Her Honorable Hero (Black Dawn Book 7)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  He waited for Josiah to come down. He knew that Billy wouldn’t be able to hold his weight, so Griff was ready to assist the man on his descent. But there was no need. Josiah dropped down with catlike reflexes and both men turned around and called out.

  “Scarlett?”

  “Miranda?”

  “Griff?” Miranda responded.

  Josiah called out his wife’s name again. When there wasn’t a response, Griff could almost feel his fear.

  “Are you all right, Miranda?” Griff shouted.

  “I am. Susan’s injured, and I haven’t found Scarlett or Hope.”

  “We’re coming,” Josiah said.

  “Help,” a man’s weak voice came from their right.

  “We’ll be there,” Griff responded. Josiah and he worked together to move a seat out of the way, as well as a luggage rack and some duffle bags and suitcases.

  “Guys, do you see the light on the ceiling?” Miranda shouted out.

  “Yes,” Griff responded as he looked up. It was a rotating circle of light about fifteen meters ahead of them. His girl was smart.

  “Scarlett,” Josiah called out again. Still no answer. Then he called again, his booming voice filled the entire car. “Scarlett Anne, answer me.”

  Again, he was met by a moment of silence, but then a cacophony of voices raised. A chorus of people calling for help. Griff and Josiah looked at one another, knowing that they were needed. Griff felt for his friend’s father, knowing that his first priority was to find his wife.

  As they started forward, there was a thud behind them. When he turned, Griff saw Billy.

  “I told you not to come down here,” Josiah all but roared. “You needed to tell people where we were.” Griff winced, it was the first time he had heard his captain come down so harshly on someone.

  “There’s a helicopter hovering up there. He saw me, and knows I went inside. Look, I can help. I’ve taken first aid classes.” Griff was impressed at how well the kid held up against Josiah, but all that changed when he had to step around a dead body. Griff and Josiah waited and it didn’t take long for Billy to straighten up and look at them. “Seriously,” he said in a low voice. “I can help.”

  Griff was impressed.

  “In that case, follow us. And be careful where you step,” Josiah said.

  They all forged forward, when a hand raised up behind the next seat they came across.

  “Can you help me up?”

  Josiah carefully pulled an older African American man to his feet.

  “Are you okay, Sir?”

  “I’m in one piece. I just need a few minutes to catch my breath, then I can help. The train’s slipping, right?” He looked between Josiah and Griff.

  They both nodded.

  “Well, let’s start evacuating,” he said briskly.

  “Maybe you should rest a little longer,” Griff suggested.

  “Bullshit. We’re burning daylight. Let’s get going.”

  Griff figured it had been fifteen minutes since the crash happened. They were maybe three miles outside of Del Mar. Rescue workers should be on-site at any moment. As if his mind had conjured it, he heard the faint sound of sirens, hopefully they had figured out a way to get close to the train over the embankments. Except for maybe the Serrano Valley, he didn’t know of any place worse that the crash could have happened.

  The four males moved slowly and carefully forward, they didn’t want to miss anyone as they made their way to Miranda and hopefully Scarlett.

  “Please, my husband needs help,” a woman called from the left. Josiah flashed his light over an older couple huddled near the side of the train. She was holding her coat against a wound on the man’s belly.

  “Billy, open some luggage and find something to staunch the bleeding,” Griff ordered.

  Griff looked at Josiah, who was hesitating. “I’ve got this, you go on ahead.”

  “Thanks,” the big man said as he continued forward to look for his missing wife.

  “Will this work?” Billy was holding up a flannel shirt that he was already beginning to tear into strips. He also had a sweatshirt in his hands. Griff was really liking the kid, he seriously had his shit together.

  As they knelt down beside the injured man, Billy leaned in to whisper to Griff, “Should we pull out the metal?” he asked.

  Griff examined it. “No, it will just cause more bleeding. Put the compresses around it.”

  The train gave a slow lurch and steel screeched.

  The woman bit back a sob, but then looked at Griff clear-eyed. “What do I need to do? I know you need to help others.”

