“He may twitch a bit, even after he’s out,” the man warned, keeping a close eye on the huge beast. “So, stay clear of his body the best you can.”
Say what?
Jett wanted to snort over the useless piece of information. It would probably be good advice if the hole was bigger, but as it was, there’d barely be any wiggle room. She was going to have to slip her body down between the wall of the cistern and the moose to get him harnessed up. She could only hope he wouldn’t lean over on her.
“How much do you think he weighs?” she asked the vet, just out of curiosity.
“I estimated, for tranquilizer purposes, that he’s somewhere around a thousand pounds. He’s young, so he hasn’t reached his full weight yet.”
Goody.Only a thousand pounds.
Yup.If she survived, this was clearly something to put on her resumé.
To kill time, Jett asked another question that had been running around in her head, turning to Officer Daniella. “Who did you say found this poor moose?”
The sergeant pointed over to two boys that Jett had missed, hanging out under a tree, snapping pictures on their phones.
Great.They’d be all over social media by nightfall.
Although that certainly wouldn’t be bad for Diver Downeast’s reputation.
“Like I said, they were snowshoeing and heard this guy bellowing. When they saw that they weren’t going to be able to help, they called us, which was lucky. We’d only recently been sent an online flyer by Diver Downeast, and knew just who to call. Without you guys, we would have had to find a local with diving expertise and the right equipment, which would have wasted precious minutes we obviously didn’t have.”
“Right place, right time,” Trask told the officer with a smile, and Jett felt a jolt to her stomach. The damned man was gorgeous when sullen, but downright stunning when he let joy show on his face.
Wait.He was smiling at the pretty cop? He hadn’t smiled ather. Did he see something there that he liked?
Shafts of jealousy stabbed through Jett, and she didn’t know what to do with those feelings. Never once in her life had she felt even remotely proprietary toward a male, and it was…unnerving.
She scoffed.
It must be due to the tense situation.
It couldn’t possibly be because she’d already formed some weird attachment to the grumpy man after knowing him for only a few hours. Not even close. Adrenaline, no matter how slow the trickle,couldconfuse ones emotions.
Yeah.That was it.
Time ticked by slowly, but the minute the vet alerted them to the moose losing consciousness, Jett sat down on the edge of the hole and pushed off, swiftly being lowered into the water.
It took only a few seconds for her to secure the big animal’s head, passing the requisite lines up to Trask for safe-keeping. Once that task was accomplished, Jett gave herself a few precious seconds to assess.
Crap. He really was freaking large.
She lowered her mask, took a deep breath, and dipped down under the beast to see if there was anything impeding his rescue other than the gravity working on his unwieldy, bulky body. She was happy to find no lines wrapped around his surprisingly delicate legs, and no muck miring him down to the bottom.
She surfaced, sucking in a breath before giving everyone above the good news. “He looks clear from below. Nothing impeding his lower body,” she apprised the team. “Hand me down those straps and I’ll get a sling around him so you can haul him up.”
While she waited, she took the opportunity to get a good—up close and personal—look at the moose.
He was a handsome devil, and she gave in to temptation and stroked his soft nose, because when would she ever get such an opportunity again? Probably never.
Chuffs of warm breath emerged like dragon-smoke from his nostrils as he readily took in and blew out air. Tears threatened behind Jett’s mask. This magnificent creature had gotten very lucky. Another few minutes and they might have been too late.
Mr. Moose moved a bit while the gear she needed was being lowered, but by sticking next to his head, Jett managed not to get squished between the walls and his massive torso. She knew that once she started harnessing him, however, she’d be over, under, and around him, so she’d have to stay vigilant.
Lines and clips in hand, Jett went to work.
Her mind blanked out everything but the task in front of her. It was a skill she’d perfected early on in her military career. Normally her brain was all over the place, flitting from one thing to another, curiosity often overtaking common sense. But out of necessity, she’d quickly learned how to manage her easily-distracted self, which was a good thing. She never would have made it into the PJs, otherwise.
