* * *

  The anger wouldn’t go away.

  Cade might have been able to shut down any personal considerations the moment he’d climbed back down the slope to where steel cables were now preventing the van from sliding or even rolling any further, but that knot of emotion was still there in his gut and it wasn’t acceptable.

  He had a job to do here and he couldn’t allow a distraction that might interfere with his focus on the first patient. The driver of the van had regained consciousness by the time he got close enough to assess him thoroughly but his confusion and combativeness suggested that he had a significant head injury and it would make the task of extricating him a danger to everybody involved, including the patient. It wasn’t going to be possible to get to his wife or the children in the back until he was out and that added to the urgency.

  It should have made it easy to completely forget the shock of seeing Jo on scene, but that knot in his stomach wouldn’t go away. It wasn’t interfering as Cade sorted his assessment and treatment priorities but he could feel it as a background niggle that he knew he’d have to deal with later.

  In the meantime, sedation was needed, which meant IV access was a priority. A C collar was called for because the mechanism of injury could well have caused cervical spine trauma. Oxygen was on this list and further interventions to secure the man’s airway could well be necessary. An extrication device that fitted like a vest and immobilised the spine, neck and head would have to be used to lift the patient from the vehicle. A baseline set of vital signs would let him know what the most urgent action was going to be. Cade tried to catch a flailing arm and wrist to check both the heart rate and rhythm and get at least a rough gauge of blood pressure as he watched and listened to assess respiratory effort.

  ‘Take it easy, mate. I’m just trying to help. Try not to move just yet.’

  Jules was trying to calm her husband from where she was still trapped in the passenger seat. ‘Stay still, Pete. It’s okay...we’re going to be okay...’

  Pete’s knuckles narrowly missed Cade’s chin. ‘I need another medic down here,’ he told the nearest fire officer. ‘Stat.’

  ‘Sure thing. Want us to bring the doctor down as well?’

  ‘No...’ Cade’s response was emphatic. ‘Dr Bishop is not to come down here. Send another HEMS crew member, please.’

  Okay...so maybe that niggle wasn’t quite far enough in the background but, good grief...how could she be taking a risk like this? Even being a passenger in a helicopter was bad enough. Surely Jo, of all people, knew how fragile life could be. For anyone, but especially for vulnerable children or an unborn baby...

  It was Tom who joined him to work in the cramped and difficult space that the front seat of the van provided. The look he flicked Cade made him wonder if something had been said about Jo not being allowed to work down here with him but Tom made no comment. He was already completely focused on what was clearly going to be a challenging job ahead of them.

  * * *

  Accident scenes that involved a lot of emergency services personnel were a bit like a nightmare version of an emergency department for Jo. They were centred around the same injuries and sometimes medical events that she was well used to dealing with in a hospital setting but the environment and resources were far more chaotic out in the field and you couldn’t summon backup or push a cardiac arrest button knowing that more staff and equipment would arrive in seconds.

  It was the reason Jo had always loved this part of her job, but today it seemed noisier and more challenging than it ever had before. Stressful, that was the word for it. It didn’t help that there was still no sign of what was likely to be the most seriously injured patient in this incident being extricated from his vehicle so he could be stabilised and taken to that nicely controlled emergency department that was waiting for him.

  ‘What’s happening down the bank?’ she asked the scene commander as he stepped back to let two ambulance officers steer a stretcher towards a waiting ambulance.

  ‘They’re still working on getting the guy out. Shouldn’t be too much longer. How’s it going here?’

  ‘Under control. We’ve pretty much sorted all the cyclists. That patient going now has a probable fracture/dislocation of his ankle. The others have some cuts and bruises but they’re all okay to transport themselves and they want to stay here and sort out the bikes.’

  ‘What about that woman with the neck injury?’

  ‘She was the first to go by ambulance—about ten minutes ago. I don’t think it was a serious injury. The tingling in her hands disappeared as soon as she stopped hyperventilating but she’ll get properly checked out at hospital.’

  Jo wanted to go and look over the edge of the road to see what was happening but she could still hear Cade ordering her not to go near that part of the scene under any circumstances. Being so busy with the injured cyclists had meant she hadn’t had an opportunity to think about how angry he’d been that she was here but there was nothing to distract her now. Except that she was also aware of something else that was adding to her stress levels. As usual with a HEMS callout, she hadn’t taken the time to go to the bathroom before rushing up to the rooftop helipad but it wasn’t usually a problem because the adrenaline that came with this kind of work could shut down the need for as long as an emergency took.

  She’d never had a baby pressing on her bladder before, though, had she?

  Cade’s baby.

  Her own anger had long since evaporated. Right now she had the kind of squeeze on her heart that she’d had when she’d first heard Cade’s tragic story. The kind of squeeze that had only become more painful the more she’d fallen in love with him. He was just trying to protect himself, wasn’t he? And if it was so hard he had to use anger as a shield now, would he even be able to keep those barriers in place at all when he was able to hold his baby in his own arms?

  ‘You think it’ll be a few minutes before they bring up the driver?’

