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No wants. No warrants.
That was the good news. At least there wasn’t a fleeing felon in the vicinity. But he still needed to be careful. This wasn’t a sure thing, easy traffic stop.
Approaching the vehicle slowly, he kept one hand hovering above his service revolver. When he was about six feet from the driver’s door, he could see the outline of a person in the front seat. Steeling himself for whatever was to come, he tapped on the window and pressed his badge to the glass.
“Open up, please. This is the sheriff.”
He waited and then the window slowly glided down revealing a young woman with a tearstained face. She was clearly distressed, and his first instinct was to get her calmed down and to safety. Sitting on the side of the road crying, during a hurricane wasn’t something that anyone should be doing. If a tree fell or a branch went flying, she could be hurt or killed. Not to mention flash flooding.
“Ma’am, are you alright? Are you hurt? Do you need medical attention?”
Her eyes wide, she stared up at him, saying nothing. At first, he thought that she might not answer, or she’d hit her head.
“No,” she finally said with a shake of her head, her hair partially covering her face. “I don’t need a doctor. I’m not hurt.”
“Ma’am, this is a dangerous place to be parked. You need to move this vehicle to a safer location. There’s a hurricane bearing down on us, and you shouldn’t be on the roads.”
He wasn’t sure which part upset her - the parking situation or the hurricane - but whatever it was, she burst into a fresh spate of tears, her shoulders shaking with sobs.
“I—I—ran out of gas,” she said, wiping at a damp cheek with the back of her hand, scrubbing at the skin. “I’m so sorry but I can’t move it.”
Grant’s gut was talking to him. Loud and strong. He’d been doing this job for a damn long time. He’d seen all sorts, some of them on the worst day of their lives. He’d grown to have an instinct about people, and that instinct was screaming at him that this woman wasn’t taking a Sunday drive to see the sights. She hadn’t become distracted with all the sunshine and palm trees and not watched her gas gauge.
No, this woman was distraught, and unless he was losing his touch at reading people, she was also scared to death. Her skin was pale and her eyes huge in her face.
“Ma’am,” he said gently. “Can you show me your license and registration, please?”
Nodding, she dug into the purse on the seat next to her and then handed him the two items. Her gaze was darting everywhere, and her fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard the knuckles were white.
Her license and registration matched what he had pulled up in the computer. He handed them back to her, but she didn’t put them back in her wallet, simply tucking them into a pocket.
“You’re out of gas? I have a can in my truck. We can get you up and running to the nearest station.”
Except that the gas station was closed because of the storm.
Something she must have already known because a few new tears slid down her cheeks.
“I tried stopping at the station when I realized I was running out of gas, but it was closed. I was hoping I could make it to an open one. But…”
Her voice trailed away, but he understood what she was trying to say.
“My family has a private gas pump at the resort. I can get you up and running, and we can go there. Top up your tank. It will all be fine. But honestly, ma’am, I can’t let you drive in this storm. It’s not safe. You need to stop for the night at least. We can see if the roads are drivable in the morning.”
“I have to go. I just have to.”
Her voice was high-pitched and panicked, and she shifted nervously in her seat. Yep, she was scared. He didn’t know what had sparked that emotion in her, but it was easy to see that she was upset.
This wasn’t someone on the run from the law. She didn’t seem scared of him.
“Ma’am, I cannot in good conscience, let you drive during a hurricane. It’s not safe. At all. You simply cannot go out there and possibly get yourself killed.”
She blinked several times, her lips pressed tightly together as if to keep more tears at bay.
“I can take you to the local resort,” Grant said gently. “You’ll be safe there to ride out the storm. Tomorrow you’ll probably be able to get back on the road.”
The resort was already full of people, but he was sure they could find a couch or a comfy chair if they needed to. It shouldn’t come to that, however.
“I can’t go there,” she said, shaking her head vigorously, panic in her tone. “He might look for me there. I need to get back on the road.”
