"I know I left. I know the system failed you. I know everyone who was supposed to help you didn't."
The fire crackled somewhere below us. The building groaned.
"But burning schools down won't bring your mom back." I kept my voice steady, even as the smoke burned my lungs. "It won't undo what happened. It'll just make sure you spend the rest of your life in a cell, alone. And you've been alone long enough, Tommy."
The lighter wavered.
"I don't know how to stop." His whisper was barely audible over the alarm still shrieking. "I've been so angry for so long. I don't know how to be anything else."
I thought about Shane. About running. About spending my whole life bracing for people to leave and pushing them away before they could.
About closing doors on people who were trying to stay.
I reached out my hand.
"Let me help," I said. "For real this time. Not a phone call. Not a promise I don’t keep. Actual help."
Tommy stared at my hand.
The fire crackled.
The smoke thickened.
"Why?" His voice was raw. "Why do you care now?"
I held his gaze.
"Because I know what it's like to think no one's coming back for you," I said."And I know what it’s like to be wrong about that."
Something in his face gave way. The last wall, the last defense, the anger he’d used to hold himself together for nine years.
Before he could collapse, I caught his hand.
The building groaned. The smoke burned my lungs.
And Tommy Vickers, the boy I'd failed, the man who'd wanted to burn everything down, looked at me with the same scared eyes I'd seen in my classroom nine years ago.
Not a monster.
A child who'd been waiting for someone to come back for him.
I took his hand.
I wasn’t going to let go again.
CHAPTER 17
Shane
I calledit in on the way. Engine 295 was responding. B-shift had the house tonight. They’d be there in minutes—but minutes felt impossible.
But I couldn't wait for minutes.
I called Brian. He picked up on the second ring.
"Shane? What's?—"
"Maya's school is on fire." The words came out ragged. "She's inside. I'm three minutes out."
