I gagged.
Dad’s duck dogs liked to shit right in front of the cage, and then run in it when they got excited.
While Dad worked them for a few hours a day, Mom would go into their cages and clean them.
Needless to say, she didn’t like their shit. She most certainly didn’t like their shit where she wanted to park her car.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “But the good thing is that you have a garage you can put them in. Just think, it could still be cluttered with all of my shit, and they’d be in the house.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Go lock up so we can leave, girl,” she ordered, giving me that ‘mom’ look.
I jogged back to the door, trying to ignore the way my feet moved through the water that was now up to my ankles, and headed back inside. Once everything was closed up, I switched off the pumps and headed back out, locking the doors behind me and hurrying back to my car.
The moment I reached for my door, Mom pulled out of the parking lot and went in the direction of the hospital.
I pulled out the opposite way, heading back home.
I’d just started to pick up speed when my mom called me.
“I forgot to give you her clothes,” she said the moment I answered the phone.
I groaned.
I’d given Mom my basket of laundry, and she’d washed my clothes while I was at work.
I either needed to stop, or I wouldn’t have any clothes for the next three days, because there was no way in hell we were going out in this again if it was going to continue to pour.
Pulling over, I waited while Mom came back.
The moment she was behind me, I got out and cursed when my feet hit the ground and the water rose to the bottoms of my calves this time.
“Jesus, this town needs to work on getting some better drainage.”
It’d always been bad, but the amount of rain we were getting was something the town of Mooresville had never seen before. In all fairness, how in the hell was the town supposed to prepare for something they never saw coming?
That’s right, they couldn’t, but it still didn’t stop me from cursing the engineers who designed the drainage system for the city.
“Sorry,” I apologized as I took the basket out of the backseat.
She waved me off, and I headed back to my car, throwing the basket in the seat next to Tallulah.
Waving, I opened my door and lifted my leg.
“Ohh!” my mother called right when I was about to drop back into my seat. “Her medicine!”
My belly rolled as I realized what, exactly, I almost forgot.
She couldn’t go anywhere without her medicine. If she did, and she had an asthma attack, she could literally lose her life in a matter of seconds.
I had backups at my house, my parents’ house, in my car, and parents’ vehicles.
Today, though, my mom told me that she’d misplaced her meds, so I’d given her the spares out of my car until she found them, intending to have her prescriptions refilled sometime in between leaving the hospital and going to work.
But I’d gotten distracted by Tommy and wound up going to breakfast with him instead.
And just look at where that almost got me!
“Thank you,” I whispered, once again sloshing through the water.
She waved me off, and I dumped the meds into the basket of clothes that my mother had so helpfully folded for me as well.
Tallulah waved at my mother as she pulled a U-turn in the empty street, and I started off in the direction of home.
My eyes were glued to the street around me, and I was driving so slow I likely looked incompetent.
The idea of driving into flood water, though, terrified me.
I’d watched on the news as not one, but five vehicles had been carried away by flood waters rushing over the road, and I wasn’t going to be another one of them.
Or so I thought.
I’d just pulled onto Belk Street that would eventually lead me home when I felt the 4-Runner start to drift.
Water came up over the road, lightning fast. One second I was driving, and the next I was being swept right off the road and through the trees.
My blood froze as I lost control of everything.
My car spun backward, and my heart started to pound.
“Dear God,” I whispered, looking over my shoulder to my child in the backseat.
She was enjoying it. Her arms were flapping, and her cries of excitement filled the air around us.
I, on the other hand, understanding just what kind of danger we were in, was freaking out.
Coming to a quick decision, I reached back for the blanket that she always had to have. This one was one of those muslin blankets that was very thin and tied easily.
I’d used it a hundred different times to tie it around Tallulah’s shoulders so she could use it as a cape.
I also had about five of them in the backseat from where they’d been left there.
Meaning I could tie them together, then tie her to me so I’d have my hands free.
Because I was fairly certain that we were about to go swimming.
My phone rang, but I left it in my back pocket where I’d stored it after speaking with my mother.
Instead, I quickly tied the blankets together. Then I unfastened my seatbelt and turned around in my seat.
The car rocked precariously to one side, and I halted.
My gaze went out the window to ascertain what was happening around me, and I froze when I saw flashlights.
I knew they were flashlights by the way they bounced and swirled.
There were two of them, and they were obviously trying to get my attention.
Brows furrowing, I rolled the windows down, then had the thought that I should probably turn the SUV off.
Which I did in the next second, allowing me to hear the yells.
“Answer your goddamn phone!”
I answered my phone.
“H-hello?”
The car bounced hard, and I turned my head rapidly to the side to find that it’d come to a rest against two trees.
The water was still moving quickly around me, but it was held in place—for now.
