Break the Rules (The Flanagan Sisters Book 1) (22 page)

“
A couple have
been discharged already.”

Gingerly,
Jack tried to sit up. “I need to talk to them.” He wanted to check for himself
they were all right.

“You
shouldn’t be moving yet,” Anthony said, and Anna nodded.

He
ignored them both. It wasn’t until he slowly swung his legs out of bed that he
realized he was wearing a hospital gown that wasn’t done up at the back. He
paused.

“Let
me get that,” his mother said, and walked around behind him to tie up the gown.

When
his feet touched the ground, Jack had to wait to allow the wave of dizziness to
pass. With his father’s help he walked over to Mike’s bed. There was a wolf
whistle behind him.

“Nice
legs, Jack.” Roger was in the bed next to him, fully clothed.

Jack
flipped him the bird and he chuckled.

He
turned to his parents. “Why don’t you take a break? Grab a coffee.” He wasn’t
sure how long they’d been there and they looked tired.

His
father nodded.
“All right.”

When
they were gone he spoke with Mike, and then went around to each bed, slowly
putting together the story of what had happened. Finally he stopped at Roger.

“What
do you remember?” Roger asked him.

“Everything
up until you pushed me into the hut. Why did you?”

“That
hideous roar, like a damn rocket taking off, was the relief valves on top of
the crude tower venting. We were about to be showered in hot crude oil. I just
reacted, pushed you into the hut and then jumped in after you. There was an
explosion and a piece of steel blocked the door so we couldn’t get out.”

Jack
wasn’t sure how they both managed to fit in that tiny space but that didn’t
matter. “What happened next?”

“It
took about twenty minutes for the emergency response team to find us. I thought
we were going to roast before they did. They had to get a crane to lift the
steelwork. By the time they got it off, the whole damned unit was like a furnace.
It wouldn’t have taken much more for the oil to ignite. I pulled you out of the
hut and Bridget picked you up in a fucking fireman’s lift and carried you all
the way out to the cold zone. She was amazing. There were spot fires igniting
the whole time we were running out.”

Jack
blinked. Bridget had saved his life.

“We’re
both lucky to be here.”

Jack
nodded,
his legs a little unsteady.

“You
need to get back into bed,” the nurse ordered.

He
did as she said without arguing. Fatigue suddenly swept over him as he
laid
down.

“Go
to sleep,” the nurse said. “It will help you heal.”

Jack
closed his eyes, and almost instantly fell asleep.

* * *

Bridget
took a deep breath, swiping at the tears pouring down her face. She had to see
Jack, she had to see for herself he was all right. She’d asked the security
guard for the details of the hospital where the injured had been taken, and
getting her shakes under control, she drove straight there.

When
she arrived, she was directed to his cubicle in the emergency room. She slowly
pushed the curtain back to find Jack’s parents beside the bed.

Anna’s
mouth dropped open. “Bridget? You look like you’ve been in a war.”

Bridget
hadn’t considered how she looked, or smelled. “It’s been a rough day.” She
glanced over at Jack. His eyes were closed, his head was bandaged, and his arm
was in a sling.

“How
is he?”

“He’s
just gone to sleep,” Eric said. “He dislocated his shoulder and got knocked on
the head. The doctor’s confident he’ll make a full recovery.”

The relief
washed over Bridget, almost drowning her. She stumbled under the weight, and
then straightened again. “That’s good. When we couldn’t find him …” She
broke off as his mother paled. Of course she hadn’t been told the full details.

“You were
out there?” Anna said. “What happened? They didn’t tell us anything aside from
he’d been injured at work.”

Bridget
shook her head. “I can’t give you details yet. I don’t know Jack’s side of the
story. There was an incident, and when we did the head count we had ten
missing. Jack was one of them.”

“And
you searched for him?”

She
nodded. “I was the incident controller. When we found him he was unconscious so
I carried him out.”

Before
Bridget could say anything else, Anna hugged her tightly. “Thank you. Thank you
for saving my son.”

Uncomfortable,
she pried herself away. “It was nothing.
Just doing my job.”

And
if she’d done her job properly and been able to convince management of the
importance of the project sooner, none of this would have happened. She’d
almost killed Jack. She couldn’t look at him. She needed to get out of there
before she broke down. “I’d better get home.”

She
turned and left immediately.

* * *

As
Bridget drove home news of the incident was all over the radio, so she switched
it off. Pulling into her driveway she found Carly on her doorstep. Her sister
raced down the path to her car and the moment Bridget climbed out, she flung
her arms around her.

“Thank
God you’re all right. We didn’t know where you were.”

It
was enough for all of Bridget’s walls to come crumbling down. Her body shook
and her vision blurred as the tears she’d been holding back came thick and
fast.

“I
almost lost him,” she sobbed.

Carly
pulled back. “Lost who?”

