Healing Hearts (New Hope Falls #6) - Kimberly Rae Jordan Page 0,8

place for the night. He knew it wasn’t an ideal situation for Michael, but it was the best they could come up with.

“I’ll see you two tomorrow,” Ryker said as he prepared to leave.

“Thanks for picking her up for me,” Michael said from where he sat in his recliner.

“You’re welcome. It wasn’t a problem at all.”

Okay, so maybe that wasn’t entirely true. He had a feeling that Bryson’s fearful gaze was going to haunt him through the night in a way Vivianne’s unexpected arrival in his life hadn’t.

Thankfully, he’d had a busy day, so he hoped that would be enough to keep him asleep through the night. He’d do a workout, however, to exhaust himself even further. If he was going to see Bryson nearly every day, he would have to find a way to cope with it.

Hopefully if he could just get through that first night, he’d be okay.

The earth shook as explosions rent the air, shredding the tent around them. He froze, uncertain what was happening. His ears rang, robbing him of sound. Then the earth shook again, knocking him from the stool he’d been seated on.

On his hands and knees, the ground was rough beneath his palms. His head hung down as he tried to figure out what was going on.

Hands closed around his arm, tugging him up. He staggered to his feet, his equilibrium shot. He looked at the person beside him, the one who was urging him to move. Blood slid down the side of the face of a fellow doctor, a cut on the top of his bald head being the source.

He wanted to ask the doctor what was going on, but the ringing in his ears had deafened him. Instead, he moved with the man, his gaze darting around, horror growing at the sight that greeted him.

Around them…everywhere around them for as far as he could see…was destruction. Where once had stood tents and buildings, there was now rubble.

His feet became weighed down, and he didn’t have the strength to move them. His arms hung useless at his sides. He pinched his lips closed, afraid that if he opened his mouth, he’d begin to scream out his horror.

The ringing in his ears began to fade away, and as it did, other sounds began to filter in—the screams of fear and pain…the wailing of grief. Shivers raced down his spine. The sounds were unlike anything he’d ever heard before.

“Run, man.” This time he could hear the doctor who’d pulled him away from the tent where they’d been meeting to discuss the patients. Again, the other man grabbed his arm and pulled him forward, propelling him into action.

He lurched over the uneven ground, broken up by whatever it was that had wreaked havoc on the camp.

Lydia… Where was Lydia?

They’d eaten breakfast together, but then she’d gone to a different area of the camp to work with the women. Where was she now?

He tried to figure out the direction of the tent where she’d been headed, but nothing looked familiar.

As he looked around, his attention was drawn to a woman who was holding a child and wailing as she sat amid dust and rubble.

He stumbled toward her, but immediately, he could see it was too late for the child she held.

And then it was too late for another one.

And another one.

When he finally found a child he could help, his mind was already fractured. Part of him mourned the immense losses while the other part struggled to focus on helping the child in front of him.

The child had gazed at him with pain and fear, her dark eyes wide. He wanted to save her in a way he hadn’t yet been able to save any of the others. He wasn’t sure that he could handle one more loss.

And yet, even though that little girl hadn’t been a loss, there had been more losses throughout the day. It was the sounds that haunted him as they moved through the camp, fear dogging his every step.

Eventually, he found Lydia helping a woman who had gone into labor following the attack. Though he was relieved that Lydia was safe, her presence wasn’t enough to chase away the sounds…the hopelessness…the fear… They had embedded themselves in his mind, his heart, and his soul.

As darkness settled over the camp, he struggled to come to terms with what had happened and how he hadn’t been able to do what he needed to in order to save more of the most defenseless ones