Page 53 of Velvet and Valor
Then she coughs, and coughs, and coughs. I help her to put her arms around the truck’s inverted front axle.
“Can you hang on for thirty seconds?” I ask, shouting to be heard over the rushing water.
“I think so,” she says in a ragged voice.
“I’m going to get you loose.”
I dive back under the water and instantly realize how much of a toll all that mouth-to-mouth took on me. I won’t be able to last down here long. I’m nearly at my limit. But when you’re a Ranger, you find ways to go beyond your limits.
If I’m not strong enough, then I’m just going to have to be stronger. Simple as that.
I find her pants leg is somehow trapped in the center console. It only takes one finger and a second to open the console lid and get her loose. The second she’s free, June kicks toward the surface on her own, an encouraging sign.
I get back to the surface and spend a few moments gasping, hanging onto the axle as June struggles toward the shore. She stumbles and falls, and the current starts to pull her out toward the middle.
The adrenaline surge is enough to get me moving. I launch myself at her, grabbing hold of her hand and dragging her toward the shore.
My feet slip on the slick rocks by the riverside, and I go down face first. The sharp crack of a rock against my temple threatens to cloud my vision with darkness once more, but I stubbornly hold on. Both to my consciousness, and her hand.
With a final effort, I yank her up onto the bank beside me. June sprawls on her belly, coughing and sputtering and shivering…but alive.
“We have to get dry,” I gasp. “And warm.”
“It’s not that cold,” she says, lips trembling. “Not in the sun.”
She’s right. We’ve had the misfortune to drag ourselves onto a section of the riverbank positively bathed in shade. The bridge casts a long shadow, plunging us into darkness.
I’ve had a few minutes to recover. I think I can stand. Slowly, I push myself to my feet. My legs feel shaky, but steady enough to hold me. I offer June my hand and hoist her to her feet. She falls into my arms, clinging to me tightly.
“Let’s never do this again,” she says, teeth chattering.
“Right,” I say, too tired and freezing to be witty. We manage to stagger most of the way up the riverbank, until the road is only a few feet away.
“Wait,” she gasps. “What happened to the other truck?”
Damn. I should have thought of that. We might be about to walk into a trap. I cast my gaze about, trying to discern where our enemies have gone.
The tire marks on the road spell out the story of the wreck. A long pair of black bars, burned rubber from the other truck’s tires. I slowed down to take the turn. They didn’t and careened out of control around the corner and slammed right into us at nearly top speed. The tire marks are a legacy of their vain attempt to stop in time.
So, if we went off the bridge, where did they go? I follow the likely trajectory and then spot the truck. Or, more aptly, what’s left of it. It’s wrapped around a tree trunk so intimately you can barely tell it used to be a vehicle at all.
“It’s safe,” I say, pulling her along behind me up the hill until we stand on the asphalt. I find a nice, sun-warmed boulder witha reasonably flat top and hoist her up onto it before dragging myself up beside her.
“Oh god, the sun feels so good,” she gasps, sprawling out to get maximum surface area exposed to the warm sunshine. Her soft eyes turn toward me. “You saved my life.”
“Barely,” I say.
“I’m not going to sweat the details.” June puts her hand on her stomach and grimaces. “Ugh, I think I swallowed half the river. Please don’t find me gross forever if I wind up puking.”
“I could never find you gross, June.”
She cocks an eyebrow, and points at the truck suspended twenty feet in the air, its shredded mass tangled in the branches of the tree.
“Even if I’d been in that thing when it hit?”
“Those guys are basically jelly,” I admit. “Man. Could have been us. I should have done a better job keeping you safe. I nearly lost you.”
I form my hand into a fist and beat the top of my thigh. I’m not trying to punish myself, though I probably deserve it. I just have to hit something and I’m the only valid target at this time.
