Chapter Twelve

Trent crushed the accelerator to the floorboard. The truck flew down the highway straight for Temptation and right into the eye of the storm.

“Holy hell,” Isaac muttered beside him.

Rocks, sticks, nails, pieces from farm implements pummeled the truck in the back draft from what looked like an F5 tornado as it steamrolled over the little town of Temptation, demolishing everything in its path.

They’d driven the four-wheeler over the property, trying to guess where Lucky would have gone riding. After twenty minutes, they’d given up, the sky getting so dark they reasoned she had to have headed back to the barn.

When Isaac parked the ATV outside the barn, Trent ran in and found Thunder in his stall, the saddle back in its place in the tack room.

He ran out of the barn and up to the house, glancing back over his shoulder at the wall of clouds with little wisps dropping down from beneath it. Funnel clouds.

His pulse pounding, he burst through the back door and ran for Lucky’s bedroom. “Lucky!”

She wasn’t there, the picture that had been on her nightstand was gone and so were the clothes and duffle bag she’d had in her closet.

“Her truck is gone!” Isaac yelled from down the hall. “Lucky’s gone.”

Trent pushed past him, grabbed his keys from the counter in the kitchen and headed out the front door.

“Where are you going?” Isaac shouted over the wind.

“We are going after her.” He hopped into the driver’s seat of his pickup. “Get in.”

Isaac barely sat in his seat when Trent floored the accelerator and shot out of the yard.

Now they were racing into a storm that appeared to have swallowed the entire town they’d grown up in.

His heart heavy, his heart pounding against his ribs, Trent didn’t let up on the gas. People he knew and loved were there. He hoped they’d made it to shelter. He prayed they’d live to rebuild.

“Fuck, look at it.” Isaac stared through the windshield. “It must be a mile wide at its base.”

“All those people,” Trent said.

“And Lucky. I hope she went the other direction.”

Trent prayed for the same. His gut told him the opposite.

By the time they reached the edge of town, the tornado had moved on, leaving in its wake a horrifying swath of destruction.

From what Trent could tell, it had come in from the west, plowed through town, leveling homes, businesses and everything in its path.

Trent pulled the truck to the side of the road and parked. He reached beneath his seat and unearthed a couple pair of work gloves, handing a set to Isaac. “We can’t go any farther by vehicle. We have to walk from here.”

They dropped down and picked through the rubble, working their way through what had once been Main Street.

Many of the buildings were gone. The ones still standing had entire walls ripped away, or roofs lifted and thrown across the street.

People slowly began to emerge, crawling out from beneath the rubble, cut, scraped and dazed.

“Help!” a woman yelled. “Help us! We’re in here.” More voices called out from below a pile of wood, insulation and glass.

Trent and Isaac pulled away broken beams, dry wall and roof shingles. Beneath that they found broken porcelain shampoo bowls and vinyl-covered adjustable chairs.

“This must be the Shear Safari,” Isaac said.

“Mona? Are you in there?” Trent called out.

“We’re down here, in the basement.”

“How many?”

“Six of us,” Mona answered.

“Is Lucky with you?” Isaac threw boards and beauty shop equipment to the side.

“No, she went back for that dog.”

Trent dug faster, careful with the glass and electrical lines. If Lucky wasn’t with them, where had she gone?

After twenty minutes of steady work, they found the door, cleared a path and helped Mona, Bunny, Audrey, Mrs. Rutledge, Deputy Cramer and Mr. Wallendorf, one of the four attorneys in town. With nothing more than scratches, bruises and a layer of dust, they appeared to be fine, if a little dazed.

“You say Lucky was here before it hit?” Trent asked Mona.

“She helped me get Mrs. Rutledge into the basement,” Audrey responded. “Then she ran out, saying something about a dog.”

Trent glanced at his brother and they both said, “Otis” at the same time.

Back out on the pavement, they looked around. More people were crawling out from beneath what was left of houses and businesses.

A vehicle lay on its side, pushed up against the trunk of a tree, the top of which had been snapped off like a broken twig.

Trent and Isaac rounded the vehicle and stopped. “It’s her truck.”

Lucky hadn’t made it out of town. Which meant she was still somewhere in all the mess.

Trent stared around at the disaster, wondering where to start in their search when he heard a dog’s bark.

He and Isaac turned toward the sound.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Isaac asked. Without waiting for a response, he picked his way across the rubble.

Another bark led them directly to the flattened remains of what had once been a small cottage a block off Main Street.

As they neared, the barking grew louder, sounding as if it emanated from beneath an eight-foot section of collapsed wall.

Trent positioned himself on one end of the wall while Isaac positioned himself on the other.

“On the count of three,” Trent said. “One, two, three!” He put all his strength into it and the wall wouldn’t budge.

The dog barked again and again, growing more frantic with each bark.

Jackson, Mark and Luke Gray Wolf hurried across the debris toward them and threw their backs into moving the wall.

With the help of all five men, they lifted and shoved the wall over, clearing what looked like a small bathroom. A mattress lay over what had once been the tub.

Almost afraid to look beneath, Trent grabbed one end of the mattress, while Mark Gray Wolf hefted the other and they threw it to the side.

As they cleared the mattress, Otis leaped out of a bathtub and landed beside Trent, jumping up on him, trying to lick his face.

Trent pushed him down and looked into the tub.

A woman lay across the length of the tub, her body covering something beneath.

