Chapter 11
Brayden heard Roni’s shout and the scream that followed. He came racing around the house, arms pumping and feet pounding. His heart was lodged in his throat. Was she hit? Injured?
“Roni!” he roared, spotting her bright yellow jacket. “Wait!”
She was running away from the house, into the tree line. In nothing but those cutoff shorts and a flimsy jacket. The scrub brush in those trees would scratch and scrape her legs. What was she thinking?
As if she’d read his mind, she turned and called back over her shoulder, “Someone’s hurt.”
He followed her into the tree line, and through it, to the construction site. The scream had turned to an angry wail amid a flurry of raised voices.
Bursting out of the trees a few steps behind Veronica, he skidded to a stop.
The aluminum office trailer used by the Indigo Reef construction crew was sitting directly under the broken oak branch. The massive limb had crushed the roof of the trailer like a soda can, shattering the windows and pinning the structure under hundreds of pounds of wood and metal.
He caught her arm before she charged in. “Slow down. We stay together.” He waited until he got her nod and then pulled out his flashlight as they moved forward.
Through the driving rain, he could see three figures in yellow safety vests scrambling out of the wreckage, shielding their heads as the torrential wind threatened to blow them off their feet.
They were shivering, drenched to the bone, and completely stranded in the middle of a powerless construction zone.
One of them was the burly surveyor who had threatened Roni on the beach. Brayden was tempted to turn around and let them fend for themselves.
He must’ve twitched or muttered or something.
Because Roni found his hand and held firm.
“We need to get them to the Hideaway.” Pointing, she said, “The driveway out is nothing but mud. A truck will only get stuck. Their shelter is destroyed. And unless they’ve left someone inside, they don’t seem to have injuries severe enough to warrant an urgent emergency response. ”
“But it’s severe enough that we have to help them?” That heart of hers was too big for her own good. “You can do that?”
She cocked her head as if he’d asked a foolish question.
“We need to help. We both know basic first aid,” she continued.
“We’ll recognize the signs if we’re out of our depth.
” She looked up at him, silently pleading.
Her eyelashes, dark and spiked from the rain, made her eyes even bigger, the expression even more impossible to resist.
Not like he wanted to resist. But she was wrong—he was definitely out of his depth with her and he hadn’t recognized a thing until it had been too late. He’d fallen irrevocably in love with her and convinced himself he could handle it whether or not she felt the same way for him.
When she looked at him with those big blue eyes, he wanted her to love him back so badly his chest ached with the pressure. Pressure he couldn’t put on her. Not ever. And especially not at this particular moment.
She tugged on his arm. “Brayden, we need to hurry.”
Between the lightning, heavy rainfall, and whatever injuries those men had, she was right.
He gave a nod and hustled to keep up with her as she picked her way closer to the men. “Just the three of you?” she shouted when they were close enough to be heard. “Who was injured?”
The men stared as if they were seeing ghosts. “Come with us,” Brayden said. He tried not to think about whether one of these men had been watching the Hargrave sisters, zip ties at the ready. “You can’t stay out here.”
“We’ll take the truck,” the burly surveyor said.
“You won’t make it to the street,” Roni shouted. “Not with this mud and possible flooding. Come on.”
More thunder and lightning rattled around them. There were too many dangerous possibilities out here. “Go back to the trees,” he said to Roni. “I’ll bring these guys along.”
But she held her ground, her hand finding his again. “Together.”
“Is someone stuck inside?” A gust of wind nearly pushed Roni down.
“No.” The three men started moving, but one man took a step and went down with a groan. His friends helped him up and supported him as they moved as quickly as possible through the trees to the Hideaway.
At the house, Veronica unlatched the storm shutter and opened the sliding door, leading into the kitchen. Brayden brought up the rear of their soggy parade.
He had to give the sisters credit. When they decided to rent out the beachside home, they’d added a whole-house generator that made storms like this less disruptive. At least inside. They had lights, working appliances, and air conditioning too.
For a moment, Brayden was stunned into merely staring while Roni pulled out chairs and passed out towels. “All right, guys. Where does it hurt?”
“You an EMT or something?” the burly guy asked.
Brayden started to intervene, but Roni posted up.
Planting her hands on her hips, she gave the man a hard look. “I’m what you’ve got for the moment. That includes first aid, a hot shower, and dry clothes if you’re willing to spend a few hours in a Hargrave Hideaway robe.”
“Shut up, Bobby,” the injured man scolded. “I’m fine. Whatever she is, we’re better here than out there.”
