Fighting For Carly

by Deanndra Hall

  He was sound asleep when Carly roused him. “What? What’s going on?”

  “Listen.”

  Ross tried to concentrate and listened carefully. “What is that?”

  “Civil defense siren.”

  “Fire?”

  “No. Tornado warning. Did they forecast any tornadic activity for tonight?”

  He shook his head, as much to clear out the cobwebs as to indicate the negative. “Nope. Just thunderstorms and high winds, but they never mentioned a chance of a tornado.”

  Carly got up from the bed, wrapped a robe around herself, and headed toward the living room, so Ross decided maybe he should follow her. He grabbed his boxer briefs, slipped them on, and ran toward the door.

  She stood on the porch, her eyes wide. When Ross moved up beside her, he noticed something.

  Everything was still. It was as though time had stopped and the air around them was frozen in place. Not a cricket chirped, not a bullfrog croaked, and not a mosquito buzzed by their ears. It was totally silent except for the sound of that siren. “What’s going on?”

  “This is bad, Ross. This is really, really bad. Do you feel that? The barometric pressure is plummeting. Oh, shit. I need to call the station and see if they’ve―”

  Her voice was drowned out by a sound like a thousand horses. Hail the size of golf balls pounded the roof, the cars, everything around them. “Get inside!” he barked as the hailstones bounced on the porch floor and hit his shins.

  And her phone rang. “Christina, is that you? What’s going on? Have they … Oh, shit. Yeah. Okay. I’ll call him.” She hung up and punched another contact. “It’s Cross. Dispatch just called me. Do you need me to … Yeah. No problem. I’ll suit up. Just tell me where you want me. Okay. Bye.”

  “What the hell?”

  “That was Louie. It’s all hands on deck. They’ve had two or three twisters touch down in the last hour just north of us, and we’ve got more activity coming our way.”

  “You can’t go out there!” Ross barked. “We don’t know where Harlan is.”

  “I’ll have my weapon with me. No big deal. I can handle myself,” she said as she disappeared into the bedroom.

  Ross ran after her and grabbed her arm, spinning her to look at him. “I know you can handle yourself, but this is something entirely different. You can’t do this, Carly. You’re on suspension. They should’ve―”

  She’d already shaken him off and was drawing on a pair of uniform pants and a department tee shirt. “Nobody can anticipate when something like this is going to happen! It’s not the fault of the members of the community, and it’s not Louie’s fault. It’s the fucking Commissioners Court, and they’re not the ones who’ll have to pick up the pieces! I’ve got to go.”

  “Then I’m going to the fire station. I’m sure the guys can use my help.”

  “Yeah. I think that’s a good idea. I’ll see you as soon as I can, babe.” The door opened, then closed again, and she was gone.

  By the time Ross got dressed, the wind had picked up and was whipping around from every direction. The rented pickup was heavy, and yet it took everything he had to hold it on the road. Driving was made slow by the tree limbs falling and power lines snapping, and several times he thought he’d be hit, only to be missed by just a few feet.

  It took all his strength to get from the truck to the station house, and when he managed to get inside, he found all the guys already there. Tank was the first to speak. “What are you doing here?”

  “Came to help.”

  “Where’s Carly?”

  “She took off. I couldn’t stop her.” He knew how lame that sounded, but he couldn’t hold her hostage.

  Tank’s face bloomed blood red. “You’re supposed to watch her, Ross! I trusted you to do that!”

  “Your sister’s a grown-ass woman! If she wants to leave, there’s nothing I can do about it! She talked to Louie, and he told her he needed her. She’s doing what she’s been trained to do, Tank.”

  “Yeah, but Harlan’s still out there!”

  “I’m well aware of that, and I reminded her of that, but she just blew me off and took off out the door. I did everything I could short of knocking her down and sitting on her!”

  “You should’ve!” Tank roared back.

