Joanna pulled over a block from the scene. The street ahead was chaos: fire trucks angled across the road, ambulances lined up on the curb, police cars with their lights spinning. A barricade was already going up, officers waving back the few people who'd come out to watch.
"Go." Joanna's voice was fierce. "I've got Gabrielle."
I was already unbuckling the carrier, fingers fumbling with the straps. Gabrielle fussed as I lifted her free, her small face scrunching at the cold air, but she settled when I pressed her into Joanna's arms.
I kissed Gabrielle's forehead. Breathed her in one last time.
Then I ran.
The smoke hit me first. It was thick and acrid, and clawing at my throat. Then the heat, even from a block away, pressing against my skin like it was something alive. The café was fully engulfed now, flames pouring from the windows, reaching toward the sky, consuming everything in their path.
The scene was controlled chaos. Firefighters working in teams, hoses trained on the building, ladders extended. I scanned for Cal but couldn't find him in the smoke and the strobing lights.
Riley was at the perimeter tape, directing a couple of onlookers back. She saw me and her face went white.
"Lucy." She crossed to me fast, grabbed my arm. "You're alive. Cal thought—he went in for you."
"Where is he?"
"Still inside. Radio's out. Structure's failing." Her jaw was tight, her eyes red. "They're pulling everyone back, but he's not?—"
I didn't hear the rest.
I was already running.
"Lucy! Lucy, stop!"
Riley's voice behind me, but she was wearing sixty pounds of gear and I wasn't. I was faster. I had to be faster.
I wasn’t trained like a firefighter, but I knew this building. Every corner, every closet, every weak spot in the floor near the walk-in cooler.
Cal had run into this building thinking I was trapped inside.
This was stupid. I knew that. But I'd spent three years learning how to lose people. How to survive it. How to keep breathing when everything in me wanted to stop.
I wasn't going to learn that lesson again. Not tonight. Not with him.
I took one last breath of clean air, and stepped into the fire.
CHAPTER 19
Cal
The tones droppedat 11:52 PM.
I was already awake, sitting in the station kitchen with cold coffee and a mind that wouldn't stop spinning. Three days since Lucy left. Three days of unanswered texts, of staring at her dark apartment across the hall, of replaying that moment in the firehouse kitchen when I watched her face shatter.
You promised him. This whole time, you've been with me because Mateo asked you to.
I hadn't slept more than a few hours since. Couldn't close my eyes without seeing her expression, the betrayal in it, the way she'd looked at me like I was a stranger wearing a familiar face.
Then the alert cut through everything, and my body responded before my brain caught up.
"Structure fire, 847 Main Street. Mountain Café. Multiple calls reporting flames visible, possible occupants inside."
Mountain Café.
Lucy's café.
