He sucked in his breath. “Oh no. God no.”
It was gone. A depressed area of grass where it had rested was the only indication that it had ever been there at all.
“Eve!” he shouted hoarsely as he ran forward. “Eve! Where are you? Are you here? Are you all right?”
“Holy shit,” Swanny said in awe. “It looks like a bomb went off.”
“Spread out,” Donovan snapped, not wanting to hear the fatalistic tone in Swanny’s words. He wouldn’t entertain that Eve, Travis and Cammie could be dead. They had to have survived. Donovan couldn’t live with himself with their blood on his hands. “Look everywhere, and I mean everywhere. If we don’t find them in short order, I’m calling in backup. I’ll get everyone out here looking until we find them.”
They fanned out, each going in a different direction. The trailer had been surrounded by woods on three sides, and across the dirt and gravel road was another home. Strangely, it appeared to be untouched, but then there was no rhyme or reason to the path of a tornado. Hell, he’d witnessed tornadoes that dipped down, took out one house then lifted and left the others next to it untouched. Discriminating, fickle, unpredictable bastards.
Donovan stumbled over a limb lying across the driveway that went over the culvert and nearly went down on one knee. He was picking himself back up, adjusting the flashlight to shine in the direction of where the trailer used to be when he heard a low sob.
He froze, straining to pick up the sound once more. He hadn’t imagined it.
“Eve? Cammie? Travis? It’s Donovan Kelly. Can you hear me?”
“You got something, Van?” Swanny asked from several feet away.
Donovan held up a hand to silence Swanny. But he heard nothing further.
“I heard something,” Donovan said. “I didn’t imagine it.”
Joe hurried over and then looked down the ditch to where the water had already mostly drained off. Then his gaze flickered to the culvert they were standing over.
He and Joe must have had the same idea at the same time. They both scrambled down the ditch, Joe holding the flashlight to illuminate Donovan’s path.
“Eve?” Donovan shouted. “Where are you? I’m here to help.”
He crouched down at the entrance to the culvert and surveyed the interior. Definitely big enough for people to fit into. He grabbed Joe’s flashlight since it was the bigger and shined it inside.
The beam caught two pairs of wide eyes. Travis was huddled inside the culvert, his arms wrapped tightly around Cammie. They both stared at Donovan, fear and shock evident in their gazes.
“Travis, are you all right?” Donovan demanded.
He started forward on hands and knees, barking back to Joe to keep the light shining on Travis and Cammie.
He reached them in a matter of seconds, and realization struck that Eve was not with them.
“Where is Eve?” Donovan asked.
Tears glimmered in Travis’s eyes. “I don’t know,” he choked out.
Cammie began to cry, and Travis stroked a hand through her matted, bedraggled hair.
“Come on. We need to get you out of here,” Donovan said, his heart pounding as he pondered Eve’s fate.
He reached for Cammie, but she didn’t relinquish her hold on her brother.
“Let me take you, sweetheart,” Donovan said gently. “I know you’re scared, but I’m here to help you and your brother.”
“I want Evie,” she wailed.
Tears shimmered in her eyes and then slid down her dirty cheeks. Her thumb slid between her lips and Donovan carefully pulled it away so she wouldn’t get dirt and God only knew what else in her mouth.
“Where is your sister, honey? I need to find her so we can make sure she’s okay.”
“She was caught in the storm,” Travis choked out. “She came back for me after putting Cammie in the culvert. I had been knocked down by a limb and she came back for me, but we got separated. Something hit her and she told me I had to get to Cammie and protect her. Not to leave her alone. But oh God, I left her.”
The last came out as a sob, and Donovan’s heart went out to the kid. He put his hand on Travis’s shoulder and squeezed.
“You did right, son. You had to protect Cammie. She’s just a little girl and wouldn’t have made it on her own. I know you didn’t want to leave Eve, but it’s what you had to do. Now let’s get you and Cammie out of this ditch and inside my truck where you can get warm and dry out some. I’ll look for Eve. I won’t give up until I find her. I promise you.”
“We’re not supposed to trust anyone,” Travis whispered.
Even as he said it, Donovan could see the wistful look in the kid’s eyes. The desire to, for a few moments at least, lean on someone else.
“Listen to me, Travis,” Donovan said in a grave voice. “You and your sisters need help. Cammie is ill. Eve could be hurt. You are hurt. I understand you’re frightened. And I understand that you don’t know me. But I only want to help you and your sisters. I swear it. Now you need to let us get you out of here, and then I need to find Eve.”
Donovan reached for Cammie again and this time Travis relinquished her, but his eyes tracked Donovan’s every movement. Donovan cradled Cammie in his arms and turned, intending to hand her to Joe. The moment Joe reached for her, Cammie let out a shriek and dove into Donovan’s chest, her tiny body shaking as sobs welled in her throat.
“Shhh, sweetheart,” Donovan soothed. “I won’t let you go. I’m going to get you out of here. Okay?”