Lenny Anderson had been Colin’s supervising Lieutenant and close friend during his decade as a campus cop. “Jesus, Colin—” He didn’t finish. Colin couldn’t hear him anyway. He wrapped his arms around Colin and Joshua, holding on tight.
“I heard the call,” Lenny whispered, voice shaking. “Your address—I ran every damn light between here and Fifth.” He tore off his jacket and tried to wrap it around his friend’s shoulders, but Colin wouldn’t release Joshua. Wouldn’t move. Wouldn’t blink. His eyes remained fixed on the broken body of his friend.
“Come on, brother,” Lenny pleaded, tugging gently at his arm. “You’re freezing.”
Colin just shook his head.
Two other officers crouched beside Joshua, draping blankets over his shoulders, murmuring reassurances. Colin didn’t seem to hear. Lenny molded the jacket around Colin’s body, his hand firm between his shoulder blades.
“I—I didn’t know where you were. And—” Lenny’s voice broke. He looked toward the yard where officers still stood in a hard, silent knot — fists clenched, jaws tight, their grief edged with a fury that had nowhere to go. “God, Colin. I heard Sarah’s call and—” His breath caught in a sob.
Colin bowed his head, gripping Lenny’s arm in one burned, trembling hand.
Across the porch, Daniel stumbled past the smoldering front door, coughing hard, smoke pluming from his clothing. His eyes found the shape on the lawn and staggered toward her, the extinguisher dropping from his grip.
One of the officers, an older man, caught him by the arm. Another laid a hand on Daniel’s shoulder. Daniel shook his head, then sank beside Sarah’s body, burying his face in his hands. One of the others knelt beside him, shielding him from the lights, talking to him, saying things that Colin couldn’t hear.
Then sirens.
Fire engines. EMS. The wail of them cut through the smoke, sharp and merciless.
Joshua turned his head, blinking against the strobing lights, and gave a choked, anguished cry. “Colin––your hands!”
Colin’s eyes dropped. Both hands were red. Raw. Burned. He hadn’t even felt it. “I—” He tried to speak, but the pain caught up all at once, searing through him sharp and agonizing, taking his breath.
Joshua leaped to his feet, wincing from his own pain, and waved at the nearest paramedic. “Here! Over here! Hurry! He’s hurt!”
Colin didn’t move. Didn’t speak. His gaze remained fixed on Sarah’s body, the smoke curling around her like a shroud.
Lenny’s voice was barely more than a whisper: “She’s gone, man.”
Colin closed his eyes.
And the world—or what was left of it—still burned.
Joshua crouchedbeside Colin and wrapped him in his arms, then staggered to his feet, dragging Colin with him. “Lenny!” he rasped, voice raw from smoke and panic. “Help me! Help me get him to the ambulance!”
Two officers joined Lenny and Joshua, hauling Colin to his feet. He fought against them, muscles straining, his eyes locked on the huddled group still gathered in the yard. His friends. His comrades. Hisbrethren. AndSarah! Lying so still beneath the flicker of firelight, her uniform covered in expanding dark blotches.
But four sets of hands gripped him hard, dragging him toward the street–away from the sight he couldn’t bear to leave.
“Colin,please!” Joshua cried as they half-carried, half-dragged Colin across the ruined lawn. “Please, you’re hurt!”
Lenny’s voice was low but fierce, urgent in Colin’s ear. “Youcan’thelp her, Colin. She was gone the second that fucking thing went off.”
Two paramedics met them on the lawn and took Colin from their arms. They lifted him into the ambulance with practiced care, his burned hands dangling—raw, useless, the skin blistered and beginning to swell.
Joshua stood frozen, watching as Colin disappeared inside. Then, slowly, he sank to his knees beside the ambulance and buried his face in his hands, giving himself over to grief.
CHAPTER TWELVE
ASHES AND AFTERMATH
Joshua sat in the back of the ambulance, legs dangling over the edge, air hitching through his chest. His feet were freshly bandaged—wrapped in gauze after being cleaned and checked. One of the EMTs crouched beside him and slipped an oxygen mask over his face, guiding his hand to hold it steady.
A second EMT gently fitted a mask over Colin’s nose and mouth as he sat by Joshua’s side, then checked the gash on his forehead. His hands—bandaged now—rested on his lap, limp and trembling. The pain had come late, but now it throbbed in dull, steady pulses. They had offered painkillers, but he refused to take them.
Lenny stood beside the ambulance, gaze flicking between his two friends, lifting a hand now and then to swipe at his damp cheeks.
