Chapter

22

Slamming into the ground jarred every bone, feeling like they were all out of place at once, and I barely managed to stick the landing. I tried to hit on the balls of my feet, old cheerleading training kicking in years too late, so I didn’t break my ankles. I ended up toppling over and hitting my butt. Thank god that was well padded. I scraped the hell out of my elbow, but when I assessed my body I didn’t feel any broken bones. 

The sirens were so loud at that point it was almost deafening. I could see the red lights bouncing off the walls. I got up and wobbled, tripping over my own feet a bit, and ran to the side of the building. The stairs shook alarmingly as I pounded up them. I got to the landing and saw that there was a steering wheel lock braced along the back railing and jammed under the handle. It would turn but the door was wedged shut. I could hear Seth kicking the door from the inside.

I slammed my hands against the door in frustration.

“Stay by the window, Seth!”

I had no idea if he heard me over the booming blows he was delivering. I needed a hammer or axe or something. I turned and almost tumbled face first down the stairs in my rush. I hit the alley and almost tripped again. The length of the building was no more than fifty feet, but I felt like I couldn’t close the distance. Panic was sending tremors throughout my body. I could feel every limb tingling and my heart thumped like a bass line. It felt too big for my chest and I knew I had to pace my breathing so I didn’t hyperventilate. I had to get something to get Seth out. I skidded to a stop at the first truck.

“The door’s blocked. Axe!”

I sucked in air that felt like acid and it practically buckled my legs knowing that Seth was running out of air.

“Are you hurt, ma’am?” 

A firefighter put his hand on my back. I worried he hadn’t made out what I said. It had made sense to my ears but I had no idea what came out of my mouth. I needed some authority I sure wasn’t feeling to get some action. 

“I’m an LEO. The door is deliberately jammed shut and my partner is trapped inside. Bring an axe. NOW!” My don’t fuck with me cop voice had kicked in.

He grabbed an axe from the equipment on the truck and followed me. He saw the stairs just as I pointed and pushed past me. I should have been impressed how he’d managed to outpace me in all his gear, but I was truly terrified he wasn’t going to get Seth out in time. My footsteps had been loud when I’d run up the stairs but his were thunderous. I saw the first blow of the axe before I passed the stairs to turn the corner and look up at the window. I couldn’t see Seth.

“SETH!”

I had lost track of how much time had passed since he’d woken me up. I developed tunnel vision. All I saw was that window and the smoke rushing out of it. I willed myself to not invent Seth at the window when he was the only thing I wanted to see. Screaming his name over and over so loudly, I eventually felt something give in my throat. His name was just a hoarse wail after that. I felt someone’s arms go around me, trying to pull me away from the building.

“Ma’am, we need to check you out.”

“No. Seth is in there. I’m not leaving without him.”

The smoke and the screaming had robbed me of any semblance of voice and what came out was just a croaky garble. 

I tried to shake off the hands holding me but I was bodily picked up. I struggled as hard as I could, all my strength gone. I sobbed into the shoulder of whoever carried me. I heard shouting all around me but it was far away. I was laid down and felt someone working on me. An oxygen mask slipped over my face, pressing into and slipping around the greasy soot that coated my skin. I heard someone asking me questions, but I didn’t care. All I wanted was Seth. 

Medical jargon was flying all around my head. Then my ears picked up a beautiful sound.

“Male, early thirties, smoke inhalation. No burns. Female, mid-twenties, shock, smoke inhalation.”

He wasn’t dead. They got him out. He was safe. I blinked, trying to clear my vision, but my eyes were so irritated from the smoke and crying that it was hard to keep them open. I pushed the oxygen mask away and my hand was grabbed.

“Ma’am, you need to leave that on.”

I mustered my strength and pushed it off again. “Seth?”

I could barely make out the sound of my own voice in the commotion. The water roaring out of the hoses, people shouting out instructions, the equipment inside the trucks squawking and squealing.

“She’s trying to say something.”

“Seth?” The pain flared raw in my throat. 

“The man? That’s Seth? He’s fine. Just rest while we look you over.” The female EMT had a sweet but firm voice and tried to replace the oxygen

I shook my head, preventing her from getting it back on. “I need to see him.”

“Let me just take care of you.”

“Now.”

“He’s fine. I promise.”

I grabbed her hand and stilled it. “It can’t wait.”

“You’re not going to let me finish checking you out until you see for yourself, are you?”

I shook my head and tried to smile at her. I could only imagine what it ended up looking like, but she gave a little chuckle so I assumed it wasn’t too monstrous. I felt the gurney bumping over the gravel and ruts of the parking lot. 

The back of the gurney came up enough that I wasn’t flat on my back anymore. That simple change helped clear the fuzziness in my head. My vision started to clear a bit too. I could make out the back of the ambulance, its doors opening and the lights inside shining out onto the dark ground. I could almost make out the features of the other EMT gathering equipment in the back but the bright lights behind him obscured more than revealed.

I pulled off the mask for the last time. “I don’t need this. I’m fine. Water?”

A bottle of cold water was pressed into my hands. They shook as I tried to take the cap off, not recognizing it had already been opened for me. Some splashed out on my arms and the cold woke me up almost completely. I brought the bottle to my lips carefully, taking a small sip. The last thing I wanted to do was throw up. 

“Good. Little sips. Your friend is still getting checked out. I know he was in there longer than you and took in more smoke.”

I took another tiny sip. “He saved me. Put me out the window and eased me down.”

