Shelter for Cerise (Hunt Volunteer Fire Department #2)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

Adrenaline spiked through Brodie “Dice” Spelling as he sat in the back of the rig headed toward the accident site.

“You can’t wait to get out there, can you?” commented Chris.

“Yep. Anxious to save lives, man,” he responded.

“Look alive, everyone, we’re almost there,” Alana’s voice boomed around the cab. For a small woman she had a voice that commanded respect in an instant. He guessed it was from her former military career where she’d obviously honed her don’t fuck with me tone and attitude.

“Roger that,” he responded and reached down to check that his boots were tied, so he wouldn’t trip over them like he’d done the first fire he’d worked with the crew.

“Make sure those laces are done tight,” Chris joked.

“They are,” he huffed out. If his crew hadn’t already given him the nickname “Dice,” due to his habit of rolling a pair of dice in his hands all the time, he was sure they’d have called him “trip” or something else weird.

“Fuck, this is one wrecked situation.” Dean said as he slowed the rig.

“Shit, you’re not wrong,” responded Alana. “This is going to be a long night, guys.”

That didn’t sound good. Brodie had seen some bad accidents during his three-year stint as a paramedic. Not to mention some very tragic scenes as well.

The rig pulled to a stop and they all got out. The other truck with two more members of the Hunt VFD pulled up.

The flashing lights from all the first responder vehicles gave the scene a scary movie vibe.

Brodie got his first look at what they’d be dealing with and cringed. The road was strewn with rubber, glass, twisted pieces of metal, and clothes thrown from suitcases. He could see four cars in all sorts of disarray spanning the width of the road and spread across almost a quarter mile.

“What the fuck happened here?” he asked as he grabbed the medical bag out of the side of the rig.

“Your guess is as good as ours, son. But we’ve got victims that need tending to.” The gruff voice of Bandera County’s sheriff, Richard Searle, sounded behind him.

“Yes, sir.” Immediately, Brodie straightened. The sheriff had a countenance about him that commanded a healthy amount of respect. There was also a mysterious aura about the man that Brodie had yet to figure out. But he’d seen the sheriff relax with some of his deputies at Buck’s Roadhouse.

“Let’s go help some people.” He directed his comment to Chris, they tended to work together at most scenes.

As former military, Chris was cool under pressure, and in a situation as drastic as the one they’d landed in, cool heads were needed to calm hysterical victims or family members who wanted to get close to their hurt loved ones.

“Got your back, Dice.”

They found Alana at the front of the rig talking to Richard as well as one of his other deputies.

“Where do you need us, Alana?”

“Sheriff says there’s two fatalities and at least six seriously injured and one critical patient.

Hill Country Medical Center recently got a life flight helicopter so he’s radioed them to come help.

They’re about ten minutes out. If you head over there”—she pointed to what was once a mid-sized SUV, but now resembled more of a squashed tuna can—“that’s where the critically injured victim is.

We’ll need your paramedic skills there. We’ve got another couple of volunteers coming in their own vehicles.

Eric is on his way, so he’ll be able to provide some valuable assistance as well. ”

“Roger that.” Brodie hitched the heavy medical bag over his shoulder and strode toward the vehicle, pulling out a set of latex medical gloves from his pocket and putting them on.

He was glad Eric was helping out. Not only was he a member of the HVFD, he was also a nurse, so having another set of experienced medical hands in such an intense situation was always welcome.

Next he placed a mask over his mouth and nose. He was getting in the zone, and Alana’s voice faded as she continued to issue instructions. He needed to block out everything around him so that he could concentrate fully on doing his examination and ensuring that he didn’t fail the injured patient.

As he got closer to the car he winced when he heard the moaning, a good sign the person wasn’t unconscious.

A conscious patient made things easier for him because they could tell him where and what was hurting.

He looked in through the smashed driver’s side.

The blank eyes of death greeted him. Here was one of the fatalities.

Reaching in, he gently closed the man’s eyes and said a silent prayer for him and his family.

He didn’t think he’d ever get used to seeing death so stark and in your face, like at some accident scenes.

“Dice, you all right, man?” Chris’s voice pulled him back to the moment. Later, when he was alone, he would process the loss of life.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Let’s do this.” Striding around the front of the car, he peered into the passenger side of the vehicle. “Ma’am, my name’s Brodie and I’m with the Hunt Volunteer Fire Department. Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Everywhere,” she whispered. “Hurts. Everywhere.” Her head lolled to the side and Brodie immediately dropped the bag and placed his fingers against her neck.

He found a pulse but it was weak and thready.

