Tunnel was so covered in black soot that it honestly didn't look like him.

They never even realized it until Kettle stood back once he hooked up the leads to the ECG.

"Nothing."

I moaned. "No."

He was gone. They knew it. I knew it. DP and Cord knew it.

The only blip on the little black screen was each time Sebastian pushed down on Tunnel's chest.

A short blip, blip, blip, and then it was gone as Kettle gave the breath.

They both shook their head.

We all knew it.

The rhythm wasn't shockable.

There wasn't anything we could do.

It wasn't his heart.

It was the fact that his lungs were most likely burned to Rice Krispies; there was nothing viable left. Even if his heart were to be working, there wasn't anything in his body to oxygenate his lungs when his lungs were no more.

"He's gone," I croaked.

Kettle sighed and placed his hand down on Tunnel's chest, only then realizing what he was touching.

Tunnel's cut.

I saw the moment realization dawned on him.

One second he was only upset over losing a patient.

The next he was devastated. Eviscerated.

The moan of pain was echoed by us all as one of our own died, and two more were still inside, fighting for their lives, too.

It felt like hours as we all watched the back of the house.

Me, I'd have gotten up, which I'd tried to do, but my body just wouldn't respond.

At some point oxygen was thrust over my face, an annoying presence that obstructed my field of view of the back door.

But after a long ten minutes, it was more than obvious that no one was coming out of that door.

Especially after the back half of the roof collapsed, effectively blocking the final entrance that wasn't encased in fire.

I lost it.

Chapter 21.

You will live on in my heart. I will avenge you, even if it takes me and my whole mother f.u.c.kin' club to do it.

-A biker promise Rue "You have to wait until they're both out of here before we discuss the funeral arrangements," an insistent voice growled from the chair beside me.

My eyes blinked open, gritty and coa.r.s.e.

It felt like I'd rubbed some sandpaper over the whites of my eyes.

I was surprised to find my bed surrounded by men.

Sebastian. Silas. Loki. Trance. DP. Kettle. Cord.

My hospital bed.

Why were they all in here?

Then I noticed who wasn't there.

Cleo.

Torren.

Tunnel.

It was the beat of my heart that alerted them that I was awake.

The steady beep, beep, beep became an erratic tattoo, going from an even 80 beats per minute to a steady 110 in less than thirty seconds.

Silas was the one to jump up and come to me.

He leaned over until his beard touched my chest. "You're okay, girl."

"Cleo," I croaked.

My voice sounded raw and edgy, nothing smoky about it.

Silas smiled. "He's fine. They have him down in X-ray checking out his lungs. That's why you have so many of us in your room.

I blinked stupidly at him. "His lungs?"

He turned his head slightly and leaned back before sitting down on the edge of my bed.

His leg came up to rest at my side.

"There was a fire," he started.

I nodded. I'd remembered that. But they weren't supposed to be there.

And speaking of, how had I gotten out?

Then I knew. Cleo had come. Just like I'd known he would.

"Everyone okay?" I rasped.

Silas face went from somber to sorrowful, and I knew instantly that something terrible had happened.

"What?" I asked.

Someone from the other side of the bed took my hand, and I turned to see that Cord had it. Then something touched my foot, and I saw that Loki's hand rested at the top of the footboard. His scarred hand that spoke of tons of fights, held on to my toes through the blanket.

"Please," I said as I turned back to Silas.

He swallowed, causing his beard to bob with the effort.

"Tunnel died. Complications from smoke inhalation," he murmured softly.

My heart sank, and a sob got caught in my throat, causing my raw voice to come out even grittier. "No."

The wail of denial came from down deep as I let all the pain and fury pour out of me in just that one word.

He nodded sorrowfully. "I'm sorry, girl. He died. It wasn't from anything you did, though."

"I testified," I wailed. "If I hadn't, he'd have still been alive."

My voice sounded ghastly, but I couldn't keep the words in. They just poured out.

"Vanessa said not to testify. I should've listened. I should've listened," I shook my head frantically.

"He knew the risks," a soft-spoken voice said from the doorway. "It was his idea, after all."

I turned and looked over Cord's shoulder to see a slight Hispanic woman with pitch black hair that hung down to her hip in a tight braid, standing at the door. She was wearing scrubs.

Navy blue with lime green piping.

The only thing off was the puffiness of her eyes.

Then it hit me.

She'd looked so familiar.

That was because I'd seen her around at a couple Dixie Wardens functions.

It was Tunnel's wife, Mina.

"He knew, just as I did, what was at risk, but he wasn't doing it for anybody here. He was doing it for his sister," Mina's voice cracked.

Sebastian walked towards the door and wrapped her in his arms.

She looked so tiny and frail in his arms.

Tunnel and Sebastian had been roughly the same size.

Which meant she'd have been dwarfed in Tunnel's arms as well.

We all watched in silence as the tiny woman broke down and cried, and I silently wondered why she was wearing her scrubs.

She wasn't working was she?

How many days had it been?

Had I been asleep long enough for her grieving process to end?

"You should go home, sweets. Get some rest," Sebastian murmured into her hair as he kissed the top of her head.

Tears ran freely down my face as I listened to the two speak.

"I can't go home. Not to our bed. Not again. Not without him. It's too big. You know the last thing he said to me in that bed? That he wanted another baby. I told him he was out of his d.a.m.n mind." A sob caught in her throat. "I should've taken him up on it. I should've relented a few months ago when he'd first brought it up, because maybe if I had, I would be carrying him around with me," she wept.

The room was silent except the erratic beat of my heart as long moments pa.s.sed by.

Finally, Mina lifted her head from Sebastian's chest. "I'll sit here and wait for Cleo to get back. I've already requested that they let Torren come in here for a little while so we can make the arrangements."

Sebastian nodded and led Mina to the vacated chair near the corner of the room.

And there we waited, n.o.body able...or willing...to break the silence.

Cleo "I can walk, dammit," I snapped at Baylee.