The water had soothed my throat enough that talking didn’t feel like swallowing razor blades, but my voice was well and truly trashed. I sounded like I had smoked two packs of cigarettes every day for forty years. And then gargled rusty barbed wire.

“Oh yeah? I heard you saved him right back. You both sound pretty awesome, if you ask me.”

“Can I see him now?”

“Can I stop you?”

“Hey, Sunshine, nice dismount.”

He was sweaty and covered in greasy soot but he was alive. That was all I cared about. I tried to get up to go to him but was gently pressed back down onto the gurney.

“Stay put. I still need to check you out. Smoke inhalation can be tricky.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off his face. He was alive. I scanned him for any burns or injury. He was dirty and his shirt was torn but he looked perfect. 

“Her name is Willa. And, yes, she’s always this much trouble.”

The EMT leaned down to check my pulse. Her nametag read K. Barnes. “Well, your pulse is a bit elevated but considering the circumstances I’m not worried.”

The relief on Seth’s face made me realize he was only worried about me. The weight of that hit me. 

“You put me out that window thinking it was the last time you were going to see me. That’s why you tried—”

“It’s fine, Will. We made it.”

I shook my head and felt myself close to tears again. “No, it’s not fine.” 

I had so much I wanted to say and no idea where to begin. Our fight that morning—hell, every fight we’d ever had—seemed so stupid. I knew how he felt. I felt it too now. The fierce determination that I would do anything, any way I had to, no matter how much it hurt me, or if even he hated me, so that he was safe. I hadn’t understood. I had thought it was his pride, pumped full of testosterone and male ego. It wasn’t pride. Or ownership. He loved me. There was the simple truth I hadn’t wanted to admit. A tear slipped down my cheek.

I took another mouthful of water. I wanted to just look at him forever. I didn’t care if we solved the case. I didn’t care about anything except him and the fact that he was safe in front of me. 

I wanted to tell him that. It came out differently than I had planned. “You were trapped and I thought that you’d … and now … I swear, if you ever die on me, I will kick your ass,” I said.

“Only you, Sunshine.” Seth began to laugh, which turned into choking coughs. The male EMT pushed the hand holding the oxygen mask up to Seth’s face again. I got up, pressing past both EMTs to sit on his gurney. I twined my hand into the one not holding the mask and laid my face against his arm.

I heard the EMTs whispering to each other as Seth’s coughing eased. He dropped the mask again. I couldn’t look him in the eye. He rubbed the pad of his thumb on the back of my hand. “When you dropped it was the hardest second of my life since I’d heard Michael had died. I wanted to trust that you would be fine, that we both would, but all I could think was that I had failed again.”

I watched the red light from the fire trucks bounce off the tree line across the road, the leaves already red and gold, looking like fire themselves. I had spent the entire time I’d known him—years, almost two decades—not understanding how I felt. I didn’t even know if there were words to explain it. I got it now, I just didn’t know how to express it. I tried anyway.

“You didn’t fail me. You saved me tonight. And you trusted that I’d save you. You’re my hero.” 

I snuck a look at his face. I needed to know if he believed me.

“I mean it, Seth. That was some serious hero shit you pulled in there.”

He ducked his head but he was smiling. “We make a good team.”

“This is sweet, but we need to get you both to the hospital to be fully checked and you’re not both going to fit in the ambulance like this,” the male EMT said.

Seth dug out his phone and keyed in a sequence to bring up a screen that showed his badge. Neat. He stood brandishing it at the EMTs like weapon. “My name is Seth Anderson. I’m a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and I’m officially refusing additional medical care.”

Both EMTs had begun packing up the second ambulance the second he’d flashed his digital badge. They’d obviously had enough experience with the Feds to know what he was going to say. 

“Are you an idiot? Of course you’re going to the hospital.” I had words to express those feelings. Annoyance. Impatience. 

He shook his head. “Willa, I wet down the sleeve of my shirt and tied it around my nose and mouth. I’m fine. But I need you to go. You could have broken something when you hit the ground,” he said. 

“Oh, hell no. You’re not pulling that on me. If you want me to go then you get back on that gurney and let them take you too.”

He crouched down in front of me. I could see the set of his jaw. “I have work I need to do.”

“So you’re shipping me off to the hospital and going back to, what?”

He took both of my hands in his and squeezed them. “Baby, I need to get this guy. He’s dangerous.”

While I understood it wasn’t his ego that pushed him to protect me at all costs, it still chafed. I wanted to do this differently than we always had. I was definitely going to try after this case was over, but we didn’t have time for the no-holds-barred screaming throw down it was going to take to negotiate a peace accord. Mouthy Willa was still on the job. I wasn’t backing down on this.

“Wow, thanks for the news flash. I hadn’t pieced that together on my own. I mean, the knife should have given it away but, you know, maybe I had a loose thread on my sweater. And the fire, well, maybe I looked cold. No shit, he’s dangerous. And you need medical attention, dumbass, so get back on the gurney.”

He had started to shake his head again and stand when I dropped his hands and grabbed him by the front of his shirt, yanking him back down so we were nose to nose.

“Get on the gurney. Now.” Cop voice was back.

The EMTs watched us with interest. I could tell he was wavering.

“Ten bucks on the girl,” said the male EMT.

“No bet there. She will totally win this one,” K. Barnes said.

Seth sat back down on the gurney next to me. “If it will make you feel better that I get checked out … ”

“Shut up and get your own damn gurney, caveman.”