“Good enough then.” Cade put out his hand. “Welcome to the team and family, brother.” The two brothers shook hands and then hugged. The little part of Cade that was closed off since the “episode” opened, and for the first time in over twenty years, he let his brother completely in.
* * * *
Tony was so glad that they were going to be able to go home soon. Since the meeting, it had been a whirlwind of activity. After spending time with Cade and Jack, the team split up, getting things ready to bring Jack home. Damian and Treb had gone to the airport to prepare flight plans and get the plane ready. Alex and Leo had gone out to buy a mattress for the plane ride home. Originally they had thought they wouldn’t need a second mattress for the SUV until Cade was ready to come home, but there had been a sale and they had ended up buying two. Tony and Shane had stayed longer at the hospital after the rest had left. Bret had gone to take a shower and Shane was talking to Cade, so Tony went over to visit with Jack and Pip in the next bed.
“It’s good to see you’re feeling better.”
“I just can’t wait to get out of here,” Jack answered, his voice strong, looking ready to leave the bed behind.
That gave Tony an idea and he thought, why not? “There’s a wheelchair out in the hall by the door. What do you say we load you up and take you for a little ride?”
“Hell yeah.”
Tony rolled the wheelchair in and, between him and Pip, they got Jack into it and then they were rolling out the door. They didn’t go far, just to the end of the hall to the little sitting area next to the floor-to-ceiling windows. There they pushed Jack over by the window so he could look outside and enjoy the view. Pip pulled a chair up next to Jack and sat down. Jack reached over and took his hand. Tony noticed Pip was biting his lip and looked uncomfortable. His tiny hand was clutching Jack’s so tight, his knuckles were turning white.
No one could resist Pip. The delicate man was so pure of soul he made everyone around him want to protect him. Tony was no different. “What’s the matter, Pip?”
“I need to know what’s going on Tony. Things have calmed down a little, but I can still tell the rest of the guys are angry about something. No one’s talking, not even Bret. Tony, I’ve known for a long time something happened with you and my family. Will you please tell me?”
Tony’s heart hit the floor. He did not want to hurt Pip. He looked at Jack, hoping for an answer on how to handle this. Jack gave him a small nod.
Taking a deep breath, Tony said, “None of this is your fault. You can’t control me or anyone in your family.”
“Tell me why the guys are angry, Tony.”
“They’re angry because I was hurt by my breakup with your brother. Your mom was involved and I’ve had a hard time of it for the last few months.” Tony hoped he said enough but not too much.
“I realized long ago my mother’s whole world was about the family image. Nothing would stand in the way of her dreams of having a successful pro athlete in the family. I can just see it now. She threatened you, didn’t she, Tony?”
Pip must have seen the answer on his face, because he went on, making some very correct conclusions. “That woman Tyler is parading around, my mother was involved in that. Correct me if I’m wrong. She set it up so that you found them together? I know my mother very well, Tony. She will stop at nothing to keep the family’s image sterling.”
“I’m sorry, Pip.”
Pip got out of his chair and went over to Tony and hugged him. “Don’t be sorry, Tony. I’m sorry my family hurt you. Please know that I didn’t know. Please still be my friend, Tony.”
Tony pulled Pip on his lap and held him tight. “All of us with the team are the family we chose. You will always be more than a friend, Pip. You’re a member of my chosen family.”
There may have been a few healing tears between him and the delicate man in his arms. With the air cleared between them, Tony felt another piece of his heart mend together. After that they took a tired Jack back into his room. Tony assumed he and Shane would be heading back to the hotel.
Instead he found himself down in the hospital’s walk-in clinic section. The next thing he knew, he was giving the nice nurse his health care card and his health history. An AIDs and STIs test was performed, and he was informed he would get the results shortly.
As they finally walked out of the hospital, Tony turned to Shane and said, “You’re way too pushy.”
Shane just laughed.
That night, after mutual hand jobs, Tony fell asleep in Shane’s arms. He woke up the next morning on this stomach, knees bent, totally covered again by Shane.
Tony wasn’t sure what woke him up. For a moment he thought he heard a huge clap of thunder. Whatever it had been, Shane must have felt it too, because he stiffened. Then Tony was pulled closer and Shane’s nose was buried into his hair, behind his ear.
Tony lay there a moment starting to drift off to sleep when something still didn’t seem right and his eyes popped open. That’s when he saw that the window across the room was bathed in an orange glow. Frowning, he lay there a second trying to figure out what he was seeing.
“We have to check that out, honey,” Shane said in his ear.
Tony dug his elbow into Shane’s stomach trying to get the big man to loosen his hold. “Shane, let me up.”
Shane’s grip loosened and Tony got up out of the bed and went to the window, Shane right behind him. There he could see a bright orange glow above the buildings in the still night skies.
There was a knock on the door and when Tony opened it Treb, Damian, Alex and Leo walked into the room. Treb walked over and stood next to Shane.
“What the hell is that?” Treb asked.
“Not sure, I would say something big is on fire.” Shane answered.
“There’s no way that’s the morning sun. Morning isn’t for another hour,” Treb said.
