I’m so sorry. He’d failed them. Let them all down. They’d died, because of him.
The sirens were wailing. He could see the lights of an ambulance approaching.
Grief threatened to choke him, but Drew kept running toward that ambulance.
Police were on the scene now. Drew caught sight of Gunner and Logan. They were keeping the local authorities back.
They’d all have to stay back until they made sure there weren’t any more bombs. The rescue teams would be held in a safe zone until the bomb squad completed their sweeps.
He had to make it to that zone.
Just a few more steps...
Made it.
The EMTs reached for Tina. They put her on a stretcher. She shoved their hands back. “Drew—”
“You’re safe.” Ash stained the hand that he slid over her cheek. “It’s over.”
His heart was leaden in his chest. His whole body seemed numb. He’d used his control in the field more times than he could count; locking his emotions away. But this was different—
My family is gone.
Tina grabbed his hand when he would have stepped back. “Wh-what...h-happened?”
The EMTs were trying to work on her, but she kept pushing them away and clinging to Drew.
“Your eyes...” Tina whispered. “They’re wrong...something...happened.”
He didn’t know what she meant about his eyes. Other than the fact that they kept burning as if they were on fire. Drew shook his head.
“T-tell me...”
His shoulders bowed. “They killed my sisters...” He should have known the exchange was too easy. His darkness, his job—it had cost Kim, Heather and Paige their lives.
“Drew!”
His head whipped up at that frantic call. That had—had just sounded like Paige.
“I can...see them,” Tina said, voice husky. Her gaze slid over Drew’s shoulder. “Not...dead.”
He spun around.
Walking through the smoke, he saw Dylan—and his friend was right beside Paige, Kim and Heather.
Alive. All of them were alive!
Drew shook his head. No, no, the explosion—
Paige ran to him. She hit his chest so hard that he took a step back. She was crying and laughing and holding on to him as tightly as she could.
Drew’s stunned gaze rose and met Dylan’s.
“Devast used devices like those collars two years ago, back in Brazil.” Dylan’s lashes flickered. “Those vics didn’t get free in time. I wasn’t going to let the same thing happen again.”
Then Kim and Heather were there. All holding him. All laughing and crying as the smoke drifted in the air.
The ambulance’s siren wailed once more. He looked back. The ambulance’s door had just slammed.