Page 49 of Tormented Bastard
She nodded slowly, her eyes still wide with shock. “Yeah, I think so.”
When she turned her head, blood ran down the side of her face. “Fuck, Eden, your head’s bleeding.”
She lifted her hand slowly to her head. “I guess it does hurt a little bit.”
A knock on her side window startled us both. I reached over and hit the down button to lower the window. Sheriff Youngblood was on the other side. “You guys okay?”
“She’s got a cut on her head, maybe a concussion.” I looked down at Eden’s face, which in just a couple of seconds’ time had gone white as a ghost. “Eden? Are you okay? Talk to me.”
“My foot. My head. Pain.”
I shifted to get a better look at the floorboard to see that the side of the truck had caved in on impact, and her foot was trapped in a ridge that had been created. And there was blood. Shit.
“Sheriff, we’re going to need an ambulance and the fire department. It looks like her foot is caught.”
“Already called for one. It appears the other driver had a heart attack at the wheel.” He patted Eden’s shoulder. “Take deep breaths and hang tight, ma’am. Medical help will be here shortly. Any other injuries?”
Between Youngblood and me, we were able to see that Eden had no other major injuries that could be seen outside of the foot and head, which in my book was two things too many. As the Sheriff jogged away to meet the fire department, Eden dropped her head back and let out a breath. A grim smile played on her lips. “Guess I should have listened to you and stayed home, huh?”
“Sunflower…” The fact that Eden had injuries at all made me want to be sick. Before I could dwell on the fact that I’d once again fucked up where she was concerned, the fire department descended on the truck. At some point between the drilling and compression sound of the cutter they had to use to get her foot free, the rain had slacked off to a mere drizzle. Red and blue lights fought against the gray skies to paint the air around us. The combination cast an eerie glow to the day in a shadow of itself, and the wind still whipped around us, but thankfully the rain had finally stopped its deluge.
Within minutes of arriving, they had her foot freed and placed her on a gurney, rolling her up to the ambulance. I ran behind them, and once they had her up inside, I climbed in after Jack, the paramedic on duty. After an initial exam, Jack was able to ascertain that her ankle wasn’t broken—by some miracle—but there was a deep laceration just above the ankle that needed stitches. And it appeared she had a concussion.
“Everything okay here?” Youngblood asked from the double doors.
“She’s got a concussion,” Jack said. “Nothing’s broken, deep laceration on the leg that we’ll stitch up. But we’ll take her in to get a CT and observe her.”
Eden’s head lolled to one side, and she closed her eyes. She hadn’t said much since they’d freed her from the truck. And her face was too pale for my liking.
Youngblood’s mouth was grim, but he nodded. His gaze landed on me. “Got a minute, Chase?”
“Yeah, let’s be quick.” I stood and pointed at Jack. “Don’t leave without me.”
He lifted a gloved hand. “She’s stable. Her injuries are non-life threatening. We’ll tend to her here and wait for you.”
I nodded before finding the sheriff.
“So what happened?” I asked as we walked away from the ambulance.
“Looks like Stan Truman had a heart attack and lost control of his car.” He looked over to the white car that was facing the wrong direction in the middle of the intersection, the red and blue lights casting a shadow over his face. Another ambulance sat on the far side of the intersection, and one of the EMS workers had shut the back doors and hustled to the driver’s side door. “It was touch and go for a minute. They had to give him CPR when they pulled him out.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, tension lodged there that didn’t want to let up. I was all at once pissed off that Eden had been hurt and worried about the older man I knew from the bait store. He was a good man, a salt of the earth type.
“Fucking hell.”
Youngblood nodded. “I know.” He paused. “What do you want to do?”
I looked over at my truck that had finally quit smoking, the front end a mangled mess of steel, especially after they had to cut into the front fender to free Eden. With a sigh, I looked over at old man Stan’s car, which was an older model sedan and would no doubt be totaled.
It was a blip on the radar for me to buy a brand-new truck, but that wasn’t the case for most of the full-time locals on the island, and Stan was one of those people.
Fuck.
With my hands on my hips, I shook my head and looked at the wet ground. “It was an accident. If you can let it ride, let it ride.”
He nodded and made a note on his pad. “I’ll take care of the tow for your truck. You go ahead with your girl.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks, man. And send old man Stan’s tow bill to me. I’ll take care of it.”
