“Nelson! What are you doing here?”

Nelson Parker, fi fteen pounds lighter than his usual weight, still looked imposing in his sheriff’s uniform. He grinned sheepishly. “I’m not doing anything here I wouldn’t be doing at home. Just minding the phones.” He pointed to a short wave radio and an array of receivers lined up on a nearby table. Caroline sat at one end of the table with a stack of fi les in front of her. “Someone’s got to coordinate the various response teams, and I told Gladys to stay home with George and mind their house. Talking doesn’t take much energy. Besides, Caroline won’t even let me lift the report folders.”

Tory frowned. “As long as all you do is talk. And you don’t leave this building. I mean it.”

“I understand.”

“Have you seen Reese?”

“Just a little while ago. There’s some folks cut off way down at the West End where the roads are fl ooded out. She took one of the big trucks down to get them.”

Tory bit her lip. She wanted to call Reese just to be sure she was all right, but she probably had patients waiting. “Will you let me know when she gets back…or if you hear from her?”

“Sure thing.”

“Thanks.” Tory headed up to the auditorium on the second fl oor. A large banner with a red cross made it pretty hard to miss the emergency medical station. So did the tall dark-haired woman in a white T-shirt and black jeans who sat on a stool suturing the forearm of an elderly woman.

“KT!” Tory exclaimed. “What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t want to miss the party,” KT said, shooting Tory a grin.

“I already told her she was foolish,” the sprightly octogenarian said, giving KT a fond look. “Coming in this direction when everyone else is going the other way. Of course, the girls are prettier out here.”

KT laughed and eyed Pia, who stood nearby with a clipboard.

“Some of them sure are.”

• 241 •

RADCLY fFE

Tory clasped KT’s shoulder briefl y. “We can use the help.

Thanks.”

“No problem.” KT caught Tory’s gaze. “It’s a good time to be with family.”

“Yes,” Tory murmured, accepting an intake sheet from Pia for someone with a sprained knee. “It is.”

❖

Two hours after she arrived, Nita fi nally took a break. Glancing around the room, she was satisfi ed that all the urgent patients had been dealt with. While she, KT, and Tory had screened or treated everyone in need of medical care—chiefl y for problems stemming from attempts to secure or evacuate homes—volunteers saw to the townspeople who had come seeking shelter. Now, everyone had a cot, a small bag of snacks, and sundries. From the weather reports and the din of driving rain against the windows, the worst of the tempest was nearly upon them.

Nita wasn’t frightened for herself. The 100-year-old building had undoubtedly weathered nature’s wrath many times, and she had no doubt it would again. But in the rare free minutes she’d had between tending the sprains, lacerations, and occasional broken bone of some of those emergency workers and storm victims, she feared for Deo.

Hundreds of residents and tourists had refused to evacuate in the hopes of riding out the hurricane in their homes and hotels. Already some areas of town were fl ooded, and the real people in danger were those stranded and the rescue personnel who attempted to reach them and their animals in trucks and small outboard boats. Deo was one of those rescuers. She was out in the storm somewhere, assisting with her trucks and generators and other emergency equipment.

Nita hadn’t seen her for over twelve hours, and she wondered if Deo had stopped long enough to get warm and catch a meal. She worried that she’d take chances, risking herself in atonement for the one life she hadn’t been able to save.

“How are you doing?” Pia asked, sinking onto the bench against the wall where Nita huddled to get out of the fray.

“Oh,” Nita said, her heart tripping crazily for just a second, Pia’s coloring, her dark beauty, was so like Deo’s. “I’m all right. A little tired.” She laughed selfconsciously, glad Pia couldn’t read her mind.

• 242 •

Winds of Fortune

“I can’t actually remember the last time I slept a full night.”

“Me neither.” Pia rested her head against the wall. “I told KT I didn’t want her to come, but I’m glad she’s here. Have you heard from your family?”

“No, but I’m not too worried about them, because…you know, a cop’s family. They’ll be looked after.”

“That’s good.” Pia tracked KT on the far side of the room as KT

and Tory wended their way between cots, checking on patients. “It’s funny how things work out. KT and Tory used to be lovers.”

“Really.”

“Mmm. A long time ago. They were separated for a lot of years, but I don’t think they ever stopped loving each other. And now,” Pia said softly, “KT is mine and somehow we’re all family.” Pia shifted her gaze to Nita. “Family isn’t always what we expect it to be, is it?”

Nita laughed bitterly. “No, it certainly isn’t.”

