This time his gaze narrowed, and he took a step forward and lifted a hand as though to touch her shoulder. She flinched and pulled the blanket tighter around her. The hurt that flashed in his eyes cut straight through her, but she braced herself against softening to it. Nothing he could do would make this right.
“Look, I know you’re upset, but—”
She pulled the mask off though Brice had told her to leave it on. “Then why wouldn’t you…listen…to me?”
Breaking off into a coughing fit, she shot a look at those around them. The first responders on the scene were all pretending not to notice them. She tried again in a lower tone but spoke through gritted teeth. “Why didn’t you?”
“What were you even doing in there? You promised.” He searched her eyes, his own wild, frightened. “Didn’t you realize—”
“That I had to find the files…before it was too late?” She paused to cough some more. “I…found them, but we’ll never know what was…in them. They’re gone.”
“What did you expect me to do? Risk your life? And Felicia’s? And mine?”
“Now I don’t have—”
“Did youlookat that place?”
His jaw flexing, he pointed his gloved hand at the house, where the second story had already folded into the first, leaving only a shell of the exterior. Even from this reasonable distance, the heat from it spread over her face.
“It’s gone. A total loss,” he said. “And you could have gone with it. You could have…died.”
She shook her head, hearing his words but not wanting to accept them. Around them other firefighters continued to battle the flames. And more sirens could be heard in the distance, coming to join the fight. As the fire had also taken place in daylight, it had begun to draw a crowd as well. Cars were even arriving from town, drawn by the sirens and the smoke.
After putting the mask back on for a few breaths, she tried again. “You don’t understand. The boxes could have—”
“Rachel, stop!” He shot a look around and lowered his voice, but everyone was already watching them. “You have to stop digging. Even if it could have proven that your dad isn’t guilty of some of the crimes, you nearly died trying to find that proof. Nothing in the box was worth that.”
“We could have gotten the boxes out,” She insisted again with a sigh.
He stepped closer and spoke only for her. “There were multiple ignition points in that fire and near both exits. Someone didn’t want you to get out alive.”
She swallowed and then stared again at the house as a huge column of water poured over it. Had she really come that close to losing her life just to find those answers?
After another round of coughs, she cleared her throat. “Thank you…and Felicia…for saving my life.”
Mick shook his head, not ready to hear it, and leaned close again. “Is your life so worthless to you? Do you want your girls to end up like—”
Her?Mick stopped, his eyes going wide, but she got the message. He was accusing her of trying to leave her daughters as orphans. And he couldn’t have said anything crueler.
“Well, I’m glad you got to play the hero again. I know you’re still trying to make up for the losses back in Chicago. But this situation wasn’t the same. Whoever wanted to get to me also wanted those records destroyed. They’re still out there, and there’s no way to prove they’re guilty. I’ll never forgive you.”
As soon as the words escaped from her mouth, she regretted them, and not just because his head jerked back as though she’d stabbed him in the gut and left him to bleed out. Had she tried to injure him since he’d hurt her?
“Look, I’m sorry. We’re both upset. So let’s…” She didn’t know what she would have said next, but she didn’t get the chance as he held both hands up in surrender and backed away from her.
“You were waiting for me to do something to justify pushing me away. To prove you don’t deserve anything good. Well, I’m glad I could oblige before it was too late.”
“Mick, wait.”
But he didn’t. His shoulders were straight as he marched to the rig and away from her, the back of his turnout coat, with “Mount Isabel FD” at the top and “M. Prentiss” at the bottom, reflective yellow stripes between them, growing smaller with each step.
She wanted to run after him, to tell him…what? That she wanted him, needed him? But she couldn’t. She was furious with him, too. For what? Saving her life? It wasn’t as simple as that, either. And even if she could go after him in front of all those people, her lungs hurt so much that she wouldn’t have made it across the driveway.
More sirens announced the arrival of the ambulance. After it parked, more EMTs descended on her, rechecking all the levels that Brice had already noted and then insisting that she climb onto the stretcher for a trip to the hospital.
But as they pulled away from the house she’d grown up in, she was convinced that she’d lost far more than two boxes of records that day.
* * *
