Fatal Response

by Jodie Bailey

  Jason turned a slow circle, searching for the perfect tool. Most of the furniture was cheap wood. The TV was a flat screen, too light to be of any use. So was the computer monitor in the office.

  But not the tower. He’d joked about the huge heavy ancient machine when they’d passed through the office earlier. Now it might save their lives.

  He charged through the door without explaining, shut off the surge protector to keep the electricity from drawing a spark, ripped the cords from the back of the machine and headed back into the dayroom, where he stepped onto the couch and took aim at the window. “Back up.” He didn’t want to crack Erin in the head on top of everything else. “And pray.”

  She stood in the center of the room and nodded when she was ready.

  This had better work because if it didn’t, they were running out of options. Turning the tower so the bottom faced the window, he heaved the machine forward and smashed the corner into the glass.

  A tiny indentation weakened in the center. Three more blows to the same spot widened the hole until the entire CPU shoved through and fell to the ground outside with what, in any other circumstances, would have been a satisfying crash.

  Erin appeared at his side with oven mitts from the kitchen, and they tore the glass from the window, gulping the untainted outside air.

  And as his mind cleared, his thoughts raced through possibilities.

  Grabbing Erin’s elbow, he led her to the couch beneath the window, where they crouched nearly nose to nose. She seemed bewildered and he couldn’t blame her.

  “I can’t shove you out the window.”

  Her eyebrow went up, but just as quickly, understanding tightened her features, deepening the creases in her forehead. “You’re worried about a shooter.”

  “Not this guy’s usual operating procedure, but he’s coming at you hard and may not want to miss an opportunity. He’s bound to know you were smart enough to get out or, if he’s watching closely, he’s figured out I’m here with you, even though I hid my truck out of sight.”

  She glanced at the window, then back at him. “I don’t think we have a choice. He could light us up any second, and this place blowing like a bomb is a bigger concern to me than any bullet.”

  Erin was right. They had to give more weight to the known threat than to the unknown. And he had to get her out of here before the situation worsened. “I’ll help you through the window. Zigzag for the trees to the right of the building. Get as far into cover as you can.”

  “What about you?” Her hand found his on the back of the couch. “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Right behind you. I promise.” Slipping his hand from beneath hers, he let his fingers trail her arm to her neck, then pulled her forward and pressed a quick kiss to her forehead before breaking contact. There wasn’t time for more, and even in his muddled, adrenaline-fueled state, he knew better than to give in to the impulse. “Let’s go.” He stood and helped her onto the back of the couch, where she straddled the window ledge, gave him one last long look and then disappeared, leaving him tensed for the sound of gunfire that would take her away from him forever.

  * * *

  Erin landed on the soft ground close to the building, her arm scraping the rough brick, her boots squishing into dirt still damp from recent rain. She crouched behind a bush, trying to shrink into the shadows, though anyone watching would have seen her descent from the high window. Her ears strained for the pop of gunfire.

  Silence reigned. Even the wind through the trees was quiet.

  Jason slipped to the ground beside her and hissed, “I told you to run.”

  A shove between her shoulder blades brought Erin to her feet and sent her sprinting for the small wooded area across the driveway.

  The entire time, she tensed against the slam of a bullet into her back, but it never came.

  They reached the cover of the trees and Erin dived in, taking shelter behind the sprawling trunk of a white oak. The minute they’d halted, she jerked her phone from her pocket and powered it on, the wait for the device to load an interminable decade of her life. Long enough to catch her breath.

  Long enough to realize the warmth of Jason’s lips still lingered on her forehead.

  Taking cover behind the tree beside her, he focused on the station, likely watching for their attacker’s next move. His mind was definitely not on her.

  She waved her hand to get his attention. “We’re not far enough away if the building goes.” Even at this distance, the concussion of a massive explosion would scramble their internal organs and blast their brains against their skulls with a force guaranteed to destroy.

  “If he was going to blow us out of here, he’d have done it already.”

  She tapped the screen of her phone, willing it to load quicker. “There’s enough gas in there that it wouldn’t take much. Even the heat pump kicking on could be all it takes.”

  “Can you open the garage doors remotely? Start venting the building?”

  She shook her head. “Can’t risk any metal on metal to put off a spark. We have to keep moving.”

  “My truck’s on the other side of these woods. Let’s get moving before whoever did this realizes we aren’t inside. You can call for help from there.”

  “The faster the better. I’ll feel a whole lot safer when we’re about half a mile away.”

  Positioning himself between Erin and the station, Jason urged her through the trees, their feet crunching broken leaves and twigs with a racket that couldn’t be silenced and seemed to echo for miles.

  At the truck, they crouched low and Jason opened the driver’s-side door, urging her in. Erin didn’t relax until he was inside behind her with the door shut and the engine running.

  Her phone now powered on, she pressed the number for central dispatch. Erin didn’t even let Kelly Wilson finish with her greeting before she started talking. “This is Erin Taylor at station seven. We have a major gas leak in the building and need all the help we can get. Dispatch police as well. We have reasons to believe this is deliberate. First responders need to come in with caution. Suspect may still be in the area.”

