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Drew released a harsh breath. “Looks like he’s been here for a while. Good thing the snow provided some insulation to keep him from freezing.”
Abby’s eyes filmed with tears of relief. “Thank God.”
Jack Slade was alive, he was going to be all right. She refused to consider anything else.
“Don’t move him. We don’t know how badly he’s hurt.” Drew stood up, his cell phone in hand. “But by the look of things, he’ll need an airlift to the nearest medical center. I’ll give Seth a call, so he can get right on it.”
Abby nodded. In addition to being the local sheriff, Seth Powers was a good man to have around in any emergency.
While Drew called for help, Abby turned her attention back to Jack. She brushed his hair away from his brow, surprised at the soft silky texture. Everything about Jack Slade seemed so hard.
Half-conscious, Jack felt a woman’s soft, soothing touch. With only distant youthful memories of his grandmother, he wondered if he’d died and gone to heaven. He opened his eyes and encountered hazel eyes rimmed in gold. He knew the woman leaning over him.
One thing for certain—he wasn’t in heaven! Not with Abigail Pierce on hand to torment him.
“Abigail.” He tried to tell her to go away and leave him alone. But the words remained locked in his throat. Why did she have to plague him now?
She leaned closer—her breath warm against his face. “Please, lie still. You’re safe.”
“Safe?” he said in confusion. How could that be when he was lying battered and half-frozen with his leg crushed and a black sky falling on him? Maybe this was all a nightmare, and he would wake up any minute….
“Drew’s here with me, he’s calling for help. They should be on the way.” Her face went all soft. Jack stared, mesmerized, as she continued. “A few more hours and you would have frozen. Where does it hurt?”
Trying to lift his head, he sank back and shook off a wave of dizziness. He focused on her voice. “Everything’s numb, but I think my arm’s broken.” He swallowed hard. “My left leg’s bad. I know it.”
“Just hang on. Help is on the way.”
Jack shook his head. There was no one to turn to—except Abigail Pierce. And she wasn’t even a friend. The story of Jack’s life. He’d been betrayed one too many times to trust easily, and Abigail was no exception to his rule. However, faced with no alternative, he had to make do with her.
“My leg’s pinned under the metal bar. I can’t move it, I can’t feel it anymore.” His eyes trapped hers. “It’s probably pretty mangled.” His voice dropped a notch as he struggled for words. “Don’t let them take it off.”
“Jack, no—” Abby paled, her eyes wide and shocked. “You can’t know if it’s that bad.”
“I know,” he said, grimly reminded of that terrifying moment. He’d felt the metal tear through flesh and bone—a white-hot pain. “Promise?”
Silently, she nodded.
He shivered. “It’s so damned cold.”
To Jack’s surprise, Abby removed her long wool coat, then draped it across his shoulders.
“What about you?” he asked, wary of being on the receiving end of her kindness. There was always a price.
“This is fine. I’m wearing a thick sweater.” She placed her gloved hand on top of his head, as if to keep the heat in his body.
Like a slow tide, he felt some of her warmth seep into him. Afraid to rely on that one small charitable act, he closed his eyes, shutting her out.
“Jack!” Aware of the added risk of hypothermia, Abby panicked. “You can’t go to sleep. Drew’s organizing a crew to come and lift this thing.” She kept talking, saying anything that came to mind to keep him awake. “Seth put in a call to get an emergency evacuation helicopter to fly up here and airlift you to a hospital.”
“Where?” he murmured after a long moment.
“A downstate facility where they have experience in dealing with injuries like yours.” When he said nothing, she leaned closer. “Jack, do you have family, anyone I can call?”
He opened his eyes, shocking her with a vivid blue stare. She could see intense pain in the depths. He looked so vulnerable. “There’s no one.”
“There must be someone,” she said desperately.
His eyes flickered over her face. “There was just Gran and me. And she’s gone.”
“I’m sorry.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why?”
She sighed. “I don’t know. I just am.” Everyone should have someone. She didn’t voice the words.
Help finally arrived—the sheriff and some loggers and a local ambulance manned by trained volunteers. Abby stepped aside to give them room. After a quick evaluation, they placed an oxygen mask over Jack’s face.
Abby felt helpless while a crew of men worked to free Jack. Through it all, the sheriff clipped out instructions, creating order out of chaos. Strong and reliable, Seth was in his element in any minor or major emergency. Abby knew she’d ceased to exist for him in that moment.
It was nothing new.
