Fair Trade (Bold Brew #7) - Cate Ashwood Page 0,35
are more coming. We’ve got this.”
“And now you’ve got one more person to help. I’m holding C-spine, and the kids in the back seat are terrified. I’m not going anywhere.”
“You have medical training?”
“L and D nurse. Been a while since I did a trauma rotation, but I’m here for whatever you need.”
That changed everything. “Thank you.”
“The cavalry’s arrived,” Ruzik announced, pulling my attention from the nurse. “Where do you want us?”
My eyes scanned the scene for Nick, but I still couldn’t find him.
“DeLuca and Morales are checking the truck. Can you help here while I find Nick?”
“Brawley’s MIA?”
“Lost him in the confusion.”
“Radio?”
I shook my head. “Channel’s jammed.”
“Okay. We got this. Go.”
I nodded once and then turned to retrace my steps.
With the additional light from the other rigs, the scene was easier to navigate, and even more horrific than I’d realized. The damage to the vehicles was extreme, and the way the windshield of the truck was curled back suggested that a passenger had been thrown from the cab.
“Over there,” I shouted to Morales. “Side of the road. We got another one.”
“On it,” Morales replied, leaving DeLuca to attend to the patients inside.
As much as I wanted to help, I needed to find Nick. There was a reason paramedics worked in pairs, and in a trauma situation, it was more important than ever. Where the fuck was he?
Over and over, I called his cell.
No answer.
I searched behind the truck, around the car, and up the road to where the flares and cones had been placed.
Nick wasn’t there.
“Nick!” I fanned my flashlight out from the crash, searching through the darkness.
And then I saw the guardrail. A woman paced back and forth in front of the mangled metal. I rushed over, her eyes going wide as she saw me approaching.
“My mother’s down there!” she shouted. “Someone went after her, but he hasn’t come back up.”
“A paramedic went down there?”
The woman nodded. “Please help him. Help my mom. Please. Please.”
He wouldn’t be stupid enough to scale the side of a steep embankment in the dark, alone, without telling anyone where he was going, right? There was no way. He knew to wait for search and rescue. Didn’t he?
“Nick!” I yelled again.
Shit.
I held my breath.
The chaos and noise of the scene behind me faded away as I strained to listen for his voice.
Finally, it came. “Down here!”
I disconnected the radio from my shoulder. “What’s the ETA on S and R?” I barked.
“Fifteen minutes out,” came the reply.
Not fucking fast enough.
I stared over the edge again, scrutinizing the pathway to the bottom. The slope was extreme, and difficult to make out all the obstacles in the dark, but I wasn’t waiting another fifteen minutes for search and rescue.
Nick needed me.
More than once, I lost my footing on wet leaves and loose soil, my feet slipping out from underneath me. I managed not to fall, though, steadying myself as I rushed down the embankment. The farther down I got, the clearer the scene became, and all at once I understood why Nick had broken protocol.
“Nick!”
“Callum?” I could hear the relief in his voice as it echoed.
“I’m here!”
“I can’t get her out.”
Crossing the last few feet of riverbank, I didn’t hesitate, charging through the water to where Nick was halfway into the car.
One look at Iris told me there was little chance of saving her, even if we did get her out. Her lips were blue, her skin gray. I rushed into the frigid cold water and shone my light inside the car.
“She’s not breathing. No pulse.”
Goddamn it.
“Did you see her go down?”
“No. But Jesus, Callum, we gotta get her out.”
Nick was already in the car, his boots planted on the dashboard.
“Nick—”
“No, we can’t just leave her here.”
Even though I couldn’t see her, I knew her daughter was watching from the top of the ravine. There was almost no chance this was going to work, but for her daughter’s sake, and for Nick’s, we had to at least try.
“She’s pinned?”
“Yeah. Her right leg is caught under the dash. If I push up on it, I can move it a little.”
“Okay.” I bent down, hooking my arms beneath her armpits. “On my count.”
Nick nodded.
“One. Two. Three!”
Nick pushed against the dash, the sound of his anguished groan piercing the night air. I pulled, feeling Iris’s body slide toward me. One step back, and then another, and she was free of the car.
As quickly as I could, I dragged her to shore. Nick ran ahead of me, tearing his jacket off