I got to see because the lights at the top of the hill were suddenly blinding.
I tried to look up, but they were so bright that it was impossible to see.
They must carry emergency lighting on the trucks just in case something like this happened.
The snake continued to thrash, and I felt a shiver dance down my spine. “Can you drown snakes?”
Hoax, considering that question, dunked the snake under the water. “I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
And that was what he was doing when not only Bayou but also Linc, as well a woman who must have been on the fire department, came sliding down beside us.
Bayou came down on one side of me, and Linc started to come down on the other. I stopped him before he could set his knee on the snake by lifting my hand up to point toward the reptile.
Which also happened to be right where his dick was.
We both stopped there for a long second. The way he was semi-squatted down in those goddamn knit shorts he loved to torture me in, that made his junk swing free. And it was more than evident that Linc didn’t have a single thing on under the shorts.
“Here I am impaled by a goddamn piece of rebar, drowning a snake, and bleeding from a head wound, and you’re allowing her to feel your twig and berries up instead of helping me.” Hoax groaned.
There was also a smile on his face that clearly showed just how amused he was with the situation.
“Drowning a snake?” both Bayou and Linc said at the same time, glancing toward where I had been trying to point.
Still, Linc didn’t remove my hand.
It was quite obvious that he was enjoying the touch.
Why did I know that without him specifically saying so aloud?
What with his dick getting hard and all, it was more than obvious.
“Why are you not wearing underwear?” I finally asked, removing my hand with the utmost reluctance.
“Focus, children,” Bayou drawled.
“Because you woke me up, and I sleep naked,” Linc explained, ignoring Bayou.
He still wasn’t really paying attention to the thrashing snake barely being held underneath the water, either.
“It’s okay,” Hoax teased. “I’m only getting a nice mud facial over here. I can wait.”
The female firefighter—or at least I assumed she was a firefighter—scoffed.
That was when I turned to her to see her glare firmly on me, bouncing between where I was, and where my hand was still hovering.
The thrashing in the water finally halted, and I shined my flashlight at the water, causing Linc to curse.
“What the fuck?”
“See, I saved you and your testicles,” I added helpfully.
“Was that what the gun was for?” Bayou asked, ignoring the dying snake and getting a good look at the piece of rebar that was in Hoax’s side.
“Yes,” I answered, leaning over Hoax to get a better look myself. “I think if you cut it here,” I pointed to where I was suggesting. “It should be enough to allow the backboard to slide under him without causing the rebar to shift, or at least not shift much.”
The rebar kind of looked like a fish hook piercing into Hoax’s side. I was guessing that he must have landed on it before he fell into the ravine, and as he rolled down the side, the rebar already partially embedded in him, it must have curved into the hook shape as the momentum took him down the side of the ravine. Unfortunately, enough of it was still sticking out that it would be impossible to move him without jostling the rebar and causing him more internal damage and pain.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking, too,” Bayou confirmed. “Good eyes.”
“He has a broken arm,” I said, continuing with my list of injuries. “If y’all take care of the rebar and the head wound, I can secure his arm for transport.”
So that was what we did.
Linc took over dressing the head wound, the woman and Bayou worked on the piece of rebar, and I secured his arm. All the while, Hoax didn’t utter a single sound of pain.
“You ready, Hoaxie?” I teased, looking at him with a teasing expression.
Hoax grimaced but nodded once. “As long as you never call me ‘Hoaxie’ again.”
I bit my lip to keep my smile inside, then tilted my head and said, “Hoaxster?”
Hoax shook his head again.
While I was teasing him, Bayou and Linc got him onto the backboard.
It was then that another round of sirens sounded, signaling the arrival of the medic. Finally.
They must not have been at their station for this kind of response time.
“Finally,” Linc muttered, mirroring my thoughts.
“We’re going to strap you down good and get you into the basket,” Bayou explained what he was going to do. “Then we’re gonna heft your fat ass up.”
Hoax flipped him off. “I’m not fat.”
Hoax most definitely was not fat. He was ripped like Linc was…like Bayou was.