Page 86 of Hero's Heart

“We’ll finish this later,” he managed. A pathetic offering, but it was all he had.

The storm almost made it feel like it was nighttime rather than the middle of the afternoon. Lightning flashed, illuminating the mangled wreckage of eight vehicles strewn across the slick highway. Rain pummeled down, drenching Callum to the bone as he raced toward the nearest overturned SUV.

Cries of pain and fear pierced the air in between bouts of thunder. He glanced over his shoulder, spotting his deputies and the Jackson township officers scrambling to reach victims trapped in twisted metal.

Only one ambulance had made it through so far. The paramedics darted between vehicles, trying to assess who needed help most urgently. Callum’s heart clenched. There were far too many injured and not nearly enough first responders to handle them all.

He reached the SUV and dropped down, peering through the shattered window at a woman slumped over the steering wheel, blood matting her blonde hair. “Ma’am, can you hear me?” No response. Callum reached through the opening, feeling for a pulse at her neck. Nothing.

His shoulders sagged. One more life lost in this senseless tragedy, the cause for which they didn’t know yet. They were up to at least four bodies at this point.

A cry sent Callum scrambling to the next car. A teenage girl was regaining consciousness. She was bleeding from a cut at her scalp, and her arm was obviously broken.

“Hey there, kiddo. You’re going to be okay,” he soothed, forcing a reassuring smile. “We’re going get you out of there real soon, I promise. But right now, I need you just to stay here and not move until a paramedic comes, okay?”

The girl nodded, eyes dazed.

He turned, frantically searching for a medic. They needed to prioritize this girl—her head wound could be indicative of a concussion or a possible brain bleed. One of the EMTs methis gaze and nodded, hurrying over with a backboard and neck brace.

Callum moved on to the next victim. Triaging was brutal, having to choose who got immediate aid and who would have to wait, suffering longer. His soul fractured a little each time he came across someone too far gone to save, their eyes open but unseeing.

With a deep breath, Callum forged ahead into the chaos, the lightning illuminating his path through the unforgiving storm.

He gritted his teeth as he approached the next vehicle, the high-pitched wails of a toddler in distress piercing the storm. Peering inside, he found a boy, definitely not older than eighteen months, strapped into his car seat, face red and tear-streaked as he screamed for comfort.

With a quick once-over, Callum noted no visible blood or obvious fractures. The boy’s robust cries indicated he wasn’t in critical condition, but the poor kid was undoubtedly terrified. Callum’s eyes shifted to the front seat, where the child’s mother lay slumped against the steering wheel, unresponsive.

“Please, God, let her be alive,” he whispered, reaching through the shattered window to press two fingers against her neck. A wave of relief washed over him as he detected a steady pulse. He held a hand in front of her mouth. She was breathing. She would make it.

Callum began to pull away, intending to report the mother’s condition to the paramedics, when her eyelids fluttered open. “M-my son,” she rasped, her unfocused gaze darting around in panic. “Where’s my baby?”

“He’s in his car seat, ma’am,” Callum assured her, his voice calm and soothing. “He’s scared but doesn’t appear hurt.”

“Please let me hold him. He’s afraid. He already doesn’t like storms.”

“It would probably be better to wait until the paramedics check both of you out. Make sure you have no neck or head injuries. It should only be a few minutes.” Although Callum knew it would be longer than that.

And the mother wasn’t going to wait anyway. She started trying to get the car door open. When she found it was jammed, she turned to try to climb over the seat to the wailing child.

He stopped her. “Wait. Let me get him for you.” She was going to do more damage trying to get to the boy.

Moving to the back door, Callum carefully unbuckled the thrashing toddler from his seat.

“Hey there, little man,” he murmured, lifting the boy into his arms. “Let’s go see your mama, okay?”

The moment Callum placed the child in his mother’s embrace, the boy’s cries quieted, his small body melting into her protective hold. Even in her dazed state, the woman’s maternal instinct took over as she cradled her son close, whispering comforting words Callum couldn’t quite make out.

As he watched the touching scene, Callum’s thoughts drifted to Sloane.

Pregnant.

She was pregnant with his child, a fact he knew was true despite his asinine question earlier about whether the baby was his.

In that instant, he knew with absolute certainty that if Sloane were in this mother’s place, she would move heaven and earth to hold their baby, to offer solace amid the chaos. She possessed a strength and a compassion that never ceased to amaze him. She would be an incredible mother.

He left the two of them and threw himself back into the fray, his focus laser-sharp despite the exhaustion seeping into his bones. He worked alongside the paramedics, triaging patients,offering comfort where he could, and making the gut-wrenching decisions no one should ever have to make.

Minutes bled into hours as the storm raged on, the relentless rain soaking through his clothing and chilling him to the core. Finally, as the day turned to early evening, reinforcements arrived. Fresh-faced EMTs and officers from neighboring towns poured onto the scene, their presence a welcome relief. Callum stepped back, allowing them to take over, his shoulders sagging under the weight of the day’s events.

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