Jaxon

At first Jaxon thought he was having a very vivid flashback as he watched a silver sedan T-bone the red Jeep Wrangler at the intersection, but the piercing sound of metal on metal jolted him out of any delusions that this was a dream. Before he knew it, Jaxon was in motion, sprinting toward the collision where the Jeep had disappeared over the guardrail.

The driver of the damaged silver car got out, leaving his door ajar. He stood at the gaping hole in the guardrail and Jaxon watched him thread his hands behind his head. He thought the man was going to be sick. Maybe he was injured or maybe he was reeling in disbelief at the wreck he’d caused.

“Hey!” Jaxon yelled, trying to get the driver’s attention. “Hey! You okay?” But Jaxon must’ve been too far away for the man to hear. Or maybe the guy was in shock. Jaxon pumped his legs faster, yelling again when he got closer. “Buddy. You alright? Call 911.”

Jaxon would’ve done it himself but his phone was strapped to his arm and he didn’t want to stop running to get it out. Plus, he knew the drill. The emergency dispatchers wanted to talk to the victims if possible.

Jaxon kept yelling as he ran. Finally the driver turned in his direction. The guy looked startled when he noticed Jaxon rushing toward him, but he didn’t look injured. “Call 911, “ Jaxon yelled again.

The man jumped back in his car, presumably going for his phone. It wasn’t until the driver’s door slammed shut and the brake lights flashed that Jaxon felt icy panic flood his veins.

“Hey!” Jaxon bellowed. “Hey wait!”

But the driver didn’t wait. He stomped on it, leaving Jaxon no choice but to stand there, helplessly watching the car peel away from the scene of the crime.

Jaxon’s limbs locked up with horror. This wasn’t happening. Not again. Not today of all days. Jaxon yelled after the car, but it was too late. It was already disappearing around the bend. “Stop, you son of a bitch!”

Jaxon knew he was wasting his breath but he couldn’t help it. He didn’t want to be here, alone. Not again. Not like this. Images of his car accident came slamming back to him. He couldn’t catch his breath. He doubled over, clutching his knees for support. For a brief moment all he heard was his mother’s cries for help and it pierced his heart like a fresh wound.

He closed his eyes, but the screaming continued. Shit. Maybe he wasn’t imagining it. It was from someone in the Jeep.

The thought sprang Jaxon back into action. He closed the distance between himself and the demolished guardrail. It sagged like warm taffy in the California sun. Jaxon’s heart hammered as he peered down at the wreckage. The red Jeep was about a hundred yards below him on a steep gravel incline. From the mangled state of the vehicle it was obvious it had flipped several times. That meant whoever was inside would be lucky to have survived. Jaxon strained to listen, but if someone had been crying for help earlier, they weren’t now.

Without hesitation Jaxon hurled himself down the slope, skidding and sliding dangerously past the sparse vegetation that clung to the California hillside. He surveyed the damages as he made his way to the vehicle. The Jeep was contorted. It looked like a red coke can that someone had crushed. The frame was bent and the soft black canvas top was shredded, revealing the twisted roll bars beneath. At least they were still intact. They were probably the passengers’ only hope of survival after a tumble like this.

As Jaxon approached he was sick with dread, terrified at what he might see when he got his first glimpse inside the car. Images of his mother’s lifeless body flashed through his mind like lightning, threatening to make his knees give out.

“No! Not this time,” Jaxon, muttered to himself. He would not be weak. He would not let another life be uselessly stamped out by a senseless accident. Not if he could help it.

“Hello!” Jaxon called, stumbling to a stop next to the Jeep. He tentatively peered into the driver’s side door, getting his first glimpse of blood smeared across the deflated airbags. Not good! He pushed past the bile rising in his throat. “Hello? Are you hurt?”

No response.

Jaxon looked into the Jeep’s mangled interior catching sight of its only occupant.

No! His heart nearly stopped when he locked eyes on a petite girl with tangled auburn hair. She was slumped in the driver’s seat, leaning at an awkward angle toward the stick shift. Blood trickled from a gash on her arm and forehead. Terror pierced Jaxon’s heart. He tore open the driver’s door, relief flooding him when he heard the girl whimper. She was still alive!

“It’s alright,” he murmured, tentatively touching her arm. “I’m gonna get you some help.”

