Page 2 of Her Secret Wish

There was a scrabbling in the back of the car again, then a pounding. The car shook around her as if someone were trying to break into the vehicle.

“What’s your name, ma’am?”

That deep voice was incredibly calm. It stood out from the concerned yammering of the onlookers.

Then his words registered. Rachel would have laughed if she’d been a little more with it.Ma’am? Really?

“Rachel. Searles.”

“I wish we could have met under better circumstances, Rachel.” His voice strained as if he were lifting something. “My name is Dean. Dean West. I’m on Denver PD. First responders have been called and they’ll be here any minute. We’ll get you out, okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered. “My left leg is trapped. Otherwise, I seem to be intact.”

“Well, that’s good to know.”

Rachel rested her head against the seat, adrenaline making her muscles quake. She wanted to bolt.Think about something else, damn it.“Is the other driver hurt? I saw the crash coming but couldn’t do anything about it.”

Dean’s voice was muffled. “Nah, I think he’ll be fine. His vehicle is a lot beefier than yours.”

“Mm,” she murmured. She blinked, wondering why it was so hard to keep her eyes open. The blood loss? “Hey, Dean?”

The car rocked again, as if he were trying to rip the passenger side door open. “Yeah, Rachel?”

“I think I’m going to pass out, honey.”

There was a pause in the jostling of the car and then it started up again in earnest.

Rachel let her eyes fall shut and hoped Dean managed to get it open.

***

Dean cursed asher voice went quiet, her head lolling forward at an awkward angle. Blood-stained honey blond hair hung forward over her face. Sweat began to bead his forehead as he tried to wedge one of the doors open but it wasn’t working. The woman had been struck in the passenger side but the driver’s side was wedged against the crumpled guardrail. The expensive black BMW had been totally crunched. There was no way to get into it. Wait. The most intact part of the vehicle was the hood. Careful of the buckled edges, he climbed up onto the hood, lying on his stomach. The windshield had been shattered and glass glittered all over the inside of the car.

The woman didn’t move when he said her name. Daring to reach through the obliterated windshield he searched for her carotid artery in the side of her neck. The beat was there, though a little fluttery and faint. “Rachel? Rachel.”

She didn’t move. Dean looked down her shoulders and body. There was a slice down her left arm but he couldn’t see anything more than that. Scrambling for something to stop the bleeding he looked through the car, but didn’t see anything. “Shit,” he muttered.

Sitting up on the hood of the car he stripped off his orange Columbia t-shirt, folding it in half. Leaning back down he wrapped the fabric around her arm, trying to put pressure on it without hurting her.

Long dark eyelashes fluttered and her eyes opened, then winced in pain.

“I’m sorry, ma’am. We need to put pressure on this to stop the bleeding.”

Golden eyes the color of warm caramel lifted to his as if it were the hardest thing in the world to do. Dean grinned at the woman, trying to be reassuring.

“Oh, damn. You’re too cute for your own good,” she mumbled. “And look at those muscles. Hmmm.”

Dean laughed but didn’t let up the pressure on her arm. “Thank you. Try to keep your head still, okay?”

An ambulance pulled to a stop right beside him, silencing the siren. “Rachel, your ride is here.” Reaching up he ran his thumb over the arch of her left brow, wiping away the blood. Though his training screamed for gloves before he made the action, some visceral urge overwhelmed his common sense.

Her eyes flickered but she didn’t turn her head. “I’ll take your word for it. You’re going to have to pull the car away from the guardrail before I can get out, though.”

Dean felt a trickle of fear roll down his spine. “Why Rachel?”

Blinking, trying to brush at the blood on her temple, she moved her chin toward the floorboards. “My left leg is trapped. Gonna need something to wedge it out.”

A paramedic caught his attention and Dean repeated what she’d just said.

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