by C. J. Miller
They needed a plan and they needed a cure.
“Let’s call Cole and Amy. They’ve run summer programs at the rehab center before and we think animals are safe from the virus. After twenty-four hours, we can screen the kids and send some of them during the day to the rehab center.”
“That would be a great idea, except I heard from Eric over at the gas station and they’re almost out of fuel. The tanks are low. I can imagine the panic when I announce that gas will be rationed. We won’t have fuel to bus anyone to Cole and Amy’s rehab center.”
She put her arm over her brother’s shoulders. Like Rafe, he took on problems as if he was ultimately responsible. “We’ll be okay.”
“If people start to riot, I can’t control them,” Flint said.
“No one will riot,” Gemma said. “At the clinic and at the fire station, everyone worked hard to keep spirits up. Did you notice the wreaths on the street lights? Stan organized his firefighters to do that. They carried their fire ladders up and down Main Street. The virus has been unrelenting, but it’s brought out a good side in people.”
Flint gave her a half smile. “You’re always trying to fix things. To fix people. Speaking of that, and bearing in mind that I am your brother and need no explicit details, how are things with Rafe?”
“Things are great with Rafe.” She wouldn’t give her brother another reason to worry and she wasn’t exactly lying. The best part of their relationship, the time they spent in the bedroom, was going well. Perfect. Mind-blowing. The rest of their relationship was chugging along, likely fueled by that bedroom attraction.
“You can’t fix a man like Rafe,” Flint said.
“Who says he needs fixing?” Gemma said.
“He’s pretty angry at this town.”
“I wasn’t planning to change that,” Gemma said. Or was she? She liked living in Dead River, but when she was around Rafe, she did make it a point to be more rah-rah about the good things and downplay the bad ones.
“I don’t want to see you hurt,” Flint said.
“You don’t have to worry about me. I have everything under control.”
“Famous last words,” Flint said. “I thought working in a small town would be easy. I thought I’d spend my days with a coffee cup in one hand and a donut in the other.”
“How’s that working out?”
Flint sighed. “Haven’t sat to have coffee and quiet in months.”
Gemma wanted to tell her brother they were close to a cure. She had promised Rafe and Dr. Goodhue she would keep the secret. “Trust me when I tell you this won’t be forever.”
Flint lifted a brow. “Is that your way of telling me the clinic may have good news soon?”
“It’s my way of telling you to have faith in your sister.”
“I’ve always had that. What I don’t have is a cure.”
* * *
“Please calm down!” Betsy was shouting over the wave of people clamoring to climb into the delivery rig. Betsy had driven it from the drop-off point into town. Word had spread about the supplies and people had rushed to Main Street. The last, destroyed delivery had left people that much shorter on basic necessities and desperation was growing.
No one was listening to Betsy. Rafe and Gemma were waiting to be sure their lab equipment was removed safely off the truck. They had their eyes open for Dr. Rand or anyone looking like they intended to start a problem. That was the entire crowd.
Shoving, pushing and shouting surrounded Gemma. She was jostled forward in the crowd and barely kept her footing. Telling her brother the virus had brought out the best in people hadn’t taken into consideration that it was hard to be civil when shortages were high.
The back of the rig slammed to a close behind Betsy and then Rafe stepped to her side. He said nothing but everyone went quiet and looked at him.
“Are you ready to listen?” Rafe asked.
He could command a crowd as quickly as he could her and his patients. Gemma watched, half-riveted, half-afraid for him that he’d be trampled.
Murmurs of anger rose.
Rafe spoke over them. “This truck contains supplies destined for the clinic, the pharmacy, the police department and the fire station, facilities that every member of this town needs and uses. We’ll keep those services up and running by ensuring they receive their deliveries undisturbed. Then we will deliver the remaining items, including the groceries, and every person in this town will have enough to eat. No hoarding. No stealing.”
“Who are you to decide that?” A shout from the crowd.
“I am the person who will need to treat people if this gets violent. I’m the person who will have to handle finding a cure for the virus and stitching people up at the same time. Gemma Colton is always telling me how wonderful this town is. She’s always telling me that the goodness in this town is in the hearts of the people who live here. If you care about your neighbors, your friends and your families, then you will take nothing more than what you need. You will not turn into savages. This will be orderly and no one will be hurt. When we’re done, Gemma and I can transport our medical equipment and return to the lab so we can work on a cure for the Dead River virus.”
Murmurs of approval rolled through the crowd.
Gemma was transfixed.
Rafe waited until the crowd was silent. Then he opened the back of the truck. “First box is marked for the pharmacy. Is Gloria here?”
The crowd parted to allow Gloria Hitch, the pharmacist, through. “I brought a hand truck, but those boxes are larger than I thought.”
“Ma’am, we’ll help.” Two men who looked like father and son stepped forward to assist Gloria with the boxes.
As Rafe distributed the boxes, groups worked together to take the crates to the proper locations.
