Saving You

by Jessie Evans

  Faith nodded as she stood to take her plate to the sink. “I will. Don’t worry. We haven’t had to do any flood evacuations since I joined the department, but I know the protocol and I’m good with a boat.” She breezed back past the dining table to the front door, grabbing her rain slicker from the coat tree and shrugging it on. “I’ll see you at family dinner tonight, okay? Bring the frozen rolls in the freezer if you remember.”

  And she believed she would see Mick at dinner. Flooding wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but it wasn’t anything compared to primary interior search on a working fire, or cutting roof holes for smoke evacuation. She expected to log a long, hard, wet day, rescue the stranded, and be back to the firehouse by supper, ready to dry off and eat her weight in ribs as a reward for a job well done.

  It wasn’t until she was waist deep in cold water, slogging through a brutal current with nothing but a rope linked to the harness on her suit to tether her to the motorboat idling in the deeper water behind her, with an uprooted tree bearing down on her as she tried to reach a golden retriever shivering on top of a dog house, that she began to worry.

  And by then it was too late.

  The tree rushed closer. The men behind her started to tow her back toward the boat, but Faith knew they wouldn’t be able to get her free of the tree’s path in time. And if they held on, she’d be forced under the water as the tree passed over her head, get trapped in the branches, and potentially drown before she could find her way out.

  Trusting her gut, Faith reached back and unhooked the rope from her harness, lifting her legs and allowing herself to be carried away by the current just feet ahead of the uprooted tree. On her way by the doghouse, the golden retriever barked and launched itself into the water, swimming hard toward her as they were both swept away down Lost Oak Lane.

  Chapter Six

  At ten after two, Mick got a cold, miserable feeling in his gut way too intense to be a hunger pain, especially after the massive breakfast and lunch he’d eaten. At a quarter after two, he shut down his computer and went to turn on the police scanner—deciding that stalking the emergency crews’ radio signals would ease his stress about what was going on with the rescue effort—but his cell rang before he could flip the switch.

  The second he saw Jake’s number, the hair on Mick’s neck prickled. He and Jake were close, but not talking-on-the-phone close, and Jake didn’t make social calls while he was on duty. There were only a few reasons his brother-in-law-to-be would be calling him, and none of them were good.

  “Tell me Faith’s okay,” Mick said, putting the phone to his ear and bracing one hand on the back of the couch, pretty sure his legs were going to give out if Jake replied with anything but “she’s fine.”

  “We don’t know,” Jake said, the misery in his voice making it clear how worried he was. “Her team lost sight of her five minutes ago.”

  Five minutes ago. Ten after two.

  Mick’s eyes squeezed shut as he fought a wave of panic. Ten after two, it was like some part of him had fucking known.

  “She was trying to rescue a stranded dog when an uprooted tree came rushing through the flood water out of nowhere,” Jake continued. “The team said they tried to pull her in, but the current was too strong. Faith ended up unlatching her tether to get out of the way before the tree ran her over.”

  “But she was okay,” Mick said, fighting to get the words out past the vice gripping his throat. “She was conscious, right? Her head was above water?”

  “She was conscious,” Jake confirmed. “And she’s a strong swimmer, but that current is deadly and the debris in the water even more so. The ground’s so damp from all the rain the past week, trees are falling left and right.”

  “So what are you doing to find her?” Mick asked, anger rising inside of him. This wasn’t the time to talk about how much danger Faith was in, it was time to figure out how to get her out of it. “If her cell’s working, we can track her location, right? Or her beeper? Don’t you have some kind of—”

  “She left her cell in the boat when she went in after the dog, and she wasn’t wearing her beeper,” Jake said. “But I sent her team to search in the direction she disappeared. And as soon as my other boats deliver the people they’ve got on board, I’ll send them back out to assist in the search. All the residents have been evacuated, but Faith’s team volunteered to go back and rescue as many pets as they could.”

