Butterfly Cove Read Free Page A

hands released her seat belt. With an odd sense of detachment, she felt the officer touch her neck, then pull back her hair. Searching for signs of trauma, Olivia guessed. If she remembered that, she hadn’t lost all her faculties.
    “Where does it hurt?”
    “My neck. I hit my head.” She shivered as rain struck her face. Then Olivia gave a broken laugh. “Everywhere hurts.”
    “Let’s get you somewhere safe. I put up some flares to hold traffic. An ambulance should be here shortly.” There was something comforting about his low, husky monotone. It made her feel he wasn’t scared. As if he did this all the time, pulling people out of wrecked cars during a major coastal storm.
    “Ready to go?”
    Olivia half nodded. She tried to see his face, but it was raining too hard.
    There was something else. Something about that voice...
    But her head was starting to throb and when he tried to lift her, something in her shoulder popped. A bone shifted and then ground against another joint.
    She screamed at the sudden, blinding pain.
    Dimly she felt him lean her back against the seat. He crouched beside her and touched her forehead. “You’ve got a dislocated shoulder. I heard that joint give way and I can see its position. I can set it back into place, and since I don’t know how long that ambulance is going to take, I think that would be best—if you agree.”
    Olivia could barely understand him. Every fiber of her being was screaming madly from the pain in her shoulder.
    “Do you understand? It’s going to hurt, but you’ll feel better. Nod if you hear me and if you agree.”
    Olivia locked her jaw and managed one sharp nod of assent.
    She hadn’t known it was possible to feel pain like this. It wiped out all her sanity and logic. She had to make it end.
    “Do whatever. Just do it now. Make it s-stop.”
    “We’ll get you through this.” He leaned closer, his chest against hers. He pulled off her scarf and opened the top of her sweater, touching her shoulder.
    Olivia realized he was being as gentle as he could, taking time.
    She didn’t want him to be gentle. “Just do it. Do it now. Whatever it takes.”
    “Okay.” One strong arm slid around her back and his other hand locked. “This is some heck of a storm. They said to expect rain, but who knew the hillside would collapse. If there’s one thing I hate—”
    Olivia’s mind was screaming for him to stop talking and make the pain go away. But she was following his words, slipping in and out of consciousness as he rotated her arm and then raised it, holding its position tightly. He was gentle, but the pain was excruciating, bone slipping against bone.
    Olivia gasped and passed out.
    * * *
    I T WAS GOING to be one of those nights, the new deputy for Summer Island thought.
    He got the children off to safety, crowding them into the police cruiser, which he had pulled to the side of the road. Once they and their teacher were safe, he checked on the status of the ambulance and the highway patrol. Neither was due for another six minutes. The first winter storm of the season had left traffic snarled along the coast for forty miles.
    Officer Rafe Russo walked to the damaged car and took a deep breath. She looked thinner and more tired than he remembered, but Rafe had recognized her instantly. You never forgot your first love.
    He was still shaken at seeing Olivia Sullivan and he was worried about her condition. She was unconscious now. He knew that the pain had been overwhelming. Dislocated shoulders were a bitch, no mistake about it. Rafe had had a few of his own, so he knew what Olivia was going through.
    He shrugged out of his sweater and laid it over her for warmth as the temperature dropped. Then he zipped up his jacket and trotted back to the road. At least the flares had done the job. Traffic had slowed to a crawl, and he used another flare to guide cars slowly around the mudslide.
    Rain crawled down the neck of his jacket, but Rafe ignored his discomfort.