Duty always came first with Seth—a noble trait, but Abby wasn’t sure she could settle for his steady, stable but unexciting courtship. Would their marriage be like that? Seth charging off—a knight in shining armor to enforce the law and rescue anyone who needed him—while she waited for him to remember she existed? Was it selfish to want more attention, more devotion? More passion?
At length, the dim overhead clatter of the rescue helicopter grew closer until the roar was upon them. A blinding white light beamed down, piercing the night and illuminating the accident scene.
Abby glanced up, shielding her eyes with her hand.
The helicopter dipped low, hovering. An amplified voice called down, “We’re going to land in a field nearby. That’s as close as we can get. Hang on. We’ll be right there.”
It seemed to take forever but was actually less than fifteen minutes before the medical rescue team reached Jack.
Mindless of the cold, Abby helped them wrap Jack in warm blankets. When a medic cut at the denim fabric encasing his leg, she caught a brief glimpse of the injury to his upper thigh. Swallowing hard as the bile rose in her throat, she averted her gaze from the sight of torn flesh and bone. Nevertheless, even with her inexperienced eye, Abby had seen enough. Jack hadn’t exaggerated the damage to his leg. He had every reason to worry about losing it.
Horrified by the realization, Abby didn’t notice her brother had come to stand by her side until Drew handed her the coat she’d loaned Jack earlier.
“You look frozen,” Drew said.
Dressed in a thick wool sweater and slacks, Abby didn’t feel the cold. Nevertheless, she slipped her arms into the sleeves of her gray coat. The quilted silk lining felt warm from Jack’s body heat.
“Thanks,” she whispered, her lips trembling.
Drew gazed at her with concern as he asked, “You okay?” Sometimes she felt he understood her better than she did herself.
Abby laughed shakily, wondering if she was losing her mind. “Jack’s the one with the problem.”
He had looked so helpless—at the mercy of fate. From what she knew of Jack’s troubled past, life had dealt him more than one blow. Would he survive this latest one?
Drew tried to bolster her. “He’s in rough shape, but it could be worse. He may not realize it right now, but he owes you his life.”
“I didn’t do anything.” Abby refused to accept any responsibility for Jack’s life.
That might open up a set of emotions she’d tried to deny since the first day she met him. From that day on, she’d been bombarded by feelings that threatened to disrupt her ordinary, orderly life. But wasn’t change the reason she’d moved back to Henderson? Feeling restless and generally dissatisfied with her life, she’d hoped Seth was the answer.
Seth was safe.
Jack was the unknown.
“You sent out the alarm,” Drew pointed out, a question in his eyes when her silence lengthened. “No one else knew Jack was missing.”
She had known. In some secret part of her, Abby was aware of Jack’s every move. She knew when he arrived at work and when he left—to the minute. She dreaded and craved each new encounter. God! How had she let herself get drawn in by his brooding good looks and the masculine taunt in his bitter blue eyes? Today, she’d glimpsed a flash of vulnerability in Jack Slade—something she’d never expected to see beneath the tough exterior.
Abby wasn’t sure how much time had elapsed before a medic gave the order, “Okay, let’s get him out of here.”
A new urgency gripped her.
The rescue squad had set up flares to light the way back down; the mountain looked on fire. The paramedics bundled Jack onto a stretcher. Since the helicopter had landed in the nearby field, a couple of men had to carry him down the steep mountain path, a slow tedious process.
Following in their wake, Abby felt Jack getting further away from her, breaking that small but very real connection she’d felt earlier when they were alone and he’d asked directly for her help. Then the others had arrived.
He didn’t need her.
Falling back, she breathed easier. Someone else would look after Jack Slade. Not Abby. He was terribly hurt, perhaps critically, but there was nothing she could do for him. Thank goodness, there were professionals on hand who knew how to deal with his life-threatening trauma.
Despite all the rationalizing, she wanted to cry when the men loaded the stretcher bearing Jack onto the helicopter feet first. They’d wrapped him in a blanket and splinted his left arm. No one had dared touch his left leg, except to gently wrap the brutally torn flesh in sterile gauze.
As if pulled by an invisible thread, Abby took a step. “Someone should go with him,” she said to one of the medics climbing on board.
The man glanced back at her. “There’s room for one more, but only the immediate family is allowed.”
“Please, wait.” Abby swallowed hard.
She had no personal connection to Jack. They weren’t even friends, and she preferred it that way. Nevertheless, she’d made a promise—one she found impossible to break or ignore. He’d asked her to save his leg, and she’d agreed.