“Joey’s out on a cleanup crew with Deo,” Pia said. “I didn’t want him to go, but he wouldn’t let her have all the fun.” She shook her head. “He worships her. I think he wants to grow up to be just like her because he thinks she gets all the girls.”

“He might be right,” Nita said, strangely unbothered by the allusion to Deo’s reputation with women. Deo had awakened in her arms that morning. Deo had come for her, unguarded and vulnerable, the night before. That was truth. The rest didn’t matter.

“All my brothers love her, but it doesn’t make up for Gabriel. Deo said she told you about Gabe.”

“Yes.”

“That’s a big deal, that she told you, you know.”

“Yes, I know. I know how much she’s suffered.” Nita sighed. “I hope she isn’t out there taking chances…trying to prove something.”

“My uncle is the only one who hasn’t forgiven her. It was an accident, for God’s sake. She was just a kid, and we all did dumb things when we were kids. Jesus, it was just as much Gabe’s fault for going out with her as it was hers for taking a boat out when she was drunk.”

“What?” Nita frowned. “What did you say?”

Pia looked confused. “About what?”

“Deo wasn’t driving that boat. Her brother was.”

“No. That’s not what the sheriff said. That’s not what Deo told us either.”

• 243 •

RADCLY fFE

“Who do you think told the sheriff what happened?” Nita stood abruptly. “Of course she wouldn’t blame her brother. He was dead.”

“She told you Gabe was driving?” Pia jumped up. “God damn her.

I can’t believe she did that—let us all believe all this time that she got Gabe out there when no sane person would be on the water.”

“Why can’t you believe it?” Nita said, her attention drawn to a noisy group of men in yellow slickers and heavy black rain boots coming through the door. In the midst of them, she recognized Deo.

“She’d rather hurt than hurt someone else. Excuse me.”

Nita caught up to Deo in the coffee line.

“I bet you could use a sandwich to go along with that coffee.”

Deo’s look of surprise turned to one of pleasure. “I was hoping you’d be here.”

“Were you now.” Nita knew there were people all around them, but she couldn’t see anyone except Deo. She couldn’t hear a single voice except hers.

“Yeah.”

After Deo got her coffee, Nita took her hand and led her to a quiet spot beneath the broad sweeping staircase. “Is this your fi rst break all day?”

“More or less.” Deo sipped her coffee, then brushed her thumb over Nita’s cheek. “You okay? You look a little tired.”

“Someone has been keeping me up nights.”

Deo grinned. “Really.”

“Really.” Nita parted Deo’s rain slicker and slid her hand inside, settling her palm on the crest of Deo’s hip. “And when she’s not keeping me awake making love to me the way no one ever has, I’m awake thinking about it.”

“That’s funny.” Deo leaned closer and brushed her mouth over Nita’s. “I’ve been thinking about the same thing all day. Keeps me warm out there.”

A wolf whistle sounded from somewhere nearby and Deo scowled, sliding her arm around Nita’s waist as she scanned the nearby faces.

Then she grinned. “Joey, take your eyes someplace else.”

“What, and miss all the action?” Joey skidded to a halt next to them, the coffee in the cup he held in his uninjured hand sloshing over the rim. “Hi Nita.”

“Hi Joey,” Nita said. “Are you taking care of that hand out there?”

• 244 •

Winds of Fortune

Joey glanced down at the splint on his forearm as if he had forgotten it was there. “Oh yeah. I can do most anything with it now.”

“If you re-injure it,” Nita warned, trying to sound stern but fi nding it hard to raise any temper with the charming young man, “it will just take months longer to heal.”

“Forget that,” Deo grumbled. “He’s been freeloading long enough.”

“Listen,” Joey said eagerly, “I just heard there’s a bunch of power lines down and a few buildings caught fi re. Fire crews are out already, but they’re probably gonna need some of our equipment. We should go, Deo.”

“Okay,” Deo said, never taking her eyes from Nita’s face. “Send Marco and his crew out with the other truck. Then grab us some sandwiches and I’ll meet you outside in a minute.”

“Got it. See you, Nita.”

“Bye, Joey.” Nita leaned into Deo and the icy water from Deo’s soaked jeans seeped into hers. “You’re cold. You should rest awhile before you go out again.”

“I’m okay.”

“If you work like this you’ll get hurt.”

“I’m okay. Better than okay now.” Deo kissed her again and tossed her cup into a trash can. “I gotta go.”

Struck by sudden disquiet, Nita pulled her closer, wrapping both arms around her waist beneath the heavy slicker. “Don’t try to be a hero.”