He loved the spark kindling in her expression, and he dreaded the thought of it being snuffed out again. “There are a lot of variables. The entrance might be sealed over or blocked. Even if we find it, the tunnel could have collapsed or the other end become impassable, and—”
“A dicey escape plan is better than no escape plan at all,” she said firmly.
He couldn’t argue with that, unless it got them dead quicker. “Soon as Tottie is done with her bottle, I’ll go have a look.”
“I’ll help. We can take turns on baby duty.”
“You’ll be safer in the vehicle.” He immediately recognized his mistake. “But you’re in this as much as me and you cooked up the rockstar corn-chip fire, so why don’t I treat you like a fully vested partner and not the babysitter?”
“Exactly.”
The way her mouth lifted at one corner reminded him of Daniela. Two determined women, tough and self-sacrificing. He drifted into the past, to a moment when he’d been laughing and joking with his partner.
“Because I’m the best uncle,”he’d said.“And one day I’m getting Mia a pony.”
“You’ll have to run that by my husband. He doesn’t even want a house plant.”
“Okay. Compromise. I’llkeep the pony at the ranch I’m going tobuy someday. She can come ride whenever she wants.”
“Done. And you scoop the poop.”
He realized Kit was looking at him. “Lost in a memory?”
“Oh. Yeah. My partner had ... has a baby. Not a baby anymore. She’s going on two now. I used to be real close, sort of an honorary uncle.”
Each word of that conversation they’d had before their last traffic stop was etched in his brain. On that sweltering summer day, the temperature topping 102, they’d arrived first to examine the cargo truck abandoned on the side of a road, the rear tire flat. The plates came back reported stolen. He’d been content to wait with Daniela in their air-conditioned squad car until backup arrived, but something made him get out and approach the vehicle.
He found himself unspooling a story he’d refused todiscuss with anyone since the incident debrief. “I heard a sound, like fists pounding on the door, muffled, high-pitched screams.” People. There were people inside that truck. He felt again the flood of adrenaline, the way his pulse had slammed into high gear as he’d run to get the battering ram from his vehicle.
“Daniela told me we should wait, help was only a few minutes out, but I didn’t listen. I grabbed the ram to knock the padlock off the door handle. She was right behind me, backing me up even though she’d wanted to wait. I didn’t examine the scene well enough. Guy had an explosive wired to the lock, and it blew. I got knocked out, but...” He breathed long and slow. “The ram flew backward and hit her, severed her spinal cord. She’s a paraplegic now. Thanks to me.”
Kit continued to look at him, but he couldn’t maintain eye contact.
“Does she blame you?”
“No. The opposite. She has invited me to stay in Mia’s life, sends me texts and cards, invitations to Christmas and birthday parties. Her husband feels differently, though. Caught me outside last time I visited and made his position crystal clear.”
He’d stood on their front porch, knuckles raised to knock and a stuffed giraffe under his arm when the door had swung open. Ron was waiting for him, staring him down. He kept his voice soft so Daniela wouldn’t hear, but each word clanged like a gong.
“Cullen,I don’t care what Danielathinks. You’re not welcome here. You went all cowboyon that call. You had to be the hero,andnow my wife can’t walk. She’s got totake care of our baby from a wheelchair. Everything inour life has gotten exponentially harder because you couldn’twait five minutes.”
He looked at Kit and let it loose. “Ron said, ‘You’re not the hero anymore, not in our story, so butt out. Daniela may not fault you, but I do, and I don’t want you around my kid or my wife.’ He slammed the door before I could respond. But there was nothing I could say anyway. So that was that.”
He’d never told Daniela about the encounter with her husband, in order not to cause any more stress or pain in their marriage. Besides, deep down, he knew every word was true. Five minutes. He’d changed all their lives in five minutes.
Kit broke into his reverie.
“You didn’t go back to being a cop because of what happened?”
He blinked, looked at his lap and then at her and finally at Tot. “Could have returned, but...” He let the comment trail away, tapped the bottle to get the last of the milk into Tot’s mouth. “They got the women out of the truck, six of them, some barely into their teens. Several were injured from the explosion but not severely. One died later of heat exhaustion. They were being moved out of state for trafficking purposes.”
Her nostrils flared. “Disgusting.”
“Yes. The truck driver vanished, and whoever hired him wasn’t caught either. Nobody got what they deserved.”Nobody.
“Cullen, I’m sorry. That’s a horrible thing to live with.”
He didn’t answer. What was there to say?
