Christmas In Montana (Treasures of The Rockies)

by Eason, Mary

  When he reached the driver’s side, he could tell right away it was bad. The driver, who looked to be a man in his early twenties, lay smashed and bleeding against the steering wheel. The airbag hadn’t inflated and the man wasn’t wearing a seatbelt.

  The door had been so badly crushed it wouldn’t budge when Brady tried to pry it open. Luckily, the side window had shattered on impact. Just a few jagged pieces of glass still held in place.

  He felt for a pulse at the base of the young man’s throat almost certain he was dead or close to it. There was no way anyone could have survived such an impact unprotected.

  Brady couldn’t find a single sign of life and was just about ready to move around to the passenger, a woman who didn’t look much better, when the driver gasped for breath.

  Brady leaned in close trying to catch the man’s breathy words. He sounded as if he were speaking through water, most likely blood.

  “Hang on, there’s help on the way. Just hang on a little while longer.”

  The young man tried to turn his head but couldn’t. His neck had probably snapped when he’d hit the wheel. God only knew what else was broken.

  “Take care of her for me. Don’t let her die up here.” The man whispered in a barely audible voice then struggled to gathering air.

  “Don’t worry about her, I’ll make sure she’s okay, just try to stay still. Help is on the way.”

  “I’m not going to make it, but its okay, he told me you’d come...” The words ended in a flurry of coughing that left the man weak. “You have to promise me you’ll look after my wife. Please mister, promise me you’ll take care of Faith for me. Tell her I love her. Tell her not to worry about me because I’m going to be okay.”

  Brady almost didn’t catch the last part. The man made one more gasping attempt to draw air and then he was still. Even before Brady tried to find a pulse, he knew there wouldn’t be one.

  “I promise I won’t let you down.” Brady gave the only answer he could to that final request. A little too late to bring any comfort though.

  As he stood looking down at the young man, he could almost feel the presence of something else there with them. He hadn’t been aware of the strange silence until that very moment. He’d been too concerned for the young man. Now it was almost deafening. The wind had gone quiet. There wasn’t a single sound around them.

  Something he couldn’t even attempt to define was here as an unseen witness to the young man’s death. Moments after, the eerie silence left the mountainside and in an instant, the noise of the storm returned.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Brady caught movement from the passenger and picked his way slowly around the back of the car to her.

  This side of the vehicle wasn’t nearly as damaged. The door opened easily enough. In just one glimpse, he could see that the young woman was probably critical, but she was breathing and alive, unlike her husband.

  She struggled to open her eyes. Her left arm hung at an awkward angle and had begun to swell at a rapid rate. She tried to release the seatbelt.

  “Don’t try to move, I think your arm may be broken.” Brady tried to keep her still. “We don’t know what other injuries you may have. You need to remain still. Everything will be okay, help is on the way.”

  Slowly she turned her head and looked at him. She reached out to clutch his hand tightly with her uninjured hand. “David? How’s David? He’s not moving?”

  Brady didn’t know how to answer. He couldn’t be the one to tell her the truth. “Don’t try to talk. Just stay still. We’ll have you out of here in no time.”

  In the distance, a siren blared. Ned Stewart, Redemption’s only marshal was speeding their way. The thundering sound of the emergency chopper out of Denver reinforced the seriousness of the situation.

  “We lost our way in the storm. We didn’t know where we were. There was so much snow and it hit so fast we couldn’t see anything.” The woman said through her tears. “We thought we were okay, that we were back on the right road but…” Her voice faded away, her eyes closed again and he feared the worst.

  “Stay with me, Faith. Everything is going to be okay, but you need to stay awake.” Her green eyes opened once more searching his, filled with so much hope. Silently pleading with him to make it better.

  “Where are you and your husband heading?” Brady asked hoping to keep her mind occupied and off the man lying lifeless against the steering wheel close by her side. He had no idea how to deal with this type of tragedy.

  “We’re on our way to California," she whispered softly. "David has a job there, but somehow we got lost in the storm. We weren’t expecting so much snow.”