  His heart ached for her, even as he appreciated her bravery.

  “There’s a helicopter above us,” Billy said. “I saw them. There’s going to be EMT’s real soon,” Billy assured the woman.

  Griff put his fingers to the man’s neck again. His pulse was stronger.

  Pounding on the outside wall of the train made the lady jump and the wounded man’s eyelids flicker. Cries echoed inside as people jolted in fear. Griff yelled out. “Ladies and Gentlemen, please calm down. That’s the sound of the rescue workers outside. They’re just getting things in place to help us out.”

  Lord, he hoped he wasn’t lying.

  He gripped Billy’s shoulder. “Call your brother. Find out his ETA.”

  Griff pulled out his phone at the same time. It was about damn time he checked in with his team. As soon as he did, he grinned. He had a text. It was from his team’s crazy ass techie. Black Dawn had been together for less than a year, and they were just getting to know one another, but Griff really liked Dex Evans. The man seemed to know what everybody needed before they needed it.

  Apparently, Griff had missed five calls in the last seventeen minutes. Dex had sent a long diatribe of a text, that told him the exact ETA of the Black Dawn team.

  “Mason, where are you?” The kid put his phone on speaker.

  “We’re four-wheeling past Jaden’s van toward the train tracks. We’ve spotted the helicopter. Fuck, Billy, we can see smoke. You’re not near the train, are you?”

  Billy didn’t answer, and Griff took the phone from him.

  “Mason? This is Griffin Porter. I’m with Black Dawn. Your brother is in the train even though our Captain Hale forbade him to enter it. Right now, your brother is providing aid to the injured and doing a damn fine job. The car we’re on is on its side and near the cliff. I won’t lie, it’s not good. We need equipment to make sure it doesn’t slip over the cliff.”

  “You need to evacuate,” Mason said, his voice terse.

  “Agreed, but it’s a mess. We’ve barely found a quarter of the passengers on the top floor, and we haven’t even made it to the bottom floor. It was the morning commute.” Somebody was talking near Mason, but Griff couldn’t make out what they were saying. “So how close are you?” Griff asked.

  “I’ve surfed the beach where Billy was, we should be there in five more minutes. There’s another truck behind us. They’ve been tailing us since we left Coronado. Now that you said you’re Black Dawn and the Captain is with you, chances are it’s your teammates or some guys that Commander McAllister has pulled in.”

  Griff felt a burst of hope for the first time since the crash had occurred. He knew of Mason’s Midnight Delta team because one of his teammates was now working with Mason’s guys. Between Mason’s team and Black Dawn, he was finally beginning to feel some hope.

  6

  Miranda and Griff raised their heads as they heard Livvie’s cry through the baby monitor. Griff looked down at Miranda. She gave him a half-hearted smile, but he must not have bought it.

  “Sounds like she needs her diaper changed,” he said. “It’s my turn for the next two weeks since I just got back from deployment.”

  “You talked me into it.” Miranda waved her arm and watched Griff walk out of the bedroom. She rolled over and hugged his pillow and listened intently. Another one of her greedily hoarded secrets was that she loved listening in
when Griff talked to their daughter. He didn’t just talk nonsense, nope, he talked about his hopes and dreams for his little girl.

  Miranda wiped away a tear. Imagine a father wanting the world for his daughter. A father who adored his daughter.

  By the time Griffin came back, she had herself back under control and a smile firmly in place.

  “It’s a damn good thing today is Saturday,” he said as he eased into bed. “We’re sure not getting much sleep.”

  “Well, we are now. Turn out the light.”

  She watched as he turned off the lamp, but even in the darkness she saw his intent stare.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I need to hear more.”

  She was going to protest, but then realized that tonight was the night to share. Maybe not everything. But this. At least this.

  Three Years Earlier

  “Scarlett,” Miranda cried out. She felt tears threatening again and thought about baseball to force back the wetness.

  No wonder the woman hadn’t been able to hear her. She was hanging out of one of the broken windows. It almost looked like she had been trying to crawl out of the train.