Considering the amount of blood covering her, he was surprised she’d remained conscious for as long as she had.

The steady thumping of helicopter rotors rent the air. “Hey Chris, go over there and meet the bird as it lands. Tell Alana we need whoever is on board over here ASAP. Let them know the patient is hanging by a thread.”

“On it.” His partner rushed off and Brodie yanked at the passenger door.

It didn’t budge. He needed to get in so he tried again, resting his foot against the side of the car in an attempt to get leverage.

The metal was twisted and he didn’t have time to deal with waiting for his team or another one to arrive with the jaws of life to pry it open.

Giving it another good yank, the door screeched open allowing him access inside.

The wind whipped up around him as the helicopter came in for its landing. He put himself, as much as he could, in front of the patient so that the small pieces of the debris flying up from the road wouldn’t cause more damage to her.

Once things settled down, he reached for his bag and pulled out a flashlight, positioning it so that he could see what he was working with.

Grabbing some gauze pads, he pressed them against the deep cut on her forehead.

The seatbelt was cutting in, but he didn’t want to release it until he had a better idea of her injuries.

He pressed and prodded and took mental notes of what he found so that he could address them systematically.

He was aware of footsteps running up behind him. “What have we got?” A confident feminine voice sounded behind. A voice he recognized as belonging to Mitch’s fiancée, Nadia.

“Nadia, good to see you,” he said as he swiveled around and paused.

Standing next to her was a dark-haired woman carrying a medical bag.

For a moment he forgot all the chaos around him and focused on her.

He couldn’t explain why she captured his attention.

He hadn’t met her before because he was sure he would’ve remembered her.

All he knew was he wished it was under different circumstances than an accident scene that they were meeting.

He’d love nothing better than to sit and talk to her. Get to know her better.

In the muted light he thought he caught the glint of glitter on her eyelids.

Glitter?

No, he had to be mistaken.

“Hey, Brodie, I wondered if you’d be out here. Doesn’t look good, does it?” Nadia’s voice had all the sounds from the surrounding area rushing back to him. Shit, he’d never lost focus like that before and he couldn’t afford to now. So many lives depended on him keeping his head in the game.

“Nope, the driver is deceased. The female passenger was conscious for a few seconds after we got here before passing out. Her pulse is weak. Major cut on her forehead. Her abdomen is firm, suggesting internal injuries and bleeding. Lacerations to the legs and feet. I suspect she also has a fracture to her left leg and possible right arm fracture as well.” Listing the findings from his preliminary examination redirected his attention to where it should be.

“Right, let’s get to this. Cerise, I’ll need you to work with Brodie to keep the patient stable while I try and lower the seat. I’m going to do it in increments to ensure we don’t cause more damage.”

“On it, Dr. Fletcher. Neck brace first?” Her voice was quiet and gentle, and sent shivers down his spine.

“Yep.”

The way Nadia and Cerise spoke and moved, suggested to Brodie they’d worked together regularly.

As Cerise leaned in to place the brace around the patient’s neck, he caught a whiff of her light floral scent.

He couldn’t determine what the exact fragrance was but he knew he liked it.

And yes, she wore glitter eyeliner. He’d never been a fan of the item he’d heard people call “every art teacher’s nightmare,” but he had to admit he liked it on her.

It gave her a whimsical air which, in times as stressful as the one they were smack dab in the middle of, was much needed.

Geez, he’d lost his focus again. He gave himself a mental slap on the back of the head and concentrated on the task at hand.

Once the neck brace was in place, he pulled open the back door and climbed in, ready to control the movement as the seat was lowered. “Ready when you are.”

Cerise looked up and their gazes connected.

A rush of emotion slammed into him like he’d never experienced before, and one he had no name for.

Only that it left him slightly breathless and, by the way her eyes widened and her fingers slipped from where they’d been holding the patient’s head, he hazarded a guess she’d experienced the same or a similar reaction as well.

So his immediate response to her hadn’t been a fluke.

She visibly shook her head, lowering it so her attention was directed on the patient and not on him. “Patient’s stabilized, Dr. Fletcher. Do you want to start lowering the seat?”

“Brodie, you good?” Nadia asked, in complete doctor mode.

Brodie braced himself on the back seat and rested his knees into the back of the passenger seat. “In position.”

“I’m going to start lowering on three. One, two, three.”

The seat began to lower, and the woman moaned as if the movement had pulled her back to the present.

Brodie leaned forward. “We’ve got you, ma’am. We’ll get you out of here.”

Whatever happened in the next few minutes, he would keep his word to her. He just hoped when they did extract her from the car, she’d still be alive.