  Of course they had, of course Faith had, because she had a huge heart and knew how much an animal could mean to their owner. Mick knew that, like he knew that risking her life to save others was a part of Faith’s job. But right now he couldn’t think logically or even be proud of her, all he could think about was that he might never see her smile again, never hold her, never get to promise his life to her, and it felt like he was being shredded from the inside.

  “I know how you must be feeling,” Jake said softly when Mick stayed quiet for too long. “If you want to come down to the firehouse you can. We’ll get you a cup of coffee, find you a place to hang out, and you’ll be the first to know if there are any developments. We’ve already evacuated the west end of Main because of rising water, but sandbags are in place up and down Market Street. We’re pretty sure we won’t have to evacuate the firehouse, and if we do it won’t be until late tonight. The weather people are promising this shit is going to stop by five o’clock.”

  Mick ran a shaking hand through his hair. “I’ll be there in ten minutes.”

  He hung up and launched into motion, hurrying down the hall to the bedroom to snag a pair of running pants and a quick-drying shirt he wore when he worked out, trying to dress as appropriately as he could for spending hours in the rain.

  Jake was crazy if he thought Mick was going to sit in a corner and sip coffee while everyone else searched for the woman he loved. He was going with them, and he refused to take no for an answer.

  A few minutes later, he shrugged into his water resistant jacket, pulled the hood over his head, and jogged out into the rain. The firehouse was always a quick walk from Faith’s place, but today Mick reached it in record time, bursting in the front door and taking the stairs to the second floor office space two at a time.

  Jake was on the phone, but as soon as he spotted Mick he lifted a hand and raised one finger. He ended the call a minute later and crossed to where Mick stood dripping near the hooks on the wall. But Mick didn’t intended to add his jacket to the line of raincoats, not when he planned to be heading back out as soon as he found out where to meet up with a search crew.

  “How you holding up?” Jake said.

  “I’m fine,” Mick said, ignoring the way his heart lurched in his chest. “And I want to help. I want to join a search party.”

  Jake shook his head. “Mick, I can’t let you do that. You don’t have the training these men and women have and—”

  “I don’t give a shit about training,” Mick said. “My fiancée might be dying out there, and I need to go look for her.”

  “I get it, Mick, but it’s more complicated than that,” Jake said in a cautious tone that made Mick fight to keep control. He couldn’t lose it with Jake right now or he’d never get assigned to a search party.

  “Listen, I know CPR,” Mick said. “Faith taught me not long after we got together. And I’ve got a sharp eye, am in good physical condition, and spent half my summers growing up in a boat with my dad. I know how to handle myself around water. I can be an asset to one of your teams.”

  Jake shook his head again, but Mick could tell by the look in his eyes he was wavering.

  “And I can follow orders,” Mick said, pressing on before Jake could speak. “I won’t do anything crazy, and I’ll listen to whoever you put in charge. Just please, Jake, let me help.”

  Jake pressed his lips together, but before he could respond a young woman in an orange windbreaker appeared at the top of the stars.

  “Chief Hansen,” she said, sounding out of breath. “We just got a call from the bar
down the street. We’ve got two men who didn’t heed the evacuation order who say they’re smelling gas on the main floor of their building. They think a line might be leaking but the shut off valve is underwater.”

  Jake muttered something beneath his breath Mick suspected was a curse.

  “Give me a second,” Jake said to the woman before turning back to Mick. “I’ll send you out on the next boat with Ben, as long as you understand that when you find her there’s a chance you’ll be finding a crime scene. And if that happens you will not be allowed to touch anything, or disturb evidence. Do you understand?”

  Mick’s jaw clenched as he nodded. “I understand.”

  But he refused to think about being too late. Faith wasn’t going to die. He couldn’t lose her, not now, not when they were so close to starting their life together. She’d been so warm and alive in his arms this morning, he had to believe she would be in his arms again before night fell.

  “All right,” Jake said, eyes softening as he put his hand on Mick’s shoulder. “I’ll be praying for you, and I’m already praying for her. I don’t want to imagine a world without our Faith in it.”

