She used her hands and feet to keep her steady and against the car so she didn’t get dragged over or under it by the current. She felt along the roof, down to the windows. She peered in through the back. Though the water was a bit murky, she could make out the empty back seat. She pulled herself down deeper into the water to the open driver’s door window. A rush of relief came when she didn’t find her sister in the driver’s seat, but that quickly faded when she realized the passenger window had also been either broken out or left down so the car would sink.
Desperate for air, she tried to push off the car to get to the surface, but because of the cold sapping her energy, making it hard to even think, let alone move, she miscalculated and her legs got pushed through the driver’s window. She grabbed hold of the top of the car to keep from being pushed all the way through the car and downriver, but she didn’t have the strength to hold on, nor could she let go to reach for the rope to tug on it.
She felt her muscles losing all strength and her lungs burning for air. Just as everything was about to go black, a sharp yank on the rope drew her away from the car. Then another and another. They were pulling her out. She wanted to kick her legs and move her arms to help get her to the surface faster, but her body wouldn’t work.
It felt like forever by the time her face broke the surface and she got her first desperate gasp of air, but it was quickly stolen when the water swallowed her again.Something hit her in the head. Her leg caught on something, holding her back from being pulled out further, but then another hard yank freed her, but damn, it felt like icy claws scratching her leg. Her head hurt just about as much as her lungs, and just when she thought she’d be free of this icy hell, she blacked out wondering if she’d ever find her sister and niece and get to kiss Hunt again.
Chapter Eleven
Hunt pressed his lips to Cyn’s frozen ones and breathed into her mouth. He’d been giving her CPR for what felt like forever but had only been a minute or two. “Damnit, Cyn. Come back!”
He gave her another breath, everyone watching and waiting with their own breath held, hearts pounding, and finally she spit up a bunch of water and coughed until everything was out of her lungs.
Shelby handed him the blanket. He laid it against his chest, hooked his hands under Cyn’s arms, pulled her back up against him and wrapped her up and held her close. “Damnit, Cyn. You fucking died on me. Don’t do that ever again.”
She shivered in his arms, her teeth chattering. Max was at her legs and pressed a thick gauze pad to the gash bleeding everywhere.
Chase put Cyn’s socks on her and rubbed her blue-tinged calf and thigh to get the blood moving down to her extremity.
Hunt rubbed his hands up and down her arms and made sure the blanket was tightly wrapped around her. “Come on, baby, say something to me.”
“I knew y-you’d s-save me.”
He hugged her tighter and felt her head press to his cheek. “Don’t make me do that again.”
“I can’t promise anything.” She coughed again and burrowed back into him.
He wanted to smile at her teasing, because where the people she cared about were concerned, she’d do just about anything to help them.
“Everything h-hurts.”
“I know. It’s the hypothermia. I’ve got an ambulance standing by roadside, and one of the other officers is coming with a truck to take you out of here. We’ll crank up the heater and get you warm. I couldn’t get a helicopter in here with all the trees, so you have to hang on until I can get you the help you need.”
Shelby kneeled down beside them. “Okay, Cyn, you win for craziest stunt. I’m going to make you a huge pot of hot stew. You’ll sit by a fire. And you’ll let Hunt do all the detective work from now on.”
Cyn still trembled in his arms, but she managed to grin at Shelby. “I think I need a hospital first. My head hurts. My vision is all wonky.”
Shelby brushed Cyn’s hair away from her neck, then looked up at him. “Turn her a bit.”
Hunt adjusted Cyn in his arms and looked down. He thought the wetness soaking his shirt was from her hair, but he was covered in blood.
Shelby’s eyes went wide. “There’s a huge cut on the back of her head and neck.” Shelby turned to Max, who had the medical kit. He handed her some gauze pads and she pressed them to Cyn’s deep wound.
Cyn squirmed, trying to get away from more pain.
“I’ve got you, sweetheart. I know it hurts. The truck just pulled up. Help is coming.”
“Don’t l-leave m-me.”
“No way. Not going to happen, sweetheart.”
She passed out on him again.
He tried to see it as a blessing as they strapped her into a basket stretcher to carry her up the hill. They placed her in the covered bed of the truck, opened the window between the cab and the back so the warm air from the heater could work its way back to her. They also put a bunch of hand warmers along her body and wrapped her in three dry blankets, hoping to raise her body temperature.
The head wound soaked through pad after pad. Her leg wasn’t as bad, but it would require stitches, too.
He didn’t know how extensive the head injury was, but hoped it wasn’t as severe as it looked. Head injuries tended to bleed a lot. But he wasn’t sure if she had a concussion or worse.