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He cared for her too damn much.
The sun was bright and hot on his back as he jogged toward the scene. Three cars were involved in an accident on the freeway, one fatality. The cars were twisted hunks of metal, smoke rising from one of them and he saw the
fire engine headed toward them in the distance. Three lanes were blocked off of the six-lane freeway, but the cars still passed by at an amazing speed. They should start demanding hazard pay.
He and Wes weren’t first on scene, but they were there to assist and take one of the injured victims to the hospital. They found her lying on the side of the road, pulled to safety by witnesses who’d stopped to help. She had a broken leg and possible broken pelvis and was in a lot of pain and they knelt beside her, immediately beginning to prep her.
“Sir, sir!” Someone grabbed Evan by the shoulder and gave him a firm shake.
He turned to find a woman standing before him, a shaken look on her face. “Can I help you?”
“There’s someone else who’s injured. My daughter! Please come help her. No one has helped her.” The woman pointed toward the snarled wreckage, her hand shaking visibly.
Evan glanced in his partner’s direction. “Go help her, man.” Wes nodded his head toward the now crying woman. “I’ve got this handled. And I’ll put a call in for another unit.”
“Thanks, Wes. Gimme a few and I’ll be back.” Evan stood and followed the woman, unease slithering down his spine as she took him to the other side of the wreckage. She was frantic, waving her hands all over the place, her voice reaching a higher pitch with every sentence she spoke. He could hardly understand her.
And he hoped like hell her daughter wasn’t as bad off as she made her sound.
“There she is. She’s unconscious, she wouldn’t respond to anything I said. I didn’t want to leave her but I didn’t know how to get her help.”
He didn’t know why anyone hadn’t noticed her. Kneeling, he looked her over. She was young, no more than twenty and her face was covered in blood from the various gashes she’d received. He put a call into the emergency service center, requesting more backup then glanced up at the mother. “How long has she been unconscious?”
“Since the accident happened. She hit her head on the windshield. I dragged her out of my car.” She waved a hand in the crumpled car’s direction. “I couldn’t just leave her in there though it was probably a mistake. And I’ve been with her ever since. I didn’t want to leave her alone. But I’m afraid that was the wrong choice.” The poor woman broke into tears again.
He checked the victim’s pulse, which was strong. Her arm looked broken, and she’d suffered a head injury. He had a feeling she’d be fine but didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t damn well keep. “I believe she’s going to be all right, ma’am. Another ambulance is on its way and should be here shortly.”
“Oh, thank God.” The woman blubbered all over him, and he offered her a quick one-armed hug. The stench of smoke grew stronger and he realized the fire engine was already there. A handful of firefighters surrounded the smoking car and were foaming it down.
The traffic had slowed but the scene was still chaos. “You should probably go stand over there.” He waved the woman over to the embankment where those who stopped to help stood. “It’s safer, not so close to the road.”
“But what about my—“
“I’ll take care of her until the other ambulance gets here.” He smiled and gently urged her toward the curbed embankment. She went without protest, and he headed for the wrecked car. The victim lay just on the other side of it, and he wanted to make sure she was safe in her location.
It was pure chaos. Emergency personnel were all over the place, victims’ family members were making an appearance and those who’d stopped to help originally still lingered about. He’d lost sight of the mother of the victim he’d vowed to take care of and with a grim shake of his head he headed back toward the car.
“Watch out!”
Evan turned, but it was too late. “Shit.” The car barreled toward him and he leapt as far as he could but to no avail. The car clipped him, sending him to the ground and his head hit the pavement before his body did.
Rendering him unconscious.
She picked up the ringing phone, not even paying attention since she was so focused on reading her email. “This is Morgan.”
“Morgan, it’s Brett.”
She frowned at the receiver she clutched. “Hey. Want me to connect you to Jenna?”
“No, I need to talk to you.” He took a deep, shaky breath. “There’s been—an accident.”
Dread filled her and her skin went cold. “What do you mean? What happened?”
“It’s Evan. He was hurt.”
“What? Is he okay?” She clutched the edge of her desk with her free hand, dizziness swamping her. If she let go surely she would slide to the floor in a faint.
“He’s going to be. He was actually pretty lucky, and the car knocked him to the ground but didn’t full out hit him. He was rendered unconscious, but he came to just before they put him in the ambulance.” Brett paused, and she swore she heard shouting in the background. Where was he calling from? How did he know Evan got hurt? “He asked for you. That’s why I called.”