  ‘Yep. They were just starting to get him into that jacket thing they use. He’ll have to be secured to the scoop stretcher and then brought up the bank. We’ll be able to get to the woman and children then, so it’ll get busy again.’

  ‘I’m going up the road for a minute or so,’ Jo told him. ‘Nature’s calling.’

  The scene commander gave her a thumbs-up sign. ‘No worries. Don’t go far away, will you? You might be needed soon.’

  ‘I won’t.’

  Jo had no intention of going any further than she needed to in order to find a private spot. There was plenty of vegetation and large rocks on the slope between the road and the river and it wasn’t so steep further up the road towards where the helicopter had landed. There was nothing else she needed to do at the moment and she’d be back in plenty of time to help Tom and the other paramedics still on scene to treat and load the van driver.

  She took extra care to watch her footing so that she didn’t slip as she climbed a short distance down from the edge of the road and then searched for a sheltered space behind rocks or a bush. If she couldn’t see anyone else, they wouldn’t be able to see her, would they? A minute or two later, she was zipping up her flight suit again, feeling much less stressed, and she closed her eyes to let out a long breath.

  That was when she heard it.

  An odd noise.

  It sounded like...what...a lamb bleating? It made Jo take a few more steps down the slope, anyway, to see what it was and she found herself much closer to the river. And, yes...it did look like a lamb. A small, white shape near the water’s edge. Except... Jo took another step, trying to focus. Trying to make sense of the movement she could see. It wasn’t a lamb, she realised. It was a very small child, wearing just a nappy and a white singlet. Her head swerving, Jo realised she could see the back of the camper van now that she was away from the shelter of the bushes and rocks. She could see the smashed window in the van’s back door. Was that where the baby had come from? Why had nobody noticed? Would they hear her if she shouted loudly enough?

  Another blink to check on the child and she found it was standing up. Wobbling on small, chubby legs. Heading straight for the edge of the river. It was less than twenty metres away from where Jo was, but it was too far. And anyone near the van who heard her shouting would be even further away. The river might not be huge but she could see that there was a decent current. More than enough to snatch a baby and wash it away.

  There was a much steeper slope before the ground levelled off near the river but Jo couldn’t take the time to search for a safer route. She did her best to avoid injuring herself by sitting down on her bottom and pushing herself into a slide so that she didn’t fall. She held her breath as she started moving and sent up a silent plea that she would get there in time.

  * * *

  The twist in the tail of this rescue mission was completely unexpected.

  Every pair of hands that could get close enough to the camper van had been utilised to get access to the injured driver and get him out safely. Cocooned in a cervical collar, the extrication device that wrapped around his body and warm blankets beneath the straps of a basket stretcher, he was being passed from handhold to handhold by the rescue workers positioned on the steep slope between the van and the road where the helicopter was waiting to transport him to hospital.

  The most difficult aspect of this rescue had been successfully completed as far as Cade and the others were aware. Tom was heading up with the stretcher. He and the rest of his HEMS crew could take over. Cade was now focused on getting Jules and her children out. The young mother did have a fractured wrist, which Cade swiftly splinted. He couldn’t tell if her ankle was broken or only sprained, but her foot wasn’t badly trapped after all and he’d been able to ease it out of her shoe to get her free. She refused to climb out of the van before her children, however, reaching through the gap between the front seats.

  ‘Hayley? Come here, darling. It’s okay...we’re going to get out now.’

  The young girl squeezed through the gap and Cade lifted her out to pass her into the arms of a waiting fire officer.

  ‘Does anything hurt, sweetheart?’ he asked.

  She shook her head but burst into tears. ‘I want Mummy...’

  ‘I’m coming,’ Jules called. ‘Jamie? Where’s Danny?’

  ‘He’s asleep. Under the duvet.’

  ‘How old is Danny?’ Cade was leaning into the van, one knee on the driver’s seat.

  ‘Fifteen months. He’s our baby.’ Jules was twisting her body, trying to see into the back. ‘Can you get in through the back door?’

  ‘There’s a tree blocking it.’ Did he need to get the firies to use their cutting gear on the rear of the van? They were talking about a baby here. A silent baby.

  ‘Where is he, Jamie?’ There was an edge of panic in Jules’ voice. ‘I can’t see.’

  Cade could see into the back. He could see Jamie sitting in the nest of crumpled bedding. He could see the duvet covered lump beside the small boy that had to be the sleeping baby, but something didn’t feel right. Cade could actually feel the hairs on the back of his neck rising as he put his arms through the gap and pulled at a corner of the duvet he could reach. One good tug and he uncovered the lump.

  ‘Oh, my God,’ Jules said. ‘That’s a pillow... Where’s Danny?’

  Cade’s gaze flicked up to the smashed window in the back door. Had the baby been thrown clear? Was he lying badly injured and hidden in the undergrowth? He was out of the van before he’d taken his next breath. Behind it as he instructed the rest of the team to get Jules and Jamie out. He could see more now. All the way down to the river, which wasn’t that far away. His gaze snagged on a white blob at the water’s edge but then swerved sideways. The bright orange of a flight suit was far more eye-catching.