When they found the boxes for the clinic, Gemma hurried forward. Some of the equipment was delicate and they needed it now more than ever. Broken syringes, scratched lenses or unsterilized bandages would set them back.
They placed their boxes to the side of the truck and when the rig was emptied, she and Rafe hefted the boxes onto hand trucks to transport them to the clinic.
“You were exactly what this town needed today,” she said.
“I can’t take credit. It was all you. You’re the one who told me the people of this town were good. I would have let it erupt into chaos, thinking no other outcome was possible. But I had your voice in my head.”
“It could have been almost as bad as the last shipment that was sabotaged,” Gemma said.
“That crowd wouldn’t let the supplies be destroyed this time,” Rafe said.
“No, but I think they would have raided the rig and taken anything they could.”
At the clinic, they inventoried their supplies, restocked the closets and set up the new equipment in the lab. When they were finished, they retreated to his office.
Rafe closed the door and she reached up, taking his tie in her hands and pulling him to her for a long, slow kiss. She let her tongue tangle with his. She knew a kiss like this one had the potential to turn incendiary and she was okay with that possibility. So much affection for Rafe swelled up in her.
“I’ve wanted to do that since I saw you directing the crowd at the rig,” Gemma said.
“All this for organizing a little supplies distribution?” Rafe asked.
For that, for helping at the fire station and because she’d realized she was in love with him. That realization had been freeing and terrifying. “You believe in Dead River.”
Rafe turned his head quickly and darkness came into his eyes. “Don’t do that, Gemma.”
“Do what?” she asked, releasing his tie.
“I know what you’re thinking and where this conversation will lead and I already told you I was leaving Dead River. I agree that
the people of this town acted civilly, even honorably, today, but that doesn’t mean I’ve fallen in love with this place or that I want to stay. I do not want to fight about it again.”
Why was he quick to draw a line in the sand? He wasn’t in love with Dead River, but what about her? Did she mean anything to him? “Is this about being worried about my feelings or being worried about your own?”
He narrowed his gaze on her. “What do you mean by that?”
She went for broke. She needed to know if any of her affections were returned. “Are you worried that you have feelings for me?”
It was a hot button question to ask. Their affair hadn’t been about emotions and she had escalated it to that point.
Rafe said nothing.
“Are you worried that if you stick around you’ll fall in love with me? This town? Maybe even see yourself as Danny’s father?”
Rafe went still. “Why are you always pushing?”
“Why are you always pushing me away?” Gemma asked.
“I am not pushing anyone away. We had sex this morning,” Rafe said.
Sex. He brought the conversation and their relationship back to that. She had believed she could handle sleeping with Rafe, without her emotions getting in the way. Lust had ruled her thinking. Now she had no idea how to respond. She had told Rafe she could sleep with him and be okay with it. The way she was feeling now was decidedly not okay. “I wasn’t talking about sex.” That wasn’t the closeness she was referring to.
Rafe’s expression softened. She knew he didn’t want to hurt her, but he wasn’t willing to sacrifice anything for her. “Gemma, from the beginning you knew where I stood. That hasn’t changed. If you thought I would change my mind and stay, I’m sorry. If you’ve changed your mind or I’ve said something that led you to believe I could be a man who would love you, then I’m sorry.”
The words cut like a dagger. She didn’t need his love, but knowing she wouldn’t have it made the room feel like it was missing oxygen. On the heels of her hurt was anger. How could he be so cavalier about her feelings? How could he be sure he couldn’t love her? Was she that unlovable? “I thought I could do this.” Maybe if he had been any other man she could. But not Rafe, not the man who was standing in front of her, the man of her fantasies. “I realize now that I can’t.” Or maybe she just didn’t want to anymore, knowing her love was unreciprocated.
She turned to leave and Rafe caught her arm. “Wait.”
He looked torn between wanting to kiss her and being unsure what to say. “It always seemed to make things better when I held you. Let me hold you.”
Gemma pulled free of him. “I think we’ve crossed a line and now we can’t go back.” She loved him and he wouldn’t return her feelings. How could she continue this affair knowing it?
“You’ve always been too good for me, Gemma. I knew I would hurt you. I knew this would end badly.”
Gemma wiped at a tear that had escaped. “Maybe that’s been the problem. You know how good you are in medicine. You know how good you are in bed. But you don’t grasp how good you are as a partner.”
She slipped from the room and closed the door behind her. It snicked shut with a finality that shook her.
* * *
It took Rafe a solid hour to put his head on straight. He’d replayed the conversation with Gemma again and again looking for where he’d gone wrong.
She had implied his feelings about Dead River had changed and those words had made him feel utterly defensive. He didn’t want to admit that his years of feeling slighted and hating this town had been misguided, that perhaps he’d projected his bad attitude on Dead River.
Gemma wanted him to stay. They had a good thing going. It was nice to sleep beside someone and wake up with her curled close. He liked making love with her before drifting off to sleep.
