“I’m stuck, Kyle. The truck. It’s stuck in the mud. It’s not budging.”
As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she heard it. Surely the trains aren’t running in this weather.
But she could hear it coming, could feel the vibration.
Static blared through the speaker against her ear, but she thought she heard her brother’s voice.
“It’ll be okay…coming to get you.”
His words soothed her for the moment. Her body trembled in the truck as she clutched her phone and waited for her savior. The one man she could actually depend on, count on to be there for her. The only one she’d ever be able trust.
39
Kyle
“SHE’S stuck in the mud at The Ridge. I’m going to go get her in my truck. Park your dad’s truck in the barn now before this hail destroys it and it ain’t worth shit,” Kyle yelled at Coop through the rain beating down on him as he got out of the passenger side.
“No. Hell no. I’m coming with you. Get your ass back in this truck,” Coop demanded.
“No. This will blow over and then what will you tell your dad? What will he do about paying the bills? Go! Now!”
Kyle slammed the door and started to dart through the rain toward his own truck, but Coop got out and grabbed him before he got there.
“I’m going with you. I’ll put the truck in the barn first but I’m going.”
Kyle jerked free of his best friend’s grasp and shook his head. “There’s no time. EJ’s in the worst place she could be. I have to go now!”
“To hell with the truck, Kyle. I love her. I’m going.”
“I love her, too, Coop. She’s my damned sister. But I need you to stay here. Run inside and make sure Mama is down in the basement.”
“No,” Coop said, shouting to be heard over the downpour. “I mean, I love her like I’m in love with her. You can kick my ass for it later, but I’ve always loved her. I love her more than I should. Not like a brother. Nothing like a brother, in fact.”
Excellent time for a heart-to-heart, Coop. Kyle nodded frantically as water blinded him. “I know that, jackass. That’s why I trust you to take care of her. It’s why I asked you to do that when I’m gone. But I’m here now and I need you here and every second we waste arguing is a second she’s out there alone. Move your truck and then go the hell inside.”
His words must’ve finally gotten through because Coop’s shoulders dropped in defeat as he acquiesced. “Bring our girl home safe, okay?”
“I will,” Kyle hollered as he jumped into his truck. “And I promise to kick your ass later for taking so long to man up and tell me the truth.”
Kyle flashed his lights at Coop as he headed out of the driveway. His headlights barely made any difference in the pitch he was driving into as he pulled onto the back road that led to The Ridge.
Every muscle in his body was tense as he navigated the treacherous path through the worst storm he’d seen in all of his eighteen years. Throwing up a silent prayer that all of his girls were okay—his mama, his baby sister, and his gorgeous Belle—he gripped the steering wheel with all of his strength.
The automated storm warning played over and over on the radio as he drove as fast as the monsoon he was struggling against would allow. If anything, this was just the confirmation he needed that running off to college wasn’t what was best for his family.
What would’ve happened to EJ if he wasn’t here? It made him sick to even allow that thought into his mind. He’d already dropped the ball once and let City Boy break her heart. Though now he had full confidence that Coop would help mend it. Normally, he wouldn’t have let either of them within reaching distance of his little sister, but what he had with Cami had softened him a bit, made him believe that even people from two different worlds might have a chance.
One summer had changed everything.
His Belle would come around. She’d see that his staying home was what was best for all of them. As if she’d been conjured by his thoughts, his phone lit up in the dark cab of the truck.
Dammit. He’d have to lean way over to get to it, and that would mean taking a hand off the wheel.
By the time he was in a safe enough spot to make a grab for his phone, her call had gone to voicemail. Thank God she’d actually left one.
He smiled as her beautiful voice filled his head. Pulling up at The Ridge, he saw Ella Jane’s silhouette illuminated in his headlights. Crazy girl had gotten out and was trying to push her own truck out of the mud.
He was still listening to his voicemail from Cami when he put his truck in park and opened his door to get out and help his little sister. A vibration from his left startled him and he dropped his phone into the mud.
The train was coming right at him. Just like that linebacker he’d felt coming all summer. The one he wasn’t ready for. It was airborne, off the tracks, and being carried straight toward him and his little sister by a funnel cloud that looked to be as wide as Hope’s Grove.
If it didn’t change course, he’d have to go back on the one promise he never thought he’d break.
He couldn’t protect her. Not this time.
40
Cameron
“THE National Weather Service has issued a Tornado Warning for Calumet County. At 9:55 p.m., trackers confirmed a tornado on the ground,” the radio informed her.
She couldn’t tell which was falling harder—the tears or the rain against the windshield. Even with her wipers on full blast, she couldn’t see to drive. How could I have been so stupid? Being at Hayden’s party, around all the people she used to think were worth impressing, made her realize just how trivial her old life was.
She should have never let her pride get in the way of telling Kyle how she felt, and she should have never worried about what everyone else thought. She was being punished for her past. The way she treated people. The lies. The constant need for approval. All of it.
Mother Nature was letting her know that she wasn’t going to get away with it. And apparently she was a bigger bitch than Cami had ever been.
The howling wind rocked her white Mercedes SUV as she stopped to check her phone. Just like the time before—no signal. She watched the travel time on the GPS increase minute by minute as she sat still in the middle of the road. It had been twenty-two minutes since she put Kyle’s address in back at the party.
She’d taken it as a sign, fate finally helping her out, that the stack of mail sitting on her passenger seat included an invoice from Mason Landscaping and Lawn Care. Seven minutes it had said.
Seven minutes to get to his house and tell him that she loved him and wanted to be with him no matter where he went to school or what he did. Seven minutes to ride the storm out with him holding her close and whispering in her ear that everything was going to be okay instead of out in the middle of nowhere alone.
Maybe fate wasn’t leading her to safety. Maybe it was leading her to exactly what she deserved.
Sheer panic began to take over as the thunder cracked again and a bolt of lightning lit up the sky. She was lost with no cell service. The robotic voice calling out over the radio wasn’t helping matters. Telling her over and over that she was lost in an area that was directly in the path of an oncoming twister.
She wasn’t usually afraid of storms, thanks to the fact that her house had a fully furnished basement she usually sheltered away in when warnings were issued, but out here she had no place to go. She thought about the last big storm that had hit central Oklahoma and the people who had lost their lives by staying in their cars.