“Don’t fucking move. Don’t do a goddamn thing.”
My heart started to thud in my chest.
“Tommy.”
He growled something unintelligible, and I bit my lip and looked over my seat at Tallulah.
Her eyes were growing heavy with sleep, and I swallowed thickly.
She had no clue, and I envied her that.
She had absolutely no earthly idea what kind of situation we were in. One wrong move and the car would be swept out to God knows where, and we’d be along for the ride.
“Are you listening to me?”
Tommy’s barked words had me turning back toward the lights, and then placing the phone back to my ear.
I hadn’t been aware that I’d dropped it from its previous position.
“No, I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I’m listening now, though.”
He growled.
“We’re tying some ropes off to a tree that’s right here. We’re both going to come get you, okay?” Tommy instructed.
“I’m not by myself. Tallulah’s with me,” I whispered.
At the mention of her name, the eyelashes that started to fan against her cheeks bounced back open.
I smiled at her, trying to dissuade her from thinking anything was wrong.
She smiled back, and her eyes grew heavy once again.
Tommy cursed a blue streak.
“We’re coming. You’re not far off the road.”
I wasn’t?
How was that even possible? I’d floated for what felt like days before I’d hit the trees.
But that was obviously just my brain playing tricks on my rational mind.
Now that I studied the lights that were slowly coming toward me, they were a l
ot closer than I’d thought they were previously.
By my estimation, I was only about fifty yards off the road, which really wasn’t that far at all.
“Okay,” I whispered, voice trembling now.
The adrenaline, which had been flowing freely through my veins, was starting to recede. And with that, I was quickly wilting.
My eyes started to fill with tears at the realization that I’d nearly killed my daughter—yes, I was overreacting, but that was what parents did—and I held my breath as the two men started toward us.
The flashlights bounced, and my heart raced twice when one of the lights went under water, only to come back up again with a splash and a curse.
“Told you to watch your step,” I heard not only on the phone, but outside my window as well.
At hearing voices, Tallulah abandoned her sleep and turned to watch what was going on.
Her eyes lit as she saw the flashlights bouncing toward us, slow at first, but picking up speed.
Then they were both there, holding onto my car.
Tommy went to my window, as the other man with Tommy went to Tallulah’s.
Though, since Tallulah was in the middle seat, he wasn’t technically too close, giving me time to inspect both men.
“H-how?” I whispered, swallowing hard as I breathed deeply for the first time since I went off the road.
“Was behind you,” he murmured. “I’d meant to only make sure you got home okay.”
I didn’t bother to ask why he was behind me.
That wouldn’t be smart.
You didn’t question the motives of your savior…at least not while he was in the process of saving you.
Later, though, you bet your ass I would be asking him why the hell he was following me.
“While we have the car pinned to the trees, reach back there and unbuckle her. Take everything you think you will need.”
I did as ordered, freeing my excited child from the constraints of her car seat.
The second she was free, she started to squirm out of her seat, and I caught her before she could fall to the floor. The moment I had her in my lap, she went right for Tommy.
Tommy grinned, a white flash of teeth in the darkness, and reached for her.
Tallulah went willingly, and I nearly melted into a puddle of goo.
Seeing that man—a real man, unlike any man I’d ever seen before—melt for my baby was just so hot.
I eyed the basket of clothes, and knew for certain they would be too heavy, and reached for the blankets.
“I can tie her to you—it was what I was going to do with myself,” I told him, holding up the blankets.
He took the blanket and looped it over one shoulder, strapping my girl to his chest like he’d done something similar a million times before.
He turned, and the man standing beside him, the one I hadn’t gotten a good look at, tied the two ends in a tight, fat knot.
He turned back around, and I licked my lips at the sight of the man and my daughter.
Illuminated with just the stranger’s flashlight beam, it gave me only a vague outline of what they looked like together, but that was enough to set my hormones on fire.
“Your purse?” he asked.
I nodded and reached for it, looping it around my shoulder before zipping the bag closed.
Then I reached for the diaper bag in the backseat.
Once that was looped over my shoulder, too, I opened the car door.
Or tried to.
The water was holding it closed.
“Give me the bags,” the stranger ordered.
I did, and he looped them around his shoulders.
“There are about twenty diapers in there,” I informed him. “If you drop them, Tallulah will have to pee more than ever tonight, and I most certainly don’t want to deal with that…”
He snorted but said nothing, offering his large hands to me after he handed the flashlight off to Tommy.
I went, and my eyes lit on the man’s vest—no, his cut—that was nearly identical to the one that I’d seen Tommy wear almost every time he wasn’t in his scrubs, and a few times when he was.
The man’s strong hands went under my arms, and he hauled me right through the car window.
“My keys!” I yelled the moment my feet were holding me up.