  “Guys! Carly’s a grown woman! She’s going to do what she feels she needs to do,” Pops interrupted in his calm way. “We’re going to have to trust that she’ll be okay and go on with what we need to do. Glad you’re here, Dub-step. We can use all the hands we can get. You’re on the DL, so we’ll find you something to do that’ll be safe for you. The NWS is on the phone with Short Shit in there, and they’re advising on movement and speed. We’ve got trees and power lines down all over the place. What we’re really watching for are fires that’ll break out because of electrical problems, but we’ll also be helping to clear the roadways for emergency crews, and we’ll be doing extractions. I don’t know what―”

  “POPS!” Short Shit yelled as he came out the doorway. “We’ve got one bearing down on the east side of town, ETA two minutes.”

  “You heard him, guys. Anything else?”

  “Yeah, there’s one right behind it headed for Bandera. I don’t know what’s going to happen with that. All we can do is take care of ours.”

  “That’s right. Okay, guys, make sure when you get out in the trucks that you have blankets, water, insulated gloves, axes, chainsaws, and EMT kits. One EMT per wagon. That’s all we can spare. First responders, your trucks are our headquarters. When you find an area with a lot of devastation, set up and call in your location. Is everybody clear on what we’re doing?” All the men nodded. “Good. Let’s suit up and get ready.”

  At that very second, Ross’s ears popped. “Holy shit,” Tank whispered.

  “Here it comes,” Dirty-D muttered. The guys scattered and slid under tables and benches as the roaring grew, then dissipated. Ross knew it was only seconds, but it felt like hours.

  “Check the trucks!” Pops yelled as soon as the roaring subsided.

  Big Mack yelled back from his spot close to the truck bay, “We’re good to go. The roof’s intact. Let’s hit it, guys!”

  Ross sat there watching everybody moving to their trucks, and he glanced over at Pops. “What can I do to help?”

  “You got a pickup truck?”

  “Yep.”

  “Then get out there and drive around. See if you find people who are hurt or trapped and call it in.” He tossed a hand-held radio to Ross, followed by a portable light for the top of the truck. “And for the love of god, just be safe.”

  “Will do.” With his assignment clear, Ross ran to his truck, slapped the light on top, started it up, and took off. He drove here and there in a grid pattern, trying to cover as much territory as possible. A sheriff’s department cruiser approached him, and he flagged it down. It had started to rain so hard that it was difficult to see the road, and when the deputy put the window down, he recognized the guy. “Newsom, right?”

  “You’re Ross! Yeah.”

  “Seen Carly?”

  “Nope. She’s out here?”

  “Yeah. She called and Louie told her to get dressed and come on out. You haven’t heard any transmissions from her?”

  “Nope. Not yet, but our communications are spotty at best. You out scouting?”

  “Yeah. Gotta get back to work. Later. Be safe.”

  “You too,” Scott called back as Ross drove away.

  He saw a couple more deputies, one of whom told him the last time he’d seen Carly, she’d been on the east side of town. That was the side that had been hit the hardest, and he decided it was time to head that way. Along the way, a woman in a bathrobe stood at the side of the road, waving her arms. “Yes, ma’am!” Ross yelled through the driving rain.

  “A tree fell on our house and my husband’s trapped! Can you help us, please?” she cried.

  “Yes, ma’am. Get in.” The soaked woman climbed into the passenger seat.
“Central dispatch, this is TVFD assistant. Have a subject here whose husband is trapped in their house. Tell her your address, ma’am.” The woman called it out. “Did you copy, central dispatch? Over.”

  “Roger. We’ll send S&R that direction ASAP. Over.”

  “Come on. I’ll help you all I can,” Ross told her. “Lead the way.”

  The house was destroyed. Rain poured down the walls, and it was hard to get through all the debris. Clothes, broken dishes, and ruined furniture was everywhere. When they finally fought their way to the bedroom, the man was pinned to the mattress, and Ross knew that being in bed was probably all that had saved his life. “Help’s on the way, sir. Just try to stay calm. They’ll be here in just a couple of minutes.” He could hear the sirens approaching. “They’re right outside. I’ll go lead them in. Just hang on.”

