Stone started sweating as they pulled up to the traffic accident. He couldn’t wait to get outside in the cold pre-dawn air. Everyone called him Stone Cold, and he wished it were true right now. He kept his emotions in check and wasn’t bothered too badly by tough situations that involved fire, but anything relating to a car wreck, especially with a woman like the dispatcher had said they were dealing with tonight, had the ability to pull him to dark places and the raging guilt that never went away.

Police lights and spotlights lit up the darkness, making everything feel eerie and disjointed.

Stone jumped down from the backseat of the engine and rushed with the rest of the crew to the car that was upside down in the median. The report was black ice and a single car rollover. The police were already there, and one of them yelled, “Gonna need the Jaws!”

“We got it,” Stone muttered, tapping Wade on the shoulder before hurrying back to the engine. They retrieved the Jaws of Life and hydraulic power unit then hurried through the knee-deep snow to where the rest of his crew had congregated with the policemen.

A wail rang from the vehicle that curdled Stone’s blood. A woman in pain.

“Just the one victim?” he asked.

The policeman closest to him nodded. “But she’s expecting.”

Stone’s spine felt like ice. He ignored the emotion and went to work with Wade, slicing through the frame of the car like a hot knife through butter. He made the mistake of glancing at the woman, who alternated between softly crying and calling out “Help my baby.” Chills raced through him. Nobody had been able to help his wife or baby girl.

This woman was hugely pregnant. The steering wheel digging into her abdomen and pinning her in place may have already killed the fetus on impact. His stomach churned.

The paramedics, Dax and Jeremy, were standing close by, tensely waiting as Stone and Wade peeled back the car frame. They couldn’t get to the patient until Stone and Wade did their job. It was a tricky angle. Stone jammed the spreaders at the base of the steering column and twisted the handle to activate them. The steering wheel lifted away. The pressure released on the woman’s abdomen, and she suddenly dropped. Dax and Jeremy were right there, catching her with hardly a grunt and helping her onto a long spine board. As they carefully slid her away from the car and lifted her onto a stretcher, Jeremy fit her with a soft collar. She was carried away, and everyone but Stone followed. He clung to the thick handles of the spreaders, grateful he had gloves on so nobody could see his hands trembling.

The world was messed up. What kind of a universe would take his innocent wife and baby girl? What kind of an idiot was he to put himself in a career where he came face to face with similar situations? Was that what Virginia had been screaming as her car plummeted off the cliff, Help my baby?

Virginia’s voice rang through his head over and over again. Help my baby, help my baby. Stone scrubbed a gloved hand over his face but couldn’t get rid of the voice in his head or the image of Virginia in the coffin, her belly distended in the lacy white dress that was fancier than the dress she’d worn at their rushed Vegas wedding. Sadly, the coffin was how he always pictured her.

He was still in the same position when Nikola came back to start picking up their equipment. How long had it been? Nikola stopped in front of Stone and stared questioningly at him. “You all right?”

Stone swallowed and shook his head. He opened his mouth but then clamped it shut. Finally, he said, “Fine.” He stomped by Nikola.

The sky was lightening behind them, and their shift would be over at seven. If he could just make it back to the station and through debriefing, he could disappear to his cabin for four days. With any luck, the storm that was forecasted would snow him in and nobody could find him. Not that anybody but Abi would try. Abi. He was supposed to meet Abi for something. Skiing? Hiking? It was too hazy through the roar in his head for him to remember details. He wished he could see her, hold her to forget the pain, but that would never happen. It was better to stay away from everyone when he got like this, especially from Abi. She was the only one who could truly pull emotion out of him. It wasn’t just that he hated revealing how weak he was, he couldn’t risk sharing the secret Virginia had placed upon him and then taken to her grave.

He pushed out a breath. He would send Abi a text and cancel. Abi would forgive him. She always did.