  Above them, Ned’s red and blue flashing lights strobed the darkness. Brady listened as the marshal’s stumbled down to the car and he tried to untangle the girl’s hand from his. She’d been holding on to him as if her life depended on it since she’d become aware of him. She didn’t let go now.

  “Don’t go. Please don’t leave me alone. I’m afraid... ” Brady looked at Ned. The marshal had been frantically searching for a pulse in Faith’s husband. Over the top of the car, Brady shook his head. Then he knelt next to Faith once more.

  “I’m not going anywhere. Just try to relax. Everything is going to be all right, I promise.” When he glanced at Ned again, the marshal indicated he was heading back up the mountain to the chopper that was now landing.

  Brady hated that he’d just lied to Faith. For her, nothing was ever going to be the same again.

  A flurry of emergency personal descended on the car, forcing Brady out of the way while they worked on Faith and got her ready for the flight. He stood silently next to Ned, listening while the marshal spoke on the phone requesting the coroner out of Denver, the county seat, along with the local funeral home in Redemption.

  “I’ll have Pearson’s garage come get the car and take it into town when they’re finished here.” Ned shook his head. “This is bad stuff, Brady. It’s been years since I’ve seen anything like this. What were those two doing up here alone on a night like tonight anyway?”

  Over Ned’s voice, Brady could hear Faith asking about her husband. Somehow, through the crowd of people around, her eyes found his again and reluctantly he went to her.

  “My husband, what’s happening with David? Why is no one working on him?” She reached for his hand again just as Brady’s eyes collided with one of the EMT’s. The silent warning there was clear. She wasn’t up to hearing the truth just yet.

  “You need to worry about yourself right now. Let these people help you.”

  The EMTs lifted the gurney. They were ready to take her away when he realized she still clung to his hand.

  “Please, don’t leave me. Please... ”

  Brady searched her frightened face then turned to tell the worker closest to him, “I’m coming with you.”

  The flight to the hospital in Denver took only a short amount of time, but it seemed like an eternity in the tragic atmosphere of the chopper. The EMTs worked on Faith all the while she lay silently weeping. She knew. Even though no one was willing to tell her the truth about her husband, she understood he was gone.

  When they reached the hospital, the team took her away, forcing him to let go of her hand. The sliding glass doors of the ER closed behind her, but the frightened look in Faith’s eyes became branded on his heart, ready to haunt him for the rest of his life.

  He couldn’t leave her. Not like this.

  After several hours of sitting outside the ER, the doctor responsible for treating Faith stopped by.

  “Are you a family member, Mr.?”

  “Samuels, Brady Samuels, and no, I’m not family. I was the first on the scene of the accident and I wanted to make sure Faith was going to be okay.”

  Dr. Seth Martin looked as if he’d had a long night already. No doubt, the last thing he wanted to do right now was to explain to a stranger the detail of a patient he really had no business discussing in the first place. Yet something in Brady�
�s eyes must have gotten through to him. There was just enough concern there to make him change his mind.

  “Faith Michaels. She’s in stable condition now. Minor injuries as far as I can tell, if you don’t count one badly fractured arm. She was very lucky. Lucky that she wore her seatbelt and lucky she wasn’t driving the car. I heard they pronounced the husband on the scene. I’ve given her something to ease the pain and to help her sleep and I’ve admitted her. I want to keep an eye on her for a few days since she’s pregnant.”

  “She’s pregnant?” Faith was pregnant. She didn’t look it. Nothing else the doctor said after that moment registered with him. She was pregnant and alone.

  About the author

  Mary Eason grew up in a small Texas town famous for, well not much of anything really. Being the baby of the family and quite a bit younger than her brothers and sister, Mary had plenty of time to entertain herself. Making up stories seem to come natural to her.

  As a pre-teen, Mary discovered her first romance and was hooked. She knew instinctively that was what she wanted to do with her over-active imagination.

  Today, Mary still lives in Texas, and still writes about romance. In fact, she can’t think of anything else she’d rather do.

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