Bridget sat back down, phone in her hand. All this time she’d thought her father had died at work. No wonder her mother didn’t want to go back to El Salvador. She shook her head. She couldn’t deal with this now. It was something she’d have to ask her about later. Right now she needed to tell her mother she was all right.
It took a while to convince Carmen that Bridget didn’t need to go to the hospital and didn’t need her mother to come and stay. In the end Carly promised to stay the night and Bridget was able to hang up the phone.
“Go take a shower. I’ll make you something to eat,” Carly said.
“I’m not hungry,” Bridget said as she walked to the bathroom, relieved to finally have a chance to clean up. She ran the water until steam clouded and then stepped under the scorching spray. The heat scoured her skin. She slid to the ground, allowing the water to beat down on her and wash her clean.
Exhaustion smothered her. Her body was heavy like lead. She wasn’t going to move ever again. Her brain began a slow-motion replay of all the events of the day, and every possible worse outcome. Everyone had been so very lucky.
Now it was over she couldn’t quite believe she’d taken control the way she had, that the emergency response team respected her enough to follow her commands without question, and that she’d spoken to Kevin that way.
She couldn’t find it within herself to regret it. Kevin wasn’t happy with her, but it didn’t matter. If Graham still wanted her after this, she was going to accept the job. Today had shown her it wasn’t possible for her to keep everyone safe. They had to take responsibility for their own actions and look out for themselves as well.
Plus she was endangering the technicians more by staying where Kevin didn’t trust her. If he hadn’t countermanded her orders and delayed the project, the incident might not have been so bad. But that wasn’t her fault. It was Kevin’s. The realization was a relief. She’d done everything she could to improve the safety on the plant.
Bridget would move to a company that valued her advice and her expertise, where she wouldn’t be ignored by senior management and where she could actually make a difference.
Slowly she climbed to her feet and shut off the water.
That way she could be with Jack.
If he still wanted her.
Chapter 22
If the explosion had been hell, the next day started out as purgatory.
Bridget had fallen into bed the night before straight after her shower and had slept solidly until her cell phone woke her at five.
It was a journalist from the Houston Age wanting to know what had happened at the plant. She gave him the number for the media coordinator at Dionysus and hung up. It was then followed by three more phone calls in quick succession, the last from Dionysus’s contact at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.
“Bridget, why haven’t I received an incident notification in my email?” Victor asked.
Bridget swore under her breath. “They didn’t send it?”
“Not that I can find.”
She got out of bed and began pulling on some clothes. The notification should have been immediate as a matter of courtesy, and they now had only six hours to get the initial report in. She gave Victor what information she knew. “I’ll get the rest to you as soon as possible. I’m heading to work now.”
“I’ll be on site at nine. You can give it to me then.” He hung up.
Bridget strode into the kitchen to find Carly making coffee. She’d forgotten her sister had stayed the night. “I’m sorry, did my phone wake you?”
“I was awake,” she said. “You need to eat something before you leave.” She handed her a mug.
Bridget didn’t bother to argue. She called the hospital for an update on Jack. He’d been moved to a room overnight and the nurse said he’d had a good night’s sleep and should be discharged later today. Bridget breathed out a sigh of relief and hung up.
“All good?” Carly asked, buttering toast.
“Yeah. He should be home today.” Bridget wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was he was all right. She took the toast Carly handed her. “Are you going to eat?”
“I’ll buy something on my way to work,” Carly said, grabbing her purse.
Together they walked out of the house. Bridget hugged her sister tightly. “Thanks for being here.”
Carly smiled. “Any time, little sister.”
* * *
When Bridget arrived at work the fire was still burning. She stopped at the gatehouse.
“Who’s here?” she asked the security guard.
“The technicians on the new shift have arrived and are gathered in the crisis management room for handover. We’ve got a couple of big wigs from corporate office who have pulled an all-nighter trying to put a spin on this, and the rest of the managers are in there.”
“Thanks. Can I get the full list of names of those who were injured? I need them for my report.”
The guard photocopied a document and handed it to her. She thanked him and turned to go.
“Bridget?”
She turned back.
“I heard what you did yesterday. They should give you a medal.”
She smiled. She doubted very much that was going to happen.
Her aim on entering the administration building was to avoid the crisis room and go straight to her office to organize the report for Victor. Unfortunately Kevin walked out of the room with the CEO Bob Randall as she walked past.
“Bridget.” Kevin’s voice was a command. “You need to come with us.”
She stopped and forced a smile to her face. “I’m just going to write the incident report for OSHA. Victor is arriving at nine and it appears it hasn’t been sent yet.” She didn’t hide her disbelief.
“It can wait. Bob wants an explanation of yesterday’s events.”
She nodded to Bob. “I’m sure you don’t want us in any more trouble with the regulators than we already are. Can you give me half an hour to put together the report?”
“No. Now,” Bob demanded.
Bridget swallowed her anger and followed him into the general manager’s office.
She wasn’t offered a seat, so she stood. “Where would you like me to start?”
