Page 5 of Chasing the Other Woman

And I wonder if that feeling will ever change.

Two

BROOKS

By the time I step out onto the yard, my boots look like they’ve lost a fight with a mud monster. I head for the equipment bay, the team still buzzing.

The moments after a chase are some of my favorites. Sure, nothing beats the thrill of the chase, but when the danger drops and everyone’s coming down off the high? There’s something soothing about it. Everyone’s laughing a little too loud and replaying their favorite moments where they looked death right in the face.

Hershel’s already arguing with one of the camera guys about how his beard looks on camera. In a few minutes, he’ll be quoting Ozzy and telling them Gen Z’s music sucks. Luci is wringing the rainwater from the end of her ponytail. She's grinning like a Cheshire Cat, so clearly ready to go again that I can’t help but miss being that young.

I watch them, feeling further away from them than I ever have.

Instead, tonight, I keep hearing Sam’s voice over the comms.

Storm is cycling earlier than we expected.

If you didn’t know her like I do, you’d think she was reading a recipe from a blog. But I heard it. The memory just under the words.

Even if Hershel didn't get it, I trusted her before she finished explaining. Asking for a reason was just an excuse to hear her voice.

Just for a second.

Because, for a brief flash, I could have sworn she was right there beside me in the truck. I could see her in the passenger seat, boot braced up against the dash, her eyes focused on the monster before her like it was the most beautifully terrifying thing she’d ever seen, and she didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

For a second, I’d almost turned to Luci and said, “What do you see out there, Sammy Girl?”

I pull the equipment bay door back so hard that it rattles on the track.

“You break it, you buy it,” Hershel calls out from behind me.

“I already own it.”

“Doesn’t stop you from having to buy another one if you break it, does it?”

I perform laughter as if the camera’s still trained on me. A memory of Sam after a chase hits me so hard that I’d swear I time traveled. She’s leaning against the truck, looking out at the sky. The wind is up, that promise that the monster was just over the horizon, ready to fight.

“We gonna get Mr. Hyde today?” she’d asked.

“If anyone can call him down, it’s you, Sammy Girl.”

I’m not ready for the memory that follows. Rain hammering on the truck roof as Hershel drives like a bat out of hell. Sam in my lap, face pale, breathing shallow from pain and shock. Blood on my shirt, my hands. Me begging her to stay with me. Her skin looking alien under the emergency room lights. A doctor saying in that too-gentle voice, “I’m sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle, but…”

I squeeze my eyes shut.

Just one night. That’s all I ask.

“Brooks?”

Tony’s voice causes me to resurface so fast that I nearly tumble backward.

I turn. He’s standing in the doorway with a coil of cable over his shoulder. Tony always looks like he’s just wandered in and still somehow manages to look like he belongs. He’s the kind of guy people trust because he looks completely harmless, but carries himself with just enough competence to make you feel safe.

“Need something?”

He shifts the cable higher. “Just returning this. Sam said she thought this cable was going bad. Figured I’d change it out before the next chase so she didn’t have to worry about it.”

I stop just short of tightening my fingers into a fist.