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To find somewhere to breathe and process and—
My eyes stung. The world went blurry.
“Not the time, Donovan,” I whispered, fully aware I was talking about myself in the third person. But better that than breaking down, than allowing the sobs that clung to my lungs, that squeezed the air out of me with each and every glimpse of the damage, to escape.
Ihadto stay strong.
Ihadto be what the town needed.
Even if the Civic Center, with its historic buildings and where I’d spent the last six years working my ass off for the town, was gone.
Even if the grocery store—not a chain one, but a small supermarket that had been owned by the Brown family since the Gold Rush days—was gone.
Even if all the restaurants—the diner, the pizza place, the Greek gyro stand that had just been opened by a young couple who’d recently moved to town, Luna’s Italian Eatery, the deli, and the Chinese restaurant—were gone.
My history.
My work.
Mylife.
Gone.
Which was why the sobs I’d been holding in for the last days—ever since Bailey had called and activated the phone tree, reporting the fire—had to stay held. Why I’d used every bit of my focus to make sure each and every resident—human, furry, feathered, or otherwise—got out safely.
It hadn’t been enough.
I’d failed.
People had died.
And for two hellish days, I’d thought my niece, Bailey, had died with them.
Bailey, who’d been through a lot. Too much—and not just having to outrun a fire on horseback with a dog and steer in tow.
She’d survived. Thenandnow. Survived toofuckingmuch.
And…I hadn’t been what she needed either.
One of the damned sobs choking me escaped, making a wretched, awful sound that revealed too much. Sucking in a breath, trying to shove them down, lock the emotions away, I dropped my gaze to my feet, hurrying down the charred wooden boardwalk. I needed to find somewhere that wasn’t burned, wasn’t ash, wasn’tdestroyed.
But the fire clung to the air, to my lungs, my hair. There was soot on my cheeks, making it hard to breathe, and the world looked alien, dystopian,wrecked.
And eerily quiet.
My busy, happy town was gone.
Gone.
Tears blurred my vision, choked me, threatened to escape the cage of my lashes.
Fuck.
“Fuck.”
Because I knew there was no holding in the sobs. They were too big, too overwhelming, too—
I needed to get in my car.
