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“I’m going to limp to the hospital. See if Sean and A.J. are still there. Check on my parents. Then see if the rest of the brothers are ok.”
“How many are there?” Daryn asked. She’d thought A.J. had said she had a million.
“I’m one of seven boys. And we have an A.J.”
Eight. Wow. There were six more of him out there somewhere. “Let’s go. Shel?”
“L-L-Logan’s house is half a mile from here. I have the keys with me. I’m going there to sleep and get cleaned up. I have s-s-some things there.”
Logan’s house. Shelby’s safe place. Of course.
But there was no way she was letting Shelby be alone now. Shock was going to hit Shelby soon. The things she had seen and done. Shelby had never been prepared for the horrors of death. She was a pianist and a social worker and a woman who did charity work. Digging dead bodies out of rubble was going to leave scars. Daryn would stand next to her friend now when Shelby needed her. No question.
And Daryn would not leave her alone there, in a house owned by a man who Shelby had lost not all that long ago in a violent way. She just wouldn’t.
But she couldn’t just leave Mike, either. He was going to need help getting to his parents, too. “Shel, we’ll help Mike to the ER. And then I’ll go with you to Logan’s. There is no way I’m going to be able to get to Value. I don’t think I have much other choice tonight. Did you see my car?”
Shelby gave a rueful, tired smile in the artificial lights the national guard had strung around triage. “It was next to mine. They look like giant roller skates now. At least we have i-i-insurance. If that takes too long… I’ll just buy us both new ones. Matching. We’ll get Zo one, too.”
Daryn wrapped her arms around her friend and hugged her. She could have lost both Shelby and Darrell tonight. They’d gotten lucky to survive. Darrell and Shelby had ridden out the storm together in a storm drain next to the parking lot. A three-foot storm drain was all that had kept her brother and best friend safe.
She wouldn’t be forgetting that soon, either. And there would be nightmares. For all of them. A warm hand wrapped around hers. Daryn looked up. There was a tall man with light brownhair and green eyes looking at her. With a paper tissue in his hand.
He blotted the tears away. “Hey, we’ve made it this far. And you still owe me dinner to show me you don’t think I’m the jerk you thought at first.”
A watery laugh escaped. And then he was pulling her against his broad chest and just holding her. Daryn let herself rest against him for a quick moment. His arms around her… Felt exactly right. Like everything would be ok because Mike was going to make it that way.
“Let’s… lets… let’s go…” Shelby said. “I’m ready to…”
Daryn looked at Mike. “We’re going to walk to Shelby’s place. You?”
She wasn’t ready to be away fromhimyet tonight. She didn’t have the energy to analyze possible reasons. She just didn’t want to let him go.
“I don’t have any place to go after I hit County. My parents’ place is twenty blocks north of here.”
“Daryn, you sh-sh-should go with him. Darrell is going to walk me home, take a shower. Borrow some of Logan’s old clothes. Then he’s coming back here to help more, if he can.”
Daryn nodded. As the teams from the guards got ready to take the next shift, she felt… displaced. Like she didn’t know what to do next. Now. Adrenaline was going to crash for all of them.
But first… Mike. He needed her now. She was getting him to the hospital to get his leg checked out first. At least then she would be doingsomething.The faces of the dead she’d seen tonight flashed back into her mind. Reminding her she’d been too late to do anything.
She had never felt so powerless in her life.
11
It was goingto be a long walk, but he had the crutch, and Mike liked to think he was a strong bad-ass kind of man. But as he and Daryn headed toward his parents’ ER, he knew the truth.
It was all an act. He’d been trained to act despite fear. But that didn’t mean fear didn’t exist. His sister had been his immediate concern because he coulddosomething about helping A.J.. At least that was what he’d told himself.
But now? He had six brothers and his parents to find. He’d heard his brother Houston’s voice on a radio someone had found. Houston was safe. Six more brothers to go. His hand tightened on Daryn as a crowd of people almost separated them. He wasn’t about to let this woman go. Especially as there was another storm brewing above them.
“Stay close, baby,” he said as lightning flashed. And she yelped. “I’ll get you someplace safe.”
He had meant nothing more.
She was beyond exhausted.Daryn pushed it away. She would shower at Shelby’s, rest. Try to forget. Once she knew Mike’s leg was going to be ok. That he, they, were ok.
“Tell me her story. Tell me how the two of you met?” Mike pulled her close as they just kept walking. He was limping. He had to be hurting so badly. But he kept her close as the rain started again. “Why did your brother train one of the richest women in the city on search and rescue techniques? It’s a rather odd hobby for the tea and caviar set.”
