The heel of Jim’s boot landed on a piece of two-by-four that was lying across an extension cord and gravity took hold of his body, sweeping him off balance. As he fell, he split the cord from its joining with another, and sent the live end popping free and flipping into one of the puddles.

Jim hit the flooring in a loose sprawl of limbs…which ordinarily would have just left him with some bruises on his ass and his shoulders.

But his bare hand landed in the water.

The electrical shock blared up his arm and slammed directly into his heart. As his spine jacked for the sky and his teeth locked together, his eyes flew wide and his hearing shorted out, the world receding until all he knew was the wild, consuming pain in his body.

The last image he had was of Eddie’s long braid swinging wide as the guy lunged forward to help.

Vin didn’t see the guy fall. But he heard the hard landing of a big body and then the scramble of boots and the shouted curses as people ran over from all directions.

“Stay here,” he told Devina as he took out his cell phone.

He punched in 911 as he rushed toward the commotion, but didn’t hit send yet. Jumping up onto the floorboards, he jogged over—

His thumb hit a button and the call was made.

The workman on the ground had eyes that were fixed and unseeing on the bright blue sky overhead, and his limbs were stiff as a corpse’s. The live extension cord remained in the puddle, but the man’s spasms had carried him away from the source of the deadly charge.

Vin’s ring was answered. “Nine-one-one, what kind of emergency is this?”

“A man’s been electrocuted.” Vin dropped the phone from his mouth. “Turn off the fucking generators!” Lifting the cell back up, he said, “Job site address is Seventy-seven Rural Route one-fifty-one N. He appears to be unconscious.”

“Is someone administering CPR?”

“They will be right now.” Vin handed the phone off to Chuck the foreman and pulled guys out of the way.

Dropping to his knees, he yanked the workman’s jacket open and put his head down on a muscled chest. No heartbeat and a hover over the mouth revealed no breathing, either.

Vin yanked the guy’s head back, did an airway check, pinched the nose, and blew two breaths deep into those frozen lungs. Moving to the chest, he linked his hands together, positioned his palms over the guy’s heart, and stiff-armed ten compressions. Two more breaths. Thirty more compressions. Two more breaths. Thirty more compressions. Two more breaths…

The color in the guy’s face wasn’t good and only got worse.