Page 44 of Hometown Cowboy

He yanked on the wire and stumbled a little, the ploughed ground uneven. He grabbed at the front of the engine grille and fell against the metal. The damned wire was caught on something.

He yanked again. It came free in a cloud of dirt. What looked like a part of an old, rotted fence post hung from the end. The wire was still caught through the hole, a piece of wood about the size of a boot hanging from the end.

“Hmph.” He swung it at the fence, a new one he’d put up only last year. It landed at the base of a new post, the wire entangling amongst the newer shiny metal. He noted exactly where it was. He’d pick it up tomorrow in the ute. He had nowhere to put it on the old Ford.

The tractor groaned again and lurched forward.

Ryan stumbled backward and used the front wheel to push himself further. He tripped and grabbed for the side of the engine cover. The front wheel hit his knee and shoved him sideways. He twisted and stumbled forward to try and get out of the way of the old beast. The back wheel caught his heel and dragged him down into the soft, freshly turned soil.

Ryan twisted as much as he could. If he didn’t get out of the way, he was as good as dead.

The back wheel grabbed at his jeans and yanked at him, trapping the material deep under it. Searing pain hit his hip and calf, his shoulder thrown sideways by the momentum and pushed hard down into the deep furrow. The wheel bucked beside him and a huge disc of shiny metal glinted in the fading rays of sunlight.

It glanced off the side of his head as he was shoved face-first into the waiting earth.

*

Flashing lights.

The illusion of movement, although he was certain he was lying still.

Raised voices and beeping. Someone was shouting what sounded like rapid-fire instructions, but he couldn’t make out the individual words.

The vague, transient waves of pain overlaid with a strangely numb flood of nothingness.

He tried to breathe but something was on his face. He swiped at it but his hand went wide and missed whatever it was.

A strange rocking and the sensation of moving stopped, but the beeping got louder.

A sharp pain in his arm, and all went dark.

Chapter Twenty

Ryan’s injured. At Bialga hospital. Please come.

The message fromJulie was all Darby had. She didn’t know why or how, just that she had to get to the hospital.

Darby got to the waiting room nurse’s desk just as Gabe and Emma barrelled through the doorway behind her. Julie stood with a nurse, tears drying in tracks on her cheeks. A man she hadn’t seen before stood beside her.

Julie caught sight of Darby and her face crumpled. She threw her arms around Darby’s shoulders and squeezed her tight.

“Julie? What happened? Why is Ryan here?”

Darby’s gut was a tight, hard mess.

Please don’t let it be bad.

It was a mantra she’d repeatedad nauseamthe entire drive here.

“They’re going to fly him out. He wouldn’t wake up, Darby.” The abject pain in Julie’s voice broke her heart.

Darby wanted to throw up. She’d seen the helicopter arrive as she drove up to the hospital. Given the size of the rural hospital, they didn’t keep critical patients here. Anyone problematic was stabilised and flown out to Brisbane, depending on severity and complexity.

“What happened to him?” Gabe repeated her question. She didn’t think she could’ve spoken right then, anyway.

The man standing behind Julie looked slightly familiar, as if she should know who he was. His drawn, pinched expression tightened, his skin strangely pale underneath his tan.

“He was run over by his tractor.”

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