Chapter12
Garrison
Apiercing scream rips me from sleep.I shoot out of bed, adrenaline pumping through my system before my feet even hit the ground.I grab my gun and rush out into the living room, only to find it completely silent aside from the still-raging storm just outside.
Did I imagine it?
My breathing is heavy, my eyes still adjusting to the darkness, but—another scream.
Katelyn!
I yank my door open and run barefoot next door.“Katelyn!”I call out, my fist hammering against the door.“Katelyn!Thomas!”
I wait.
One heartbeat.
Two.
And then the door is pulled open by a wide-eyed Katelyn.She’s frantic.Wind whips at her hair, partially shielding her face.The patio doors are wide open, and the storm is battering the inside of her apartment.
“Did someone break in?”I push past her with my weapon raised, determined to find the threat and eliminate it before it can hurt her or her son.
Wet carpet squishes beneath my feet, grounding me in the reality of what I’m really looking at.Her apartment iswrecked.The patio doors aren’t open—they’ve been completely destroyed, and the harsh wind from the storm outside sends rain pouring into the apartment in thick sheets.
I lower my weapon and turn toward her.“What happened?”
“The windows just shattered.I think the patio table hit them.”Her hands shake as she moves past me and goes to work, picking up the broken glass.All while wind scatters her mail and some of the lighter things that had been on her counter.
“Extra blankets?”I ask her.
“Hall closet.”
“Grab them, and I’ll be right back.”Rushing back over to my apartment, I pull a t-shirt over my head, slip into some tennis shoes, return my firearm to the lockbox it stays in when I’m not carrying it, then retrieve my toolbox and a couple of the tarps I have left over from when I painted the kitchen.
By the time I get back, Thomas is coming down the hall with an armful of blankets.“Help me get these tarps up in place,” I tell him as I set the stack down.
“Garrison, you don’t have to—” Katelyn starts.
“Not a chance you’re getting rid of me, Katelyn.Let me help.”My tone is sharper than I meant, but she clearly needs help.Whatever walls she’s put up can be reinforced tomorrow.But tonight, I’m going to insist on stepping in where I’m needed.Even if I’m not necessarily wanted.
Thomas pulls a chair into the kitchen and takes the corner of the first tarp.Even before I’ve managed to get a nail into the corner to hold it in place, I’m soaked.The storm is unrelenting as it sends rain soaring into the apartment, drenching the both of us.
I don’t even want to think of the damage that will be done by the time it dies down.
With one tarp hung in place, we start on the second one.As soon as it’s finished, I tie the two bottom corners together that I couldn’t secure with nails, then start piling blankets at the bottom.They’ll be absolutely soaked tomorrow—likely ruined—but hopefully they’ll catch most of the water pouring in from the bottom.
Raindrops hammer into the tarp as the wind slams against it, billowing the paint-splattered blue plastic toward us.
I turn toward Katelyn, who is trying to gather as much broken glass as she can.Something that isn’t going well, thanks to the water all over the tile.
“If we wait until tomorrow, some of the water will have dried,” I tell her.“I can get a fan to dry the floor, then we can get all the glass up.Why don’t you guys go pack some stuff and stay at my place?”
“No.We don’t need to do that,” Katelyn says, her tone shaky.
“Mom, this place is soaked.You don’t have anywhere to sleep.”He gestures toward the living room, and for the first time, I notice the pull-out couch with a thin blanket over the top.
Is this where she sleeps?