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Ophelia felt his grief as though she wore it, like a thick woolen scarf pulled too tight around her throat. Logan reached for her, both of them needed the comfort, grabbing her painfully close, her holding on fighting the scream boiling up in her.
Then as if she broke inside, the tension snapped. She sank a little, her eyes tearing. She covered her mouth. She sagged against him and after a moment, he let her go and turned away. Ophelia stared at the spot where once Logan’s beautiful life had existed, now nothing but burning rubble and slag.
Someone was desperate to stop them, and it was clear they would go to any lengths. She couldn’t be Dean’s lover right now, no matter how terrible it was or how much she wanted to dissolve into tears. Rescue vehicles started to pull up. Ambulances, firefighters, police cruisers. She was in charge here. This had happened on her watch.
Even as she wanted to fling herself in the direction of the building, she knew in her heart no one could have survived that explosion.
Not even a Navy SEAL.
Not even the man she loved.
CHAPTERELEVEN
Dean drewin a quick breath as he came to suddenly, his head pounding. His ears still vibrated from the sound of the explosion. His body reeled and bones vibrated from the impact and the hard roll off the awning to the ground. The cushion of underbrush had done little to soften the very real science of gravity. And in a split second of time, he felt wiped clean, then the hard rush of blood drove spikes of pain through muscle and cuts told him he was still very much alive. He opened his eyes, squinting against the bright flames and the heat of the nearby fire.
Then cold water washed over him in a heavy spray. He forced his breathing to slow, gaining enough control to think.
Kurrie and Jack.
He pushed himself up, rolling to all fours, hoping like hell they weren’t terribly hurt. He had to find them. They would need medical attention. He looked around him and found Kurrie. He dropped to the ground and immediately touched the artery in her neck and sighed. She was alive. Groaning, he squatted and lifted her onto his shoulder. Next, he moved forward and found Jack. He was also unconscious, sprawled where he’d been ejected off the awning when he’d jumped. Kneeling slowly so as to not lose his other young charge, he found Jack breathing evenly. He closed his eyes for a moment in gratitude. Logan’s brother and sister were alive.
That’s all that mattered here.
He repeated his maneuvers and soon had Jack over his other shoulder. With their slight warm bodies, he started to make his way around the debris and rubble that had once been their home. But with their lives, they would have another chance to rebuild and thrive.
Logan would get to yell at them some more and be their surrogate father, handling the intense task he had taken on to raise them himself. He had to admire the guy for ditching his past, reforming his future, and doing what was right for his siblings.
He emerged from the smoke and the mist. Paramedics saw him first and rushed over, carefully and gently laying the two teenagers on stretchers. Dean spied Logan, his head bent, his hand over his face. He shouted his name.
The man’s head jerked up at the sound of Dean’s voice, his features ravaged by pain and loss. When he caught sight of his sister and brother, he took a staggering step, then stumbled into a run. Jack was already waking up, and when Logan reached him, he cupped the boy’s face and dragged him against his chest.
Jack weakly embraced his brother and said, “I’m okay, bro.” Turning his head, he searched for his sister. “Kurrie?”
“She’s alive,” Dean said, coming around so Jack could see him. When she made an angry groan and batted at the EMT, Dean smiled. That kid was a firecracker.
“The beast lives,” Jack said with amusement and a healthy dose of relief glittering.
Logan laughed softly, then jerked Dean into a quick embrace. “Thank you for saving them.”
Dean stepped back, “Everyone else okay?”
Logan looked toward the medics who were talking to Jessica, “Jessica has some bumps and bruises. Caught some broken glass in her left shoulder They’re patching her up.”
“You go to the hospital with them to make sure they’re okay, then come to the shop.”
“Damn right,” Logan said. “Someone is going to pay for this.”
They loaded Jack and Kurrie into ambulances and drove away.
As soon as they were gone, Dean turned, looking for O. She was talking to a police officer. She looked like the walking dead, her face drained of color, tear tracks down her cheeks. She thought he’d been killed in the explosion. He started forward as an EMT touched his arm. “Sir, let me take a look at you.”
Dean knew his body and his limitations. As a SEAL, he’d been put under enormous physical strain and trauma. He knew what he needed right now, and it wasn’t medical attention.
“I’m good,” he replied as the woman started to dab at the cut above his eye. Now he understood what had changed O after the shooting. It was the sheer elation of being alive, of having a second chance to do everything that mattered. She was the one. She had always been the one. He was going to make sure she understood that.
The cop nodded and moved away from her, and it was as if she collapsed into herself. She sank to the grass and covered her face.
He moved, his stride hitching a little, then it evened out as he covered the ground at a faster pace. “O,” he said as he approached her.