“Jack.
He was missing after the explosion. We couldn’t find him.”

“Oh,
mi
niñita
.
Let’s get you inside.”

She
took the keys from Bridget’s numb hands and opened the front door, leading her
into the living room. Bridget collapsed onto the couch, buried her head into
her sister’s chest, and cried.

* * *

Sometime
later when she’d cried herself dry, Bridget sat up. Carly brushed her hair off
her face. “Do you want to tell me what happened?”

Bridget
nodded. Slowly she recounted what she remembered from when the alarms had first
sounded.

“You
risked your life to save him,” Carly said, her tone a little angry.

“Of
course I did! I’d risk my life to save anyone I love.” She shut her mouth with
a snap.

She
did
love him.

She
loved him, and to hell what anyone thought. She’d been so stupid, so caught up
in worrying about what people would say. But that didn’t matter. She’d been
foolish to let anyone stand in the way of admitting her feelings for Jack.

Carly
gave her a small smile. “You look a little dazed.”

“I
didn’t realize. I’ve been so blind, and he’s so mad at me right now.” She could
understand why he was so hurt. “I’m not sure if he’ll forgive me.”

“I’m
pretty sure saving his life will earn you some brownie points.” Carly patted
her arm. “If you’re feeling a little better, you need to call Mama. She was
frantic until I told her I’d spoken to someone at your work and you were fine.”

Her
conscience pricked.
“Of course.”
She hadn’t considered
her family’s
reaction,
she’d been too focused on the
plant. “It must be just like Papa for her. I should have thought.” Bridget
reached for her phone.

Carly
frowned. “What do you mean, like Papa?”

“An accident at work.
Papa not coming home.”

Her
sister shook her head. “Papa didn’t die at work. He was murdered on the way
home.”

Bridget
froze, staring at her sister.

“I
thought you knew.”

She shook
her head. “Mama never spoke about it. I just assumed … Who murdered him?”

“No
one knows. He got caught in the tensions in the aftermath of the civil war.
Mama always blamed herself for not leaving El Salvador sooner.”

Bridget
sat back down, phone in her hand. All this time she’d thought her father had
died at work. No wonder her mother didn’t want to go back to El Salvador. She
shook her head. She couldn’t deal with this now. It was something she’d have to
ask her about later. Right now she needed to tell her mother she was all right.

It
took a while to convince Carmen that Bridget didn’t need to go to the hospital
and didn’t need her mother to come and stay. In the end Carly promised to stay
the night and Bridget was able to hang up the phone.

“Go
take a shower. I’ll make you something to eat,” Carly said.

“I’m
not hungry,” Bridget said as she walked to the bathroom, relieved to finally
have a chance to clean up. She ran the water until steam clouded and then
stepped under the scorching spray. The heat scoured her skin. She slid to the
ground, allowing the water to beat down on her and wash her clean.

Exhaustion
smothered her. Her body was heavy like lead. She wasn’t going to move ever
again. Her brain began a slow-motion replay of all the events of the day, and
every possible worse outcome. Everyone had been so very lucky.

Now
it was over she couldn’t quite believe she’d taken control the way she had,
that the emergency response team respected her enough to follow her commands
without question, and that she’d spoken to Kevin that way.

She
couldn’t find it within herself to regret it. Kevin wasn’t happy with her, but
it didn’t matter. If Graham still wanted her after this, she was going to
accept the job. Today had shown her it wasn’t possible for her to keep everyone
safe. They had to take responsibility for their own actions and look out for
themselves as well.

Plus
she was endangering the technicians more by staying where Kevin didn’t trust
her. If he hadn’t countermanded her orders and delayed the project, the
incident might not have been so bad. But that wasn’t
her
fault. It was
Kevin’s. The realization was a relief. She’d done everything she could to
improve the safety on the plant.

Bridget
would move to a company that valued her advice and her expertise, where she
wouldn’t be ignored by senior management and where she could actually make a
difference.

Slowly
she climbed to her feet and shut off the water.

That
way she could be with Jack.

If he still wanted her.

Chapter 22

If the explosion had been hell, the next day
started out as purgatory.

Bridget
had fallen into bed the night before straight after her shower and had slept
solidly until her cell phone woke her at five.

It
was a journalist from the
Houston Age
wanting to know what had happened
at the plant. She gave him the number for the media coordinator at Dionysus and
hung up. It was then followed by three more phone calls in quick succession,
the last from Dionysus’s contact at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration.

“Bridget,
why haven’t I received an incident notification in my email?” Victor asked.

Bridget
swore under her breath. “They didn’t send it?”

“Not
that I can find.”

She
got out of bed and began pulling on some clothes. The notification should have
been immediate as a matter of courtesy, and they now had only six hours to get
the initial report in. She gave Victor what information she knew. “I’ll get the
rest to you as soon as possible. I’m heading to work now.”