Little arms and legs moved beneath the body and a child cried out.

Trent moved the body, lifting it up and away from two children and a woman lying beneath. The limp body he’d pealed back was Lucky.

“Lucky.” Isaac lifted her into his arms and carried her over to a spot on the ground Luke cleared enough to lay her down. Trent knelt beside her and felt for her pulse. After a long moment, he let go of the breath he’d been holding and almost collapsed over Lucky. “She’s alive.”

Mark and Luke lifted the children out and held them crying in their arms.

The people who’d been trapped in the beauty salon made their way toward them. Mrs. Rutledge crying out when Jackson pulled the woman out of the tub. “Oh, dear Lord, Nan!” She rushed forward and dropped to the ground where Jackson laid the woman.

Nan’s eyes blinked open. “Aaron and Emma?” she asked.

“Mommy?” the little boy called out, reaching for his mother. Mark held him back, dropping to a squat so the mother and child could see each other. Luke lowered the little girl as well.

“Oh, babies. I’m so glad you’re okay.” Nan reached out to cup each child’s face. “Thank God for our angel of mercy,” she said. “We were lucky she came along when she did.”

“What are you talking about?” Mrs. Rutledge asked.

“The woman who saved us.” Nan closed her eyes. “I must have been hit by some debris, ‘cause the next thing I knew, a woman came out of nowhere, dragged me into the house and into the tub where Aaron and Emma were. She saved our lives.”

Mrs. Rutledge glanced over at the still form of Lucky, lying as pale as a ghost against the ground. “Lucky did that?” she asked.

Trent stared down at Lucky. “Sounds like something she’d do.”

“Is she…is she going to live?” Mrs. Rutledge asked, her eyes rounded, filling with tears. “I owe her for saving my daughter and grandchildren.”

“I hope so.” Trent straightened and looked around. “We have to get her to the hospital.”

“If it’s still standing.”

The deputy joined them. “Thank God it missed the hospital. The road crews are clearing a path so that the ambulance can get in here. We have other units coming in from Hole in the Wall that should be here in less than fifteen minutes and more help is on its way from all over the state.”

Lucky moaned.

Trent dropped down beside her, Isaac on the other side.

Her eyes blinked open and she stared up at them. “The kids?”

“They’re okay, thanks to you,” Isaac said.

“Mom?”

“Alive and okay.” Trent tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “Again, thanks to you.” He bent to kiss her forehead.

“That would feel a whole lot better on my booboos,” she whispered.

“Just tell us where they are and we’ll take care of all of them,” Isaac said.

Lucky chuckled and winced. “Ouch.” Then she raised her hand pointing to her cheek where a dark bruise was just beginning to show. “There.”

Trent bent to press a feather-soft kiss to the spot.

She raised her other arm and pointed to a spot on the side of her chin. “There.”

Isaac laughed and kissed her there, careful not to hurt her.

Then she touched her finger to her lips and peeked through lowered eyelids. “There.”

Trent bent at the same time as Isaac and their heads collided. He backed up and motioned for his brother. “You first.”

Isaac claimed her lips in a gentle kiss. When he came up, he said. “One is not enough.”

“Tell me about it,” she whispered, her gaze going to Trent.

He leaned over her and kissed her, his tongue pushing through to slide along hers. Despite nearly being killed, maybe because she’d nearly died, she tasted like heaven.

No, it was because she was Lucky.

“Hey, let her breathe.”

Isaac’s hand on his shoulder made him pull back. “I’m sorry.”

Lucky lay with her eyes closed, the corners of her lips turned up. “Didn’t hear me complainin’, did you?”

Trent laughed. “Lucky Albright, I’m convinced.”

“About what, cowboy?”

“That the day you showed up at the Ugly Stick Saloon was the luckiest day of my life.” Trent kissed her on the lips again, in a brief, happy kiss.

“And mine,” Isaac agreed. “We had been talking about you before you even showed up.”

“You did?” Her eyes opened, a small frown denting her forehead. “How’s that?”

Jackson laughed. “Trent and Isaac were listing the qualities they expected in the perfect woman.”

“And there you were,” Isaac said.

Lucky’s mouth twisted. “Wrecking Audrey’s truck and her storeroom of liquor.”

Audrey laughed softly, slipping into Jackson’s arms. “All of that can be replaced.” She smiled down at Lucky. “Can I safely say that my new employee will be back on the job as soon as she’s feeling up to it?”

Lucky glanced up at Trent and Isaac. “I don’t know.”

“If you’re asking if she’s staying,” Trent said, “the answer is yes.”

“Damn right she is.” Isaac brought her hand to his lips. “We kind of like having her around and think she’ll be around as long as she can stand the two of us.”

Audrey’s eyes lit up. “So that’s how it is? Well then, congratulations.”

Trent smiled at Isaac and held out his hand. “To partnerships.”

Isaac grinned. “To not selling our home.”

Lucky placed her hand over their combined hands. “How about to making it a home?”

“Agreed,” both Trent and Isaac said at once.

Lucky tried to sit up.

Trent laid a hand on her shoulder. “Not yet. Let the medics take care of you. We need you in top shape when you come back.”

“So that I can shovel horse manure and build fences.”

“Of course,” Trent said, giving her a teasing look. “No, really, you’re going to have all you can handle keeping up with the two of us.”

Lucky lay back, smiling. “I’ll be up for the challenge. Will you two be?”