Page 52 of Annika's Aurora

“Pull over! Now!” Her hand shot out and grasped his forearm, squeezing in desperation. Logan put on the hazard lights and pulled to the shoulder. Before he could put it in park, she shot out of the car.

“Annika, what …” he tried to ask, but she was already racing back the way they’d come. Logan ran after her. She stopped when she reached an area with a steep drop-off. Logan looked down and saw what had caught her attention. A car had rolled down the embankment, resting on its slightly flattened roof. Annika started to go down to the car. “Annika, no, stop. It’s too steep!”

“We need to get down there. I can hear a baby crying!” Logan heard it too, but they had to do this as safely as possible.

“Let me get my gear. We’ll rope down to them. Okay?” He made her look at him. “Stay here. Call nine-one-one. I’ll be right back.” She nodded as he ran back to the car.

Feeling uncertain about allowing Annika to risk herself, he tried to steady his uneasiness as he adjusted the harness to fit her. By the time he’d gotten the harness on Annika, a few of the Nighthawks were pulling up behind them, jumping into action.

“I need another harness!” Logan yelled. He wasn’t about to let Annika go down there by herself. Hell, he shouldn’t let her go down there at all.

“Looks pretty unstable, Logan,” Graham said as Logan attached the clamp to the rope.

“I know. Let me get down there to assess the situation. Then we’ll figure out what to do.”

“Sure you want her going down?”

“Try to stop her.” He knew there would be no stopping her, especially with kids involved. Logan turned to Annika after checking the ropes and clamps for a third time, “Ready? You understand what you have to do?” She nodded. “Take it nice and easy and follow me down.” Watching Annika closely and coaching her when needed, he half rappelled, half walked slowly down to the vehicle. But when they’d reached the car, he could see it was indeed very unstable.

The car had rolled a few times down the embankment and came to rest on its roof. Logan went around the hood to assess exactly how unstable the car was in its precarious position. Several young trees had stopped the vehicle from rolling and sliding any farther, but those could snap from the weight at any moment, causing the car to fall. The Nighthawks were going to have to figure out a way to stabilize the vehicle before they could even think about pulling the family out.

Annika had crouched down by the rear windows. “Hi, Sweetie,” she said to whoever was inside. “We’re going to get you out of there just as soon as we can.”

“O … Okay,” came a tiny voice from inside. Logan glanced in the front seat spotting a man and a woman who were either unconscious or dead, deflated air bags hanging in front of them. There was a baby as well as a small child in the back. Graham had given him a radio which he used to relay information to the team.

Annika was on her hands and knees and about to climb through the window to the kids. “Annika, wait,” he called, feeling his heart jump to his throat. “It’s too unstable.”

“We’ve got to get to those kids!”

“I know, and we will. Let me get the team down here. Let us do our thing.”

She nodded but turned back to talk to the little girl. In no time, Graham, Evan, and Finch had rappelled down while the others stayed up top to get the ropes tied off. Jude’s truck, thankfully, had a winch with a steel cable. Since the car was upside down, it was easy to attach the cable to the undercarriage. Then they tied some of their ropes to the car for added security. Logan and Graham were both paramedics and tried to assess the injuries, but the roof had been compressed too much for them to fit through the windows.

“We are going to have to wait for the jaws of life,” Graham said.

“I can fit,” Annika asserted.

Logan blanched. There was no way he was going to let her put herself in danger. Just the thought of her being at risk tied his gut into knots. “No, it’s too dangerous.”

“Logan.” She placed a hand on his arm, her determination gleaming in her eyes. “I can do this. I have to do this. I have faith in the Nighthawks. You can pull me out if it gets too dangerous.”

“I don’t know …”

“Emma’s not here, so it has to be me. Tell me what I need to do to assess the injuries.”

Logan looked into her eyes and sighed, relenting against his better judgement. Time was of the essence; they needed to know what they were dealing with concerning the victims. Annika was the only one who could fit. “Fine. Crawl in there and I’ll talk you through it.”

She had wiggled halfway through the rear window before he’d even finished. “Hi again, Sweetie,” she said to the young girl. “I’m just going to check on your parents real quick. Then we’ll see what we can do for you and the baby. Okay?”

While relying on all his SEAL training to compartmentalize his fear for her, Logan told her how to check for a pulse. Both parents were still alive but could have massive internal injuries. Logan asked her to check for blood anywhere. He couldn’t do anything at the moment for internal injuries, but if they were bleeding out, they could perhaps do something about that.

“They both have blood on their heads. Cuts on their faces and arms. Airbags seem to have done their job. Maybe some facial injuries from that. Dad looks like he might have a broken nose. Hold on; I’m going to try to climb into the front.” He could hear her struggling to get over the seats, his gut tightening with apprehension when the car shuddered with her movement. The baby was still crying, and he hoped that was a good sign.

“Okay, the mom looks like she may have a broken arm or shoulder. Otherwise, no more blood. The dad … his legs might be hurt. The steering column looks like it’s trapping or crushing his legs. No blood oozing, only cuts and scrapes.”

“Good, go back and check the kids.”

“I’m back, Sweetie. My name is Annika; what’s yours?”

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