Page 40 of Reckoning

“I’ve heard more than I ever wanted to about you,” Carrie said. “You are a middle-aged woman with a husband and a daughter. Go tend to your business.”

Mariah’s shoulders slumped. “Fine. I’ll leave first thing tomorrow.”

“No. You will pack and go home today,” Ray said.

“But it’s too late. I won’t be able to get home before dark,” she wailed.

“Your car has lights,” Ray said.

“But they said my house is damaged,” Mariah cried.

“That’s not just your house. It’s your family’s home. Go tend to the people you are supposed to love,” Ray said. “Your mother and I have spoken. There’s nothing more to argue about.”

Mariah stood abruptly. The tears were gone, and her eyes were blazing. “Some parents you turned out to be!”

“I imagine Briar thinks the same thing about you,” Carrie said.

Mariah’s face flushed angrily as she stormed upstairs, threw her things into her bag, and stormed out of the house without so much as a goodbye. She sped out of Savannah in a tearful rage, blaming everybody she’d ever known except herself.

* * *

It had finally stopped raining, but Briar had no idea what a sight she was, running through town in a blood-soaked T-shirt with bloody streaks all over her face, arms, and legs. Nothing mattered but getting to Tate. He’d asked her not to leave him, but they’d taken him away without her. She could only imagine what he was thinking.

She ran past the garage where Abel Bandy worked. All of the windows were broken, and there was a tree limb on top of the roof. When she passed Sparks Grocery where Tate worked, she could see the cracks in the plate-glass window, but the building itself was still in place.

The storefront to her dad’s insurance agency was intact. No trees down on the property, and from all appearances, the green metal roof had weathered the storm.

Debris was everywhere. Someone’s shoe. A baseball cap. A toy truck half buried in mud. That trampoline that had nearly taken out the windshield of Tate’s truck was in the park near the gazebo. There was nothing left of it but a wad of rods and netting, while the floor of the trampoline was nowhere in sight.

Her chest was burning, and she was almost out of breath before she realized she’d been crying as she ran. When she stumbled over a crack in the sidewalk and nearly fell, she sucked up the tears and made herself focus.

Just a little farther, Lord. Help me get to Tate.

Once she passed the police station, she knew she didn’t have far to go. She crossed the street at the next corner, then one block down, and she was there! The hospital parking lot was a maze of people trying to park near the emergency entrance, and dozens and dozens of people going in, while others were coming out.

When Briar came running toward the entrance, from the viewpoint of the others, her rain-soaked appearance, her tear-streaked face, and the blood on her clothes and legs were shocking, and she was alone. It was enough for the crowd to part and let her in ahead of them, thinking she was in dire need of medical treatment.

By the time she got to the check-in desk, she was trembling. “Tate Bandy. Where did they take him?” she asked.

“Are you family?” the receptionist asked.

Briar lifted her chin. “I belong to him. He belongs to me. We were together when he was injured. His family is out of town. The EMT wouldn’t let me ride with them in the ambulance, but he said when I got here, I could be with him.”

The receptionist saw past her appearance, to being another victim who survived the storm, and pointed. “Through those double doors. Down the hall to the left. Room 5.”

Briar was shaking inwardly, but her chin was up and her steps were still steady as she went through the doors and down the hall to Room 5.

* * *

They’d cut Tate out of his clothes and left him belly down with the glass shards still embedded in his flesh. His body was as bare as the day he’d been born, except for the bedsheet they had draped over his backside.

Doctor Joe was getting ready to pull the glass shard out of Tate’s leg when Briar walked in. Tate had been telling them over and over that Briar was coming, and to please let her in, so when she arrived, he wasn’t surprised, but her appearance was startling.

“Briar, I see you made it, and I hear you put the tourniquet on his leg.”

Tate raised his head. “She’s here?”

Briar immediately moved to his bedside where he could see her. “I’m here. They wouldn’t let me ride with you. I stayed to call our parents, then ran all the way here.” After that, her voice broke. She swallowed past the knot in her throat to regain her composure and pushed a chair close to his bed to sit down.