The water flowed around my legs, but I didn’t care as I reached back into the car for my keys.
Two sets of hands pulled me back, and Tommy barked a curse.
“Fuckin’ hell, Tally,” Tommy ground out, pulling me back.
I shivered when his hand met the bare skin of my belly, and immediately backed away from my car.
“What?” I asked in confusion.
“The car might shift if you lean on it,” he informed me. “And then swing around and take us all out like fuckin’ bowling pins. Let him do it.”
He indicated to the man at his side, and I backed away in acquiescence.
“Sorry,” I muttered, chagrined.
The man at his side—who still hadn’t been named—reached in and grabbed my keys, then turned around and offered them to me.
I shoved them into my jeans pocket.
“Hold on to the rope as you walk,” Tommy ordered.
I did as instructed, holding on to the rope as I made my way toward where I assumed the road was located.
They stayed with me, two strong presences at my sides.
Which was a damn good thing, because my legs were freakin’ burning from going against the flow of water that was carrying away anything in its path downstream.
It was a good thing the men at my sides had realized they would need ropes, because if not for them, I wouldn’t have been able to move forward.
“There’s going to be a ditch right in front of you just before you get to the road. Keep your footing so you don’t go down like this dufus.”
I walked slowly, feeling the exact point where the ground dipped.
I could see how the other man had fallen.
It would’ve been easy.
Though I had two different hands on my elbows keeping me from going down.
I’d just started back up the ditch toward the road when a thought occurred to me.
“Her medicines!” I yelled. “I can’t leave without them!”
When I went to turn around, two strong arms that most certainly did not belong to Tommy surrounded me, and pulled me back into the body that belonged to those arms.
“Keep walking,” he ordered. “I’ll go back and get them.”
I did after telling him where to look, stopping only when I was sure I was on the solid ground of the road.
Once he was confident that I had my footing, he turned and headed back to my truck, leaving me with Tommy and a very excited Tallulah.
My legs were burning, and I felt sorry for forgetting the meds. The man had to have been tired. This was his third trip.
We both watched in silence as the flashlight bobbed back to my SUV, and that’s when I realized I’d left my lights on.
At this point, though, I was beyond caring.
“The power's out,” I said, watching as the man made his way back to my car.
“Yep,” Tommy confirmed, reaching into the makeshift baby carrier and extracting Tallulah from the confinement.
Once she was free, I held my hands out, and he handed her to me without a word.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead and closed my eyes as I breathed out a deep sigh of relief.
It took the man five long minutes to get back to us, but when he did he had Tallulah’s bag of medicines clutched to his chest along with all of my other bags.
The moment the man was back safely on the pavement next to us, all rational thought ceased to exist in my brain, and I burst into tears.
“I just got a full tank of gas!” I wailed.
The man that was next to Tommy started to chuckle under his breath while he dropp
ed down to his knees in exhaustion.
“You are a fuckin’ nut,” the man gasped, looking up at the sky before he started laughing full out.
I couldn’t help it.
I laughed, too.
Tommy threw his arm around me, and then started walking me toward his bike.
“We’re a minute and a half from the place where I’m staying,” he informed me. “We’ll head there.”
I blinked.
“On a bike?” I asked. “But Tallulah needs a car seat…and you most definitely don’t have one on that thing.”
Tommy gave me a look.
“People are using boats to get from point A to point B right now. We’re on the only road that leads to unflooded land. You can’t go to your house, because I can’t take you there,” he said. “And your car is likely going to be toast once they get to it. There’s a high probability that it’ll go at any minute.”
I bit my lip.
“The longer we sit here, the more wet she gets. And though she seems to be fine with it right now, she’s not going to stay that way.”
“Fuckin’ right about that,” the man on his knees said as he pushed up to his feet with almost laughable ease.
I’d have had to put my hand down to stand up from that position in the state I was in. He just did it like it was nothing.
My legs were burning, my entire body hurt, and I was still panting.
Freakin’ men…making sense and shit.
“Fine,” I finally said. “How we gonna do this?”
“I got it from here, Truth,” Tommy said. “Why don’t you get home before you can’t get there?”
Truth handed off the bags, which Tommy stored in his saddle bags, and flicked two fingers at me.
Truth (what the hell kind of name was that anyway?) gave Tommy a salute, then left without another word.
I watched him walk to his bike where he and Tommy had stopped them in the middle of the road to come to my aid, and ride away through water that was about an inch over the roadway.
“Ready?” Tommy asked.
Tallulah slapped my wet chest, then reached for Tommy.
I relinquished her to him, and he held his elbow out for me to take.
I slipped through the mud and the muck to his bike, and then watched in stunned silence as he mounted the bike, offered his hand, and waited patiently for me to get my wet jean-clad leg over the seat of his bike.
Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2) Page 7