Hot Ticket
Page 90

“They’re all okay then?” he asked breathlessly.
“Eric,” she whispered.
His face fell. He climbed down the undercarriage of the bus and helped her to the pavement. Aggie’s ankle protested when she put weight on it, but she ignored it. They ran and limped, hand-in-hand toward the back of the bus. “Where’s Eric?” Jace asked a bewildered Trey.
“I think he’s still inside.”
“Did you see him in there?” Jace asked Trey, trying to crawl between two logs that were arranged like a giant game of pick-up sticks around what was left of the bus. “Did you see Eric?”
“How are we alive?” Trey murmured, his green eyes distant and glazed over. “How are we alive? We should all be dead.”
“Eric!” Jace called, pushing a log with his shoulder. It refused to budge. “Eric!”
“Li-little man?” Eric’s barely detectable voice came from deep inside the bus.
“He’s alive,” Jace said breathlessly.
He thrust an arm into the open space between two logs. “Grab my hand, Eric. We’ll get you out.”
Inside the bus, Eric gasped in agony. “Can’t move. My leg is trapped.”
Jace squirmed to extend his reach. “Try, Eric. Grab my hand.”
“I guess I don’t have to wonder when the new album’s curse is going to get me anymore.” Eric chuckled.
Count on Eric to make a joke at the least appropriate time. Aggie couldn’t help but grin and roll her eyes.
“I need a few more inches, and I can get in there,” Jace said as he attempted to squeeze between the logs.
“Wait for the emergency crew,” Brian suggested.
“We’re miles and miles away from emergency services,” Jace said. “It will take too long for them to get here.”
Aggie knew Jace wouldn’t be able to stand there and wait while Eric was trapped. She squatted next to Jace to see if there was a way to help.
“Sed,” Jace called over his shoulder. “Do you think you can move this log?”
Sed kissed Jessica’s cheeks and released her. When he moved away, she made a sound like a wounded animal. “It’s okay,” he promised. “I’ll be right back.” He approached the bus. “Where are you, Eric? I don’t want to crush you with one of these logs.”
Eric laughed. “I’m in the f**king bathroom. My foot is stuck behind the toilet. I can’t get it loose.”
“But you’re okay?”
“I think so. I-I smell gas though.”
“The bathroom always smells like that,” Sed said.
Eric laughed. “True.”
Sed grabbed the log blocking Jace’s entry and growled with exertion, his muscles bulging as he lifted it several inches. Jace scrambled into the wreckage, trapping himself voluntarily to help a friend. Aggie’s chest swelled with pride. “You’re so brave, baby,” she said, tears streaming down her cheeks. “So selfless. I love you so much.”
Sed released the log, and it settled back in place.
She could see a bit of Jace’s white T-shirt in the interior darkness, but nothing else. “Be careful.”
Aggie heard debris scatter as Jace picked his way through the bus to the bathroom.
“It’s a good thing you’re so little, man,” Eric said. “No one else could have squeezed in here and saved me. Ow, f**k, dude, my leg doesn’t bend that way.”
“It does now,” Jace said. “Why are you wet?”
“Uh, toilet water. Hello.”
“I hope the last person to use it remembered to flush.”
“Thanks for adding to my list of concerns, little man.”
Jace chuckled.
After several minutes of grunting, Eric cried, “I’m free!”
“Now, how do we get out of here?” Jace asked.
“No idea.”
“How did you guys get out?” Sed asked Jessica, who was clinging to his waist. He touched her hair.
“U-under the dining table,” Jessica managed to say.
“Try under the dining table,” Sed yelled.
After a moment, Jace and Eric found the route out. “Thanks, tripod,” Eric said, holding his weight off his left leg, while hugging Jace so hard his feet lifted off the ground.
“Tripod?” Jace asked.
“As hung as you are, you practically have three legs.”
Jace laughed and patted Eric on the back enthusiastically. “I don’t care if you call me little man. I’m okay with it.”
“Don’t lie. I know you hate it. I’m calling you tripod from now on.”
Beneath the grime and sweat, Jace blushed. He glanced at Aggie out of the corner of his eye. His brilliant smile made her heart sing.
“I’m glad everyone is accounted for,” Brian said, his arms around Myrna, who was impossibly calm in her half-naked state. “I think I shit my pants. What a ride!”
“We are the luckiest motherfuckers on the planet,” Sed said, and wrapped his arms around Jace and Eric, squishing Jessica between them. Brian drew Myrna and Trey into the circle against Eric’s back.
“You don’t think I’m stupid for hanging seven horseshoes on the wall now, do you?” Eric said.
“We still think you’re stupid, Eric,” Brian said.
“But we’re glad you aren’t dead,” Trey added.
Someone’s arm snaked around Aggie’s waist, and she soon found herself trapped in the middle of a group hug. These guys. Family. No other word described them. She was glad to be part of what they shared. And doubly glad that Jace had them in his life.
Jace suddenly jerked away from the group. “Where’s Dave?”
Chapter 39
Jace turned his gaze toward the front of the bus. Smoke billowed, thick and black, from the broken window that he, Aggie, and Sed had escaped through not fifteen minutes ago. Flames licked the opening. He was running in that direction before his mind could grasp the severity of the situation.
Jace headed to the front of the bus and peered through the windshield. Dave’s unconscious form was suspended from the driver’s seat by a seat belt. The interior behind the driver’s compartment glowed an ominous orange. Fire. Jace’s heart froze. The person he saw in peril was not Dave. He saw his father surrounded by the flames.
“Father!”
Jace pounded on the window, trying to rouse him. “Wake up!” He fisted both hands, and using his one-hit-knockout punch, struck the glass. It broke. A hole burst through the middle of a spiderweb patterned crack. He hit it again, widening the hole. Jace grabbed his father by his pale yellow polo shirt. “Father! Don’t die. Don’t be dead. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. I…”