“You didn’t look fine when you were pinned down.”
“Didn’t sound fine either,” the third man added. He stuck out his hand. “Frank Cavanaugh. Call me Cav.”
Roni shook Cav’s outstretched hand. “Veronica. This is Brayden. Welcome to the Hideaway.”
Cav tipped his head to the injured man. “That’s Brian. Heard you met Bobby already.”
“They told us a couple of sisters ran this place, not a husband-wife deal.” Bobby’s gaze tangled with Brayden’s as Roni started assessing Brian.
Husband-wife deal? Yeah, he’d get on board with that.
He didn’t dare look Roni’s way. “Three sisters own and operate the Hideaway. I’m part of their new security team thanks to a persistent nuisance next door.
” He studied all three men. “Which one of you likes to hang out in the trees and watch this place?”
“What? That ain’t us.” Brian sucked in a breath and cursed as Roni tried to roll up his pants leg. Her hands came away bloody.
“On it,” Brayden said without being asked.
Roni had the man’s boot unlaced as she palpated his ankle. “Sorry,” she muttered when he cursed again. “We need to know what’s going on.”
“That’s easy. Brian’s a weenie about blood and pain,” Bobby joked. A clear attempt to cheer up his pal. But his shoulders shuddered. “That lightning strike brought the limb down and knocked us around some. Brian got the worst of it.” Bobby glanced at Cav. “Took some effort to get him out.”
“It did,” Cav agreed. “Those trailers are as helpful as a soda can in this kind of weather.”
Brayden cut away the pants leg, revealing the wound and swelling. With a nod, Roni popped to her feet and went to the sink. “Get that boot and sock off, please.”
He did as she asked. Brian looked away while his pal distracted him.
“So, if it’s not one of you, who would’ve been hanging out in the scrub, eyes trained on the house?”
“One of the lawyer’s guys probably,” Cav volunteered.
Bobby agreed. “Yeah, it was one of his guys that told me to help him with the survey equipment.”
“How many times do you need to measure to fake a plat map?” Roni snapped as she returned with wound wash and a bowl of clean water.
Bobby grunted. “We’re here to build condos. It’s a job. We aren’t calling the shots.”
“So, you didn’t disable your ECMs?” Brayden asked while he and Roni cleaned Brian’s wound.
“Does it need stitches?” Brian asked, voice thin.
Roni elbowed Brayden. “Get a blanket and some water for all three of them?”
“Sure.” He’d noticed Brian’s reactions too. The questions could wait. It wasn’t as if these guys would be running off anytime soon.
When he returned, Cav and Bobby were helping Brian out of his soaked layers.
They tossed the vest to one side, the shirts to another.
Brayden draped the blanket over the man’s shoulders, pulling it snug.
“You hold this, we’ll be done in a minute.
Y’all should drink up,” he said, passing out the water bottles.
“You think I’m going into shock?” Brian asked.
“Your body’s in flight mode, that’s all,” Roni soothed. “Plus, the AC can give you a chill when you’re soaked through.” She paused to smile up at him. “Once this is cleaned up, I can cover it and you can get a hot shower.”
Brayden was sure that meant a shower in the suite, since the other bathrooms were upstairs and this guy was in no condition to make that journey right now.
“He’s not big on needles,” Bobby murmured.
Roni nodded and kept cleaning the man’s leg. “I can relate.”
Brayden knew it was a lie. Roni could face anything with a calm, stoic reserve.
She bandaged up Brian, then cleaned his foot and wrapped his ankle.
“Bad sprain here. You’ll want to get that checked out in the morning.
” She wagged a finger between Cav and Bobby.
“Y’all get him to the couch so he can elevate and ice that ankle before his shower. Robes are upstairs. Be right back.”
She dashed off while the men maneuvered Brian into the front room. Tall and wiry, he was heavier than he looked and woozy. But they got him out of his soaked clothing, into a robe, and settled on the couch.
Roni delivered ice packs and ibuprofen, handing Brian the television remote. “Just rest.”
“Thanks, Ms. Hargrave.”
“Call me Roni.”
Her kindness in action astounded Brayden. He hadn’t expected her to let them have the run of the place. His own bias coloring the situation, obviously. He still harbored more than a little anger over the way the crew was behaving. Especially Bobby, after that attempt at intimidation.
While Roni invited Cav to help himself to a shower upstairs and a clean robe while his clothes were washed and dried, Brayden sent texts to both Evan Miller and Jess. He wanted them to know what was going on at the Hideaway.