  “Miranda, did I hear you call Scarlett’s name?”

  “Josiah?” She turned her light toward his voice. He was a few yards away, climbing over wreckage. “Yes, I found her. She’s partially covered by this seat, and it looks like she tried to climb out a window.”

  Tufts of seagrass surrounded Scarlett’s torso, and the scent of the ocean wafted inside the railcar. “I can’t tell how badly she’s injured because her head and shoulders are outside.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Miranda still needed to find the baby. The little girl could be anywhere. Miranda’s gut told her she was somewhere near Scarlett. Please say she was right.

  She heard a crash, then a scream. She turned her light to see what had made the noise.

  “Is everyone all right? What happened?” It was Griff’s voice.

  “I’m fine.” A woman answered. “It was a luggage rack and suitcases that fell. It scared me.”

  Miranda could hear Jeremy crying, then she heard Susan start singing ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ to distract him. A hand touched her shoulder and she jumped.

  “Whoa there, it’s me,” Josiah said. “Where’s Scarlett?” She could hear the underlying panic in his voice.

  She pointed her phone’s flashlight at Scarlett’s prone figure. She was pretty sure she’d seen her breathing, but she couldn’t get to her because of the seat.

  Josiah sucked in a deep breath at the sight of his wife, then he lifted the seat as if it weighed nothing and knelt next to her. Ever so slowly, he began to pull her back into the railcar, doing his best to support her head and neck as he did so. Miranda didn’t realize she had been holding her breath until she saw Scarlett’s eyelids twitch.

  The woman’s lips moved. Miranda was pretty sure she formed the name, “Josiah.”

  “I’m here for you, Scarlett Ann. I’ve got you, Love.” His hands gently took inventory of her body. She moaned in pain as he ran his hands lightly over her ribs.

  She must have said something, or tried to, because he put his ear to her mouth, and then responded. “I’d never give up hope. You know better than that,” he said fervently.

  She shook her head and moaned.

  “Don’t move,” he admonished. “At the very least, you have broken ribs.” He was still palpitating her sides and abdomen, watching her face intently.

  “Down there,” Scarlett moved her arm, pointing to the window. She gasped in pain. “Hope.”

  Miranda finally understood what she was saying. She was talking about the baby.

  Hope must be outside the train.

  Miranda dove down beside where Scarlett lay.

  “Dammit, be careful,” Josiah growled at Miranda.

  “I am,” Miranda assured him. “I need to look out the window.” Miranda stuck her head out the bent frame, trying to push out some of the safety glass.

  “What are you doing?” Josiah demanded to know. He was clearly agitated.

  Miranda kept scanning the area. First right, then left. Finally she spotted a little pink tennis shoe that was attached to a miracle.

  “Hope,” she called out in a sing song voice, trying to get the little girl’s attention without scaring her.

  The baby was curled up in the fetal position, her eyes open and glassy, sand covering her little face.

  “Hope, please answer me, Sweetie. Your mama is worried about you.” The child continued to stare off into nothing.

  Screech.

  The sound was deafening. The train slid even closer to the cliff and Miranda watched in horror as the outside of the train hovered another inch closer above the fragile body of the child. Two feet of space separated Hope from tons of metal. The train lurched again.

  “Oww.” Miranda’s shoulder was slammed into some of the remaining glass of the window. She felt it tear through her blouse and rip into the flesh of her upper arm.

  “Are you okay, Miranda?” Josiah asked.

  “I’m fine.”

  “Get back in here,” he ordered.

  She ignored him and continued to wriggle out toward the toddler. “Hope, Sweetie, come here and I’ll take you to your mommy.”

  She saw a momentary flicker of recognition at the word Mommy. Miranda held out her arms. She was about sixteen feet away from the girl. She’d have to get out of the train in order to reach her.

  Strong hands pulled at Miranda’s waist.

  “Get your ass back in here.” She’d never heard Griff sound so angry. Miranda kicked backwards. Ow!

