Beyond the Breakwater

by Radclyffe

  “Hello?”

  For a second, Bri couldn’t speak.

  “Hello?”

  “Carre?” Her throat was so dry it came out barely a whisper.

  “Bri?” Uncertain, hopeful.

  “Hey, babe.”

  “Hi, baby.”

  There was silence again, and Bri thought she could hear Caroline breathing. Finally, she forced herself to speak. “My dad told me that you’re going to stay with him this summer.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I thought…I thought you had a job in the city?” Bri cradled the phone between her head and shoulder and stuffed her hands into the pockets of her leather motorcycle pants.

  “I did. I mean, I was going to have one.”

  “So, what happened?”

  Caroline laughed shakily. “You happened, Bri.”

  “Huh?”

  “You happened to me—about four years ago. I took one look at you, and I thought you were the hottest girl I’d ever seen in my life.”

  “Jesus, Carre,” Bri murmured, barely breathing. From three hundred miles away, the sound of Caroline’s voice made her skin flush.

  “And then these last few months, you’ve been different. Gone, sort of. And I didn’t even realize that I’d let you go.”

  “No, you didn’t…I—”

  “But you’re there, and I’m here. Isn’t that what you said would happen when I went to France?” Caroline’s voice was stronger now. “That I’d be there and you’d be here, and everything would change? Well, it already has changed, Bri.”

  “I don’t know how it happened,” Bri said desperately.

  “Neither do I. But it’s not going to get any better unless we do something to change it.”

  “But what about school? Your job?”

  “I talked to my adviser and the chairman. I told them that I had a family emergency and that I needed to be home for the summer. They found me someone to work with…a preceptor kind of thing.”

  Bri blinked, her eyes suddenly burning. Unconsciously, she brushed moisture from her cheeks with the back of one hand, reaching for the phone with the other and gripping it tightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for you to have to do that.”

  “What did you mean, Bri? For me just to go away and that would be the end of it?”

  “I thought…” She ran a shaking hand through her hair and tried to ignore the queasy roiling of her stomach. “I thought you would go away and when you came back, if you still wanted me, then it would be like it was before.”

  “If I still wanted you?” Caroline’s voice was cold. “You didn’t think I would?”

  “I was afraid you wouldn’t.”

  “It hurts to know you didn’t believe in me, Bri. That you didn’t have any faith in what we have together.”

  “That’s not it,” Bri protested fervently.

  “Isn’t it? Think about it, Bri.”

  Bri was silent for a long moment. Then, her voice broke when she spoke. “Can I see you when you come home?”

  “Not if you’re seeing anyone else.”

  The pain and tears in Caroline’s voice made Bri bleed inside. “I’m not. I swear.”

  “I’ll be moving to Nelson’s the second Saturday in June. Call me sometime.”

  “I love you, babe,” Bri said softly.

  “Take good care of yourself, baby.”

  The soft click signaling that Caroline had hung up was like a lifeline being severed. Adrift, Bri stood for a long time listening to the dial tone, thinking about faith.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Bri leaned back in the large overstuffed chair, her hands resting on the threadbare arms, her legs spread to make room for the woman kneeling in front of her. She wore only an unbuttoned shirt, parted down the center. A pale arm stretched upward over the length of her abdomen to enclose her right breast. Fingers rhythmically squeezed her stone-hard nipple as a soft tongue encircled the swollen prominence of her clitoris, working her slowly and carefully, keeping her on the edge, aching, but not allowing the elusive release.

  Her irregular breathing was the only sound.

  The room was nearly dark, and it was difficult to see more than shadows shifting in the hazy half-light. The chair where she sat, however, was speared by a shaft of moonlight, and when she looked down, she caught glimpses of the woman’s eyes gazing upward, avidly watching as the effect of what she was doing with her mouth rippled across Bri’s face in the flickering illumination.

  As the pressure coalesced into a fist deep inside, Bri’s thighs quivered and her fingers clenched. With each long sweep of the warm tongue, the muscles in her abdomen contracted. She arched her neck and groaned softly as the escalating strokes beat against a particularly sensitive spot. Staring into the mesmerizing eyes, Bri watched the golden head rock between her thighs.

