Chapter 26
The sound of the wind woke Nolan up. He yawned and saw that several of the guys were stirring at the sound of wind and rain pelting the firehouse. It was four in the morning.
“Temperature’s dropped to thirty-four degrees,” Colton said. “The rain has made everything wet and now the temperature is slowly dropping. Freezing rain should start in the next two hours, then sleet, then snow, and then more ice. It’s going to be an ice sandwich, which means we’re all screwed.”
Nolan rubbed his face as he got out of bed in the spacious bunk room.
He glanced out the window, and sure enough, Keeneston was going to be an ice rink soon.
Sure, they’d salt the roads. Unfortunately, they only had a limited amount of salt, and the rain or sleet would do its darndest to wash the salt away.
“I’ll make breakfast and we can sleep until the first call comes in,” Jack told them. He shoved the covers off and strode to the kitchen in his sweats. Moments later they could hear pancakes being whipped up.
Nolan and the guys dressed and headed to the kitchen. They ate as they listened to the weather reports and kept the police radios on. They had one for the state police, one for Keeneston, and two for the surrounding counties. Accidents were piling up by six in the morning in Lexington.
Nolan and his crew had eaten, napped in the living room recliners, and listened to the impending doom.
They all knew it was coming. Especially when the snow began to fall in white-out conditions that made the sun nonexistent by eleven in the morning.
It was true white-out conditions as Mother Nature began dumping a wintry mix of snow and sleet on them.
They had just finished what they called second breakfast when the calls began to come in fast. Sometimes they weren’t even done with one before being directed to a second or even third call.
“Let’s go, men.” Colton gave orders that they were to divide and conquer.
There were too many calls to go as one team.
“Nolan, you and Jack take your truck. Conley and Flint take the ambulance. I’ll take the SUV.
Unless it’s a call that requires the big engine, it stays here.
It’s terrible on ice even with the chains. Go.”
Nolan grabbed the first aid pack and Jack grabbed the fire safety pack that was full of fire extinguishers and such in case a small fire broke out. Nolan tried to plow, but it didn’t do any good on the ice. However, he did his best as they drove to the first call.
An hour later they had an elderly resident dropped off at the closest emergency room in Lexington with a broken arm.
Their next call came in before they had even left the hospital driveway,.
And so it went. Injuries from falls. Vehicle accidents from the ice.
And as the snow began to pile up, they had two calls about possible heart attacks from shoveling.
Flint was a rockstar with the ambulance and Pam had to help with the flame thrower twice. But as evening fell, and everyone who had dared go out during the day, got back home, things slowed down enough for the entire team to collapse in the fire station’s living room.
“I’ll heat up the to-go containers,” Jack told them. It was the first time they’d had a break long enough to eat in ten hours.
Nolan pulled out his phone and moved to a private room to call Helena. “Hey. How are you holding up?” he asked her when she answered.
Helena sighed dramatically. “I have something really hard to tell you.”
Nolan’s heart dropped. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“You were right. I was . . . wrong. About the weather. I thought you were exaggerating, but this is crazy. Lucas is outside in flip-flops trying to skate down the road. It’s so funny that Poppy and I laughed so hard we almost slid off the patio as we clung to each other.”
It took a second for Nolan’s heart to restart and then he laughed. “I’m glad you’re having a good time. You’re safe though?”
“Yes . . .” Helena paused. “Nolan, I think someone is here. I’m not joking. I just looked outside and there’s an SUV trying to make it up the hill, but it’s none of the neighbors.”
Nolan was moving. “Tell Lucas!”
The fire station heard him yell and saw him run, jumping into his boots, and grabbing his coat and a gun before racing out the door. His team was right behind him.
Nolan heard Helena yell for Lucas as he ran out of the station and slipped and slid his way to the bottom of the street. Sure enough, there was an SUV struggling to make it up the hill where Lucas now stood with a rifle aimed at the SUV.
“What the hell are they doing?” Colton asked. “You never floor the gas up the ice. They’re just spinning in place and turning sideways.”
Lucas fired one shot and killed the engine. The SUV slid backward down the remaining hill until it hopped the curb and slammed into a giant tree. When the four men stumbled out with guns, they found the firefighters aiming guns or axes at them with the sheriff’s department right behind them.
None of the men had coats. They all wore the necklace showing they were part of Garang’s gang.
And they tried to fight. Feet slid out from under them as if they were a newborn baby deer.
One smashed his head against the SUV as he fell.
Two crashed into each other and went down hard, somehow kneeing each other in the balls on the way down.
Then the other lifted his arm to fire and that motion was enough to send his feet slipping out from under him and down he went.