  “It was definitely deliberate.” Jason shifted the truck into gear, then aimed a finger at the emergency door they’d tried to exit through earlier. A two-by-four was wedged tightly beneath the handle and the concrete sidewalk.

  The sight drove a spike of fear through Erin, but she barely had time to process it as she answered Kelly’s questions and made sure the other woman understood the assailant could still be in the vicinity.

  The roar of the engine as Jason powered the truck away from the station nearly drowned out Kelly’s responses, and Erin killed the call as soon as she knew backup was on the way.

  Lord, protect us. And I know it’s a building, but everything we need to keep this town safe is in it, so please... She let the prayer finish itself. The building was more of a home to her than the one she shared with her father. If it was lost, she had no doubt a part of her would be destroyed with it.

  The interior of the vehicle was silent until Jason backed onto a dirt path into the woods near the main road, offering a small amount of cover.

  “There’s no question this was a targeted attack.” Jason kneaded the steering wheel, his knuckles tight. “Whoever is after you is getting bolder.”

  Whoever is after you. The words washed a panic through Erin even more potent than the fear that had nearly swamped her at Jenna’s. It paralyzed her and sent her thoughts into a whirlwind. She was a target.

  Someone wanted her dead.

  The carefully constructed walls around her emotions finally crumbled.

  Her mouth went dry. It was one thing to hear Wyatt and Jason say it. It was another to be purposely trapped inside her safe space with death breathing fumes beneath the door.

  Fear roared in her ears as she stared unseeing at the dark path b
efore her.

  “Hey.” Warm fingers gripped her chin, turning her head. Jason laid his palms against her cheeks, his fingers in her hair, forcing her to look him straight in the eye. “I’m here. Focus on me. I’ve got you. You’re safe.”

  No. She wasn’t. Not at all.

  His thumb slid along the soft skin over her cheekbone, sending a different kind of electricity along her skin. “You’re the strongest person I know. You walk into burning buildings when other people are running out of them. You crawl into mangled vehicles when there’s gas leaking across the pavement. You’ve rappelled cliffs to rescue stranded climbers. This?” Leaning closer, his forehead almost touching hers, he whispered, “This is nothing.”

  His blue eyes were deep, intense, the center of her whole world. When they dipped lower to her lips, her mind forgot to panic, forgot everything except Jason Barnes.

  At the sound of approaching vehicles, Jason slid his cheek along hers and pulled her head against his shoulder, resting his chin against the side of her head for several long breaths before his body relaxed in some sort of resignation and he backed away, turning to stare out the windshield again.

  Erin’s eyes drifted closed and she slipped away, pressing her back into the seat. If he was trying to make her forget her fear, he’d succeeded.

  And if he was trying to crush her, he’d succeeded there too. Even if it had been the right thing to do, it stung.

  “You okay?” He didn’t move, simply stared out at the road in front of them.

  “I’m fine.” Her voice was tight, but he’d have to accept her answer.

  “Erin, we have options. You don’t have to stay out in the open like this. They’ve arranged for safe houses on post for the spouses who live off post and—”

  “But I’m not a spouse, am I?” The words came out harder than she’d meant them to, eaten through by the terror of finding herself the prey of an unknown assailant, and wrapped around emotions Jason kept pulling out of her, emotions she didn’t want to acknowledge. She had no rights to Jason and no privileges with the military. There was only a shared past that boomeranged closer with every second she spent in his presence.

  The danger wasn’t exactly what he thought it was.

  Jason’s grip on the steering wheel loosened, and his hands slid to his thighs. He sat for seconds that felt as though they stretched into hours before he spoke. “Our past is exactly the reason you shouldn’t be in this mess to begin with.” He lifted his chin and caught her watching him. “I should have protected you better.”

  Why had she mentioned their divorce? All it did was drive a deeper rift between them and now it opened him to some kind of guilt she couldn’t possibly understand. “You didn’t do this. You did your job as a soldier, and apparently you did it well. But this? This is the mind of some lunatic out for revenge, and you can’t control him. All you can do is—”

  “They found you because of me. Because I couldn’t let go. I led them straight to—” He stopped, pressing his lips together so tightly his jaw muscles tensed.

  In the distance, sirens wailed, drawing closer at a rapid pace. But the first responders were outside of the truck. What was inside was infinitely more important. “What happened, Jase?”

  “Nothing.” He turned away, staring out the side window toward the fire station, which was shielded from view by distance and tree cover.

  The phone vibrated in Erin’s hand, and she nearly dropped it. Not now. They were on the verge of something she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear. But when the screen revealed Chief Kelliher’s name, she couldn’t refuse to answer.

  With red, white and blue lights flashing shadows through the trees as help raced past their hiding place, she turned away and shifted her focus to the world outside of the truck, the one she had to find a way to wrestle back under control.

  The one Jason Barnes was no longer a part of.

  TWELVE

  Erin swept aside the gauzy white curtains from the upstairs barn window and let the morning sunlight flood the room. Thick dust danced in the light, making the beams appear almost liquid as they fell to puddle on the floor.

