Page 100 of Hooked
“Shit!”
The mountain lion had been sunbathing on the ledge Jeremy was headed for, its back against the rear wall, invisible from the ground.
“Jeremy!”
Their voices only registered faintly. Jeremy’s right hand let go of the ledge when he saw the giant cat’s paw go up. His left hand was too low to hold his weight. His left foot was unsteady.
The shock of the cat’s appearance drove the air from his lungs.
He fell.
“Jeremy!”
The sound of shouting made Jeremy sit up straight, and he immediately regretted it.
“Whoa.” Cary pushed him back down. “Relax. Dave was just scaring off the cat.”
Jeremy drew a harsh breath in and everything hurt. His chest hurt. His head hurt. His right arm was numb. He could feel the blood pulsing through his body.
“Lion!” he gasped.
“It’s gone,” Ashley said. “It ran off. Dave threw a few rocks at it, but you surprised him as much as he surprised you, I think. How’s your head?” She was probing around his hair.
Usually that weirded him out—white people could be strange about black people’s hair—but he could tell Ashley was checking him for injuries.
“I’m not feeling anything swollen and nothing is bleeding.” She snapped her fingers and he looked at her. “Follow my finger, okay?”
“Okay.” His gaze tracked her finger as it went right and left. Up and down.
“Cary, what are you doing?” He was watching Ashley, but Cary was messing with his right arm, the numb one. “My fingers hurt.”
“Your fingers are pretty torn up, my man, but I’m a little more worried about your ulna.”
Jeremy looked down his arm. It was bleeding, and he saw a bone protruding above his wrist. “Oh fuck.” Bile start to rise as the feeling began to return. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not,” Ashley said. “Cary, let me look at the bleeding. Come hold his head, okay?”
“Are you a nurse?”
Dave crouched down beside him. “She was an EMT before our daughter was born. How you doin’, man?”
“Been better. Big cat.”
“Yeah, he was a big one. Lazy though. I think you interrupted his siesta.”
“My mother is never going to shut up about this.”
Dave grinned. “No class prepares you for interrupting a mountain lion’s nap. Is it shitty that I’m kind of thrilled I saw one? We don’t have ’em back east.”
“Uh… yeah, it’s maybe a little shitty. I have a bone sticking out of my arm.”
“You only fell about ten feet. Unfortunately, your arm hit at exactly the wrong angle.”
“The bleeding isn’t out of control,” Ashley said. “Dave, get me my first aid kit.”
“On it.”
“Is anyone’s phone working?”