  “We’re going to find her,” Mick said, swallowing hard. “I can feel it.”

  He wanted to believe he was telling the truth, but all he knew for sure was that he was grateful to be following Ben to the police cruiser idling outside the firehouse, and catching a ride to where the boats were launching. His heart was still pounding in his throat and his thoughts racing, but at least he was on the way to help with the search.

  The officer driving the cruiser pulled to a stop at the top of a hill, letting Ben and Mick out fifty feet from where an ambulance, a television van with a camera mounted on top, and several other police cruisers were parked. On the other side of the gathering of vehicles, the road sloped down as it led into the Thousand Oaks Subdivision. The road was covered in swiftly moving water, eddies visible on the surface as it rushed through the trees on the left and on toward the water logged homes. The subdivision’s concrete sign was completely submerged and most of the houses beyond had floodwater up to the top of their first-story windows.

  “They were at the rear of the subdivision when she disappeared,” Ben said, pointing toward the far edge of the clusters of houses as they walked. “They said the water’s moving faster there since there aren’t as many obstacles to slow it down.”

  Mick nodded, but didn’t say a word except to mumble his name as he was introduced to the man and woman he and Ben would be going out with. The woman, Tami, was a member of the SPD, and the man, Kelvin, was a trained search and rescue volunteer and former Navy Seal, a big guy who looked like he was pushing forty with a formidable build that made Mick breathe a little easier. If Faith was pinned by debris, together he and Kelvin should be able to move just about anything.

  Hell, Mick felt capable of lifting a car off the ground with one hand. He was so ramped up on adrenaline, he barely noticed how unexpectedly cool the water was as he waded out to the boat. His fear for Faith was keeping him warm.

  Now, he could only hope she’d found someplace to get out of the water and seek shelter. If she stayed in the water too long, she could risk suffering from exposure, despite the fact that it was seventy-five degrees outside.

  As the outboard motor rumbled to life and Ben guided the small craft out into the water, Mick sent out a prayer that they would find Faith before it was too late.

  Chapter Seven

  Brandon opened his eyes to find a heart-shaped face dominated by big brown eyes staring down at him, and smiled.

  So it hadn’t been a dream after all.

  “Good morning,” he whispered, his voice rough with sleep. “Did you sleep okay?”

  Lucy nodded, the hair sticking out around her head bobbing softly. She looked like a wild thing who’d been raised by wolves, or an elf escaped from one of those fantasy movies his brother, Kurt, used to watch when he and Brandon were kids.

  Growing up, Kurt had loved anything with an orc, dragon, or elf in it, and spent most of his time with his nose in a book, or online playing World of Warcraft. He’d been a nerdy kid—not a jock like Brandon—but he’d never seemed particularly unhappy. He was simply quiet, the kind of person who kept their thoughts to themselves and enjoyed the company of imaginary people more than real ones.

  But in high school, things had changed. Some guys in his gym class had started bullying Kurt, calling him a fag and making his life miserable. For the first time, Brandon hadn’t been there to protect his big brother. They were only fourteen months apart, but that meant Kurt had gone on to ninth grade alone, leaving Brandon behind in middle school for one more year.

  After his mom found Kurt in the garage, Brandon had wondered if things would have been different if he’d been at school to defend Kurt, to see how bad things were getting and put a stop to it before it was too late. For a long time, he’d blamed himself for his brother’s suicide. But finally, with time, he’d been able to forgive himself, and promised to do whatever he could to keep what happened to Kurt from happening to anyone else.

  That was part of the reason he’d let Lucy come home with him last night. He might not be sure he believed in premonitions and sixth senses, but he could tell she was genuinely worried about him and wanted to keep him safe, and that was a feeling he could empathize with.

  Besides, waking up to a beautiful girl—even if she’d slept in his bed, while he couched it in the living room—wasn’t something Brandon was going to complain about. Not in the least.