“I’ll
be on site at nine. You can give it to me then.” He hung up.

Bridget
strode into the kitchen to find Carly making coffee. She’d forgotten her sister
had stayed the night. “I’m sorry, did my phone wake you?”

“I
was awake,” she said. “You need to eat something before you leave.” She handed
her a mug.

Bridget
didn’t bother to argue. She called the hospital for an update on Jack. He’d
been moved to a room overnight and the nurse said he’d had a good night’s sleep
and should be discharged later today. Bridget breathed out a sigh of relief and
hung up.

“All good?”
Carly asked, buttering toast.

“Yeah.
He
should be home today.” Bridget wasn’t sure what she was going to say to him,
but that didn’t matter. What mattered was he was all right. She took the toast
Carly handed her. “Are you going to eat?”

“I’ll
buy something on my way to work,” Carly said, grabbing her purse.

Together
they walked out of the house. Bridget hugged her sister tightly. “Thanks for
being here.”

Carly
smiled.
“Any time, little sister.”

* * *

When
Bridget arrived at work the fire was still burning. She stopped at the
gatehouse.

“Who’s
here?” she asked the security guard.

“The
technicians on the new shift have arrived and are gathered in the crisis
management room for handover. We’ve got a couple of big wigs from corporate
office who have pulled an all-nighter trying to put a spin on this, and the
rest of the managers are in there.”

“Thanks.
Can I get the full list of names of those who were injured? I need them for my
report.”

The
guard photocopied a document and handed it to her. She thanked him and turned
to go.

“Bridget?”

She
turned back.

“I
heard what you did yesterday. They should give you a medal.”

She
smiled. She doubted very much that was going to happen.

Her
aim on entering the administration building was to avoid the crisis room and go
straight to her office to organize the report for Victor. Unfortunately Kevin
walked out of the room with the CEO Bob Randall as she walked past.

“Bridget.”
Kevin’s voice was a command. “You need to come with us.”

She
stopped and forced a smile to her face. “I’m just going to write the incident
report for OSHA. Victor is arriving at nine and it appears it hasn’t been sent
yet.” She didn’t hide her disbelief.

“It
can wait. Bob wants an explanation of yesterday’s events.”

She
nodded to Bob. “I’m sure you don’t want us in any more trouble with the
regulators than we already are. Can you give me half an hour to put together
the report?”

“No.
Now,” Bob demanded.

Bridget
swallowed her anger and followed him into the general manager’s office.

She wasn’t
offered a seat, so she stood. “Where would you like me to start?”

“From the alarms.”

Bridget
took out her phone and set the record function. She wanted this on record. She
could use it to build her own report later. Slowly she went through what she could
recall of the events. She answered Bob’s questions and defended her decision to
shut down the plant. The Chemical Safety Board would be on site as soon as it
was safe to start their investigation, and Bridget was certain they would agree
with her decision when they’d examined all the facts.

An
hour later they’d finished grilling her. With leave to go, she stalked out and
headed straight to her office. The corridors were deserted, a sure sign
something bad had happened.

She
shut the door and turned to her computer. There was a sticky note on the screen
from Sally:
Sent verbal notification to the EPA.
Will be
in tomorrow to write report.
She breathed a sigh of relief. That was
one less thing she had to do. She fired up her computer and began writing. As
soon as she was satisfied she had the detail OSHA wanted, she printed the
document and delivered it to the crisis management team for their approval,
before heading out to the plant to talk with the fire team.

Bridget
made her rounds, making sure they had enough to drink and were in reasonable
spirits. With a promise she would be monitoring the radio channel should they
need her, she went back to her office to write up her version of events.

Her
phone rang as she was halfway through. It was the gatehouse.

“Victor
and his team are here.”

She
checked her watch. Nine o’clock. “Can you let Kevin and Bob know we’ll be in
meeting room one?” They would need to be present for this.

At
the main gate she greeted Victor and the two other men with him, who he
introduced as investigators. She led them to the meeting room. Kevin and Bob
arrived and after the introductions were made they settled down to business.
Bridget handed Victor the report she’d written and when the explanations were
done, they proceeded to tour the plant.

In
the bright light of day it looked like a warzone. Smoke still lingered, thick
and acrid in the air, and the blast zone from the explosion had cleared a large
area. Buckled metal was lying all over the place. Bridget hadn’t taken in the
level of destruction while she’d been searching for people and trying to get
the fire under control. It was a wonder no one had been killed.

“What
was the cause of the fire?” Victor asked.

“We’re
not certain,” Bridget replied. “When the fire is completely out, we’ll be able
to do a more thorough investigation.”

“And
what do you expect to find?”

Bridget
had spoken to a couple of the fire officers who had told her it looked like
liquid had got into the fuel gas main due to a sticking level transmitter. It
was the same transmitter she’d told the plant to fix several weeks ago.