  Three minutes later, two firefighters and an EMT had pushed their way into the house and were attempting to free the guy. One of them was Michael, and he ordered Ross out of the house and back into his truck, so he took up his job again and drove away.

  He crisscrossed back and forth, finding several other people who needed help of some kind. One lady and her child just needed a ride to her mother’s house, and he took them there. Another man couldn’t find his dog, and Ross told him that, much as he’d like to help, their priority at the moment was human life. He left the man crying on the side of the street, and he hated himself for it, but what he’d said was true. People came first.

  He met up with three more deputies, all from Bandera, and none of them had seen Carly in a while, so he kept driving. More devastation, more debris in the roadways, more power outages. It was a mess. Ross had never seen anything like it. Sure, they had tornadoes in Kentucky, but this was wide-spread destruction, and he’d heard people talk about Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Missouri, and Oklahoma tornadoes until he’d thought they were exaggerations. They obviously weren’t.

  The sun was starting to lighten the sky through the clouds when Ross turned onto a small lane and saw a cruiser up ahead, blue lights flashing. When he neared it, he recognized it as Carly’s. Finally! he thought, feeling a million times better since he knew where she was. The SUV was parked, the door was open, and a huge tree blocked the roadway.

  Ross looked around. There were no houses anywhere near. That struck him as odd, that her truck would be sitting there, so he got out and approached the vehicle. And his heart froze.

  Her keys were in the ignition, and the SUV was running but, based on the rainwater in the floorboard and the seat, that door had been open for a while. Her bag was in the front floorboard. On the ground nearby were her handcuffs, her flashlight, her crushed and broken cell phone, and …

  Her gun. Ross’s heart almost stopped. He glanced around, but there was no sign of her anywhere. Trying his best, he climbed up on the hood of the SUV and looked across to the other side of the tree. Nothing, just open road and a house far off in the distance. “Carly! CARLY!” he screamed, but there was no answer. That was when he noticed it.

  A small scrap of paper was lying on the dash. Around the edges of it was what looked like blood, and scrawled across it were two words.

  FUCK YOU

  “Slow down, slow down! I can’t figure out what you’re talking about!” Tank yelled into the phone.

  “I’m out here at the edge of town! And Carly’s SUV is here, but she’s not! He’s got her, Tank, I know he does!”

  “Who’s got her?”

  “Harlan!” He explained the scene as he’d found it and when he finished, the phone was silent. “Well, say something!”

  “I trusted you to keep her safe, Ross!”

  “I tried! God, help me out here! What do I do?”

  “Call those fancy-pants FBI and Ranger fellas you know! Look, I’m sorry. I’m not being very supportive but, damn it, I’ve got my own woman to worry about too.” Tank had been seeing a girl named Callie, and Ross could only imagine what he was going through. “Get some help out there. I’ve gotta go. Got an elderly woman with a head injury and we’re trying to extract her.”

  It was the one thing he didn’t want to do, but he did it anyway. He called Louie. Ross didn’t know what highway it was or exactly where he was, but after he’d described it, Louie said he was pretty sure of the location. In a couple of minutes, the sounds of sirens filled the air and deputies were everywhere. One of their forensic guys yelled at Ross, “Don’t touch anything!” so he backed away and sat down on the ground. The terror he felt was something he’d never experienced before, not even when he’d been told about Lindsey. This was different. This was a madman. And he had Carly.

  He’d been sitting there for what seemed like forever when he heard a voice he recognized. “Ross, come on over here and sit down.” He looked up to find Cruz Livingston standing there, and when the big man held a hand down to him, Ross let Cruz help him up from the ground, brushed off the seat of his pants, and stood there. Dax was with some of the deputies, looking at the scene. Someone was speaking to him, and then he was being shaken. Cruz was in his face. “Ross, listen to me. We’re going to find her, do you hear me? We’ll find her.”

