A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(50)
Unlike Dominic, his four siblings and their families all lived in this general area. The traffic wasn’t as bad in these northern suburbs as it was on the outskirts and in the heart of the city, so they should be able to make it to their mother’s house safely long before dark.
“I’ll call Angela,” Rita said, pulling away and dialing her cell.
Dominic turned to Silvia. “You have enough supplies for a few days? Flashlights, batteries, clean water?”
“We have everything we need.” She tilted her head, looking up at him with shrewd eyes. “And you? Will you be staying here with us?”
“I can’t. I’m volunteering to help the evacuation efforts.”
“Of course you are,” she said with dry amusement. “But even if you weren’t, you wouldn’t leave the city, would you? Not when Levi has to stay there.”
There was no trace of resentment in her tone. Dominic’s entire family had been fond of Levi before the breakup; after the reconciliation, they’d become his biggest fans. They credited him with Dominic’s return to recovery-which was true, though not in the way Dominic was sure they imagined.
“No,” Dominic admitted. “I need to be wherever he is.”
Silvia smiled and waved for him to bend down. When he did, she kissed his cheek and then gave it two hard pats. “Take care of that boy. If Utopia hates him half as much as you love him, he’s in big trouble.”
Once assured of his family’s safety, Dominic returned to the city, heading for Carlos and Jasmine’s building. He felt a pang of nostalgia as he glanced at his own former apartment right next door.
That nostalgia was quickly buried under an avalanche of exasperation as he ended up in the same argument with Carlos and Jasmine that he’d had with his mother-only worse, because they lived so close to the UNLV campus, which was being evacuated. Jasmine was determined to go to her parents’ farm, even though it would be a nightmare to reach Henderson, which lay in the direct path of one of the city’s major arteries.
It took him a good half-hour and all his powers of persuasion to talk them around, and he only succeeded by convincing them to stay with him instead. His and Levi’s apartment was closer than the Andersons’ house, while still a healthy distance from both the college campus and the Strip.
Of course, that meant he had to drive them over one by one on the bike, which ate up a big chunk of his afternoon. After he had Carlos and Jasmine settled, he hauled his ass back over to UNLV much later than he’d planned to report for his volunteer duties.
He passed the same handful of casino billboards multiple times, but felt not the slightest stirring of his gambling cravings. He’d strapped them down last night, and this was the most quiescent they’d been since-well, since he’d been in the Army. No surprise there. The discipline and focus of a life-or-death mission had kept him gambling-free for eight years back then, and he was in a similar mental state today.
He hooked up with Natasha in the parking lot of the South Residential Complex, although it took him a few minutes to find her in the chaos. The lot and the adjoining walkways were swarmed with hundreds of college students as the police, Red Cross, and CERT struggled to organize them into groups to load onto the waiting vehicles for evacuation.
They were facing the same challenge here that had come up on the Strip: most of the people being evacuated didn’t have their own cars. High-capacity vehicles were being recruited from all over the county, especially school buses, and a good number had been lent by local businesses as well. Dominic caught sight of a shuttle bus emblazoned with the Barclay Las Vegas logo, and tried to ignore a frisson of annoyance that was rooted in nothing but silly jealousy.
He took the crowd’s pulse as he moved through it, and was unsurprised to find the mood wildly inconsistent. For every student who was crying or white-faced with fear, there were just as many in high spirits, joking around like it was the first day of spring break. A few scattered groups were passing flasks and blunts with spectacular indiscretion.
“There you are,” Natasha said when he located her outside a Red Cross tent.
“Sorry I’m so late. You got my text?”
“Yeah, don’t worry about it. We need all the help we can get.” She offered him a bright orange vest.
Dominic took one look at it and said, “That’s not going to fit me.”
“I know, but it’s the biggest size we have.”
He sighed and pulled on the vest. It strained uncomfortably across the breadth of his shoulders and didn’t come close to meeting in the front. “Mind breaking down the situation for me?”
“Sure.” She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “Campus security and administration are responsible for loading the kids into the buses and tracking who goes where. Cops are here to make sure nobody gets too rowdy.” She pointed to a row of coolers and bags at the edge of the tent. “We’ve got water and snacks for the kids while they’re waiting, and first aid if they need it. But I thought you’d do best with the team clearing the dorms to root out any stragglers.”
“Sounds good. Where-”
Shouts rang out behind him. He whirled around to see two boys scuffling, the kind of angry playground wrestling that spoke of strong emotions but little experience. The people around them had formed a rough circle, cheering the boys on and filming the fight with their phones.