bobby
“God, I hope he hasn’t hurt the boys and taken them like he did us,” said Tristan, twisting in his seat now and then, looking frantically out the window.
“Me too.”
We gingerly made our way down the rest of the winding dark road towards the power station. The rain had eased at least, so that was a good thing. The bad news was we had no idea where Declan, Ashton or Dane were. I wasn’t the praying type. Not anymore, anyway, not since coming out, because I didn’t think the church accepted gay people. But I prayed my best friends were okay.
When I pulled my father’s police cruiser up outside the power station, the headlights shined upon the licence plate of another vehicle. The machine in the cruiser automatically picked up the plate belonging to a stolen car.
It was most probably the car Declan stole to get here.
“Okay, babe, stay close to me,” I told Tristan, placing a hand on his arm before he hopped out of the car. I handed him a flashlight and my police baton. I had my gun. I got out of the car and took my gun out, taking it off safety. Tristan got out and walked around the bonnet to stand beside me. We slipped through the hole in the chain link fence and made our way to the front door, but as we walked, Tristan’s flashlights came across something glimmering in the distance.
“Hey, look at this!” he ran down the side of the building into the dark.
I swore.
“Tris!” I hissed and ran after him. “I told you to stay with me.”
“I know. Sorry. But look. It looks like there was an explosion here.” The light of his flashlight was shining upon a piece of metal lying in the grass near our feet. It came from a gaping hole where another door once stood at the side of the building—one with stairs leading down to a lower level. I took my flashlight to check the surrounding area for more explosives but only saw bits of charred wire and plastic tubing lying in tiny pieces on the ground. Some were still attached to the watertight fire door of the building.
So much for being fire-tight, it wasn’t explosive-proof.
“Looks like there are no more active explosive devices,” I said, taking out my phone. I snapped pictures of all the pieces of the makeshift bomb Declan had made, slipped my phone back into my pocket and led the way into the bent metal door leading to the power station.
“This time, please don’t wander off. I mean it,” I warned.
“I promise. I don’t want to upset the soon-to-be husband. I know you want me in one piece,” he said, leaning forward. He pecked me on the cheek and added a wink as he followed me closely down the stairs.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Yes. I do.”
He was going to be the death of me. He was lucky I loved him.
There were rows upon rows of fuse boxes and computer mainframes at the bottom of the power station. One box main frame and hard drive were for different suburbs.
“Okay, the one for Summervale township should be here somewhere.” I pulled out my phone and checked the code we needed.
“What do we need to do?” asked Tristan. “I thought there was something we needed in the warden’s office that would turn the power back on. Isn’t that what Ashton and Dane were searched for?”
Before I could answer him, a loud bang sounded like a gunshot and echoed through the cavernous building. I pushed Tristan down and behind one of the fuse boxes.
“Stay there!” I hissed. “I’m gonna go check it out.”
“Bobby, no! I’m coming with you.”
“But you’re not trained. You’re not a cop. Stay there. I’ll be back soon.”
Then he pulled me in, held my face between his big hands and kissed me so hard I couldn’t breathe.
“God dammit, Bobby. I’m not some helpless damsel. I’m not staying here while you run headfirst into danger.”
I sighed.
“Fine. Sorry. Okay, let’s go. Dane and Ashton must be up there.”
There was more gunfire followed by shouting.
I looked at Tristan concerned, and without hesitation, we ran toward the stairs which led to the upper levels.
A wire-grated crosswalk and bridge spanned before us when we reached the upper level. To the left were a series of offices. Outside one of them stood Declan. He wore all black like he had that day on the beach when he kidnapped us, and the same look of menace coated his face. He snarled at us and laughed.
“Long time no see. I never thought I’d face off with you two again so soon,” said Declan.
I held up my gun and pointed it at Declan, stepping in front of Tristan.
In Declan’s hands, I saw he had a gun and a large-serrated hunting knife in the other. The same knife which he had stabbed Tristan with.
“Drop your weapons and surrender, and you’ll get off lightly,” I told him.
Declan cackled like the villain he was.
“Yeah, right! You’ll just lock me up where I’ll rot in a prison cell. Where’s the fun in that? I’m not going anywhere until I’ve finished what I’ve started.”
“Started what?”
The voice was Ashton’s. He and Dane burst out of the office, and Ashton took what looked like a wire, but I knew it was a guitar string and threw it around Declan’s neck.
“Nice trick,” he gasped. “But I’ve got some too,” taunted Declan, and without warning, he threw his arm back and slashed both Ashton and Dane with his knife. Ashton cried out and dropped the hold he had on Declan, and then Declan swung over the side of the bridge, using a rope we’d failed to see, and propelled himself to the ground before he made his escape. I fired my gun a few times, hitting him in the leg, but he managed to get away.
“Dammit!” I swore, leaning against the balustrade and looking down at the fuse boxes on the lower level.
“Don’t worry, Man. We’ll catch him. All that matters is we’re all safe,” said Dane.
“But not unscathed,” said Tristan, walking over to Ashton. Tristan removed his jacket and wrapped it around Ashton’s arm to stem the bleeding. Thankfully, it wasn’t too deep. I used mine to give to Dane for his wound, which was on his upper thigh. He wadded my jacket into a ball and pressed it tightly on the wound.
“Thanks, man,” he said. “And thanks for coming to rescue us.” He looked at Tristan and nodded at him. “Both of you.”
“Anytime. As I told Bobby, I was sitting at home bored on the couch. This beats that,” joked Tristan.
Ashton gently punched him in the arm. “You’ve got a strange idea of what fun looks like, dude. Thank you, though.”
“You’re welcome. It’s the least I can do for my new family.” He smiled.
My heart flip-flopped. God, I loved that man. When we got home, I would do bad things to him.
“Okay, that’s enough of the mushy moment. Let’s get this power back on,” announced Ashton, making his way down the stairs to the lower level.
“Wait, Ash. Did you get the key?” asked Dane.
Ashton held a small green metal key high in the air and wiggled it.
I looked at my friends, and we followed Ashton downstairs.
“It’s this one,” I told Ashton, showing him the fuse box and main frame, which belonged to the centre of Summervale.
“Good job, Constable,” Ashton told me, patting me on the back. He approached the big green metal box and the corresponding main frame. A glass case on the front of the mainframe sat over the top of the row of buttons and switches. He lifted the glass case and slipped the key into the only keyhole on the machine.
“Now, what button did we have to push?” he asked.
Dane took out the blueprints from his pocket, unfolded them, and found the hand-drawn notes my father had given him.
“Flip the toggle up to the on position if it’s not already, and then push the big yellow button which says ‘main,’ followed by the black button which says ‘centre’.”
Ashton followed the instructions, and a moment later, there was a mechanical whir as the power came back on.
“We did it!” We hugged, hooted, and hollered.
“Let’s get the hell out of here!” announced Ashton, “I miss my wife and kids.”
“Same,” added Dane.
Everyone stopped and looked at him.
“Dude, do you have something to share with the group?” said Ashton.
Dane blinked and then sighed.
“I wanted to wait until the engagement was over, and this, and Darce and I could share our news with everyone, but since you guys pretty much now know… yeah, I’m gonna be a dad.”
We were outside the power station now, and we all hugged Dane and congratulated him before we climbed into the police cruiser.
We had finally accomplished the task that Dane and Ashton set out to do, with some deviation, and now it was time to return to town and our loved ones.
Then, I could finally have my fiancé all to myself. I looked at Tristan with need, brushing my fingers over his arm. He smiled and licked his lips.