  “Carre,” she whispered.

  There was no answer.

  Relentlessly, the perfect rhythm drove her ever closer to explosion. When her hips lifted and white heat spiraled along her spine, she muttered hoarsely, “I’m gonna come in your mouth.”

  The insistent lips sucked at her, pushing her beyond volition. Her body tensed, grew rigid, then crumpled as she shouted sharply in surrender. Gasping, she twitched helplessly as the orgasm ripped through her.

  “Bri!”

  Thunderous pounding on her door pulled Bri awake, the last remnants of her nocturnal climax still humming through her veins.

  “What?” she croaked. She glanced around the room in confusion. The night through her window was pitch black. She cleared her throat and sat up quickly. “Yeah?”

  “Un-ass that bed, Officer,” Reese ordered. “We need to roll.”

  Still a bit shaky, Bri grabbed the nearest thing she could find, which turned out to be a pair of faded blue jeans, and slid them on. Getting her feet under her finally, she grabbed a corduroy shirt from over the back of a chair and shrugged into it. Buttoning it with one hand, she jerked the door open with the other and stared up at Reese. The sheriff wore jeans as well, with a khaki uniform shirt. Her badge was clipped to the shirt pocket, her automatic holstered on her right hip.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Grab your equipment. There’s a fire in Truro, and they’re asking for help.”

  *

  Well before Reese and Bri screeched to a halt behind a long row of official vehicles, it was easy to see the flames shooting into the sky from a totally fire-engulfed building. Fire trucks fronted the burning structure, a confusion of hoses spewing water in crisscrossing arcs onto the disintegrating roof. Firefighters, EMTs, and law enforcement officials hurried back and forth in the parking lot in front of what had once been a three-story structure.

  “That place has been abandoned for a couple of years, hasn’t it?” Reese shouted as she and Bri raced on foot toward a knot of Truro and Wellfleet officers.

  “Yeah,” Bri yelled back. Then she pointed across the parking lot to the adjacent buildings. “But they’re not.”

  At that moment, the Truro police chief spied Reese and waved her over. “Conlon! Good Christ, this place has gone up like a matchbox in less than five minutes. We haven’t had time to evacuate the neighboring motels. I’ve got people working on both sides of the street, but the main priority is that motel right next door. They’ve got forty-five units, most of them full, and we’re not sure everyone’s out yet. I don’t have enough people for a room-to-room.”

  “Roger. We’re on it.”

  Bri followed Reese as they ran toward the adjacent motel. People streamed past them carrying suitcases and belongings in a mad exodus. A cluster of cars inched along bumper to bumper trying to get out of the narrow parking lot, creating a logjam at the exit to Route 6.

  “Bri!” a familiar voice called.

  Bri looked to her right and saw three other officers rushing toward her, one of whom she knew well. “Allie!”

  “What’s the plan?” Allie asked breathlessly, falling into step alongside Bri. “W
e’re with you, my chief said.”

  “Reese will let us know when we get there.”

  Just at that moment, Reese stopped suddenly and started issuing orders. “You two,” she pointed to the two officers in Wellfleet uniforms, “start on the far end of the ground floor and check every unit. Every unit. Break the doors down if you have to. Tell anyone still in there not to bother with their cars, but to proceed on foot to the highway.” She looked at Bri and Allie. “You two take the upper floors,” she indicated with a nod of her head toward the outdoor hallway running the length of the second floor of the motel. “Make it fast. The wind’s picking up, and there are already sparks on the roof.”

  “Got it,” Bri snapped.

  “Let’s move, everybody.”

  Within minutes, men, women, and children in various stages of undress scrambled from the last of the occupied motel units as officers pounded on doors and shouted instructions. In the distance, approaching sirens signaled that more fire trucks and emergency personnel were en route.

  “Bri, look at the roof,” Allie cried as they jogged down the corridor connecting the units.

