“Then we do what we can,” he said.
He tugged his knit cap lower, grabbed the flashlight from the cup holder, and stepped out.
The storm hit him like a wall.
Snow flew sideways, sharp against his cheeks.
The cold shoved through his coat, through his sleeves, into his bones.
He hunched forward and moved toward the SUV.
His boots slid twice before he reached the driver’s side.
He knocked hard on the glass.
“Hey!”
Nothing.
He shined the flashlight in.
At first, he saw only the white blur of frost.
Then a shape.
A woman.
Slumped over the steering wheel.
Her forehead resting near the horn, hair falling across her face, one hand hanging loose by her knee.
Malik’s stomach tightened.
He hit the window again.
“Ma’am! Can you hear me?”
No answer.
He tried the door.
Locked.
He moved around to the passenger side.
The door was wedged against the snowbank, but not fully buried.
He pulled.
It didn’t budge.
“Come on,” he breathed.
He ran back to his pickup, snow stinging his eyes.
Nia pressed both hands to the window.
He pointed at her seat belt.
She nodded quickly, scared enough not to argue.
Malik grabbed the small pry bar he kept under the seat for roadside jobs, then fought his way back to the SUV.
The passenger window was cracked open about two inches.
Maybe she had tried to get air.
Maybe she had tried to call out.
Maybe she had done it before her strength left her.
Malik slid the pry bar carefully through the gap, working the lock with the steady hands of a man who had fixed broken things his whole life.
His fingers were already going numb.
The wind shoved at his back.
“Not tonight,” he muttered. “Not out here.”
The lock clicked.
He pulled the handle.
The door opened just enough for the woman’s body to tilt sideways.
Malik caught her before she slipped.
She was ice cold.
Her lips were pale.
Her breath was there, but barely.
Thin.
Almost shy.
“Oh, mercy,” he whispered.
He didn’t know her name.
Didn’t know where she lived.
Didn’t know why someone in a coat that probably cost more than his truck was alone on a mountain road in a storm like this.
