If he’d had control of the bars, he might have been able to throw his body sideways and pull the machine into line, but Pete let go totally to clutch his chest. As the machine rolled, he was thrown and Matt shouted as he hit the tree line.
Matt tore off his helmet and was calling for help even as he ran toward his friend. They’d already called for backup and a truck was en route, but he had to call it in as a medical emergency now.
Pete wasn’t moving and Matt felt the cold sweat of fear break out over his body. He didn’t think Pete had actually hit a tree, but it was hard to tell. He shouldn’t move him, but he knew from the events leading up to it that it wasn’t the crash that was going to kill him.
From the angle, he guessed Pete’s arm was broken. Maybe his leg, too. It wasn’t obvious but, judging by the way he’d landed, his right side was probably busted up. But, worse than any broken bone, Matt didn’t think he was breathing.
Yelling at the phone he’d put on speaker and dropped next to his knee, trying to update them on the urgency of the situation, he moved Pete as carefully as he could to his back. After undoing his vest and parting it as best as he could, he checked his breathing and hunted for a pulse.
“I need help!” He took off his own vest, needing it out of the way and leaned over his friend. “Don’t you dare die, Pete.”
He started CPR, his world narrowing to nothing but breathing for Pete and listening to the woman on the other end of the phone assuring him help was coming.
*
HAILEY LOCKED UP the library and drove to the General Store because she needed a few groceries. If it had only been milk for her coffee, she might have stopped by the diner and begged some from them rather than face Fran, but she needed a few other things, too. Including comfort food.
She was going to drown her feelings in a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips. Maybe she’d fry up a hot dog to go with them, or maybe she’d just eat the entire bag for dinner. Sure, she’d be sorry tomorrow, but no more sorry than she already was for getting involved with Matt Barnett.
If she could go back in time, she would never have brought him the shepherd’s pie. They both would have been better off if he’d kept on thinking of her as the crazy lady who lived next door and couldn’t be trusted in the woods.
The bell rang over the door when she stepped into the general store. Fran looked up and frowned. “Did you hear the news?”
Hailey realized Fran wasn’t sitting in her usual knitting chair. She was on a stool near the scanner she usually kept down to a volume just loud enough to be annoying. “I just left work. Did I hear what news?”
“A game warden was in an ATV accident.”
Hailey froze. “Where?”
“I’m not sure.”
“There are a lot of game wardens. I mean, I hope whoever it is is okay, but there’s no reason to believe it’s our game warden.” She wasn’t sure if she was trying to convince Fran or herself. “What happened?”
“I don’t know a lot. I just heard it on the radio. They were calling in a LifeFlight helicopter to take a game warden to the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. I’m almost sure I heard Matt’s name, but I missed the context.”
Hailey’s entire body went cold and for a long moment, she wasn’t sure she could even move. Or breathe. “You don’t know if he was the warden hurt or if they were reporting he was the warden on scene?”
“I don’t. I’m sorry, honey. The radio chatters all the time and, by the time I realized what was going on, I’d missed some of it.”
“I have to go.”
She ran to her car and drove home, her fingers tight on the steering wheel. Once she was in her driveway, she took a breath and tried to call Matt’s cell phone. It rang and rang, and then went to voice mail.
“Dammit.” She went inside, indecision making her mind whirl.
It might not be him. Whoever was talking might have been letting the other person know Matt was on the scene. He could have been a witness. Or the investigating officer. She had no evidence he was the one hurt.
But she couldn’t stand not knowing and, in the pit of her stomach, she had a bad feeling. Her hands were shaking and her stomach was churning and there was no way she could go about the rest of her day pretending there wasn’t a chance Matt was fighting for his life.
She pulled out her phone again and dialed Drew Miller’s cell. He answered on the second ring. “Drew, do you know anything?”
“There’s a lot of confusion on the scene and nobody has time to talk to me. I know two game wardens went on the helicopter and one of them was Matt, but I’m told only one of them was hurt.”
“I’m going.”
“Hailey, it’s a two-hour drive. By the time you get there, I’ll probably already know what happened.”
“Even if he’s not the one hurt, he’ll need somebody. He won’t have a vehicle. He left here on his ATV and his truck’s still in the driveway.”
She heard him sigh. “Do not speed, Hailey Genest. You wrapping yourself around a tree won’t help anybody.”