Chapter 12
Cord watchedin horror as the side-by-side flipped end over end. Sam flew out with the first roll, landing in the dirt, unmoving. “Shit.”
He shoved the gas pedal to the floorboard, reaching her in record time, and barely shoved the truck into park before he flung the door open and dove forher.
The side-by-side landed upside down in the dirt about fifty yardsaway.
“Sam, Sam can you hearme?”
She’d landed on her left side, her long black hair spilling out behind her, her face turned toward the dirt. He leaped over her and dropped down to his hands and knees so that he could see herface.
“Sam?” He carefully brushed her hair back from her dirty face, cringing at the fresh, red, raw scrapes marring her high cheekbones. Her long, dark lashes lay still against her perfectcheeks.
What the hell had he done? She’d torn out of that ranch to get away from his hateful words. Now the consequences of his stubborn pride may have killed the woman heloved.
Hands shaking, Cord clenched his hands, all the blood leaching from his fingers. He’d done this. Just him. The image of that side-by-side spitting her out like a ragdoll replayed over and over in hismind.
He slapped a hand over his eyes, trying uselessly to block the image, only to pull it back and stare in shock at the damp sheen on his palm. Tears. He hadn’t cried since…he couldn’t remember. He hadn’t shed a tear when he’d woken without a leg. He hadn’t felt this sharp, stabbing pain in his chest. He hadn’t felt anything. UntilSam.
She’d woken something inside him. Something long dormant and long dead. Something he didn’trecognize.
“Sam? Can you hear me?” He had to force the words through the giant dry boulder in histhroat.
Cord moved his hand to her hair, carefully sifting his fingers through the silky strands. Her satin-soft skin amazed him, and her unresponsive stillness scared the living shit out ofhim.
He’d dealt with injuries on himself and his team, but Sam was different. She was fragile and breakable. Had he brokenher?
The hate he’d spewed crawled through his ears. He’d accused her of setting him up, luring him to the ranch, and then using her body to crack open his hard shell…bastard.
He didn’t deserve her. The wind and the heat faded. His vision tunneled onto the scrapes lining her face. So raw and damaged. He hadn’t deserved her in high school, with his fucked-up family and terrible grades. The thing was he’d known it then, and he’d actually cared enough to stay the hell away from her. Tarnishing her with the famous Carter family trash had been reprehensible when he’d had aconscience.
Before the military and the teams had molded him into a wrought-iron machine, bent on battle and destruction. He could kill without flinching, and he had, multiple times, and he would again. The thought of taking the life of the enemy didn’t even put a chink in hismorality.
But seeing Sam hurt slaughtered hissoul.
His ears roared, the wind seeming to whip across the earth, raging around him. Even if she hadn’t broken her neck, he couldn’t carry her far. His leg would give out before he reached thetruck.
His CO had known exactly what he was doing to send Cord out here. He hadn’t been worried about his physical preparedness, but his mental stability. A true warrior didn’t cave to his emotions or snap when he felt threatened. He kept a cool head and stayed calm, even when he was angry orscared.
Cord had done neither. He’d been confronted with his limitations, and he’d snapped, and just like every single second of his training had warned, losing control would not only hurt himself, but others. The evidence for that lay on the ground beforehim.
Suddenly, qualifying for his team wasn’t as important as it had been a minute ago. Samantha Bishop took front and center above everything else. If he couldn’t save her, the rest didn’t matteranymore.
Cord took a deep breath, and then another, slowly inhaling and exhaling, until he slowed his heart rate down and the roaring in his ears subsided. He unclenched his fists and leaned over, the shadow from his torso falling across Sam’s face. Carefully and methodically, he began to check her for broken bones and obvious injuries. The only thing he found was a large gash near her temple and the scrapes down her cheek. “Sam, can you hearme?”
She didn’t so much as twitch at the sound of his voice. Shoving back the dull ache in his chest, Cord quickly shoved to his feet and jogged back to the truck. Most places like this had first-aid kits on hand. Any worker could be caught out away from the house and injured, and they needed to be able to treat themselves enough to make it backhome.
The driver-side door still hung open. Cord reached inside and killed the engine first. A quick scan of the floorboards revealed nothing but old trash and candy bar wrappers. He slammed down the bench seat, but behind it there was an old, rusty chain; a small roll of barbed wire; and gloves so dirty he couldn’t tell what color theywere.
A rifle was strung across the back window in a black gun rack, the only thing in the truck that was shiny and new. The gun would be great for taking out coyotes or other wild animals, but was absolutely useless for what he needed now. A quick check of the glove box revealed it to be just as empty as the rest of the truck, except for a box ofammo.
There wasn’t even a CB radio for him to contact the ranch and call forhelp.
He took a step back, slid a hand over his eyes for shade, and scanned their surroundings for anything that could serve as a makeshift brace. The rolled 4 x 4 caught his attention, as did a small cloud of dust in the distance. Hope surged through his veins. That cloud was coming from the direction of the ranch. Maybe Ryder had decided to follow-up—instead of giving them the privacy Cord had intended. In this instant, he was perfectly happy for theinterruption.
Foregoing a long trip to the side-by-side, Cord returned to Samantha’s side, dropping to a knee. A slight breeze blew Sam’s hair across her face, and Cord gently pushed them back. “Just hold on, Ryder should be here any moment.” The words, “I’m sorry,” stuck in histhroat.
Sam moaned and Cord’s heartbeat thumped hard against his sternum. “Sam, Sam, open your eyes,” hecommanded.
