I quickly rein in the urge to start kicking, but even when I become still, Rita doesn’t let go.
“He’ll be fine,” Rita whispers in my ear. “See his chest rising and falling? Breathing’s a good sign, sweetheart.”
Another EMT, this one unfamiliar and clearly from another station, rises to his feet and glances over at Rita, then flicks his gaze to me.
“That his wife?” he asks.
I gasp past a sob. Is that really what I look like right now? A horrified spouse sobbing uncontrollably over her lover’s unmoving body?
With a trembling inhale, I try to get ahold of myself, but my muscles are seizing with panic and I can’t seem to choke down a full breath. I don’t even hear what Rita replies to the EMT.
“Look, Lila,” Rita murmurs to me a moment later. “Look, they have the fire under control. Everything’s going to be okay. We’re past the worst of it.”
She dares to release me enough to point up at the building. It’s a horrible thing to behold, all blackened and smoldering, smoke still billowing up into the evening sky, but I can tell through the haze of steam and my own tears that the squads of united firefighters have, indeed, managed to gain control of the situation.
But someone died tonight. And enough are critically injured that more might still follow. I can’t bring myself to believe that we’re in the clear.
Especially not while Hale remains unconscious on the ground. Evan is in the thick of it, and I have no idea how much time has passed. It could have been seconds or minutes since I tripped to a stop beside them.
And that’s when I hear it.
“—internal bleeding,” the paramedic kneeling opposite Evan is saying.
Evan nods, his face grim.
An EMT immediately barks into the radio on his shoulder, “We need hospital transport.”
“What?” I gasp. “He…? Hale!Hale!”
It all happens in a blur. A stretcher is brought over. Hale, lifeless and bruised, is carefully maneuvered onto it. Evan is the one who supports his captain’s neck, lips pressed into a thin line.
Then they start wheeling Hale away from me, right into the back of an ambulance.
I’m pretty sure I’ve started screaming again.
“Reyes!” Rita shouts.
Evan twists, gaze locking with mine from several yards away as he knocks on the side of the ambulance, and then he’s running back over. Rita lets go of me, sensing my trajectory ahead of time as I rush into his arms.
Evan’s hand cups the back of my neck like he can physically hold me together, and my body recognizes him before my mind does.
He pulls me close against him. Held tight to his steady, strong body, I become keenly aware of how hard I’m shaking. My teeth are chattering and each breath stutters like an arrhythmic heart on the way in and out.
“Lila, baby,” he whispers, cradling the back of my head as I sob into his chest. “Lila, he’s okay. Just a couple of broken ribs from what I can tell, but we had to send him off for a scan just to make sure nothing has been punctured.”
“He—he—I—”
I can’t speak. It’s like my entire body has betrayed me, twitching and trembling of its own accord.
“Baby, you need to be calm for me,” Evan murmurs, slowly stepping me away from the worst of the scene. “You’re having a panic attack.”
Panic attack? That can’t be right. I don’t have an anxiety disorder.
I try to tell him as much, but all that comes out is, “He—I—I can’t—”
“Hale is going to be okay,” he assures me again. “And look over there, love. Noah is okay now, too.”
I twist my face just enough to catch a glimpse of Noah, crouched on the edge of the sidewalk across the street, being fussed over by Sandy and Mick.
