Chloe screamed his name, but Joel didn’t stop. People were hurt. He headed for the stairs and the desperate pleas that he could hear filling the air. Glass crunched beneath his feet.
***
“Stay out here, Chloe,” Wedge told her as he put her gently down on her feet. “I need to help—women are crying in there. I have to go back inside.”
She nodded and watched him rush away. She counted down in her head as more people stumbled out.
Three. Two. One.
Wedge had disappeared inside. She hadn’t wanted to fight him, though she was fairly certain she could have taken him out if needed. No, Wedge was intent on helping others, and hurting him—the giant man with his equally giant heart—had never been something she wanted.
So she just waited for him to get inside. Then she rushed forward.
Joel didn’t know her at all if he thought she was just going to stand safely outside while other people were dying. She didn’t watch while other people suffered.
That was her mother’s style.
Not hers.
***
Joel tightened his hold on the woman he’d found sprawled near the top of the stairs on the second floor. A giant gash ran the length of her thigh, at least eight inches long. He’d wrapped it with a torn piece of his shirt and tried to keep her as still as possible in his arms. She was out cold—from shock or from pain. He watched his step and dodged the chunks of wood and broken furniture that seemed to be everywhere.
A moan slipped from her lips when he was about ten feet from the door.
He hadn’t seen any EMTs yet. No cops. No firefighters. They had to get there soon.
There hadn’t been another explosion. Not yet.
“Anyone else upstairs?” It was Wedge. He had a man in a bloody suit thrown over one wide shoulder.
Joel nodded grimly. One of the people he’d seen up there had been far past the point of saving. But he’d heard moans from others. He needed to get this woman to safety and get back to—
From the corner of his eye, Joel thought he saw movement. A quick flash that raced by even as he was lunging for the open doorway.
Chloe?
No. His stomach knotted. Chloe was outside. She wasn’t rushing back into the Serpent. She wouldn’t do that.
He hurried outside. Heard the wail of sirens. A crowd had gathered. Wounded were scattered around. Most people were staring at the building with wide, shell-shocked eyes. “Somebody help me!” he thundered.
His roar shoved people into motion. Two men—young, college-age-type kids—hurried forward.
“Keep her stable. Get her into an ambulance as soon as—”
Another wail. The ambulance was coming into view.
“I’m pre-med,” one of the guys said. “I got her.”
Joel spun back for the building. He took about four running steps forward.
“Stay back, buddy!” A firefighter slammed his hand onto Joel’s chest. “We got this. No one else needs to go back in that place.”
“People are trapped inside,” Joel quickly told him. “I heard voices on the second floor. Think bombs went off. At least two, but there could be more set to explode up there.”
The man’s eyes widened right before he grabbed his radio and barked out commands. Joel spared a glance for the crowd. “Chloe?” He didn’t see her.
Because she went back inside.
Wedge was trying to get back inside, but two cops were pulling him back. The cavalry had finally arrived and they were intent on keeping civilians out. “Wedge!” Joel shouted. “Where is Chloe?”
“Out here,” Wedge fired back. He glared at the closest cop. “I saw a woman in there, behind the bar. You will get the fuck out of my way so I can help her.”
Frantic, Joel glanced around once more. He still didn’t see Chloe and every instinct he possessed screamed…
Inside.
Screw it. He shoved past a firefighter and ran back inside. Wedge was right behind him. Joel didn’t know if the cops had gotten the fuck out of Wedge’s way or not. He just knew Wedge was going back inside, and so was he.
The smoke wasn’t that thick, thank Christ. That meant he could keep breathing. There were faint flames overhead, and the place looked wrecked to hell and back. Tables overturned. Smashed. Glass everywhere.
He coughed as he rushed up the stairs. The smoke was thicker up there. He turned to the left, then the right, looking for Chloe, but he didn’t see her. Fear twisted in him, and he hurried for the VIP rooms. The door to the one on the left hung open, smashed from the inside out by the force of the blast. That room—he’d been in it long ago. He’d played poker in that room while Chloe had sat, blindfolded, but still able to perfectly read all of the players in the room.
A man was on the floor. Sprawled. Or, what was left of the poor bastard was spread on the floor. There was nothing that Joel could do for him, so he followed the faint moans that he heard. Moans that came from a hallway that snaked to the right. Another broken door. More glass. More chunks of debris and—
Chloe.
On her knees as she struggled to lift a giant cabinet off a softly crying woman. Joel didn’t waste time. He went straight to Chloe’s side and heaved that cabinet off the vic. As soon as it cleared her legs, Chloe pulled the other woman out of the way. One of the woman’s fancy high heels rolled across the floor.
He let the cabinet fall. Fire crackled in the corner. The bombs hadn’t set off any kind of chain reaction there. Just explosive force. They were still able to breathe and function normally—for the damn moment.
He assessed the woman. Stark white face. Dilated pupils. Trembling lips. One look at her legs, and he knew that she had multiple breaks. There was a vicious open fracture on her left leg, about two inches below her kneecap. The bone shoved through the edge of her skin.
An ominous creak sounded from above.
“Structural integrity is gone,” Chloe said as she looked up. “Collapse is imminent.”
Fuck. He could see that. He shot a glare at Chloe. “Get the hell out—and this time, don’t come back!”
As Chloe jumped to her feet, he scooped up the woman and ran. He was only vaguely aware of the broken monitors and computers around him. The creak turned into a deep groan just as heavy chunks—wood, plaster, dark parts of the roof—began to fall down on them. Joel dodged as best he could and he tried to keep the victim steady.
A board slammed into his back, and Joel stumbled, but he didn’t go down. He ran forward and hit the stairs. Firefighters were there. They grabbed him. The victim. Chloe.
And the second floor completely caved in.
***
Joel leaned toward a man who sat on a curb. Blood trickled down the guy’s face. Joel was talking softly to him. Shining a light in his eyes. Chloe wasn’t sure where Joel had even gotten that light.
The area looked like a war zone. So many shell-shocked faces. Not enough first responders. More were coming, Chloe knew it. But the authorities hadn’t been expecting a double bombing in their town. They were scrambling to cope.
Joel left that victim. Immediately ran to help an older man who’d just grabbed his chest. Chloe tensed. Heart attack? An EMT joined Joel. They got the man into the back of an ambulance that had recently arrived.
“Didn’t know he was a doctor,” Wedge said as he ambled closer to Chloe.