heartstrings. There was a lost ring to her voice, along with an air of distinct vulnerability, that made him want to take her in his arms again and cuddle her close.
“I won’t,” he promised huskily, hardly knowing what he was saying. He probably would have said anything to make the desperate look in her eyes go away.
“I’m not loving her heart rate.” Star produced a penlight and flipped it on. Shining it in one of her friend’s eyes, then the other, she cried urgently, “Bree? It’s me, Star Corrigan. Can you tell me what happened, hon?”
A shiver worked its way through Bree’s too-thin frame. “Don’t go,” she whispered again to Matt, before her eyelids fluttered closed. Another shiver worked its way through her, despite the fact she was no longer conscious.
“She’s going into shock.” Star glanced worriedly over her shoulder. “Need a stretcher over here!” she called sharply. One was swiftly rolled their way.
Matt helped her lift and deposit their precious burden aboard.
“Can you make it to the hospital?” Star asked as he helped push the stretcher toward the nearest ambulance. “Bree seemed pretty intent on having you stay with her.”
Matt’s brows shot up in surprise. “Uh, sure.” As far as he could tell, he’d never laid eyes on the injured woman before today. More than likely she’d mistaken him for someone else. He didn’t mind helping out, though. Who knows? Maybe he could give her medical team some information about the rescue that they might find useful in her treatment.
Or maybe he was just drawn to the fragile-looking Bree for reasons he couldn’t explain. Whatever the case, he found he wasn’t in a terrible hurry to bug out of there. He had plenty of extra time built into his schedule before his interview tomorrow. The only real task he had left for the day was finding a hotel room once he reached Amarillo.
“I just need to let Officer McCarty know I’m leaving.” Matt shook his head sheepishly. “I kinda hate to admit this, but he had me pulled over for speeding when this all went down.” He waved a hand at the carnage around them. It was a dismal sight of twisted, blackened metal and scorched pavement. All three vehicles were totaled.
Star snickered, then seemed to catch herself. “Sorry. Inappropriate laughter. Very inappropriate laughter.”
He shrugged, not in the least offended. A lot of people laughed when they were nervous or upset, which she clearly was about her unconscious friend. “Guess it was pretty stupid of me to be driving these long empty stretches without my cruise control on.” Especially with the way he’d been seething and brooding nearly non-stop for the past seventy-two hours.
Star shot him a sympathetic look. “Believe me, I’m not judging. Far from it.” She reached out to pat Officer McCarty’s arm as they passed him with the stretcher. “The only reason a bunch of us in Hereford don’t have a lot more points on our licenses, is because we grew up with this sweet guy.”
“Aw, shoot! Is that Bree?” Officer McCarty groaned. He pulled his sunglasses down to take a closer look over the top of them. His stoic expression was gone. In its place was one etched with worry. The personal kind. Like Star, he knew the victim.
“Yeah.” Star’s pink glossy lips twisted. “She and her brother can’t catch a break, can they?”
Since they were only a few feet from the back of an ambulance and since two more paramedics converged on them to help lift the stretcher, Matt peeled away to face the trooper who’d pulled him over.
“Any issues with me following them to the hospital, officer? Star asked if I would.” Unfortunately, it would give the guy more time and opportunity to ticket Matt, but that couldn’t be helped.
“Emmitt,” Officer McCarty corrected. “Just call me Emmitt, alright? I think you more than worked off your ticket back there.”
“Thanks, man. Really appreciate it.” Matt held out a hand, relieved to hear he’d be keeping his license.
They soberly shook hands, eyeing each other.
“You need me to come by the PD to file a witness report or anything before I boogie out of town?”
“Nah. Just give me a call, and we’ll take care of it over the phone.” Emmitt pulled out his wallet and produced a business card. “Not sure if we’ll need your story, since I saw how it went down, but we should probably still cross every T.”
“Roger that.” Matt stuffed the card in the back pocket of his jeans.
“Where are you headed, anyway?”
“Amarillo. Got an interview at Pantex tomorrow.”
“Solid company.” Emmitt nodded. “Got several friends who work up there.”
Star leaned out from the back of the ambulance. “You coming?” she called to Matt.
He nodded vigorously and jogged toward his truck. Since the ambulance was on the opposite side of the accident, he turned on his blinker, crossed the lanes near Emmitt’s SUV, and put his oversized tires to good use traversing the pitchy median. He had to spin his wheels a bit in the center of the median to get his tires to grab the san
dy incline leading to the other side of the highway. Once past the accident, he had to re-cross the median to get back en route. It was a good thing he’d upgraded his truck for off-roading purposes.
They continued north and drove the final twenty minutes or so to Amarillo, which boasted a much bigger hospital than any of the smaller surrounding towns. Luckily, Matt was able to grab a decently close parking spot just as another vehicle was leaving. He jogged into the waiting room, dropped Star Corrigan’s name a few times, and tried to make it sound like he was a close friend of the patient. A “close friend” who sadly didn’t even know her last name.
The receptionist made him wait while she paged Star, who appeared a short time later to escort him back. “She’s in Bay 6,” she informed him in a strained voice, reaching for his arm and practically dragging him behind the curtain.
If anything, Bree looked even thinner and more fragile than she had outside on the highway. A nurse was bent over her, inserting an I.V.
“She still hasn’t woken up. Hasn’t even twitched.” Star’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper. “They’re pretty sure she has a concussion. Gonna run the full battery of tests to figure out what’s going on for sure.”
Matt nodded, not knowing what to say.
The EMT’s pager went off. She snatched it up and scowled at it. “Just got another call. It’s a busy day out there for motorists.” She punched in a reply, then cast him a sideways glance. “Any chance you can stick around until Bree’s brother gets here?”
