Eye of the Sh*t Storm by Jackson Ford (most romantic novels .txt) 📕

second. Which means I get one hell of a shock when Annie and Nic appear in front of me, both of them speaking at the same time.

“OK.” Nic has his hands up. “This isn’t the best time to—”

Annie talks over him. “—don’t have time to mess around with your damn—”

“—this wasn’t what I meant, and I really don’t think this is the moment for—”

“—always do this, always getting in the way, why can’t you listen just once—?”

“Hey!” I yell.

Amazingly, it works. It startles them both into silence. I really didn’t expect it to, but I’ll take what I can get. Behind them, Leo gapes at me. He doesn’t look angry. If anything he looks impressed.

I turn back to Annie and Nic. “How long before the flood gets here?”

Annie pinches the bridge of her nose. “Teagan—”

“Annie. How long?”

She glares at me, but the gears are turning. “Half hour. Maybe less.”

“OK,” I say. “Hear me out—”

“Dios mio.” Annie shakes her head, An expression of total exasperation on her face. “You are unbelievable, man.”

“I just think that—”

“What about Reggie? You’re just gonna leave her hanging while you help out kids you don’t even know? Is that it?”

“Of course not!”

“Then what is it? Because if I remember correctly, you agreed to come with us. We don’t have time for you to start having second thoughts, so you stow that shit, right now, or I swear I will rip your damn arms off.”

“What the hell is your problem?” I roar at her. “Do you not see what this place is—?”

Nic shoves himself between us. I hadn’t actually realised it, but we had gotten right up in each other’s faces. And not in a good way. The kind of getting-up-in-your-face that results in somebody getting knocked the fuck out.

“You know what?” Annie jabs a finger in my face. “We don’t need this. You wanna be a selfish prick, you go right ahead. Come, don’t come, I don’t care. But we’re leaving.” And with that, she turns and stalks away, following the line of the channel.

Selfish prick? Does she not see what I just did?

“The girl and her mom found each other,” Leo says, popping up behind Nic. I didn’t even see him leave to go check on them. We should keep a closer eye on him.

The thought makes me woozy, the world swimming in front of me. Annie has stopped about fifty feet away, her back to us, shoulders trembling with rage.

“Are we done here?” Nic says. He doesn’t sound irritated or angry any more – just exhausted.

“I—”

“All right then.” He turns to go, only to stop and look back when he realises I’m not following.

For a few seconds, we just stare at each other. People mill around us, shouting for their loved ones, yelling instructions, gathering their possessions.

The corners of Nic’s mouth twitch. “When I said you should use your ability to help people, this wasn’t really what I had in mind.”

“Nic…”

“We need you, Teags. Reggie needs you.”

“I think…” I swallow. “I think these people might need me too.”

“Just—”

“Look around you.” I hold my hands out, like I’m telling him to come at me. “Let’s be generous. Let’s say we really do have thirty minutes now. Do you really think that this place is going to be empty by the time it’s underwater?”

“That’s not on you. None of this is on you.”

“Look, I get it. The bridge wasn’t totally my fault. But that doesn’t mean I get to just walk away from everything. I can’t.”

I’m sweating now, despite the chill air. “Before, when I didn’t want to go help people in San Bernadino… there were already people helping out. Here, there’s nobody else. Nobody’s coming. No cops, no fire department. The government isn’t sending people. The city doesn’t give a shit. If I don’t get involved, what do you think is gonna happen?”

Leo comes and stands next to Nic, his face knotted, as if thinking hard.

Nic laces his fingers behind his head. “They’re not just gonna listen to you out of the blue.”

“They don’t have to.” I lick my lips, thinking back to how I found Shonda. “I can help people find each other. If they’re trapped, I can get them out. Hell, maybe I can create an exit.” I look towards the underside of the freeway, where it meets the top edge of the storm drain. It’s a sheer wall of concrete, but…

“I don’t wanna hear this,” Nic says. “I don’t wanna hear this shit, Teags. Just think for a second.”

A frustrated, angry howl bursts out of me. I’m not expecting it, even as it starts to happen. It’s so loud and so sudden that both Nic and Leo take a step back

I spent most of today fighting a losing battle against confusion and exhaustion. The meth comedown, the people chasing us, the ridiculous number of times we’ve almost died. Twice today, I have literally been trapped in horrific hallucinations. The rest of the time, I’ve been seeing things my own mind has put there, little flickers and feelings that someone is coming up behind me. For the first time today, maybe for the first time in years, I know exactly what I have to do.

“Think?” I lock eyes with Nic. “Think. OK. I’m getting mighty tired of that word. I’ve had people telling me to think before I do shit for… well, pretty much for ever. Everybody has this stupid fucking idea in their head that I’m just this little kid who doesn’t know what she’s doing.

“But here’s the thing, dude. I did start thinking. I did start acting like a grown-up, even if nobody noticed. Tanner told me I needed to focus on the job and help catch the bad guys, and that’s exactly what I did. You know what it all got me? Using my abilities like I was told? It made me miserable. Being an adult about everything made me fucking miserable.”

I probably shouldn’t getting into this now – no, scratch that, I definitely shouldn’t be getting into this now