Wild Men of Alaska Collection - By Helmer, Tiffinie Page 0,102

shutting the door after her.

She put on her seatbelt while Cub walked around the pickup, getting in and doing the same. He started the engine and backed the truck out of the parking space, while playing with the knobs on the stereo. “Uh, something else you might need to know before we go any further.” He slid her a glance, and she couldn’t wait to see what else this man had to reveal. “I’m an Enya fan.”

Soft strains of Enya started to play.

She couldn’t help herself and laughed. “Now that I didn’t see coming.”

Nor did she see the vehicle slide through the red light at the intersection until it was too late.

Cub swore, swinging his arm out to help brace her in her seat, as he yanked the steering wheel so that his side of the truck took the brunt of the impact as the other vehicle broadsided them. The crash jolted them sideways. Metal screeched, glass shattered, and rubber burned as the black ice on the road, combined with the momentum of the other vehicle, skidded them off into the ditch. The top-heavy truck lifted onto two wheels and rolled.

CHAPTER TWENTY

Gemma lay there, stunned, fighting to breathe passed the impact of the airbag. As it slowly deflated, and the resulting powder settled, the light caught the glitter of glass everywhere. Enya continued to sing her soothing song, but there was nothing soothing about the situation. It took her a moment to realize what had happened.

Cub.

Gemma tried to see him, but could barely move, pinned in place by her seatbelt. Her side of the truck lay on the icy, snow-laden ground. She took stock of herself. Nothing seemed broken or bleeding, but she’d be sore.

“Cub?”

No answer. Gemma struggled to free her seatbelt, and then climb to her knees on the passenger door to reach him. Cub hung awkwardly to the side in his seatbelt, his eyes closed, blood seeping from a cut on his forehead.

“Cub.” Panic laced her voice. She wanted to shake him awake, but was afraid to touch him in case of a spinal injury. Carefully, she felt for a pulse in his wrist, letting out a huge breath of relief when she found one strong and steady. The car that had T-boned them had followed them over into the ditch and now squatted on top of Cub’s door. The front wheel had broken through the window, and cold air whistled through the interlocked vehicles.

“Hang tight!” a stranger yelled from the front of the truck. “Help is on the way.”

Gemma reached out with shaking fingers and shut off the stereo, silencing Enya, and bringing in the other sounds of the accident. Spitting and hissing from the engines of both vehicles, the heavenly sound of Cub’s even breathing, and then the welcome sirens of emergency vehicles as they rushed to the scene.

“Come on, Cub, wake up.” She didn’t like that he was still unconscious.

An Alaskan Trooper struggled to reach them through the snow. “Ma’am, can you give me your condition?”

“I-I think I’m okay, but Cub isn’t.”

“Cub? Cub Iverson?”

“Y-yes, he works for Search and Rescue.” Fairbanks wasn’t that big of a town when you boiled it down, and Troopers and Search and Rescue were an even smaller group.

“Hold on, we’ll have you out of there soon.” He handed her blankets through the broken windshield.

She carefully wrapped them around Cub first and then bundled up in the other. While she wasn’t cold at the moment, mainly because of the adrenaline coursing through her body, the shock of the accident would hit her and she’d be freezing. Hypothermia was a serious threat.

The rest was a blur of activity as the emergency crews worked together and helped her out of the truck, working carefully to cut Cub free as he didn’t slide through the broken windshield like she had. He had still failed to regain consciousness when they loaded him in the ambulance and headed to Fairbanks Memorial.

“Come on, Cub,” she prayed inside the ambulance as the EMTs checked his vitals and hooked him up to an IV. She couldn’t lose another man she cared about. She continued to pray as they raced over icy roads toward the hospital.

They rushed Cub into the ER, ushering her toward another part of the emergency room, to be checked over.

As she suspected, other than bruises and powder burns from the airbag, there wasn’t anything wrong with her. With his quick thinking and reflexes, Cub had saved her life, or at the very least, saved her some