Michelle Karl - Christmas Under Fire

The airbag exploded with a bang. Cally’s forehead banged into the seat in front of her, then smacked against the headrest as she was jolted backward. Pain shot through her head for the second time that day. Blackness tried to creep around the edge of her vision but she willed it away, adrenaline keeping her awake as she tried to make sense of the scene outside the car window.

She blinked away the sparks and moved her limbs carefully, touching her sides and the back of her head to check for injury. To her relief, nothing seemed broken or badly damaged. In the back of her mind, she knew that God had been looking out for them—but thanking God for keeping them from harm seemed like too much.

He hadn’t been looking out for Esai, after all.

And then she realized that Aaron hadn’t moved.

Aaron blinked, trying to stave off the pounding in his head as his airbag deflated. His immediate thought was for Cally, but he was having trouble forming the words. His mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls, and his teeth hurt.

“Aaron?”

Thank you, Lord. At least they were both alive.

He tried to move his arm and found that he could. He gave her a thumbs-up to indicate he was all right, but it occurred to him after the fact that she wasn’t from North America and might not understand the gesture. Or it might mean something terribly rude in Amar.

“I’m all right,” she said, preempting his question. “Though I have an awful headache. Shaken but otherwise unharmed. Do you need help?”

It took several more tries before he was able to force the words out. “Mildly battered and bruised, but the car took the worst of it. Not as bad as what might have happened if I hadn’t swerved, though.”

With the airbag fully deflated, he was able to twist around in his seat to check on her. Cally regarded him with a mixture of incredulity and disbelief.

“ You swerved? We weren’t attacked? I didn’t think it was wise to swerve for anything in the road.”

“Most of the time, no. It’s not. But that was a moose, and you definitely swerve for a moose.” He looked through the back window, trying to spot whether the animal was still on the road. If it was and anyone else came along during this weather, they might not have the benefit of snow tires with ice chains. Their swerve could have been much worse, especially if the tires hadn’t slowed their momentum before they ran into the tree—or, in an older vehicle, he might not have been able to react in time to avoid hitting the massive animal.

Cally still looked confused, so he continued his explanation. “Surviving an impact with a moose is...unlikely. You hit a moose, and a disproportionate amount of the time, the moose is going to win. Fatalities are a strong possibility.”

Color drained from Cally’s cheeks. “In that case, I’m very glad that we’re here in this ditch as an alternative. But how are we going to get out?”

He sighed and sat back in his seat, grabbing the radio handset as he did so. “We don’t have a lot of resources in our tiny town during the good weather months, and during the winter it gets even more complicated. I’ll call my brother to come pick you up in another patrol car so that you don’t have to sit around and wait for the towing company. It’ll get you to warmth faster, since it might take a little while for the tow truck to come.”

She lowered her eyes, and guilt sliced through Aaron from head to toe. Some introduction to their country and their town he’d given her. Although neither the airport incident nor the moose in the road had been his fault, he couldn’t help feeling he was already failing his first diplomatic mission—and truth be told, he suspected that this particular task had been given to him as a trial run. Among the members of his detachment, he had seniority. He’d been in Fort Mason for a long time compared to many RCMP assignments, a full eight years. His superiors had implied in several recent conversations that he was being considered for a higher position elsewhere in the country—perhaps back in Ottawa. And while he wasn’t sure how he felt about relocating away from his brothers and his life in Fort Mason, the truth was that he’d started to feel a little, well...lonely, now that both Leo and Sam had wonderful women in their lives.

Not that Aaron would ever tell them that, though. He was the eldest Thrace brother, the responsible one. The brother unfazed by anything, who always kept his cool, who demanded perfection of himself and others.

And everything that had happened in the past two hours had been a far cry from perfect.

He radioed in their position so that Leo could come and pick them up, but it would be up to a half hour of waiting in the car. Without knowing the extent of the damage to the vehicle, he didn’t feel comfortable running the engine while they waited—but that also meant they were about to get very cold, very quickly.

“Hang tight,” he told Cally. “There’s an emergency kit in the trunk with blankets, water and flares. I’m going to set the flares at the edge of the road to make our location visible, all right?”

She nodded and he climbed out of the car. Thankfully, the trunk latch hadn’t been damaged in the crash, so it was easy to retrieve the emergency kit and set the flares by the road. By the time he returned to pass the blanket and water to Cally, her eyes were closed, head resting against the window. Her breathing had softened and her lips had parted slightly in relaxation.

Aaron draped the fabric across her, trying hard not to notice how lovely she looked as she rested. It pained his heart to think what might have happened to her if he hadn’t arrived at the airport the moment he did. He hoped the officers from Fort St. Jacob who would be examining the crime scene would find something to lead them to the culprit. Trying to steal someone’s belongings was one thing, but despite the reassurances he’d tried to offer up, he couldn’t rule out the attack as an attempted abduction, either. Either way, he refused to let the act go unpunished.

I won’t let anything happen to you , he thought. Whatever it takes, I’ll keep you safe.

About an hour later, Cally climbed out of the second patrol car she’d ridden in that afternoon. In front of her was a cozy-looking cabin—more of a small house, really—which Ellen had promised would be “modern enough to have central heating, but rural enough to leave the doors unlocked at night.” Cally imagined it’d look even better in daylight.

“Let me take a look around for you first,” Aaron said, jogging past her and up the front steps. He opened the door—which was unlocked, as Ellen had predicted—and disappeared inside. Leo, Aaron’s brother and fellow RCMP officer, grinned as he rounded the car to stand alongside her.

“If you need anything at any time, call him, okay? He’s very good at his job, and he’ll be upset if he hears you hesitated to ask.” Leo scratched the back of his neck. “Plus, he’s like...one of two officers on duty this week. I’m going down to Fort St. Jacob for my final tux fitting, and our youngest brother is teaching a training course with his wife in Vancouver until the end of the semester. They’ll be back next week in time for the wedding.”

“Congratulations,” Cally said, and despite her own heartbreak, she meant it. “I wish we’d had our first meeting under better circumstances, but I have no doubt now that Ellen has found a good man who can keep up with her. But how is it that there are so few officers on duty? Doesn’t the town need you?”

Leo shook his head. “Not particularly. We have a lot of seasonal residents during the spring and summer, so the population of Fort Mason and other small places up north tends to drop during the darkest and coldest winter months—December through February, usually—so the need isn’t as great. Even then, few folks venture outside their homes. With only six hours of daylight right now and temperatures averaging negative twenty degrees Celsius for the next few months, the only time you’ll see a lot of people at once is during the annual tree lighting ceremony in the middle of town on Saturday. We bring in extra officers, have a giant snowball fight, make maple taffy in the snow. There’s a skating rink, too... It’s great, you’ll love it. People from all over the area come here to attend, sometimes driving hours just to see it. Ah, he’s back.”