  Like everything else, it was a gorgeous illusion.

  Sinking to the floor beneath the window, she leaned back against the wall with her legs bent in front of her and studied the room. Nothing much had changed. Yeah, it was dustier, but not as bad as she’d thought. It wouldn’t take much to empty it.

  Or to clean it.

  This room, the one she hadn’t given more than a passing thought to in years, had crept into her heart the past few days, begging for her to do something... To use it, or get rid of it.

  She’d managed a couple hours of sleep in the predawn hours and had been awake at sunrise, restless, needing something to do. So she’d started changing the oil in the Bronco. But then Wyatt had taken over and she’d found herself here, searching for somewhere safe.

  Someone had invaded her home. They’d invaded her fire station.

  And now they’d ripped away her identity.

  Once the station had been cleared and the crime scene techs had done their job, Chief Kelliher had taken Erin aside and told her, in no uncertain terms, she was on paid leave until the target was off of her back. I can’t put my other firefighters in danger or put this building at risk. I’m sorry, Taylor.

  Erin threw the oil-stained leather gloves she’d been wearing onto the floor beside her. She’d failed.

  As a daughter, as Jason’s wife and as a firefighter. The station had nearly blown to the moon while she was the one assigned to protect it during the dark hours.

  She’d been distracted by Jason, had allowed someone to slip into the building, block the exits and damage the gas lines.

  Now she was paying the price.

  Even her own father didn’t trust her to drive him to Durham for his yearly physical at Duke. Too much stuff happening around you, girl. Your uncle Joe’s going to drive. Maybe I’ll survive the trip.

  She should have taken Jason’s suggestion to hide in a safe house. At least, no one else would be at risk.

  But then she might truly lose herself, if she hadn’t already. With everything else stripped away, this room was the one place the chaos hadn’t invaded. Here, with a paintbrush in her hand, Erin had always become the purest form of who she was, as though she was somehow a little bit closer to God when she shared in creation with Him. Prayer had come easily here.

  When she’d shut off this room, she hadn’t just lost who she was with Jason... She’d lost who she was with God. Instead of deep, listening prayers, she’d started tossing up random requests during the day, half hoping they’d be caught by the One who was listening.

  Not anymore. When everything else was gone, there would always be Jesus.

  She dropped her chin to her chest and poured out every ache, every fear, every weakness. And she listened.

  There were no magic answers, but peace stole in as the light shifted across the floor. She reveled in it, silently praising the One who’d created her and who created alongside her until footsteps on the stairs had her swiping tears from her eyes.

  Wyatt was likely checking on her, or searching for something to do since he’d probably already finished changing the oil in the Bronco. “Thanks for taking care of the truck for me. I could have done it myself.”

  “I’ll pass the thanks along to Wyatt.” The voice from the stairs was deeper than Wyatt’s, heavy with fatigue but tinged with humor.

  No. Erin might have peace about everything else, but she wasn’t ready for Jason. She’d managed not to think about the two times they’d nearly kissed, shoving the disappointment she didn’t want to acknowledge behind the more pressing need for survival, but he was still there, making inroads into her life.

  He sat on the floor beside her with his feet planted in front of him and his elbows resting on his knees, his profile
and two-day beard the picture of male perfection.

  Erin turned her eyes to the back of her easel, which sat in the center of the room. Looking at him was out of the question until she adjusted to his presence. “What’s got you out early this morning?” Dumb question. He was probably as keyed up as she was.

  “I wanted to check on you after last night, make sure you were okay. And I wanted to run something by you. Part of my unit is getting together for dinner. We need to be together. We just need to...”

  She hazarded a glance. “I understand.” Grieving as a group was probably the safest thing they could do. There’d been many times she’d run to the fire station when she needed family, even if it was to avoid being alone.

  “I know your dad’s gone. If I go without you, there’s no one to back me up. You’d be home alone, and I wanted...” He exhaled loudly, sending the dust in the air into a frenzied dance. “Do you want to come with me?”

  It sounded like a date, but it definitely wasn’t. It was protection detail. Nothing more. Her stomach sank. “Sure.”

  “Wyatt will be around today, so I’ll come and get you around seven.”

  Well, okay then. Erin chanced a second, longer look. He’d had a shower. His hair was still slightly damp and towel-rumpled, a look she’d once known all too well.

  Erin reached for the work gloves she’d laid beside her and asked, “Did you see Wyatt?”

  “He was on the phone. Something about a crime scene on Overton Road.”

  A call about Overton Road meant her cousin would be busy. What had started as a simple burglary had exploded into more, though Wyatt hadn’t filled her in on details.

  She didn’t plan to spend her cousin’s absence by living out past moments with her ex-husband, even if the warmth of him beside her was undoing the knots she’d tied around her heart. This was exactly like high school, when her pulse jumped every time she heard his footsteps on the stairs.

  When her muscles weakened at the sound of his voice.

  Surely he remembered the times they’d spent here, just being together. Those moments chased through her dreams more nights than she wanted to admit. They’d had a very good thing once. Dreams... Laughter... Love...