  Was the man solid muscle?

  She tried to look backwards, but with the grass and her hair, she couldn’t see him. “Griff, let me go.”

  “No. Get back inside.”

  Miranda kicked again, hoping to hit something a little more vulnerable, but instead she only managed to cause pain to her injured leg.

  “What’s wrong, why did you cry out in pain?” Griff demanded to know.

  “Hope is out here, dammit. Let me go so I can get her.” Griff’s grip didn’t let up. She looked back at Hope and her heart jumped into her throat. The little girl was looking at her fearfully because she’d yelled. She was beginning to scooch backwards toward the edge of the cliff.

  “No, Sweetie, come to me,” Miranda said in her most soothing voice. “Remember, I’m Jeremy’s friend. I’m going to take you to your mommy.”

  There was a slight shake of Hope’s head. She was hearing Miranda, but she wasn’t buying what she was selling, and she moved even farther away.

  Miranda wanted to cry.

  She wanted to scream.

  This time when Griff pulled her inside, she didn’t resist. Not that she could have, he was a mass of determined muscle. Nope, the right course of action was to go inside, punch him in the nose, or grab him by the balls, and make him listen.

  In less than a second, she was face-to-face with an angry alpha male.

  “Miranda, what on God’s green earth were you thinking? Look at you. You’re bleeding like a stuck pig. My God, Honey, you need help.”

  He was tearing at a shirt he had in his hands to use a bandage, but his eyes never wavered from hers. She’d been ready to go toe-to-toe with him, when she suddenly recognized the bone-deep fear underneath the anger.

  “Didn’t you hear me? Hope’s out there.” She saw that it took a moment for it to register.

  “The baby?”

  “Yes.” She scanned the area and saw that Josiah had Scarlett’s shirt open and was binding up her ribcage. She also saw a huge hematoma on her abdomen, it was clear that blood was pooling there. It was not good. She wasn’t conscious. That explained why Griff wasn’t understanding what was going on. “Hope’s about fifteen or twenty feet away from the window of the train,” Miranda said as she tried to stand up straight. She failed. Griff put his arms around her, taking her weight.

 
“Griff,” her voice trembled. “Hope’s next to the cliff. I was trying to get her to crawl over to me, but then I yelled and she scooched away.” Miranda buried her face in his chest. It was all too much.

  There’s no crying in baseball, Slade. Suck it up.

  But before she could push herself away from him, she felt his hand stroke her hair and her heart crumpled for an instant as she soaked in the comfort of his caress.

  “You’re hurt, Honey. Let me help you sit down, and I’ll go get her.”

  Miranda bit her lip, then swore under her breath.

  “What?” Griff asked.

  “I don’t think she’ll come to you. She was scared of me, I’m not sure she’ll go to you.”

  “Honey, I’ve got this, trust me.” He brushed a kiss against her forehead. He lowered her gently to the floor where there was magically a pile of soft clothes for her to sit on, so she wasn’t on glass. He set her back against a mangled seat.

  “I’ll be right back.” And then he was out the window.

  Miranda couldn’t help herself. She pushed up off her little nest and crammed her face into the little bit of space available between Griff’s ass and the broken window.

  Miranda watched in horror as the little girl threw up her hand and wailed the word, “No!” as soon as she saw Griff. Hope must have scrambled two feet backwards toward the cliff.

  “Hope,” he whispered, a smile in his voice.

  “No!” Hope’s little voice was even more shrill the second time. This time, she put out two hands, it was a clear sign she wanted him to stop.

  “Okay, Honey. I’ll go away. Don’t move. Please just stay still.” Miranda banged her head against the window frame as Griff carefully worked his way back into the train.

  When Griff got back inside, he looked at Miranda, his face a mask of frustrated fear. “Where’s her Mom?” he asked.

  “Susan has a broken leg. A head wound, too. She can’t help.” Miranda barely kept the tremor from her voice, but it was tough. Griff gathered her in his arms, and for the second time she allowed herself to be comforted.