Storm Watch

A ball of emotion stuck in her throat so that for a minute she couldn’t speak. “Well, then, maybe it’s you who owes me.”

He smiled, a warm, real smile. “That works, too.”

They came to an intersection. Below, they could see the high school sports field, and beyond that, a grove of trees, then the school itself, and about a half mile beyond that, Cece’s condo complex.

The high school football and track fields were under water. It was hard to tell how much from here, which wasn’t nearly as much of a problem as was the fact that the street that ran between the high school and hill had become a gushing river.

They stopped before it. “New plan,” Jason said, staring at the water. “You give me the exact location of her condo and I’ll go get her.”

“While I…?”

“Wait here.”

She looked up into his face. He wasn’t kidding. He wore a fiercely intense expression, with absolutely no softness in sight. None. “I’m going with you, Jason.”

He sighed. Swiped a hand down his face. “Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” His jaw tightened as he surveyed the area. The school buildings looked to be under a foot of water, which was rising with shocking speed.

She thought of all the news footage she’d ever seen of floods, and how the water seemed to always be up to the rooflines.

That it could actually happen here boggled her mind.

“Okay, here’s what’s going to happen,” he said calmly. “You’re going to do everything I tell you. Everything, Lizzy, to the T.”

“Okay.”

“I mean it.”

“I realize that.” She looked at the river which had formerly been Third Avenue. “The water’s only a foot or so, right? No swimming required.”

“Hate to disagree, but six inches of moving water can carry you away if there’s a current, and there does appear to be a good one.”

“I won’t slip. I might not swim like a fish but I have good balance and I’m in decent shape.” She’d be in better shape if she liked exercising, but there was no need to point that out.

He was looking at her, his gray eyes revealing frustration, and fear.

For her.

In her world, she was the one in charge, the one with the answers, and all the worry and stress: at work, at home, everywhere. How long had it been since someone had acted with her safety and well-being in mind?

Long enough that she couldn’t remember.

“That water is really moving,” he said. “So we’re going to walk a little farther down to find a better place to cross.”

“If Cece’s in labor-”

“She told you she wasn’t. But even if that’s changed, you’ve no doubt delivered babies, right? And so have I.”

“You have?”

“Two of them, actually. One in Katrina, one in Puerto Rico. We’ll figure it out, Lizzy.”

His confidence was oddly compelling and, even better, contagious. Once again, they took each other’s hand and kept moving.

A QUARTER OF A MILE LATER, Jason stopped Lizzy, his gut tightening hard. They stood at another intersection facing a waterfall caused by a dam of debris more than fifteen feet high, blocking the street. Water poured over the fallen trees, house pilings, furniture, and a myriad of other crud, rushing onto Third Avenue in a crazy whirlpool, making the current hard and fast.

Deadly.

In the Guards, when he protected and served, it was for strangers, not someone embedded into his heart.

And she was embedded, crazy as that was. Once upon a time, it’d taken his job to make him feel alive, and now it was Lizzy doing that-Lizzy who was now in danger.

“Oh my God,” she murmured at his side, clearly shocked.

“Not here. We can’t cross here. We keep going.”

She didn’t argue.

It was another half mile before the water slowed marginally. “Better,” he said grimly, knowing it was only slightly better, that they’d still have to backtrack to get to the condos, but his concern was the fact that things were deteriorating across the board, and deteriorating fast. He looked at Lizzy and wished like hell she’d stayed in the Jeep.

“Don’t even think it,” she said. “I wouldn’t have stayed.”

“So you reading minds now?”

“Yeah, well.” She grabbed his hand, put it over her heart and looked into his eyes. “You’re pretty transparent at the moment. Listen to me, Jason. I’m not going to get hurt.”

What about drown? Are you going to drown?

She eyed the water. “I can do this.”

“Counting on it.”

They waded in together, him using all of his will-power not to grab a hold of her and never let go. At his side, she sucked in a harsh breath but didn’t complain. And it was that, he thought, that one thing among many which told him this was somehow going to be okay. She wasn’t soft, except for where it counted. She was tough as hell, and also, incidentally, giving him a much needed kick in the ass.

Not to mention the heart.

Debris floated in the current around them. Wood, car parts, a whole variety of things, weaving and bobbing and threatening their safety. But they were managing, and doing okay, when suddenly Lizzy gasped and pointed.

Coming right at them was an old metal fishing boat, sans engine, looking as if it’d seen better days. Packed in it like sardines were four men, two women and several teens. Two of the men were rowing, with the guy in the back yelling directions. “Right, Lenny! Right! Jesus, your other right!” When he caught sight of Jason and Lizzy, he cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “You two need help?”

The small boat wasn’t meant for more than two, three people max. It was straining, seeming wobbly and unsteady in the relatively shallow water. Even if they found Cece in her condo just down the street, there was no way they could fit a nine-months’-pregnant woman in that boat. “We’re good,” he told them, waving them on.

“It wasn’t steady enough,” he told a silent Lizzy. “If she’s there, we’ll find another way to get her out-Oh, shit.” He lunged after the metal boat as it headed nose-first toward the huge steel traffic light on the corner. He could hear the shocked screams of some of the occupants, including the guy still yelling, “Right, Lenny! Right-”

But he couldn’t catch it in time. The boat hit the pole and people went flying.

Jason shoved Lizzy the rest of the way across the street, then headed for the closest two splashes, managing to snag a woman in his right hand and a teenage boy in his left before they were washed downstream. “You okay?”

They both stood up, gasping and coughing but nodding. Jason waited until they had their feet beneath them to let go, then turned to the others.

The guy doing the yelling had caught the boat. Everyone else scrambled back into it, still griping at one another.

Jason helped them hold it steady while the woman and her son got back in. “Take it easy on the steering,” he said.

“We will, thank you.” The woman reached out to squeeze his hand. “You’re an angel.”

No. He wasn’t. Because he didn’t catch them all…And as he thought of Matt, and all the people he hadn’t managed to save over the years, he locked eyes with Lizzy, who was holding on to a sidewalk parking post, watching him as if he was a superhero.

Too bad he was nothing close.

Yeah, he had training in survival and rescue, but that was pretty much his only claim to fame. The rest of life-