Jaxon pulled out his phone and dialed 911, quickly rattling off their location and the severity of the accident. The dispatcher advised him to stay on the line, but Jaxon was itching to call his brother. Conner was on duty. He’d make sure this crime scene was preserved, unlike what happened with their accident.

“I need to call my brother,” Jaxon said into the phone.

“Sir, please stay on the line until EMS arrives.”

“But my brother—”

The girl in the car cried out and Jaxon nearly dropped the phone when he looked back at her. She’d come to and was squirming in her seat trying to move, and Jaxon saw why. Thick, dark smoke had started rising from under the crumpled hood.

“Shit!”

The girl shrieked again and Jaxon was at her side trying to help her out of the car while the 911 dispatcher chattered noisily in the background. Jaxon switched the phone to speaker and put it in his pocket.

“Sir? Sir, are you still there?”

“Yes!” Jaxon shouted as he tried to help the girl unbuckle her seatbelt. At least she’d been wearing it, but now the damn thing was stuck. “The car’s smoking. I’m trying to help the driver get out.”

“Sir, I don’t advise you to move the accident victim,” the dispatcher replied.

“I don’t really have much choice,” Jaxon yelled, continuing to wrestle with the seatbelt. Smoke was starting to billow in through the vents in the dashboard.

“Please don’t leave me,” the girl begged.

“I won’t.” Jaxon looked up at her, meeting her eyes for the first time. Recognition speared him. He went to school with this girl. “Lucy, right?”

She nodded.

“I’m Jaxon and I’m not going to leave you, okay?”

“Okay,” she quavered.

“Are you hurt?”

“I don’t know. My leg . . . I can’t move it.”

Shit. That wasn’t good. But Jaxon didn’t want Lucy to panic. “How ‘bout this. You work on the seatbelt and I’ll work on your leg, alright?”

She nodded. After a few minutes of fussing, Lucy yelled. “Got it!”

The seatbelt finally released her, but Jaxon was still nowhere closer to unpinning her leg. Her right foot was stuck somewhere under the smashed dashboard. Between the smoke, dark interior and confined space, it was impossible to see what she was caught on. Plus, when he pulled his hand back from her calf it was slick with blood. There was no telling how bad her injury was and he didn’t want to hurt her.

“Can you try to move your foot again?” he asked.

Lucy’s face tightened with pain as she tried without luck.

“Here,” Jaxon said wrapping his arms around her slim waist. “Put your arms around me. I’m gonna try to pull you.”

“No!” she shrieked.

“Lucy, I’ve gotta get you out of this car.” The smoke was growing with ferocity. Jaxon knew in a matter of moments he would see flames. “On the count of three, okay?”

She bit her lower lip, but nodded.

“One, two, three!”

Jaxon pulled and Lucy’s scream nearly gutted him, but she’d moved. It was only inches, but still, every inch counted at this point.

“One more time,” Jaxon said. But when his eyes met Lucy’s she looked woozy. Her gaze was unfocused and she was panting.

“Wait,” she whispered.

Jaxon gave her a moment, noticing that beneath the soot and blood, her sun kissed skin had paled about five shades. She looked like she was going to pass out. That was the last thing he needed. “Lucy, stay with me.”

“It hurts,” she murmured, barely coherent.

Shit! Jaxon was going to have to do this with or without her help. “We’re gonna try again, okay? One, two, three!”

Lucy shrieked to life when Jaxon pulled, but she moved a few more inches and Jaxon swore he heard something that sounded like material tearing. He reached down under the dash to her trapped leg. The pant leg of her jeans was completely saturated with blood now, but he could also feel a small tear in the fabric near her ankle. It was her jeans that were stuck! That, he could work with.

“Lucy,” he shouted shaking her slightly to keep her conscious. “Your pants are caught on something under the dash. You need to take them off.”

That got her attention. Lucy’s eyes swiveled to his, large and round with horror. “Are you seriously trying to get me out of my pants right now?”

“I’m trying to get you out of this car!” Jaxon yelled. “Now help me get these off,” he demanded reaching for the waistband of her jeans.

“I’m not taking my pants off in front of you! I’m wearing a thong!”

“Would you rather show me your underwear or die?” he shouted.

