Sneak Preview Accidental Hero
MATT
M att Romero was single again, and this time he planned to stay that way.
It was one thing to have allowed himself to become blinded by love. It was another thing entirely to have fallen for the stupidest line in a cheater’s handbook.
Cat sitting. I actually allowed her to talk me into cat sitting! Plus, he’d collected his fiancée’s mail and carried her latest batch of Amazon deliveries into her condo.
It wasn’t that he minded helping out the woman he planned to spend the rest of his life with.
What he minded was that she wasn’t in New York City on business like she’d claimed.
Nope. As it turned out, she was nowhere near the Big Apple.
It had simply been her cover story for cheating on him, the first lie in a long string of lies .
To make matters worse, she’d recently talked Matt into leaving the Army for her, a decision he’d probably regret for the rest of his life now that she’d broken their engagement and moved on with someone else.
Leaving me single, jobless, and —
The scream of sirens jolted Matt back to the present.
A glance in his rearview mirror confirmed his suspicions.
He was getting pulled over. For what? A quick glance at his speedometer gave him his answer.
He was cruising at a grand spanking ninety-five miles per hour.
Whoa! It was a good twenty miles over the posted speed limit.
Okay, this is bad. He’d be fortunate if he didn’t lose his license over this —his fault entirely for driving while horribly distracted without his cruise control on.
Slowing and pulling his truck over to the shoulder, he coasted to a stop and waited. And waited. And waited some more. A peek in his side mirror showed the cop was still sitting in his car and talking on his phone.
Oh, come on! Just give me my ticket already.
To stop the pounding between his temples, Matt reached for the red cooler he’d propped on the passenger seat and pulled out a can of soda. He popped the tab and tipped it up to chug down a much-needed shot of caffeine. He hadn’t slept much during the last couple of nights.
Before he could take a second sip, movement in the rearview mirror caught his attention. He watched as the police officer finally opened his door, unfolded his tall frame from the front seat of his white SUV, and stood. However, he continued talking on his phone instead of walking Matt’s way.
Matt swallowed a dry chuckle and took another swig of his soda. It was a good thing he’d hit the road the day before his interview at the Pantex nuclear plant. At the rate his day was going, it might take the rest of the afternoon to collect his speeding ticket.
He’d reached the outskirts of Amarillo and was only about twenty to thirty miles from his final destination. The exit sign for Hereford was up ahead. Or the Beef Capital of the World, as the small farm town was often called.
He reached across the dashboard to open his glove compartment and fish out his registration card and proof of insurance.
His gut told him he wasn’t going to be able to talk his way out of this.
As a general rule, men in blue didn’t sympathize with folks going twenty miles or more over the posted speed limit.
Digging for his wallet, he pulled out his driver’s license. Out of sheer habit, he reached inside the slot where he normally kept his military ID and found it empty. Right . He no longer possessed one, which left him with an oddly empty feeling.
He took another gulp of soda and watched as the officer finally pocketed his cell phone.
Matt plunked his soda can into the nearest cup holder and stuck his driver’s license, truck registration, and insurance card between two fingers.
Hitting an automatic button on the door, he lowered his window a few inches and waited.
The officer strode up to Matt’s truck window with a bit of a swagger.
His uniform consisted of jeans and a white dress shirt with a badge pinned to it.
His tan Stetson was pulled low over his eyes, shading them from the sun.
“I’d like to see your license, registration, and proof of insurances, soldier. ”
Guess that means you noticed the Ranger tab on my license plate. Matt wordlessly poked the requested items through the window opening.
“Any reason you’re in such a hurry this morning?” The officer curiously scanned Matt’s identification. He was so tall, he had to duck his head a little to peer through the window. Like Matt, he had a dark tan, brown hair, and a goatee. The two of them could’ve passed as cousins or something.
“Nothing worth hearing, officer.” My problem. Not yours. Matt had no interest in discussing the reasons for his distracted driving. He squinted through the glaring sun to read the guy’s nametag. McCarty .
“If you change your mind, I’ve got time to listen.
It’ll take me a while to write up such a hefty ticket.