  His lips wouldn’t form words, and there was a buzzing in his head. He didn’t know what was happening, why someone wasn’t doing something, who all those people were. Everything was confusing and fuzzy. “Drink some of this,” someone told him and thrust something into his hands. He took a sip of the dark, rich coffee and things started to make a little more sense.

  Questions were flying and evidence was being collected. But through it all, Ross didn’t care about any of it.

  He had to find Carly.

  Chapter 18

  Her head hurt. Carly could see light through her eyelids, but they didn’t want to open. Something was in her mouth, something dry, and she couldn’t even cough. When she shook her head, it hurt even worse and she moaned. “So you decided to wake up, huh?”

  Eric. That was Eric’s voice. Only he wasn’t Eric. He was … What was that guy’s name? She couldn’t remember. She tried to ask where she was, but she couldn’t. “Aaahh-hhhaaaa-haa,” her throat pushed out.

  “You know, I really do love you. It’s a shame I’m going to have to kill you. But I can’t do that until I lure that stupid hillbilly boyfriend of yours out here and kill him first. Then I’ll have my way with you before you die and I’ll be gone. They’ll never look for you here, Carly. Never.”

  Where was she? She tried again to open her eyes, but the light was like knives stabbing into her brain. God, she wanted a drink. She wanted to lie down. She needed to pee. “I’m going, but I’ll be back. Won’t be long now. Just make yourself at home.” With a laugh, his voice disappeared.

  Time felt like floating, just wave after wave of discomfort and confusion. She didn’t know how much time had passed when she woke up again. This time, her head didn’t hurt quite as badly, and she managed to get an eye open. When she did, she was shocked.

  There was no light—none. It was pitch dark. Where the hell was she? She tried to remember anything that would help, but nothing was coming up. She remembered being stopped in the road by the big tree that had fallen across it, so she tried to retrace her steps.

  There’d been that stop at the convenience store, and she had to tell the owner and the clerk to get out because smoke was rolling from the back. By the time she drove away, she was pretty sure it was going up, so she called it in, but there was nothing she could do about it. The fire department would have to handle that.

  Then she’d seen Mrs. Stiller standing by the road, wringing her hands and with blood running from an open wound on her head. She remembered asking the woman if she was okay, and Mrs. Stiller had answered, “Where am I? What’s happened? Where’s my boyfriend, Reggie? He’s supposed to pick me up for the dance and he’s late.” Closed head injury? Yeah, pretty sure bet. She’d called that one in and stayed with the woman until a couple of EMTs had shown up.

  From there, she’d decided to check
the eastern part of the area. It didn’t seem anyone had been out there, and there was bound to be damage. Sure enough, she’d skidded to a stop in front of that tree. She remembered getting out, looking around, calling out to anybody who might be there, then trying to see over it. The damn thing was, or had been, about sixty feet tall, and getting around it wasn’t easy. She’d taken pictures with her phone, forwarded them to the highway patrol, and then gone back to looking around.

  That was all she remembered. Reasoning said he’d sneaked up behind her, but how? She’d only been there for about five minutes when her memory of it all disappeared, but she also knew that many times memory was lost for an hour or more before something happened. She might’ve still been there, or she might’ve already moved on. She couldn’t know. All she was sure of was that he’d been following her.

  The storm! Oh, god, was Ross okay? She’d run out the door without so much as a kiss goodbye, and he’d been somewhere behind her. It was almost a certainty that he’d climbed into that truck and shown up down at the station. Was anybody looking for her? Had anybody realized she was missing?

  Carly sat there in the darkness and wondered what was going to happen. No light was entering the space. Was it dark outside? She couldn’t tell. Were the storms over? She couldn’t hear much, just an occasional popping or snapping sound. That could’ve been the walls around her for all she knew. Her arms cramped from being tied behind her, and her fingers were numb. So were her feet. Whatever was in her mouth had soaked up every bit of moisture, and she could barely swallow because she was so dry. For some reason, her left shoulder hurt, and she wondered if she’d fought him. She couldn’t imagine she wouldn’t.