Page 26 of Day of the Storm

They had wounded. Far too many wounded. Shelby and Darrell had pulled out so many of the injured themselves.

Mike’s sister hadn’t been among them.

Daryn had been right there when they had found Jarrell Gorton’s body.The older detective from Firearms would be missed.

She fought the tears. He had been one of the kindest men in the TSP and had been a mentor to her brother for years.

His loss would hurt for a long time.

He had been planning to retire in a matter of days to spend time with his family—his grandchildren, especially.

He had been so proud of them.She’d had to look at every picture of every new baby when they’d been born. And every other picture he’d have on his phone to share.

He’d been a friend.

But she had others trapped in that hell now, too.

Daryn had to shove her grief aside. They were getting deeper into the rubble.Finding more of her friends and colleagues in the debris.Some of them were in bad shape. She was needed.She was the first medical care they were going to get after they were pulled free.

A woman more accustomed to dead bodies than those of the living. Shouts sounded, fifty feet away. Daryn turned.She suspected she knew what it was by now.

Another body. Whether they were alive—she wouldn’t know for a while.

Mike was there. Next to her. “They’ve found someone else.”

Daryn said a quick prayer that they had found that someone in time.

She and Mike headed that way. She’d finished stabilizing one of the admin clerks and sent her off with two officers who were going to frog-carry her up the road to the hospitals. For better care than what Daryn could give now.

Both hospitals had taken hits. Rumors were coming back that one entire ER had been utterly destroyed.But no one had saidwhichER it had been.

She’d seen the panic on Mike’s face at that news, too.His parents were both in the medical field.

His father ran one of the ERs in town. His father could have been there.His mother worked at the hospital, too. They hadn’tfound A.J. yet.Or Mike’s partner and best friend Detective Sean Callum.A.J. and Sean were both in the rubble somewhere.

Someone in a helmet slipped into a tunnel in the rubble.A woman. Daryn knew exactly who it was, and fear was her constant companion. One wrong move and Shelby… could be killed.

As could Darrell.

The crowd of rescue workers almost collectively held their breaths. As Shelby went further in. Her friend had pulled more people from the rubble than anyone else tonight. Even Darrell, who was outside the destruction, coordinating rescuers. They were getting teams from the national guard and other parts of Texas to search now, too.

But no one eclipsed Shelby. Her determination. Pride in her friend warred with terror for her safety. Sometimes Shelby was the only one small enough to go in. So she went in. No matter the risk.

“Your friend is fearless, isn’t she?” Mike asked, confirming Daryn’s fears. “She’s awesome.”

“She is. She just doesn’t know it yet.” And it was all because of what the TSP had done to her. “No thanks to you and Callum. She already had some seriously bad PTSD from things in her—our—past. You two brought it all back up to her. Put her back in therapy for the first time in years. I could have killed the both of you after that. I was so angry.”

He flinched a little. “I’m sorry about that. Once this is over, I’ll do everything in my power to fix that. I remember her. And we were just doing our job.”

“We’ll just have to agree to disagree.” But she wasn’t angry with him now. Not like before. Not after the things she’d seen him do tonight. Before, she’d thought he was cold and ruthless, arrogant, a jerk, and a player.But after what she’d seen himdo tonight, she would never doubt the compassion in this man again.

Mike Evers had a good heart. He just rarely let it show.

6

The minutes continued to pass.

Mike meant what he said. When this was over, he would make up for whatever assholery he had sent in Shelby Jacobson’s direction.The woman worked tirelessly. She and Darrell Mabry. She spoke with confidence when speaking about what she needed to do next. When she gave orders to the teams they’d formed to comb through the wreckage.