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“Be careful in there,” Wade said as I stood off my bike. “The building is unstable.”
I looked at the building and felt my heart lodge in my throat at the sight before me.
The entire area surrounding The Bridge looked normal other than a few downed trees and debris. The Bridge, though? It looked like the tornado had sat down right on top of it and tore the entire center out.
My father’s report had been wrong. The bakery hadn’t been touched, and neither had the building on the other side of the bakery.
The Bridge looked to be the only building on the entire block that looked like it had sustained any damage. Hell, even the forest behind it looked untouched.
Of all the luck…
“I will,” I agreed. “The power cut off to this part of the street?”
Wade nodded. “It is. Called it in myself, and I talked to your old man.”
That must’ve been the call that my father had gotten. Made sense now.
“All right,” I said softly. “See you later.”
Wade fist-bumped me as I passed by, and I continued up the walk, pulling on a yellow utility vest that I’d grabbed out of my saddlebag as I’d walked away.
I stopped next to Bayou, my MC president who happened to be the fire chief, and offered him my hand.
He took it and shook once before turning his gaze to the mess in front of him.
“All the residents were in the hallway,” he said softly. “As well as all the staff. We’re clearing a path to it right now.”
I looked at the mess before me and knew that there was no way that all those residents had made it out alive. The building was a total loss.
“Have you found anyone yet?” I asked softly.
He gestured to the ambulance that was just pulling up. Wade was guiding it to the spot that he’d indicated I shouldn’t park, and it was then I saw the body that was next to a tree, covered only in a purple sheet.
“One. Female, about thirty years old.”
Pound. Pound. Pound.
My heart was practically beating out of my chest.
“What’d she look like?” I asked softly.
Bayou, our club president, didn’t ask why I wanted to know. He didn’t care and assumed I had a good enough reason for showing up, let alone asking about a deceased person that I shouldn’t care about.
“Brunette. Around five foot or so.”
I closed my eyes and counted to ten.
“Tara’s sister is here,” I said softly.
Bayou’s shoulders tightened, and he looked at me like I’d just spoken in tongues.
“She has a sister?” he asked, sounding eerily calm.
“Twin,” I replied. “Looks just like her…only with blue eyes instead of those dark brown, almost black eyes that Tara has.”
Bayou cleared his throat.
“I don’t know if it’s her,” he admitted. “I was informed that there was a nurse here that resembled that one.”
There was no other choice.
I had to walk over to the body and find out.
Something compelled me to do it, and I wouldn’t be able to work knowing she might be over there.
Walking stiffly, I made my way to the spongy, rain-soaked grass where the body was laying.
I came to a stop next to the sheet, which I now realized wasn’t just purple, but a swirl of darker and lighter purple as well.
Steeling myself for the worst, I lifted the sheet and stared into sightless blue eyes.Chapter 8Today I learned that there are female penguins who exchange sex for rocks. So if you’re having a bad day, just know that there are hooker penguins out there.
-Text from Castiel to Liner
Liner
The very last thing I wanted to do thirty-five hours later was go home, but I didn’t have a choice.
I needed a few hours of sleep that wasn’t on the hard ground, or upright in a computer chair, and I needed a shower worse.
I was in a state of shock, I decided.
My day had gone from bad to worse.
After doing all that we could at The Bridge, i.e., helping join the search and rescue, transporting people across town in my company truck that was brought out to me, and overall filing through debris and destruction, I’d moved back to the office only to find out that two of our crew members had been electrocuted. After spending four hours at the emergency room with them, I’d then gone back to the office only to turn right around and hit up a call of a live wire near the park.
It’d all gone downhill from there, and still, all I could think about were those sightless blue eyes staring up at me.
Parking my bike at the back of my house where I normally parked it, I spared the empty house beside mine a distracted glance, then headed up my back porch to the door.
There I typed in the key code and walked inside, instinctively listening for the alarm to disengage as I did.