” Officer McCarty’s tone was mildly sympathetic, though it was impossible to read his expression behind his tinted aviator sunglasses.
“I clocked you going twenty-two miles over the posted limit, Mr. Romero.”
Twenty-two miles? Yeah, that wasn’t good.
Not good at all. Matt could feel the veins in his temples throbbing.
It looked like he was going to have to share his story, after all.
Maybe the trooper would scrape up the compassion to let him off with a warning instead of a ticket.
It was worth a try, anyway. If nothing else, it would give the guy something to laugh about during his next coffee stop.
“Today was supposed to be my wedding day.” He spoke through stiff lips, finding a strange sort of relief in confessing that sorry fact to a perfect stranger. They’d probably never see each other again.
“I’m sorry for your loss.” Officer McCarty glanced up from Matt’s license to give him what felt like a piercing once over. No doubt he trying to decide if Matt was telling the truth.
“Oh, she’s still alive,” Matt muttered. “Found somebody else, that’s all.” He gripped the steering wheel and drummed his thumbs against it. I’m just the overly trusting fool she cheated on.
He was one hundred percent done with dating.
At the moment, he couldn’t imagine ever again putting his heart on the chopping block of love.
He’d rather be lonely for the rest of his life than to let someone destroy him like that again.
His ex-fiancée had taken everything from him that mattered — his pride, his dignity, and even his career.
“Ouch,” Officer McCarty sighed. “Well, here comes the tough part about my job. Despite your reasons for speeding, you were putting lives at risk. Your own included.”
“Can’t disagree with that.” Matt stared straight ahead, past the small spidery nick in his windshield.
He’d gotten hit by a rock earlier while passing a semi-truck.
It really hadn’t been his day. Or his week.
Or his year, for that matter. It didn’t mean he was going to give up his final shred of dignity and start groveling, though.
He’d made an effort to appeal to the policeman’s sympathy and failed.
The sooner the man gave him his ticket, the sooner they could both be on their way.
A massive dump truck on the oncoming side of the highway abruptly swerved into the narrow, grassy median. It was a good hundred yards away or so, but the front left tire dipped down, way down, making the truck pitch heavily to one side.
“Whoa!” Matt pointed to get Officer McCarty’s attention. “That guy looks like he’s in trouble!”
Two vehicles on Matt’s side of the road passed him in quick succession — a rusty blue van pulling a fifth wheel and a shiny red pickup truck.
When Officer McCarty didn’t respond, Matt laid on his horn to warn the two drivers, just as the dump truck started to tip over. It was like watching a horror movie in slow motion, knowing something really bad was about to happen while being helpless to stop it.
The dump truck slammed onto its side and skidded noisily across Matt’s lane. The blue van whipped to the right shoulder, trying to avoid the collision. Matt winced as the van’s bumper caught the hood of the skidding dump truck head on and jack-knifed into the air.
The driver of the red truck was only a few car lengths behind them, slamming so hard on the brakes that the truck left two dark smoking lines of rubber on the pavement.
Seconds later, it careened into the median and flipped on its side.
It wasn’t immediately clear if the red pickup had collided with any part of the dump truck.
However, an ominous swirl of smoke seeped from beneath its hood.
For a split second, Matt and Officer McCarty stared in astonishment at each other.
Then the officer shoved Matt’s license, registration, and proof of insurance back through the opening in the window.
“Looks like I’ve got more important things to do than give you a ticket.
” He sprinted toward his SUV, leaped inside, and gunned it toward the scene of the accident with his lights flashing and sirens blaring.
He skidded to a stop with his vehicle slanted across both lanes to form a makeshift blockade.
Though Matt was no longer in the military, his defend-and-protect instincts kicked in.
There was no telling how long it would take the emergency vehicles to arrive, and he didn’t like the way the red pickup was still smoking.
The driver hadn’t climbed out of the cab yet, either, which wasn’t a good sign.
Officer McCarty reached the blue van first, probably because it was the closest, and assisted a dazed man from one of the back passenger seats.
He led him to the side of the road, helped him get seated on a small incline, then jogged back to help the driver.
Unfortunately, Officer McCarty was only one man, and the pileup in front of them was much bigger than a one-man job.