He held out his bloody gloves. “Little busy here.”
“Shit, Caden. I need you to come with me now.” Something about Bear’s tone slid ice into Caden’s veins.
“I got this,” Larksen said. “Deal with whatever it is and come back.”
Caden rose, rolling off his gloves and dropping them to the ground. “What’s the problem?”
Bear took him by the arm and led him away from the truck and further onto the grass that divided the highway from the exit ramp that curved off down a little hill. “She’s conscious, but she’s trapped, and she’s—”
“What the hell are you talking about, Bear?” Caden asked, agitated at having been pulled away.
“Makenna,” Bear said, pointing down the slope, where a little car sat upside down and propped at an angle against the hillside.
The world sucked in on Caden until he couldn’t see anything else. He took off like a shot, sprinting his way down the slippery embankment, his heart in his throat, his gut a sick knot, his brain paralyzed with fear.
No, no, no, not Makenna!
Firefighters were working on opening the badly mangled driver’s door so they could extricate, so Caden slid around to the passenger side where a team of paramedics was working.
“Makenna!” he called. “Makenna?”
“Caden?” she cried, her voice warped and wobbly.
A gray-haired EMT from Station Four named Max Bryson peered awkwardly out of the door. “Caden, she’s been asking for you.” Caden swallowed hard as the man climbed out of the crumpled, upside-down front passenger seat. “She’s stable for now. I can’t tell about the baby though, I’m sorry. They’ll have her out in just a few. Car’s stable if you want to get in with her.”
“Baby?” he asked, his brain scrambling to catch up with the man’s words.
“Shit, you didn’t know?” Bryson asked.
Makenna’s pregnant? Caden’s head was spinning.
But he wasn’t what mattered.
Caden crouched down to the narrow opening of the crushed passenger seat immediately. “Makenna?” Jesus, it was tight. And that was as much thought as he gave that before crawling in beside her because fuck his claustrophobia. Nothing was keeping him away from her.
He couldn’t quite get his whole body into the space, but he was close enough to see that she was hanging upside down by her seat belt, her body curled by the way the loss of roof height forced her to bend.
Christ, she was bleeding and cut up and shaking. White powder from the airbag deployments dusted her hair, face, and clothing.
Every one of her injuries lashed at his soul. “Makenna, talk to me.”
“Oh, God, it r-really is y-you. Caden, I’m-I’m s-scared,” she said, looking up at him, her face wet with tears and blood from a wound that had been bandaged on the side of her forehead.
He reached for her hand, but found it wrapped in gauze and splints. “It’s me. I’m here.”
“The baby,” she whispered, her tears coming harder. “I don’t w-want to lose your baby.”
The words reached into his chest and squeezed so hard he could barely breathe. He had so many questions, but now wasn’t the time. “Everything’s gonna be okay,” he said, willing it with everything inside him. Life owed him this, goddammit. This one thing. Her and his child coming out of this okay. The fucking bullshit in his head had robbed him of so much already. Not this. Not this, too. He crawled closer so that he could rub her hair. “You’re pregnant, Red?” The wonder of those words raced through him.
“I’m s-sorry,” she cried. “I should’ve t-told you sooner, but I…I…” Her face crumpled.
“No, no,” he said, stroking her hair. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you or the baby, okay? I promise.” Jesus, she was pregnant. Pregnant. With his baby. He’d be fucking ecstatic about that if he knew they were both okay.
With a loud crunch, the driver’s side door abruptly wrenched open. Makenna flinched on a moan.
“Hey, Red, look at me. They’re going to get you out of here. Just hold on for another minute,” Caden said, looking into her beautiful eyes. It killed him to see so much pain and fear there. “Take a nice deep breath for me.” She did. “Another,” Caden said, breathing with her, calming her down.
“Okay, Makenna,” Bryson said, leaning in the doorway. “We’re gonna cut your seatbelt free and ease you out of there. Caden? You think you can support her legs from in there so I can get her out by the head and shoulders?”
“Yes,” Caden said without hesitation. Although it was going to force him to squeeze all of himself into the tight space so he’d have leverage to hold her. They didn’t want her to fall to the roof of the car when they cut her free. He got into position, his shoulder bracing her thighs. His head was crammed against the jagged roof.
Which was the first moment it occurred to him that he and Makenna were stuck together in a crashed upside-down car. Déjà fucking vu.