“Son of a bitch. This is going to be a nasty storm,” Train commented.
Lily, Beth, and Razer should be back any minute. If they weren’t back soon, he would call. He surveyed the yard critically for anything they had missed. His house was against the hillside, but he had reinforced it against mudslides before he had begun building it. The huge trees were swaying. Although he had taken down a couple of them, there was one he knew he should have taken down. However, the tree cutter he had hired had assured him that, if it fell, it wouldn’t touch the house.
A vicious wind struck just then, nearly knocking them off their feet.
“The winds are getting stronger. I’m going to call Fat Louise and get her to—” Shade’s words ended in horror as both he and Rider began running toward his house. Train came outside, dropping the beer and yelling to the brothers inside for help.
The tree cutter had been right; the tree hadn’t fallen on his house directly, but a massive branch had broken loose from the trunk, landing on the back of the house and causing it to crumble like a foot on a tin can.
Shade was unaware of the sounds coming from his chest as he began to dig in the debris, looking for his child.
Viper tried to pull him back. “Let us, brother.”
Shade jerked away, his hands a bloody mess as he dug through glass and broken wood. He had volunteered for several natural disasters, digging family members out for terrified relatives, never dreaming that one day he would be doing the same for a member of his own family.
Viper had everyone organized in a matter of minutes, sending Cash and Rider for the equipment they needed from the factory while Lucky called for an ambulance and Knox.
They were in the living room when Shade stepped back outside where they had been digging first. “Everyone quiet!” he yelled.
The members stopped digging, listening. The faint sound of Fat Louise could be heard, and they rushed to the side where the kitchen was located, digging hastily as her voice became clearer. Finally, they pulled back a board and found her lying with debris covering her.
She rolled back, and Shade saw his son, still sucking his paci. He quickly and carefully bent down to pick him up, holding his son close to his chest as he moved away, his heart aching as his son’s arms waved in the air. His trembling hands ran gently over John’s body, checking him for any cuts or bruises.
“Little man, you scared the fuck out of me,” Shade croaked. “You’re not allowed to take that particular trait after your mother.”
“I was fixing us both something to eat when the house crashed around us,” Fat Louise said shakily.
“The ambulance is here,” Lucky told him.
They went down to the parking lot to have the baby and Fat Louise checked out. Other than a scratch on Fat Louise’s arm, both of them were fine. The EMTs cleaned and bandaged Shade’s hands when he refused to go into town to the hospital. He wasn’t willing to let go of his son just yet, holding him close and switching hands as they worked on him.
Shade took his phone out of his pocket. “I’m going to call Lily. I don’t want them pulling in and seeing the ambulance, or she’ll freak out.” He frowned when her phone went directly to voicemail.
He was calling Razer when Lucky’s phone rang next to him. He stepped away as he talked.
Razer didn’t answer his phone, either, and his heart began to pound in the same fear he had experienced when he had seen the tree limb fall onto his house.
He called Beth. When she didn’t answer, he knew something was wrong. One of them should have picked up.
The EMT found him as he was hanging up the phone. “They’re fine,” he said, nodding his head toward John in Shade’s arms, “but we can take them in for a doctor to check out if you want.”
Shade shook his head, looking down at John. “I’d rather he stay here if you’re sure he’s okay.”
“Doesn’t have a mark on him.” The EMT grinned. “I wish all my calls ended this way.”
Fat Louise climbed out of the ambulance. “I’m fine, too. There’s no need for me to go to the hospital, either.”
Shade swallowed the lump in his throat as he handed his child to her. “I need a big favor from you, Jane. Could you stay at the clubhouse with him until I get back? Lily isn’t answering her phone, so I want to go into town.”
“I can do that.”
“Stay in the basement. Jewell, take the rest of the women.”
The sounds of a tornado siren were going off in town, and the sky had turned ominously dark.
“Now! All of you, go!” Shade yelled.
The women ran up the pathway to the house while Viper yelled for the men to get inside as Shade went to his bike.
“Where in the fuck are you going?” Viper yelled at him.
“I have to go into town. Lily, Beth, and Razer are there, and they aren’t answering their phones.”