Anger pooled in Lucy’s round hazel eyes, but she batted his hand away and started undoing her jeans. She shimmied them down past her hips, but the progress stopped there. She still couldn’t move her leg enough to get the jeans off and it was obvious each tiny movement caused her intense pain. Lucy gritted her teeth and pulled her leg again without any luck.

“It’s not working,” she sobbed, letting her head fall back against the seat rest.

“It’s alright. I’m gonna pull you out,” Jaxon said, wrapping his arms around her tiny frame again.

“Wait,” she shrieked. “Let me catch my breath.”

But they were out of time and each smoke-filled breath they took only left them sputtering and weaker. “I’m sorry,” Jaxon said and without counting to three he gripped her waist and pulled with all his might.

Now that Jaxon knew he wasn’t tearing flesh and bone he didn’t hold back. He pulled mercilessly at Lucy, who’d gone limp after a blood-curtling scream ripped from her throat. She was barely conscious, but Jaxon didn’t stop pulling. Two more massive heaves and she was free! She tumbled out of the car on top of him and Jaxon didn’t waist a moment. He scooped her slight body into his arms and climbed a good thirty yards up the hill away from the car that had just caught fire.

Carefully, he set Lucy down, turning to look at the angry flames licking out from under the hood. Jaxon pulled his tee shirt up over his mouth so he could take a smoke-free breath and that’s when he noticed it . . . Lucy wasn’t breathing! Panic lanced through him like a blade made of ice and he began to shake as he checked her for a pulse. It was still there, but thready.

Jaxon’s CPR training came back to him and he checked Lucy’s airway and prepared to give her mouth to mouth. When his lips touched hers he closed off his mind and thought of nothing but forcing life back into her lungs. He didn’t think of how soft her lips were, or that they tasted of cherry chapstick. He ignored the way her mouth parted so willingly, matching to his like they’d been made to fit together. But when she took her first gasping breath, all of those tiny details came rushing at him with the force of a freight train.

“You’re okay,” Jaxon crooned, hovering over Lucy. “You’re just fine. Take slow breaths.”

The muffled chatter of the dispatcher vibrated in his pocket and Jaxon tore himself away from Lucy for a moment to pick up the phone. “Hello?” Jaxon yelled into the phone.

“Sir, can you relay what’s happening?”

“What’s happening is that I just saved this girl’s life no thanks to you.” He was enraged that he didn’t hear any sirens yet. What the hell was taking them so long?

“Sir, are you still with the vehicle?”

“Yes. I got her out of the vehicle, which is on fire now, by the way! Where the hell is the damn ambulance?”

“Six minutes out, sir.”

“I need you to call my brother. He’s an LAPD officer with the 77. Conner Bradburn. Patch him into this accident.”

Not waiting for a response Jaxon shoved his phone back in his pocket and turned his attention back to Lucy. He didn’t like the drowsiness that had settled over her and he wanted to get her further away from the fire in case something exploded or the whole damn hillside went up in flames. He figured the decent thing to do was to give her some modesty too. Jaxon slid her jeans back up over her narrow hips and then lifted Lucy into his arms again. He tapped into the adrenaline pulsing through him and carried her up the incline and toward the road. He did his best not to jostle her, but all the movement caused her to stir.

Lucy’s hazel eyes blinked up at him, unfocused. “Alex?” she murmured.

“No. It’s Jaxon.”

Her eyes fluttered closed.

“I need you to stay with me, Lucy.”

“Don’t leave me,” she mumbled.

“I won’t. But you gotta do the same, do you hear me? Stay with me Lucy. Can you do that?”

Her head rocked to the side and thudded against Jaxon’s chest. No! This wasn’t going down this way. Not after he’d gotten her out of that inferno and kept her breathing. He was not going to let someone else die in his arms. He couldn’t survive that. “Lucy! Open your eyes. Lucy!”

Her eyes flickered open slightly and Jaxon’s heart started beating again.

“Keep talking to me, Lucy. We’re almost there.”

“Where?”

“We’re going to get help.”

“Help?”

“Yes. You just gotta stay with me, okay?”

“Stay?” she whispered.

“Stay with me,” Jaxon growled.

“Stay with you,” she echoed.

Jaxon could barely hear her soft voice over the wail of the approaching ambulance, but she’d said it. She’d said those words he needed to hear. He needed her to fight. He needed it more than she knew.