Tomorrow is Friday, and Noah asked me to go with him to set my eagle free in the afternoon. I’m both excited and dreading it. I don’t want to say goodbye to him, but that’s selfish of me. He needs to go live his eagle life.

The sun has gone down, and it’s that time of day when driving isn’t ideal. The lighting is odd, casting shadows and making it difficult to see even with the headlights. With the beams in my rearview mirror from the person behind me, it’s even worse.

I squint, certain I see something up ahead on the road, but when I get closer, it’s just a shadow.

“Yeah, maybe evening classes aren’t going to work for me,” I mumble.

I sigh and brush some hair off my face, and three deer dart onto the highway, right in front of me. I crank the wheel to the right, trying to avoid them, and the Jeep jerks into the gravel on the shoulder of the road. Suddenly, I’m falling down the embankment to the pasture below.

When the Jeep stops, head-first into a tree, I freeze, staring through a shattered windshield.

My insides scream in pain, and my head hurts. I reach up to touch it and come away with sticky blood on my fingers.

I reach over for my phone, but it’s nowhere to be found.

“Oh my God,” I croak. “How am I going to call for help?”

I wince, more pain searing through me.

“Hello?”

Someone’s here!

A flashlight shines in my eyes, making me scowl.

“Fallon! Fuck, Fallon. I’ve called the ambulance.”

“Who are you?”

I don’t even recognize my own voice.

“Sam,” he says soothingly. His hands move over me gently. “I’m checking for anything that’s broken. Where do you hurt?”

“Inside,” I say, finding it hard to catch my breath.

“Inside your body?”

“Yeah.”

“Arms and legs?”

I shake my head. “No. I don’t think so.”

We can hear sirens coming in the distance.

“Oh my God, am I going to die?”

“No,” Sam says firmly and holds my hand. “No way, help is coming.”

“I want Noah.”

“I’ll call him after we get you loaded into the ambulance.”

There’s commotion around us. Voices.

Loud voices.

“Down here!” Sam yells. “One patient. Possible internal injuries. Head laceration. No extremity fractures that I can see.”

It feels like everything moves in slow motion as I’m unbuckled from my seat and moved by four men to a flat board, strapped on, and carried up the embankment to the ambulance.

“Where’s Sam?” I ask weakly.

“Right here,” he says, retaking my hand. “I’m not leaving you, honey.”

“Call Noah.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Blood pressure is low,” someone says.

“Noah, it’s Sam. I need to let you know that I’m in an ambulance with Fallon. Yeah, she was in a car accident. I was driving behind her.”

So it was his lights blinding me in the rearview.

“I don’t know what the injuries are. She’s conscious, and that’s good. Yeah, we’ll meet you there.”

“Is he coming?”

“He is.” Sam leans over me so I can see him. “He’s going to meet us there. You just relax and let these people help you, okay?”

“’Kay. Getting sleepy.”

“Don’t sleep,” Sam says, frowning down at me. “Not until we get you to a doctor. Okay? Stay with me, Fallon.”

“Okay.” I wince. “My insides really hurt.”

“Internal injuries,” someone says.

“Are we almost there?” I ask.

“Yep, we’re turning in now. Keep those pretty green eyes open for us, okay? Just a few more minutes.”

I try to nod and feel the ambulance come to a stop. The back doors are flung open, and I’m wheeled out of the vehicle and inside the hospital where people are hurrying about.

“Fallon McCarthy,” someone says. “What room?”

“Three. The doctor’s in there.”

I’m taken into a room, and when the doctor is satisfied that I don’t have a broken spine, I’m moved to a hospital bed.

“Oh God,” I moan.

“You got beat up pretty good.” A man smiles at me. “I’m Dr. Merritt. I’m a surgeon, and I’m here in case you need surgery.”

“I don’t know if I do.”

“Let’s find out.”

Chapter Eighteen

~Noah~

“Where the fuck is she?” I demand as I burst through the doors of the emergency room. “Where is Fallon?”

“Hey,” Sam says as he jogs to me. “She’s with the doctors now. It’ll just be a few minutes before you can go in.”

“What in the hell happened?”

“She was driving ahead of me, and she seemed fine. I mean, nothing looked out of the ordinary. But some deer ran onto the highway in front of her, and she swerved, lost control of the Jeep, and slid down the embankment into a tree.”

“Fuck.” I rub my hand over my mouth, a cold sweat on my skin.

“She never lost consciousness, which is a good sign, like I said. She has some pain, but who wouldn’t after that?”

“Yeah.” I nod. “Yeah, that’s true.”

“There.” Sam points to a room as Dr. Merritt comes out of it and walks straight to us. “This is Noah, Fallon’s boyfriend.”

Tags: Kristen Proby Big Sky Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net