  Glancing up, Bri was shocked to see almost the entire cedar-shingled surface dancing with flames. “Jesus, it’s moving so fast. Hurry up!”

  Smoke poured from the units where doors stood open, but there were at least a dozen rooms still closed and presumably occupied.

  “Why aren’t they coming out?” Bri shouted as her eyes began to burn with the thickening clouds of smoke that roiled around them.

  Coughing, Allie replied, “Maybe some of them partied too much tonight and didn’t hear the sirens. Or maybe there’s more smoke in those rooms than we think. Maybe they can’t get out.”

  “There’s just a couple more.” Bri was gasping. “Let’s get them open.”

  From the ground, coordinating the evacuation efforts, Reese watched Bri and Allie race toward the last four units on the end of the building most heavily involved by fire. She turned to the motel owner who had been pacing anxiously by her side. “Are those units occupied?”

  “Just the one on the far end.” His voice was high-pitched with tension. “I can’t remember who’s in there.”

  As they spoke, part of the roof fell in.

  Reese grabbed a megaphone from a nearby fire captain and raced toward the stairs leading up to the second floor exterior hallway about fifty feet from where she had last seen Bri and Allie.

  “Parker,” she yelled into the megaphone. “Parker, clear the area ASAP! Parker, do you copy?”

  By the time she reached the second floor, Reese’s lungs were burning and her eyes were streaming with tears. The smoke was so thick she couldn’t see through it, so she ran in the direction she had last seen the trainees.

  From the ground, the fire captain couldn’t see anyone at all on the second floor when the rest of the roof collapsed in a plume of sparks, flying debris, and ash.

  *

  Tory was on her way to her Jeep when the cruiser pulled into her driveway. Reese had only been gone twenty minutes when Tory had decided that if the fire was serious enough to require reinforcements, the situation might call for her skills as well. In the past, she would have followed Reese immediately, but when Reese had insisted she stay home, she hadn’t argued. She hadn’t been sleeping well the last few nights and was exhausted. But before long, she realized that she would never be able to get back to sleep. That was when she had pulled herself from the bed and gotten dressed.

  “Nelson,” Tory called as he stepped from the car and walked toward her. “I was just getting ready to go.”

  The security lights had come on under the eaves of the house when he had pulled into the driveway, and she could see his face clearly in the falsely bright illumination. His expression caused a cold hand to close around her heart.

  “What is it?” Tory cried, trying and failing to keep her voice level. She braced her hand against the side of her vehicle, her legs shaking nearly uncontrollably. This can’t be happening. Not again. I can’t do this again.

  “There are four buildings involved already.” Nelson’s voice was flat, his eyes eerily empty. “A lot of minor injuries. The motel next to where it started is almost gone.”

  “Nelson,” Tory said harshly, recognizing that he was very nearly in shock. She wanted to scream, feared that she might. “What’s happened?”

  “Bri…”

  “Oh no,” Tory gasped, sagging slightly against the Jeep. We can’t lose Bri.

  “Bri and another girl…another cadet…they were evacuating the upper floors…when the roof collapsed.”

  Forcing herself to act, to think despite the panic eclipsing her reason, Tory went to him and put her hand on his forearm. “Nelson, is she hurt?”

  “Missing,” he rasped. His hands were trembling as he rubbed them over his face. “She…didn’t come out.”

  “Let’s go,” Tory urged, but before she could move, the rest of it hit her. Nelson had come for her. She drew a sharp breath as pain lanced through her. If Bri is missing, then where is…but you know, don’t you? Reese would go after her. She would never leave her injured in the field. Especially not Bri. Reese would never leave Bri.

  “Oh God, Nelson…not both of them!”

  He could only nod, his terror boundless.

  As Nelson rocketed the cruiser east on Route 6, covering the few miles between Tory’s home and the scene of the conflagration, Tory stared straight ahead through the windshield, one hand on the door handle, the other beneath her sweatshirt, resting against her abdomen. Beneath her fingers, hope swelled even as an agony of despair hammered at the edges of her consciousness. Reese won’t leave me. She promised.

  “Can’t you go any faster?” she whispered desperately.