Tony opened his laptop and started his magic. After a moment he announced, “There are all kinds of emergency calls coming in about a fire by the train tracks on the edge of town. Fire and Rescue is on their way there.”
Shane went and slid on a pair of jeans and threw a pair of Tony’s to him. His instincts were telling him to be ready.
Moments later Tony said, “Fire and Rescue are reporting that multiple cars have derailed off the tracks. The feed and grain co-op is burning and they are trying to prevent a gas station a half a block away from going up in flames. They are also calling for help. Five of the cars derailed were liquid propane tank cars. One is on fire and the other two are damaged.”
Shane’s mind was racing over the dangers of damaged propane tank cars. Obviously the one that was burning had somehow just caught fire. If it had blown up they wouldn’t be standing here right now. At the very least, half the town would be gone.
The problem was the damaged tank cars. Unfortunately he didn’t know enough about the situation. The whole town was probably in immense danger, but a specialized crew could go in and extract the propane, reducing the danger. Then the railroad company could clear their cars and fix the tracks that were no doubt heavily damaged.
“Shane, we got problems. The activity around the derailment site has gone from cautious to pulling everyone out,” Tony said.
Just then Shane’s cell phone rang.
“Shane, there’s been a train derailment on the edge of town,” Cade said.
“We saw the glow of the fire and Tony is on his laptop doing his thing,” Shane answered.
“The police chief just called. He knew we’re still in the area and asked if we would help. Shane, they’re going to evacuate the whole town. That includes the hospital and two nursing homes.”
“Shit.”
“Here’s the thing,” Cade continued, “I’ve given the chief Joey’s number in Texas. He and his crew are the best in handling propane emergencies. It’ll take him a couple of hours to get here. Then he has to see what he can actually do.” Cade continued, “The police chief is trying to tell me that
the evacuation is only going to be for a few hours. I think it will be a lot longer than that. Put me on speaker phone,” Cade ordered.
Shane’s adrenaline started pumping, feeling the danger in the air. Even in a hospital bed his brother was being the great leader that he was. Shane held out the phone so everyone could hear.
“Start talking, brother.”
“Okay, guys. We’ve got a decision to make. If those propane tank cars blow, we’re all going to the great blue yonder. From what I understand the evacuation is going to span an area of at least a five mile radius around the derailment site. That means everyone but emergency personnel. This includes the airport.” Cade paused for a moment to let that fact sink in. “The hospital is being evacuated as we speak. Jack was set to be released anyway and I am going to release myself early. The question is, do we get on the plane and go home, or do we stay, get a hotel room in a different town, and come back and help this town? Be warned, even though the authorities are officially saying that the evacuation will only last a few hours, I don’t believe it. I think we’ll be stuck here a few days, maybe weeks.”
The room went quiet as the men looked at each other in silent communication. Shane watched as anticipation and excitement crept into the other men’s eyes. Then Tony started typing furiously on his computer.
“We’re in,” Shane announced.
Chapter Seven
Shane walked into the makeshift command center that had been set up in a car dealership on the edge of town. Tony, Treb, and Alex followed him, all dressed in their full rescue gear. Shane had on dark clothing and had borrowed Damian’s vest, helmet, and utility belt.
They decided Damian and Leo would drop the group off at the command center and they would take the SUV with the mattress set up in back to pick up Cade and Jack at the hospital. Tony had secured a motel suite in the next town over for them all. Damian and Leo would take Cade and Jack there and help Bret and Pip settle them in. Then Damian would return to the command center to help, leaving Leo to assist Bret and Pip.
Shane could see the cars had been moved out of the showroom area and tables were set up all around. He passed by a group of policemen huddled around what looked like a map of the city. Shane made his way to a group of three men who were in a deep discussion. He could tell by their uniforms the chief of police was standing next to the fire chief and the third man of the group wearing dress pants, dress shirt, and tie had to be the mayor.
“Shane Miller,” he said, shaking each of their hands. “You talked to my brother, Cade. We’re from Rescue for Hire, ready to help any way we can.”
“Oh yes, Mr. Miller. I’m Mayor Gregory Brassen. This is Fire Chief Daniel Landon and Police Chief Jon Hilges. We were just discussing getting a plan together. Right now things are pretty disorganized.”
Shane could see all three men were pretty much out of their depth in experience with this kind of emergency.
“Please, call me Shane,” Shane said. “Tell me, what’s the most pressing issue?”
“To be honest, Shane, everything,” Daniel said. “We have to contain the propane before it blows us all to pieces. We need to evacuate the whole town. I have a hospital and two nursing homes in the red zone of an explosion if it happens.”
Shane stepped up to the huge map of the town on the table in front of them, the rest of his men right behind him. Now Shane could see that all the tables had town maps on them.
“I know that the hospital has already started evacuating their patients. Are there any plans in place for the nursing homes?” Shane asked.
The police chief answered, “The nursing home staff is calling families of residents that live nearby to get them out. Other nursing homes in the surrounding areas are coming with their medical buses and taking patients back to their facilities.”
“Good, now what about the residents?” Shane asked. “How are you getting them out?”