Their relationship was intense. Was it more than sex and friendship?
A tap on his door. Relief rushed through him. He and Gemma could talk this over.
He opened the door. Not Gemma. It was Dr. Goodhue.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked.
Rafe shook his head. “I was wrapping up. What can I do for you?”
“Can we speak in private?” she asked.
His office was small, but he gestured to the chair where his patients sat during a consult. “Please have a seat.”
Dr. Goodhue looked at her notes several times before she spoke. “I heard from my contacts at the CDC. The sequences you submitted were flagged by the federal government.”
“In what way?” Rafe asked. He assumed someone at the federal level was aware of the situation in Dead River and was hoping it didn’t escalate into a state-wide or nation-wide problem.
“From the military. The virus has some similarities to classified government research.”
Classified government research? “The government already knows what it is? They’ve been working on it?” Classified or not, if the government had a cure, they had to share it, didn’t they?
“They know what it is because they manufactured it,” Dr. Goodhue said.
“A man-made virus?” Rafe asked. He’d heard that the United States government experimented with strains of viruses in their top secret labs.
“I don’t know what to think. I don’t see how a virus that’s classified and contained in isolation in a government lab would spread to Dead River.”
The government could have a lab nearby. Mimi Rand could have known someone who worked in a top secret lab and some of the virus escaped on that person. While most labs were fastidious with their safety precautions and contaminations were rare, they did happen. “Did your contact speculate on that?”
She shook her head. “They’ve escalated the matter up the chain of command and we should be receiving more information soon.”
The government could make cutting through red tape to find answers a time-consuming process. “Soon? Are your contacts aware we’ll have ten more deaths this week if we don’t find a cure?”
She nodded, looking perplexed. “I don’t understand it either. We’ve stumbled onto a lead and it seems like everyone is worried about passing the blame rather than getting a cure into our hands.”
“How the Dead River virus spread is not as important as finding a cure. Let me know when you’re sent that information.”
Dr. Goodhue sat for another few minutes. “I can’t put my head around it. But you’ll be my first call when I receive more information.”
* * *
Molly was in a terrible mood. She’d heard from a friend that Jimmy Johnson had been spotted near the fire station. Then she’d heard he was seen in a crowd gathered outside the delivery truck waiting for supplies.
It had crossed her mind that unless he had some outdoor survival skills, he was either hiding with a friend or squatting in a vacant house. How else would he survive the brutal Wyoming winter?
Every time Molly thought of Jimmy, she felt stupid and used. She had fallen for him, despite the obvious warning signs. How could he use her that way?
She needed to work out her anger before her shift at the diner. Putting on a happy face for her customers was part of the job. When she thought of Jimmy, it was hard to feel good about anything.
Her car had a quarter tank of gas, just enough to drive out to Cole’s ranch and back. She wanted to see Matt even if it would mean expending the rest of her gas and being forced to brave the weather to get to work by foot.
Deep in a funk, she decided it was worth it to see Matt. When she arrived at Cole’s ranch, she found him working with a horse. She watched him before he turned and caught sight of her.
She lifted her hand in greeting and then strolled toward the fence near where Matt was working.
“Molly, what are you doing here?” Matt asked.
“You don’t sound happy to see me,” she said. A more effusive welcome or an outright joyous response to her visit would have felt nice. Molly knew she was doing it again. She was forcing giant romantic notions onto a man who wasn’t interested in her. Not really interested, anyway.
“I am happy to see you. I don’t want to get in trouble with Cole. He gave me this job and I want to stay on his good side.”
“I can talk to Cole. He’s family.”
Matt’s brows furrowed. “I wouldn’t put you in the middle. Is everything okay? Is Danny doing okay?”
Molly smiled. “Gemma said she and Rafe saw Danny this morning and he was fine.”
Sadness crossed Matt’s face. “I’ve been worried about him.”
“All of us are,” Molly said.
Suddenly, she felt silly for getting worked up about Jimmy Johnson sightings and rumors. Why did it matter if he was lurking around town? He’d be caught or he’d flee town and she wouldn’t see him again. Either way, he wouldn’t be in her life and she had to move on. This town had other, more immediate problems and she had one big personal problem: knowing what she would do next with her life. She didn’t want to work at the diner forever, but she had no cash for college and she was starting over.
“What brings you out here?” Matt asked.
She didn’t want to tell him. He was watching her, his expression calm. The horse nudged his shoulder and he patted her nose gently. “Just a minute, Star Fire.”
She couldn’t tell him that she had needed to see him. “It’s silly.”
“Not to you if you drove out here. I heard there’s a gas shortage.”
Molly sighed. “Someone told me they saw my ex in town. It upset me.”
“I’d be upset too. The guy’s a tool.”
Molly leaned on the fence to be closer to Matt. “It burns me that he used me and stole from me.”
“If I ever see him, I’d knock some sense into him. The way he treated you was terrible.”