  He knew who it was, of course. And he knew he was seeing the moment just after Jo must have fallen because he could see the speed with which her body was moving—straight towards the rocks that bordered the river.

  ‘No...’

  Maybe a cloud happened to block the sun at precisely that point in time. Or maybe he had just imagined it, but Cade was always going to remember the way the entire world seemed to have dimmed as he began to run.

  * * *

  It wasn’t the first time Jo had been thankful for the steel-capped boots she always wore with her flight suit for a HEMS callout. She used her foot to slow and then break her slide well before she reached the bottom of the slope. She was on her feet a heartbeat later and had the baby in her arms before she’d even pulled in a new breath.

  Almost in the same moment, she found she was herself in someone’s arms.

  But it wasn’t simply someone. It was Cade. There were others right behind him. People who took a baby who seemed miraculously unharmed, leaving Cade to help Jo back up to the road.

  Except he didn’t move straight away. Instead, Jo could feel the grip of his arms tighten around her.

  ‘Are you sure you’re okay? I saw you fall...’

  ‘I’m fine.’ Although Jo could feel that she was trembling. ‘I wasn’t falling, I was sliding. I had to, Cade... I had to get to the baby before he went into the river.’

  ‘I know...’

  ‘I’m sorry...’

  ‘What for?’

  ‘Being here. I could have fallen.’ Jo could feel tears rolling down her face as the fright kicked in. She’d done something that could have been catastrophic. Her next words were no more than a whisper. ‘I could have hurt our baby.’

  Cade’s baby. She could have repeated a history that would have destroyed this man she loved so much. It would have destroyed her. Cade had every right to be even more angry with her than he had been when he’d seen her arrive. But he didn’t seem angry as he cradled her body in his arms. He certainly didn’t sound angry when he spoke, his lips close to her ear.

  ‘I could have lost you...and, right now, that’s all I can think about.’

  Jo blinked. That didn’t make sense. The baby was more important than anything else. It was the only reason Cade intended to stay in her life, wasn’t it? The only reason he’d asked her to marry him?

  ‘I was wrong.’ Cade’s voice was a low growl that seemed to be answering a question Jo hadn’t asked aloud. ‘I guess it’s true that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, and when I saw you falling I knew...’

  Good grief...it sounded as if Cade’s words were being choked by tears.

  ‘I knew what it would be like if you were gone and...and it felt like it would be the end of the world. I love you, Jo.’ There was amazement in his voice. ‘I didn’t think I could ever feel that again but... I do. I love you. I think I always have.’

  Yeah...that heartbreaking catch in his voice conveyed a depth of emotion that was utterly compelling. The kind of emotion that stole your breath and squeezed your heart so hard it hurt. The kind Jo had been feeling herself ever since she’d fallen in love with Cade.

  ‘Me too,’ was all that she could whisper.

  Cade’s radio crackled into life and almost drowned her words but she knew that she’d been heard. She could see it in his eyes.

  ‘You guys okay down there? Need any help?’

  Cade cleared his throat and pushed the button to respond. ‘We’re on our way. We’re all good.’

  He caught Jo’s gaze and, for the first time in weeks, they had one of those silent conversations that could happen in a heartbeat.

  Are we good?

  Yes... So good...

  We can’t talk now.

  No. We’ve got a job to finish.

  We’ll talk later, though.

  Oh, we absolutely will.

  They began the scramble back to road level, with Cade keeping a tight hold on Jo’s hand. He didn’t catch her gaze again until they were about to step back into their professional roles. Tom was already in the helicopter with their patient and the rotors were picking up speed. Geoff and another ambulance crew were caring for the rest of the rescued family, who would be able to be transported by road. It was time to put the finishing touches on this mission.

  So it was merely another blink of an eye that they shared. Just a graze of eye contact, but it was more than enough for Jo.

  I do love you. Cade looked as stunned by the revelation as she was feeling. More than I could ever tell you.

  You just did, Cade. Jo could feel her lips tilting into a misty smile. You just did.

  EPILOGUE

  A month later...

  HE WAS THE luckiest man on earth.

  He was being given, quite literally, a new life. On more than one level.

  The ability to feel love was an unexpected gift. And yes, that came with risk and he still had moments when fear could edge its way in, but it was worth it because, without taking that risk, you could never feel like this. Like you had found the very best of what life could offer. That simply living each day was so much more meaningful and that your future was so much more exciting because you had someone to share it with.

  If you were really lucky, the person you loved felt the same way about you, and if you were as lucky as Cade Cameron that person was an extraordinary woman who had admitted that she had so much love to give. Love that she’d bottled up because she’d never had someone who loved her back. But now she did and she was choosing to give all that love to him. And their child, of course, but for now it was mostly just for him and he was going to make the most of every minute.

  Would he be pushing his luck if he asked the question that was, once again, burning a hole in his brain? It had been pushed aside in the last weeks because life had got so busy, what with work and going public with their relationship and Jo’s pregnancy. With moving in together and house hunting and antenatal appointments. And with using every possible free moment to just be together and get used to this miracle of loving and being loved. He couldn’t ask for any more than that, anyway. Could he?