“We haven’t put a plan together yet. We have board members on the way here, but they haven’t arrived yet,” Mayor Brassen answered. Shane could see the poor man was getting overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation.
Alex looked over at the police chief and pointed to the major roads leading into the town on the map. “If you put a police car on each of these roads just outside of the red zone, you can prevent people from coming back into town. The theory would be, everybody can leave, but until the danger is over, no one can get back into town.”
“You could send your squads out right now and have them announce the evacuation over the car’s speakers as they go down each of the streets,” Tony said. “There isn’t any time to waste, those propane cars could blow at any second.”
Shane could see that, now that the men had a little direction, they were ready to start taking action. But there were still two major details that needed to be addressed. “Mayor Brassen, you need to have all of the utilities shut down in the whole city, especially the electricity and gas.” As he expected, that didn’t go over very well.
“What? Do you know what would happen to the businesses and homes if we turn off the utilities? Do you realize the damage the buildings would sustain? It’s supposed to be over ninety-five degrees out today.” The mayor was clearly not happy with Shane’s idea.
Treb turned to face the mayor. “Damaged buildings can be fixed. If those tanks blow because of a spark and ignite the gas running through the pipes under this town, say good-bye to everything and everyone, Mr. Mayor.”
Shane held back a smile at the way Treb always told it the way he saw it. Now Shane had one last valuable piece of advice. “Mayor, you need to call in the National Guard.”
* * * *
Tony looked out the window of the police cruiser at the red brick exterior of the nursing home they were pulling up to. Buses with different names painted on the side doors were lined up on the circle drive, waiting to take the residents to safety. Cars were double parked next to the buses and Tony could see frantic family members trying to urge old, feeble bodies faster than they were able, into them.
As soon as the cruiser was parked, Tony got out and went into the building ready to help get the patients out as quickly as possible. He could see that most of the residents were already gone. Turning down a hallway, he could hear an exasperated voice coming from one of the rooms.
“Please, Mr. Williams, we need to leave. If I have to I will tie you to that wheel chair and wheel you out of the building. This is an emergency.”
From the door of the room, Tony could see a young woman dressed in white trying desperately to get a wiry, very old man to let go of the bed railing he had both arms locked around. When she tried to pull him away, he braced his feet on the floor, refusing to move.
“I won’t let you take me away,” he shouted. “First I’m forced to live here and now that I have everything just the way I like it, you’re trying to make me leave.”
“Please, Mr. Williams, it’s only for a few hours. We’ll come right back,” she pleaded.
Tony went over to the bed and sat down next to the clearly scared and confused man. He smiled at the nurse and said, “Let me see if I can talk to Mr. Williams for a minute. I’m sure there are others that need your help right now. I’ll call you if I need some help.”
Tony could see the woman was reluctant to leave, but an announcement came over the speaker system, urging everyone to evacuate as quickly as possible.
“Do you know what is happening, Mr. Williams?” Tony asked, gently putting his hand on the man’s frail shoulder. He could see the leathery dark skin was covered in age spots and wrinkles.
“They don’t tell us nothing around here. They just order us around like we’re five years old or something,” the man complained.
“Everyone is leaving, Mr. Williams. A train has derailed and they’re afraid there’s going to be an explosion,” Tony explained. He could see he had the man’s attention now.
Just then the nurse came back into the room, pushing a tiny old woman, wearing a brightly flowere
d dress and matching hat, in a wheel chair. “Clarence, hurry up. They’re taking us for a ride and I want you to sit next to me.”
Tony sat there amazed as the cantankerous man turned into a sweet gentleman in seconds. “Why, Miss Suzie. I would be happy to sit by you during our ride.”
Mr. Williams got off the bed and strolled over to the woman. The nurse winked at Tony as she turned the chair and pushed Miss Suzie down the hall with Mr. Williams holding her hand.
Tony got up and went to help less challenging patients out of the nursing home.
* * * *
Shane was exhausted. He had spent the day at headquarters helping to set up and implement a plan of emergency. The many factors that they had to consider were astounding. By noon Joey and his crew had arrived and had gone out to the derailment site with the fire chief in an armored car, driven by a member of the National Guard.
Shane went along and was completely astounded by what he saw. It looked to him like four huge train cars had been thrown off the train track like tinker toys, until they were a twisted and blackened crumpled mass of metal.
Next to them he could see five propane tank cars all bunched together. Two of them looked to be undamaged. The other three lay haphazardly on the banks of the tracks, with their metal sides all torn and jagged, creating gaping holes. Out of the gaping holes, Shane could see propane leaking out. One had huge roaring flames and bellowing plumes of black smoke escaping into the air.
Behind the tank cars were regular shipping train cars all piled up, covering the tracks and blocking the road into town.
Shane watched Joey and his crew walk up to the propane tank cars, getting as close to the one on fire as possible. Then he walked around inspecting the damage to the other cars from all angles.
Shane went to Joey’s side along with the fire chief and guard member. For a minute Joey just stood there, looking at the entire scene with his hands in his pockets and an unlit cigarette in his mouth.
Commander's Spitfire [Rescue for Hire 5] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 5