But
she couldn’t say that. “I’d rather not guess on such a serious matter.”

Victor
looked at her for a long moment and then nodded. They both knew she had a fair
idea of what caused it. It took another couple of hours before Victor was
satisfied he had enough information to start with. Kevin and Bob walked him to
the gatehouse and Bridget went to continue recording her recollections of the event.

Her
phone had half a dozen messages on it, so she listened to them. The trainers
both wanted updates. The rest of the department was on site, already doing the
initial incident investigation. Bridget called both men back and updated them
on the plant and on the people who had been injured. Anthony had mentioned that
all but the burn victim were due to be released today.

Graham
had called expressing his concern and Bridget debated for a moment before
calling him back.

“Bridget,
how are you?” he asked.

“Tired,”
she said. “But everyone’s safe and alive, so that’s the main thing.”

“The
rumors are already flying. What happened?”

She
hesitated. “I can’t tell you yet.” It was speculation until they’d done a
proper investigation and she didn’t want to add to the rumors. When the
investigation was completed the report would be in the public domain anyway.

“Yeah.
All right.”
He paused. “This is probably a bad time to ask,
but have you read the job description?”

Hope
flickered. “I have.” She took a breath. “Do you still want me?”

“Of course.”

Bridget
let out the breath she was holding. “Then I’m going to apply.”

“That’s
fantastic news. I realize you’ll be snowed under for the next couple of weeks
with the investigation, so get your application to me whenever you can.”

“Great.
Thanks Graham.” She hung up. She would make it a priority.

Sally
knocked on her door. “Rough morning?” she asked, handing Bridget a take-out
coffee.

She
took it gratefully. “Yeah, thanks. Where’d you get this from?”

“I pinched
a couple of cups from the crisis room. Nick and I have finished the initial
environmental report. I figured you had enough on your plate, so I gave it to
Kevin.”

Sally
was as passionate about the environment as she was about safety, so Bridget
knew it would have been thorough.

“Is
there anything else you need to do?” Bridget asked.

“Nothing
we can do until the
fire’s
out. We’re going to head
home.”

She
nodded. “Good idea. We’ll all be putting in extra hours over the next few
weeks. Take it easy.”

Sally
left and was soon replaced by Ken.

Bridget
stood. “You did an excellent job yesterday,” she said. “Thank you.”

Ken
shook his head. “I hardly did a thing. You got all those people out safely.”

She
wasn’t comfortable with the praise. “The information you kept passing to me was
invaluable,” she said, and then noticing he wasn’t any more comfortable with
the praise than she was, she asked, “What have you been up to this morning?”

“I
did a round of the plant. Made sure everything else was in order, just in case
we missed something in the excitement.”

“And?”

“It
was all good. The control panel technicians shut everything down properly.”

Trish
walked into the room.

“Trish
and I are arranging interviews,’ Ken said. “We figured the sooner we write down
what happened, the better.”

“Any news about Jack?”
Trish asked.

“He
should be out today,” Bridget said.

Trish
stepped forward and hugged her, as Ken slipped out of the room. “You were
amazing yesterday. The way you barked out orders, it was clear you had
everything under control. You impressed all the managers.”

Bridget
didn’t care who she impressed. “Thanks. Call me if you need a hand with the
interviews.”

“What
are you going to do?”

She
wasn’t sure. She suspected she needed to report to the crisis room and see if they
needed anything from her, but she really didn’t want to. In Jack’s absence she
was supposed to be the Health, Safety, and Environment representative on the
crisis team. “I’ll check in with management. Has anyone seen Dirk?”

“Last
I heard he was with the crisis team. He’s the HSE representative after you and
Jack,
isn’t he?”

Bridget
swore. He was. The last thing she needed was him stirring up trouble. “I’d
better go check.”

Trish
gave her a sympathetic smile and walked out.

Bridget
grabbed her notebook and a pen and walked back to the crisis room. She heard
the raised voices down the hall and picked up her pace. As she entered the room
Dirk was pointing and waving his finger at Jack.

Jack!
Her heart swelled to see him there, to see him standing, to see him alive and
conscious. Her eyes roved over him checking for injuries. His arm was in a
sling and there was a dressing on his head. He really shouldn’t be here. He
should be resting at home.

No
one had noticed her walk in, and she was about to speak but Jack beat her to
it.

“She
saved my life.” His voice was rough and his eyes were red.

“How
would you know? You were unconscious when you left here,” Dirk said.

“I
spoke with Roger at the hospital last night. He told me how Bridget carried me
out.”

“Like
she’d be able to lift you,” Kevin said. “The men are protecting her.”

Bridget
gasped. After all she had done, he still refused to believe her. She wasn’t
going to spend a minute longer than necessary here. The sooner she completed her
application, the better. “I can demonstrate if you’d like.”