“From the alarms.”
Bridget took out her phone and set the record function. She wanted this on record. She could use it to build her own report later. Slowly she went through what she could recall of the events. She answered Bob’s questions and defended her decision to shut down the plant. The Chemical Safety Board would be on site as soon as it was safe to start their investigation, and Bridget was certain they would agree with her decision when they’d examined all the facts.
An hour later they’d finished grilling her. With leave to go, she stalked out and headed straight to her office. The corridors were deserted, a sure sign something bad had happened.
She shut the door and turned to her computer. There was a sticky note on the screen from Sally: Sent verbal notification to the EPA. Will be in tomorrow to write report. She breathed a sigh of relief. That was one less thing she had to do. She fired up her computer and began writing. As soon as she was satisfied she had the detail OSHA wanted, she printed the document and delivered it to the crisis management team for their approval, before heading out to the plant to talk with the fire team.
Bridget made her rounds, making sure they had enough to drink and were in reasonable spirits. With a promise she would be monitoring the radio channel should they need her, she went back to her office to write up her version of events.
Her phone rang as she was halfway through. It was the gatehouse.
“Victor and his team are here.”
She checked her watch. Nine o’clock. “Can you let Kevin and Bob know we’ll be in meeting room one?” They would need to be present for this.
At the main gate she greeted Victor and the two other men with him, who he introduced as investigators. She
led them to the meeting room. Kevin and Bob arrived and after the introductions were made they settled down to business. Bridget handed Victor the report she’d written and when the explanations were done, they proceeded to tour the plant.
In the bright light of day it looked like a warzone. Smoke still lingered, thick and acrid in the air, and the blast zone from the explosion had cleared a large area. Buckled metal was lying all over the place. Bridget hadn’t taken in the level of destruction while she’d been searching for people and trying to get the fire under control. It was a wonder no one had been killed.
“What was the cause of the fire?” Victor asked.
“We’re not certain,” Bridget replied. “When the fire is completely out, we’ll be able to do a more thorough investigation.”
“And what do you expect to find?”
Bridget had spoken to a couple of the fire officers who had told her it looked like liquid had got into the fuel gas main due to a sticking level transmitter. It was the same transmitter she’d told the plant to fix several weeks ago.
But she couldn’t say that. “I’d rather not guess on such a serious matter.”
Victor looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. They both knew she had a fair idea of what caused it. It took another couple of hours before Victor was satisfied he had enough information to start with. Kevin and Bob walked him to the gatehouse and Bridget went to continue recording her recollections of the event.
Her phone had half a dozen messages on it, so she listened to them. The trainers both wanted updates. The rest of the department was on site, already doing the initial incident investigation. Bridget called both men back and updated them on the plant and on the people who had been injured. Anthony had mentioned that all but the burn victim were due to be released today.
Graham had called expressing his concern and Bridget debated for a moment before calling him back.
“Bridget, how are you?” he asked.
“Tired,” she said. “But everyone’s safe and alive, so that’s the main thing.”
“The rumors are already flying. What happened?”
She hesitated. “I can’t tell you yet.” It was speculation until they’d done a proper investigation and she didn’t want to add to the rumors. When the investigation was completed the report would be in the public domain anyway.
“Yeah. All right.” He paused. “This is probably a bad time to ask, but have you read the job description?”
Hope flickered. “I have.” She took a breath. “Do you still want me?”
“Of course.”
Bridget let out the breath she was holding. “Then I’m going to apply.”
“That’s fantastic news. I realize you’ll be snowed under for the next couple of weeks with the investigation, so get your application to me whenever you can.”
“Great. Thanks Graham.” She hung up. She would make it a priority.
Sally knocked on her door. “Rough morning?” she asked, handing Bridget a take-out coffee.
She took it gratefully. “Yeah, thanks. Where’d you get this from?”
“I pinched a couple of cups from the crisis room. Nick and I have finished the initial environmental report. I figured you had enough on your plate, so I gave it to Kevin.”
Sally was as passionate about the environment as she was about safety, so Bridget knew it would have been thorough.
“Is there anything else you need to do?” Bridget asked.
“Nothing we can do until the fire’s out. We’re going to head home.”
She nodded. “Good idea. We’ll all be putting in extra hours over the next few weeks. Take it easy.”
Sally left and was soon replaced by Ken.
Bridget stood. “You did an excellent job yesterday,” she said. “Thank you.”
Ken shook his head. “I hardly did a thing. You got all those people out safely.”
She wasn’t comfortable with the praise. “The information you kept passing to me was invaluable,” she said, and then noticing he wasn’t any more comfortable with the praise than she was, she asked, “What have you been up to this morning?”
“I did a round of the plant. Made sure everything else was in order, just in case we missed something in the excitement.”
“And?”
“It was all good. The control panel technicians shut everything down properly.”
Trish walked into the room.
“Trish and I are arranging interviews,’ Ken said. “We figured the sooner we write down what happened, the better.”
“Any news about Jack?” Trish asked.
“He should be out today,” Bridget said.
