“Yeah.” The woman was holding her belly, and he was afraid she might have been injured. “What about Sarah?”
Adam hurried to unfasten the woman’s seat belt.
“She’s fine. I’m afraid to take her out of her car seat just yet and move her into the wind and rain,” Sierra said, “but she’s smiling at me.”
Just then, an ambulance came down the street.
“Here!” Sierra shouted, waving her arm to indicate the driver of the vehicle was the one who needed their help.
Since the ambulance was there already, Adam didn’t help the driver out of the car, concerned she might have sustained injuries and would need prompt medical care. There wasn’t any threat of the car catching fire. Before the ambulance arrived, his main concern had been getting her to a hospital.
The EMTs were running a gurney around the debris on the street to reach the car, one of the men tossing branches back onto the sidewalk or yards to clear a path.
As soon as the EMTs helped the woman out of her car, they lifted her onto the gurney and began checking her vital signs. Each of the men acknowledged Adam and Sierra, and then one of them checked the toddler over.
A bright-red pickup truck showed up while Adam was fetching the woman’s purse and handing it to her.
“Rosie!” the driver said, getting out of his truck. “I’m her husband and Sarah’s father.”
“We’re taking them both to the ER to check them out,” one of the EMTs said.
“Thanks. I’ll meet you over there.”
Then the ambulance and the fireman took off for the hospital.
Adam took hold of Sierra’s arm and began helping her back through the wind and rain to his vehicle. He hoped the pregnant woman and her daughter were going to be all right. And he was proud of Sierra for helping her and the toddler in their time of crisis.
“Are you okay?” He worried about Sierra’s head wound. Her forehead was still bleeding, the blood dribbling down her skin and mixing with the rain.
“Yeah, sure. What about you?” she asked, glancing at his cheek.
“Scratch. But you have a wound on your head.”
She reached up and touched it. “I don’t feel anything.” But then she looked at the blood on her fingertips. “Yet.”
“I’ll take care of it, if you need me to.”
“I have a medical kit at home. I can handle it.” Another lightning strike and subsequent thunder struck close by, making her jump.
He grabbed her suitcases and began hauling them to his Hummer, then put them in the trunk. “I’m going to move branches out of the street that came down after I parked the Hummer. You back the vehicle up for me, okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
He opened the driver’s door for her. Once Sierra was secure in the vehicle, he went behind it and began pulling tree branches off the street so she could back up. Then he hurried to take over the driving and she slid over the console. Another lightning strike lit up the dark sky, thunder booming all around them.
They were soaked to the skin, and Sierra was only wearing a swirly skirt and tank top, both glued to her feminine curves. She pulled off her wet pumps and set them on the floor.
She pulled a tissue out of the package in her purse and wiped the rainwater off her face. Then she handed him the package of tissues. “Help yourself.”
“Thanks.” Adam took a tissue and wiped his face. “I guess we’re going to have to do some navigating to find a street that will take you back to your house.”
“What about your place?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I never made it home before Leidolf called me that you needed assistance.”
“Thanks so much for coming to my aid. I sure didn’t expect to run into a tornado when I returned home.”
“Hell, me either.”
She looked up reports on the phone. “Looks like no one was killed by the severe weather yet anyway. Just trees and power lines downed, some mobile homes overturned, and a few roofs damaged, as far as they know. All kinds of videos and pictures are coming in, showing the devastation.”
“That’s bad on the damage, but I’m glad no one has died in the storm.” Adam started to turn down the street to take them to her place but saw it was blocked. Then he turned and went another way.
“It looks like none of the homes in this area have any electricity. I don’t know if mine is on or not, but if we can get to my place and we have electricity, you’re welcome to stay and have dinner.”
“Yeah, sure.” Adam wanted to ask her about her vacation, but he was afraid to bring it up because of the reason for her changing her destination. Not to mention he was really concentrating on the road conditions and having to zigzag because there was so much debris in the streets.
“Okay, after we eat, you can check with your electric company and see when your electricity will be restored if it’s out,” Sierra said. “I’m not sure what we can eat, but I think I have a couple of steaks in the freezer.”
He had to stop the Hummer so he could get out and move a couple of tree branches out of the street, but he checked with his electric company to see if he had power. “Anything would be fine with me. Yeah, my electricity is out.” Even though they could see in the dark, he thought she might need to talk to someone who would understand what she’d been through, and he would enjoy the company. Since they both worked at the police bureau, they could at least catch up on cases, if nothing else.
When they reached her home, Adam had to move more debris out of her driveway. Her house looked good, no damage on the one-story brick home, and he was glad about that.
“No lights,” she said.
A lot of branches were down on the streets and in the yards. Streetlights were all out. No lights were on in any of the homes and no porch lights either, which meant her electricity was out too.
She raised her brows at Adam. “Any other ideas?”
Sheet lightning flashed across the stormy sky.
He sighed. “We could go out to the reindeer ranch and eat dinner with my former partner’s brother, or we could drop in on our pack leaders’ ranch farther south, since neither of those areas got hit bad. They might still have electricity. But the weather’s so bad, it probably would be better just to eat at home. Do you have a grill under a patio cover?”
“I do. I’m sure I can find something in the freezer if I don’t have a couple of frozen steaks. Uh, I also have hamburger.”
“Either would be fine. It won’t take long to grill steaks or hamburgers, depending on how thick they are.” And he really liked the idea of spending some quality time with her. Not to mention that if the weather got worse, he wanted to be here for her.