  “So I guess I’m still alive,” he said, stretching his arms over his head, wincing at the crick in his lower back. The couch was fine for a night, but if Lucy insisted on keeping vigil tonight, Brandon might have to blow up an air mattress.

  “You are,” Lucy said, with a confused shake of her head.

  “Don’t look so disappointed.” Brandon smiled.

  Lucy’s mouth curved before she pulled her full bottom lip between her teeth. “I’m not disappointed, just confused. I really thought…” She trailed off with a shrug. “Maybe I read the energy wrong. There were a lot of people around last night, and I am out of practice. Or it could be that it hasn’t happened yet.” She frowned, her thin brows drawing together as she shook her head. “But I’m not getting any negative energy from you this morning.”

  Brandon sat up, swinging his feet down to the floor. Lucy was sitting cross-legged on the leather-covered coffee table Brandon had inherited from his parents when they moved to South Carolina. They’d left as soon as Brandon graduated from the academy and joined the Summerville Fire Department, past ready to escape the house where they’d lost their oldest son. They hardly ever came back to Summerville anymore, preferring to pay to fly Brandon up for visits on holidays and during his vacation time.

  Brandon had grown accustomed to walking softly around people years ago. After Kurt’s death, his parents hadn’t healed so much as closed themselves up, refusing to talk about Kurt, or the dark year after his suicide, when Brandon’s dad had moved into an apartment for a few months and he and Brandon’s mom had discussed divorce. By sixteen, Brandon was a pro at skirting issues, and making sure he didn’t say anything his parents didn’t want to hear.

  But Lucy wasn’t his mom or dad, and if they were going to have the kind of relationship he wanted them to have, he had to be honest with her.

  “Listen,” Brandon said, taking her small hand between his, warming her cool fingers. “I’m not sure what to believe about your gift, but I’m glad you’re here. And I’m glad you cared enough to want to keep me safe.”

  Lucy met his eyes with that piercing look she had, the one that made him sure she could read every thought in his head. It unnerved him and made him acutely aware of how damned cute she was and how much he wanted to kiss her, all at the same time.

  “You’re going to believe, Brandon,” she said. “Even the skeptics at the police department in Atlanta came around eventually. And those guys weren’t open-mi
nded. They were the kind of men who had the same breakfast every morning for twenty years just to avoid trying something new.”

  Brandon nodded. “I’m open to coming around. I’m not going to look up at a blue sky and call it orange. I’ve just never known a psychic before, let alone dated one. It will take some getting used to.”

  Lucy’s eyes dropped to their joined hands. “Well, I haven’t dated anyone at all in a long time. So…that might take a little bit of getting used to, too. For me.”

  Brandon twined his fingers through hers, glad she was letting him hold her hand. “Your last relationship didn’t end well, I’m guessing?”

  Lucy’s head bobbed, her eyes still glued to where they touched. “He passed away. Cancer. The quick kind.”

  Brandon’s brow wrinkled. “I’m so sorry, Lucy. That must have been awful.”

  “It was,” she said, finally lifting her gaze to his. “But he wouldn’t have wanted me to shut the world out. Or shut you out.” She took a deep breath. “So I want to be completely honest with you.”

  “Okay,” Brandon said, brow still furrowed.

  “I didn’t tell you everything last night,” she said. “I didn’t just sense that you were going to be in danger, I sensed that you and I… That we…”

  She broke off with a laugh, eyes lifting to the ceiling. “I don’t know why I’m so nervous. I know I’m right, and I know you feel it too.”

  Brandon’s forehead smoothed and a tentative smile teased at his lips. “That we’re going to be good together?”

  Lucy nailed him with another intense look. “We’re going to be great together.”

  Brandon’s smile took up more real estate on his face, even as a current of awareness swept through his body. “Well, I could have told you that months ago. The second I saw you get out of that little car of yours, I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I’ve been trying to catch your attention since the first day I came over to pester you during your shift.”