Trish stepped forward and hugged her, as Ken slipped out of the room. “You were amazing yesterday. The way you barked out orders, it was clear you had everything under control. You impressed all the managers.”
Bridget didn’t care who she impressed. “Thanks. Call me if you need a hand with the interviews.”
“What are you going to do?”
She wasn’t sure. She suspected she needed to report to the crisis room and see if they needed anything from her, but she really didn’t want to. In Jack’s absence she was supposed to be the Health, Safety, and Environment representative on the crisis team. “I’ll check in with management. Has anyone seen Dirk?”
“Last I heard he was with the crisis team. He’s the HSE representative after you and Jack, isn’t he?”
Bridget swore. He was. The last thing she needed was him stirring up trouble. “I’d better go check.”
Trish gave her a sympathetic smile and walked out.
Bridget grabbed her notebook and a pen and walked back to the crisis room. She heard the raised voices down the hall and picked up her pace. As she entered the room Dirk was pointing and waving his finger at Jack.
Jack! Her heart swelled to see him there, to see him standing, to see him alive and conscious. Her eyes roved over him checking for injuries. His arm was in a sling and there was a dressing on his head. He really shouldn’t be here. He should be resting at home.
No one had noticed her walk in, and she was about to speak but Jack beat her to it.
“She saved my life.” His voice was rough and his eyes were red.
“How would you know? You were unconscious when you left here,” Dirk said.
“I spoke with Roger at the hospital last night. He told me how Bridget carried me out.”
“Like she’d be able to lift you,” Kevin said. “The men are protecting her.”
Bridget gasped. After all she had done, he still refused to believe her. She wasn’t going to spend a minute longer than necessary here. The sooner she completed her application, the better. “I can demonstrate if you’d like.”
All eyes turned toward her and Kevin’s face went red. She ignored him and looked at Jack. “I’m glad to see you up.”
She wanted to run to him, to fling her arms around him and hold him tight, to convince herself he was all right.
The hell with it. No one could think any worse of her than they already did.
She crossed the room and wrapped her arms around Jack’s neck, being mindful of his arm in a sling. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered, holding him close.
His free arm came around her, hugging her back.
Somewhere behind them Kevin made a grunt of outrage but Bridget ignored him. “I’m sorry for making you think you weren’t good enough, for not trusting what we have. I’m sorry my baggage made you so unhappy.” She stepped back and looked him in the eyes. “I love you. When I thought I might have lost you –” That was as far as she got before he covered her mouth with his and kissed her.
When he stopped he rested his forehead against hers. “I love you too.”
“Do you see what I mean?” Dirk’s disgust was clear. “She’s sleeping with him. She’s probably been filling his head with lies since he started. I’ll bet you it was her stupid safety project that caused the incident.”
“Shut up, Dirk,�
� Jack snapped, turning to him but keeping his good arm firmly around Bridget’s waist. “I know my own mind and I know safety. From what I’ve heard about the incident there could be a number of causes, but those relief valves venting to atmosphere caused Roger and my injuries.”
Kevin’s face went red. “Dirk told me the project was unnecessary.” He glared at Dirk who turned pale.
Bridget’s eyebrows shot up. That was information she hadn’t known. She couldn’t prevent the smallest hint of satisfaction going through her, but she needed to make a point. “We were very lucky yesterday –”
“Lucky?” Bob’s voice was incredulous. “Half the plant is ruined and we’re going to lose millions of dollars.”
Bridget stared him down. “We’re lucky we didn’t kill anyone.”
He pursed his lips and she continued. “The burns were bad enough. It’s time this site took safety seriously and started listening to the experts they’ve hired when they tell them something is wrong.”
“Fire’s out …” Jeremy’s voice trailed off as he walked into the room and noticed the tension.
Bridget smiled at him. “What’s next?”
“There’s a bit of mopping up to do but it should be clear within the hour. We’ll need to get some structural engineers in to check the stability of the area and then we can start the investigation.” He nodded to Jack. “Good to see you up, boss.”
Bridget turned to him. “About that … you should go home and rest.”
“I feel fine. I’ve had ten hours’ sleep and have some great painkillers for my arm. I want to sit in on the interviews.”
Bridget turned to Anthony to back her up.
“He’s been cleared to work,” he told her with an apologetic smile.
Jack kissed her again. “I’m fine. I promise. Now I need to speak to you alone for a moment.”
He took her hand and led her out of the room, past an unusually silent Kevin, to his office. He shut his door and turned to her, pulling her close with his one good arm.
“I’ve accepted Graham’s job,” she said. “I need to officially apply, but as soon as it’s confirmed I’ll hand in my resignation.”
Jack kissed her deeply. “I don’t care. All I care about is that you’re safe. When I woke up and remembered the explosion I was so scared something had happened to you. I made Anthony come straight over and tell me. Then afterward, when I was talking to everyone who was injured, your name kept popping up. It sounds like you saved the day.”
Break the Rules (The Flanagan Sisters Book 1) Page 22