  “Not and get us there in one piece,” Nelson grunted, his foot already heavy on the gas pedal.

  The radio crackled and a male voice cut through the static. “Chief, you copy?”

  Nelson grabbed blindly for the mike. “Go ahead.”

  “We’ve got a body in the building, Chief. No ID yet.”

  Wordlessly, Tory focused on the scene emerging ahead. She could see the fire now, the dozens of rescue vehicles, and great clouds of dark smoke billowing into the night sky. Don’t leave me, sweetheart. I can’t do this without you. Please, darling, please.

  Nelson slammed to a halt, and Tory was out of the vehicle almost before it had stopped. Then she faltered, realizing she had nowhere to go. The scene was one of barely controlled pandemonium. Men and women rushed back and forth between EMS vans, fire rescue trucks, patrol cars, and civilian vehicles. There were officers with flashlights standing in the highway directing a stream of cars and RVs that presumably belonged to tourists who had been able to evacuate before the traffic from the parking lots had become hopelessly snarled. Frantically, she searched for someone recognizable and finally saw Jeff Lyons, one of the officers from the Provincetown force.

  “Jeff!” Tory rushed toward him as quickly as her unfamiliarly heavy body and her cumbersome leg brace would allow. “Have you seen Reese or Bri?”

  He shook his head, his expression dazed. “Not since they went off to evacuate the Gull Crest Motel. What does the chief say?”

  “He doesn’t know anything either.” Impatiently, she turned away. Panic threatened to choke her. “God, isn’t anyone in charge around here?”

  As if by instinct, she made her way through the masses of milling people and ended up near the EMS transport vehicles. There were at least a dozen EMTs and paramedics rendering emergency care to civilians and rescue personnel alike, the bulk of whom appeared to have burns or smoke inhalation from the quick glance Tory got as she peered at the faces of the victims. Where are you, Reese? Where in God’s name are you?

  After five fruitless minutes of searching, her hair was drenched with sweat, her face was covered with soot from the ash-filled air, and her control was in tatters. A horrific surge of desolation swept through her, and tears overflowed h
er stinging lids without her even being aware of them. I can’t do this. I can’t. I can’t.

  From close by, a firefighter shouted, “Somebody get a gurney. We’ve got walking wounded coming.”

  Tory jerked around at the sound of his voice and frantically searched the edges of the beach forest that bordered one side of the access road where most of the rescue vehicles had parked. It was difficult to see through the haze created by the combination of emergency lights and swirling smoke, but eventually she could discern a lone figure emerging from the artificial mists, carrying some kind of bundle. She blinked the tears and smoke from her eyes and was able to make out that the bundle was a person, and the grime-covered apparition carrying the victim was Reese.

  For one brief instant, Tory thought she might faint. The relief was so acute that she couldn’t breathe. Even seeing her lover more clearly with each step wasn’t enough to banish the terrible ache that had seized her heart. She started forward as quickly as she could.

  The EMTs reached Reese well before Tory and relieved the sheriff of her burden. Still, she had barely relinquished the frail, elderly man to the care of the rescue team before Tory flung herself into her arms.

  “I thought you were dead,” Tory gasped. Her hands were all over Reese, stroking her chest and her back and up and down her arms, searching for injury. “Are you hurt? Are you hurt?”

  “Tory, I’m all right.” Reese grabbed Tory’s hands, stilling her frenzied motion, and then gathered her close. Tory’s heart was beating wildly against her chest, and with her lips close to her lover’s ear, Reese said gently, “Tory, listen to me. Stop, love. Stop. I’m all right.”

  The sound of Reese’s voice, low and steady and calm, brought instant surcease to Tory’s terror. Suddenly, she regained control and, after taking a long slow breath, was able to separate herself enough from Reese to look into her face.

  “Where’s Bri?”

  “Back in the forest. She’s with an injured officer. Bri wouldn’t leave her, and I had to get this fellow to the EMTs.” Reese framed Tory’s face with both hands and kissed her swiftly. “Sweetheart, I need to go back for Bri.”