It had been a long time since he was this scared.
“I’m coming down to you,” Randy called out, dropping a rappelling rope down the hill.
Hawk called up. “Take pictures as you come down. Sheriff will want them before we muck up all the evidence.”
“On it.”
The rest of the team spotted Randy on his descent and gathered all they’d need to get Lucky out of the ravine.
Hawk focused on splinting her grossly swollen knee, worrying the whole time about how quiet and still she was, despite him manipulating her injuries.
She had to be in so much pain.
It killed him to add to it. But he didn’t dare give her any meds, not until they assessed her more thoroughly.
He couldn’t see the front of her. That worried him, because she was lying in a lot of blood. Was it all from her thigh and shoulder wound? Or would he find something even more horrendous?
Randy made it down next to him. “How is she doing?”
“Not great. Did you bring a small saw to cut her away from the tree?” Just the thought of having to do it made his stomach turn and his heart clench. He didn’t want to cause her any more pain.
Randy unsheathed the tiny saw with its ten inch blade. “Want me to do it while you hold her up so I can get under her?”
“I think we’re going to have to dig some of the dirt out from under her to get to it.”
Randy leaned over Lucky and tried to see underneath her, but her full breast was kind of in the way.
That’s what worried him the most, that they might not be able to cut her loose and they’d have to lift her off the root stabbed through her. She could bleed out before they could do anything to save her.
Randy’s face reflected his dire concerns. “This isn’t going to be easy.”
“We need to be able to see beneath her before we do anything.”
Randy handed over a small gardening shovel. They had all kinds of things in their tool kits. “Let’s do this a little at a time. Do you have leather gloves?”
Hawk pulled a pair out of his pack and slid them on. “I’ll protect her skin, you dig toward the root and see if you can make a big enough hole to cut it.”
“How the hell has she lain here like this for days? She’s got to have a massive neck and back ache if not worse, the way she’s bent.”
Hawk knew if he’d been bowed like this for three days he’d be in major pain. “Focus on getting her free, then we can assess her better.”
“How long has she been out?”
“Like ten minutes. Hurry.” Hawk didn’t want to feel like a perv, but he sort of did when he slid his hand under her armpit and wedged his fingers under her breast, pushing it so that Randy could shovel out dirt from beneath her. This was not how he wanted things to start between them.
He reminded himself this was all in the name of rescuing her.
They worked slowly. Carefully.
Three other SAR team members joined them around Lucky’s limp body, watching and waiting until they could move her. They were all silent, like everyone was holding their breath to see if she’d make it.
She had to.
Hawk felt Randy jab the saw blade into his glove. “Watch it. You’ll hit her.”
“I need to just get this last little bit and then I think she’ll be free, but I have to hit it at this angle to do it.”
Hawk swore. “Fine. Just go slow. She’s got enough fucking marks on her.”
