“Yeah. Thanks.” She forced a faint smile and started to step around me, just as I stepped to that side to let her by. We nearly collided, and I reached out a hand to steady her, fingers wrapping around the bare skin of her lower arm. A tingling sensation shot up my spine as Paisley’s chin tilted up to meet my gaze on her own. She didn’t pull away, and my fingers hovered gently over the bare skin on her arm. I began to reach up, fingers itching towards her face to brush away a long strand of brown hair. As the tips of my fingers touched her face, the kitchen door swung open, and one of my medics, Ty, came through the door, deep in conversation with Jake Finn. My hand dropped from Paisley’s face, and we both turned away simultaneously as if we’d never even spoken.
Paisley and I avoided each other for the rest of the morning until we simply couldn’t anymore. Tanner still hadn’t returned to work, and I couldn’t blame him. Things were weird around here. The knowledge of the house fire was heavy on all our minds. Tanner was family; we were all a family. Everything that happened to him happened to us, and I knew we were still waiting on the final verdict.
Around noon, a call came in for an EMS and ladder to respond to a four-person multiple-vehicle accident. Paisley was first to the bus, and I joined her a moment later in the passenger’s seat as Korbin, and some of his guys fired up the engine to Ladder One.
The ride to the scene was silent. Paisley didn’t look at me, only kept her eyes trained on the GPS system that led us to the location. I opened my mouth once to say something that would put the two of us at ease, but nothing came to me, so I closed it again and kept silent for the rest of the drive.
Police were already on the scene, standing over the body of a deceased male in his late forties. Paisley checked the man’s pulse and shook her head at me. I could see the fear in her eyes that she’d first had the first time she’d come across a dead or dying victim.
“How long has he been down?” I asked.
“DOA,” an officer answered. “There are three other victims. A mother and two children. She ran a red light and got blindsided by this poor fella. The mom is okay but hysterical, and her toddler son is right over here with a few bumps and bruises. You’ll want to check him out.”
Behind me, Korbin and two of his men were pulling on gloves. “So why did you need us here?” Korbin asked one of the cops. She looked at her partner, who looked at us.
“You all better come with me,” she said, turning on her heel to head towards the car. We followed her, unsure what to expect but knowing we had to check it out anyway. But whatever I’d been expecting to find in this mess—this wasn’t it.
“Her name is Ann-Marie Bayley,” the cop said, approaching the ruins of the second car. This one was flipped upside down, smashed to an almost unrecognizable heap of metal, and kneeling on the ground, ignoring the glass and debris around them, were two more officers, with their faces near the ground as they peered at something under the ruins of the car. Beside me, Paisley dropped to her knees next to the cop and angled her head to see what they were looking at. From where I stood, I heard her breath catch in her throat.
“Uh, Cap,” she said. “You might want to see this.”
Chapter33
Paisley
She was no more than ten or eleven, her skin dark and beautiful. She hung upside down in her seat, still strapped in by the seat belt, half of her body crushed between the concrete and the smashed roof of the upside-down SUV. With the vehicle’s sides destroyed, there was barely enough room to stick your hand in. I could see her, but barely. She was awake and alert, if not terrified and on the verge of a breakdown. I couldn’t blame her—this was something else.
“Are you Ann-Marie?” I asked, and she nodded her head. “Hi, Ann-Marie, my name is Paisley, and we’re here to help you, okay?”
She nodded again, a tear rolling down her face. Dirt and blood speckled her skin, and crushed glass littered the area around her. But she was alive.
For now.
“Your mom and little brother are worried about you, yeah?” I continued. “But they’re waiting to hug you as soon as you’re out of here. How does that sound?”
“Is Caleb okay?” she asked. Her breathing hitched with sobs, and I wanted to be able to reach in and simply pull her out, hug her, and put her back into the arms of her terrified mother. This wouldn’t happen again. Itcouldn’t.
“We told her he’s okay, but she keeps asking,” one of the officers whispered low to me. He was on his hands and knees, stiff, looking as though he’d been down here for some time. Above us, I heard another of the officers quickly brief Hansen on the girl.
“Shock, probably,” I said quietly and then turned my face back to the girl. “Ann-Marie, wait here, okay? I’m going to go get your little brother so you can see for yourself.”
The girl nodded and closed her eyes, and Hansen helped me to my feet, unconsciously brushing at the gravel and glass that stuck to my pants and hands.
“How does it look?” he asked. I glanced at the lady cop standing next to him and then at Hansen.
“It looks like I don’t know if that girl is lucky to be alive or not, Captain.”
“There’s a trauma team from the hospital on their way,” Officer—Holloway—said. “It’s no secret that she’s probably got internal injuries just waiting to bleed out.”
“We don’t know anything for sure,” I said, a bit more forcefully than I’d intended. Officer Holloway raised her eyebrows at me but didn’t say anything. Behind us, Korbin stepped up, his eyes surveying the damage.
“And you want us to simultaneously keep her alive while we lift the truck off her, don’t you?” Hansen asked.
“That’s your job, isn’t it?” the officer asked.
“Damn right it is,” said Korbin. Korbin was Rescue Squad Lieutenant, so something like this was right up his alley. His guys behind him were already rummaging through the truck for any tools that might help.
“Okay, we’ll need the trauma bags,” Hansen said. I followed him, hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline coursing through my veins. I felt wired like we could do anything at that moment, and all I wanted to do was save that little girl’s life, no matter what it took. As I grabbed the last of my bags and started to head towards the girl, Hansen caught me by the arm, stopping me.