When he looked up, Lucas was smiling down at him.
“Howdy. Welcome to Keeneston,” Lucas said, pointing the rifle right between the man’s eyes. Lucas had somehow ice-skated down the hill in his polar bear flip-flops. He was still in shorts, although now he wore a short-sleeved shirt instead of a tank top.
“Got a little cold, didya?” Nolan asked Lucas who shrugged as Matt flipped the man over and cuffed him while Flint tended to the one with the head injury and Conley and Jack held down the other two for the deputies to cuff.
“Nah, laundry day. I was just out of tank tops. It finally feels comfortable out.”
“Brother,” Conley said in his slow drawl, “it is eighteen degrees out.”
“Almost perfect,” Lucas said with a whimsical grin.
“Are you okay?” Helena called out from up the hill where Poppy, Zinnia, and she stood with a heavily armed Talon.
“We’re good! Just caught some more men.” Nolan called back.
“I miss you!” Helena called. “I can ice skate down and have dinner if you want?”
“Oh, I know! I have a sled.” Poppy said, excitedly before tiptoeing her way back to the house. A moment later she came out with a sled and a basket of food.
“Hold on,” Talon ordered them as he walked to the separate garage slightly behind and to the side of the house.
Unlike Lucas, Talon, who had spent part of his life in Australia, had a healthy respect for winter and was covered head to toe in cold-weather gear.
You could only see his eyes. He came back with a long piece of nylon rope and tied it to the tree and then handed it to Poppy.
“Tie it off at the bottom of the hill. That way we have something to hold on to as we make our way back up.”
“That’s a good idea,” Colton muttered. “I would have carried them back up if that basket had food in it.”
Poppy, Zinnia, and then Helena hopped on the sled.
The food was placed up front and the ladies all hung on to the person in front of them.
Then with a little push from Talon, they were off.
They screamed, laughed, and completely ignored the newly arrested men who were still struggling to get their feet under them as they were dragged off to jail.
The firemen had to line up and catch the giggling women as they flew by them or they’d end up smashing into the building across the street at the bottom of the hill.
“That was so much fun!” Helena cried out as Nolan helped her up.
“We’ll lock these guys up until we can transfer them to wherever Greer wants them,” Matt told the group as they frog-marched the men by them.
“I have enough food, so stop by and get some when you’re done,” Zinnia called out to them.
Nolan turned to watch Talon slowly slide down the hill as he held on to the rope. Lucas was sliding side to side across the street and lamenting that there wasn’t enough snow yet for snow angels.
Helena was tucked against Nolan’s side and that made the craziness of the day worth it. Together, with some time off, they all laughed and played as they made their way back to the firehouse to share dinner.
Jack helped Zinnia warm up the food as everyone relaxed and talked. Nolan enjoyed the camaraderie and it seemed Helena did too. The best part was her sitting with him, talking to his friends, telling stories, and laughing. This was the life he wanted. He just hoped he could find it in New York.
“Mmm,” Conley groaned as he took the first bite of the massive lasagna Zinnia had just pulled out of the oven. “Worth going out in the storm for.”
Nolan glanced out the large windows and saw that the snow was really picking up. “The snow might make it easier to drive on the ice.”
“We rarely see this in New York City,” Helena told them. “We see snow, but never this ice.”
“I’m surprised we haven’t lost power,” Colton told them and all the firefighters nodded in agreement.
They ate and told stories about rescues. Nolan cleaned his plate after having seconds and pulled Helena to his side where she rested her head on his shoulder. It was the perfect end to a very long day.
“Keeneston Fire,” Dispatch said, the radio crackling loudly over the speakers. “We have several calls of women in labor.”
Everyone began moving.
“How many, dispatch?” Colton asked, grabbing the receiver.
“Um, all of them who are due in the next month, so five total. Dr. Davies has instructed everyone to come to his clinic if possible.”
“Freaking storm and a full moon. We told them. Everyone, grab your kits,” Colton ordered. “And someone call Pam and tell her we need her flame thrower to clear a path to Jace’s.”
Nolan jumped up and kissed the top of Helena’s head. “Get home safe.”
“Oh, no. We’re coming with you. I’ve never seen a baby born, but I’m sure you need help.”
“They sure will,” Poppy agreed. “We can make it to Jace’s on foot and help.”
“I’ll bring the leftover food. You know a crowd will show up even with the storm,” Zinnia added as they all began to move.
“Okay,” Colton said not fighting it. “Fill the sled with supplies. Nolan and Conley, try to plow the best you can and lay down what you can of the salt. Ladies, Lucas, Talon, you get those supplies down there now. We’ll meet you there. Time to deliver some babies.”