He was counting on her.
How could she ignore that?
Faced with that grave responsibility, a small lie hovered on her lips. She couldn’t let Jack go alone. He was unconscious. Who would look after him?
Though it was the last thing Abby wanted to do, some deep instinct compelled her to claim an attachment to Jack Slade with the words, “I’m his wife.”
Chapter Two
His wife.
Abby pursed her lips, regretting the impulse the moment the words spilled from her mouth. However, once spoken, she couldn’t take the false statement back. With a few rash ill-considered words uttered in desperation, she’d claimed Jack Slade. How could she? In any case, she had little time to reconsider or come up with an alternative plan.
Preparing for liftoff, the pilot turned on the motor. The engine’s roar drowned out all thought. The helicopter blades spun, circling in a wide arc, churning up a thick white cloud of snow. Abby felt swallowed up in it. A few ice crystals struck her face.
She’d blocked out her brother’s presence.
Drew tried to stop her. He’d obviously heard her claim that she was Jack’s wife. He grabbed her arm, raising his voice above the motor. “Abby, this is insane. What are you doing? You can’t just pretend you’re married to Jack.”
“He’s unconscious.” Abby pulled free and took another step closer to the waiting helicopter. “He can’t go alone, not in his condition. How will he cope when he gets to the hospital? Someone has to go with him.”
“But not you. Jack means nothing to you.”
Abby squared her shoulders. “That’s not the point. He needs someone. There is no one else.”
Drew’s mouth tightened with disapproval. He searched her eyes for a long moment before releasing her. “All right, but God help you when Seth finds out.”
She shook her head. More than anything in the world, Abby wanted to feel truly connected to some place. Someone. Perhaps that someone was Seth Powers. And yet, she found herself saying, “Seth doesn’t own me.”
Drew said dryly, “Try telling him that.”
With a shiver of acknowledgment, Abby turned away from the warning in Drew’s eyes. When the paramedic reached down to give her a hand, she climbed on board the helicopter then quickly found a seat.
The sharp scent of antiseptic stung her eyes. A paramedic inserted an intravenous into the back of Jack’s hand, while asking, “How was he when you found him?”
“He said he was cold.”
“Did he recognize you?”
“Yes, he did.”
The man nodded, he was middle-aged with a kind face and thick eyebrows that shadowed his eyes. “That’s a good sign.”
“Jack will be okay?” She needed some reassurance, something to hang on to.
“We’re doing all we can. The thing is to get him to a hospital where the doctors can deal with his injuries. The nearest medical center is a good distance. So, hang on.”
“Yes, of course.” Fastening her seat belt, Abby took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
With the weight of her promise heavy on her conscience, she glanced at Jack. He lay still as death, and she prayed that he would live, that he would be whole.
She reached for his hand. “Hang on, Jack.”
Jack would never have asked for her help if he weren’t desperate. She’d seen it in his eyes.
From the moment they’d met, he’d seemed unapproachable, his hard eyes challenging her and a cynical edge creeping into his smile when he greeted her with a few terse words. He’d asked to see Drew. Abby hadn’t been able to see past his black leather jacket and motorcycle, but her brother had greeted Jack like an old friend. They’d met in prison—which did little to improve Abby’s opinion.
At the time, Jack had seemed so alien to all that was familiar. Since then, she’d never been able to shake that feeling of impending chaos. He threatened her secure world, adding to her concerns for her brother who was trying to rebuild his life after serving time in prison for violating federal safety code regulations.
Abby frowned, recalling that tumultuous time.
At the trial, Drew had pleaded innocent to the charge. However, he’d admitted to repairing a faulty gas tank valve instead of replacing it with a new one. That one error in judgment had caused an explosion at the family-operated migrant campground. Thankfully, no lives were lost, but the list of serious injuries and property damage was long. A jury had found Drew guilty, and the judge had thrown the book at him. Sentenced to five years in prison, Drew’s punishment hadn’t ended there. Everyone had turned their backs on him, his family had closed down their extensive farming and logging interests and left Henderson. Only Abby had remained loyal.
Three months ago, she’d come back to Henderson when Drew was released. Determined to atone for his mistakes, he’d reopened the sawmill and Abby had joined him. She’d invested both her time and money in the effort. Thus, she hadn’t been pleased when Jack Slade—an ex-con—turned up at the sawmill looking for a job. He was part of Drew’s past, a threat to the future.
