“Greg would be pissed if you got dead on my watch.”
Jones’ eyes alit at his husband’s name. “True enough. He wants to know if you want to come over for a barbeque on our next day off.”
“I’d love that. I’ll bring the beer.”
“I know better than to ask you to bring something you cooked.”
“Hey,” I griped. “I might not be a skilled chef, but I am anexcellentbaker.”
“True enough. You can bring that sugar berry thing you made last year.”
“A pavlova?”
“That’s the one. Shit, that was good.”
I chuckled. “Sugar was always the way to your heart.”
My laughter died on my lips as Jones pulled the rig up to where two vehicles had collided on the side of the road, one hanging precariously over the side of the ravine. It looked as if the only thing keeping it from falling was a short tree stump caught on the undercarriage of the luxury sedan. A strong gust of wind could send it tumbling.
We hopped out of the ambulance and grabbed our gear bags from the back. “This doesn’t look good,” I muttered.
A woman emerged from the SUV, holding her head.
“Ma’am, are you all right?” Jones asked.
“I-I think so. There was a deer. It came out of nowhere.”
Jones took her elbow. “I’ll help you.”
I could just make out a man slumped over the wheel of the sedan, moaning. “Sir, are you all right?”
He made another sound, but no intelligent words emerged. I approached the side of the ravine, trying to get a better look. And that was when I smelled it. Gas.
Sirens sounded as the first truck pulled up to the scene. Firefighters spilled out of it.
“What do we have?” Cap called.
“Male, conscious but not lucid. And I smell gas.”
“Fall back so we can assess.”
I gritted my teeth but did as ordered. I watched as Calder and Mac moved forward, trying to get a better look at the vehicle.
“Sir, can you hear me?” Calder asked.
The man made another unintelligible sound.
“I need you to unlock the door.”
Mac made his way around to the other side. “We need to stabilize the vehicle, and we need to move quick. The gas is spreading.”
I stood on tiptoe, trying to get a better view. If the gas was spreading, we were running out of time. There was no way to know if the crash had created damage that might spark a blaze, and the man’s car was still running.
“Cap,” I called. “There’s an open window I can fit through. I can turn off the vehicle and unlock the door.”
“No,” Calder barked. “There’s gas, and we don’t know the condition of the vehicle.”
Cap was quiet for a moment and then nodded at me. “Move quick.”