That’s when it hit him that this had been her real goal all along — to ensure that her friend wasn’t left alone. She’d known she could get called away to the next job at any second.
“No problem.” He offered what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Amarillo was his final destination, anyway. “This is where I was headed, actually. Got an interview at Pantex in the morning.”
“No kidding! Well, good luck with that,” she returned with a curious, searching look. “A lot of my friends moved up this way for jobs after high school.”
Emmitt had said the same thing. “Hey, ah…” He hated detaining her a second longer than necessary, since she was probably heading out to handle another emergency. However, it might not hurt to know a few more details about the unconscious Bree if he was to be left alone with her. “Mind telling me Bree’s last name?”
“Anderson. Her bother is Brody. Brody Anderson. They run a ranch about halfway between here and Hereford, so it’ll take him a good twenty minutes or so to get here.”
“No problem. I can stay. It was nice meeting you, by the way.” His gaze landed on Bree’s left hand, which was resting limply atop the white blankets on her bed. It was bare of a wedding ring. Why did I look? I’m a complete idiot for looking. He forced his gaze back to the EMT. “Sorry about the circumstances, though.”
“Me, too.” She shot another worried look at her friend and dropped her voice conspiratorially. “Hey, you’re really not supposed to be back here since you’re not family, but I sorta begged and they sorta agreed to fudge on the rules until Brody gets here.” She eyed him worriedly.
“Don’t worry.” He could tell she hated the necessity of leaving. “I’ll stay until he gets here, even if I get booted out to the waiting room with the regular Joes.”
“Thanks! Really.” She whipped out her cell phone. “Here’s my number in case you need to reach me for anything.”
Well, that was certainly a smooth way to work a pickup line into the conversation. Not that Matt was complaining. His sorely depleted ego could use the boost. He dug for his phone. “Ready.”
She rattled off her number, and he quickly texted her back so she would have his.
“Take care of her for me, will you, Matt?” she pleaded anxiously.
On second thought, that was real worry in her voice without any trace of a come-on. Maybe Star hadn’t been angling for his number, after all. Maybe she was just that desperate to ensure her friend wasn’t going to be left alone in the ER. He nodded his agreement and fist-bumped her.
She tapped back, pushed past the curtain, and was gone. The nurse followed, presumably to report Bree’s vitals to the ER doctor on duty.
Matt moved to the foot of the hospital bed. “So who do you think I am, Bree?” Why did you ask me to stay?
Her long blonde lashes remained resting against her cheeks. It looked like he was going to have to stick around for a while if he wanted answers.
I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of
BORN IN TEXAS #1: Accidental Hero.
Available in eBook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited!
Much love,
Jo
Sneak Preview: The Secret Crush Rescue
A K9-certified EMT, the new girl in town he instantly falls for, and the blind date disaster that finally makes her notice him — just not the way he hopes.
Knight Harlan is the heartthrob of Heart Lake — the guy every single woman in town wants to date (and most of them have). Everyone, that is, except his best friend’s sister, who makes it painfully clear she wants nothing to do with him.
Holly Burke allows her sister to talk her into moving to Texas for one reason only — a fresh start. And that doesn’t include getting involved with yet another playboy. Despite Knight’s hometown hero reputation, her better judgment tells her he’s the last guy in town she should ever trust with her heart.
Until disaster strikes, leaving her entirely at the mercy of the man she’s been secretly and hopelessly crushing on...
The Secret Crush Rescue
Coming August, 2021 to eBook, paperback, and Kindle Unlimited!
DISASTER CITY SEARCH AND RESCUE TITLES BY JO
The Rebound One Rescue
The Fake Bride Rescue
The Blind Date Rescue
The Plus One Rescue
The Secret Baby Rescue
The Bridesmaid Rescue
The Girl Next Door Rescue
Much love,
Jo
Read More Jo
Jo is an Amazon bestselling author of sweet and inspirational romance stories with humor, heart, and happily-ever-afters.
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Also by Jo Grafford
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Heart Lake
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
Winds of Change
Song of Nightingales
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Disaster City Search and Rescue
a multi-author series
The Rebound Rescue
The Plus One Rescue
The Blind Date Rescue
The Fake Bride Rescue
The Secret Baby Rescue
The Bridesmaid Rescue
The Girl Next Door Rescue
The Secret Crush Rescue
The Bachelorette Rescue
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Born In Texas: Hometown Heroes A-Z
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
A = Accidental Hero
B = Best Friend Hero
_____
Black Tie Billionaires
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
Her Billionaire Champion — a Prequel
Her Billionaire Boss
Her Billionaire Bodyguard
Her Billionaire Secr
et Admirer
Her Billionaire Best Friend
Her Billionaire Geek
Her Billionaire Double Date
_____
Billionaire’s Birthday Club
a multi-author series
The Billionaire’s Birthday Date
The Billionaire’s Birthday Blind Date
The Billionaire’s Birthday Secret
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Mail Order Brides Rescue Series
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
Hot-Tempered Hannah
Cold-Feet Callie
Fiery Felicity
Misunderstood Meg
Dare-Devil Daisy
Outrageous Olivia
Jinglebell Jane
Absentminded Amelia
Bookish Belinda
Tenacious Trudy
Meddlesome Madge
Mismatched MaryAnne
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Mail Order Brides of Christmas Mountain
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
Bride for the Innkeeper
Bride for the Deputy
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Angel Creek Christmas Brides
a multi-author series
Elizabeth
Grace
_____
Once Upon a Church House Series
written exclusively by Jo Grafford
Abigail
Rachel
Naomi
Esther
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