Her cat.
She fought against the stinging pain in her arm—it hurt like asonofabitch. A medic had transferred her to a gurney outside the second ambulance and now examined the wound.
Dixie squeezed her hand and murmured low. Lucy couldn’t make out what she said because nothing mattered but Will in that burning building.
Flames had spread to Will’s apartment. Huge hoses attached to the fire hydrant near the road sprayed torrents of water over everything. The fire was winning, burning it all into a heap of metal and wood.
“Get Chief Lawson over here,” a fireman called out the door to another near the truck.
Lucy’s breath seized, and she tried to get off of the stretcher.
“Keep her still,” the medic said to Dixie.
Dixie pressed her against the pillow, holding firm while he attached white gauze to the wound. Lucy jerked and bit her lip against the sharp pain. “Will’s dead.”
Dixie gripped her hand tight. “Hush your mouth.”
Lucy closed her eyes to the silent tears. An unfamiliar hurt unleashed a flood of torment and remorse within her. This couldn’t be real. She opened her eyes and stared blankly into the night.
“Butter my butt and call me a biscuit,” Dixie murmured.
Lucy turned her head. It took a moment to focus against the flurry of activity all around the building. Will walked toward her, covered in soot.
Her breath caught. A ticked-off Mitzy struggled in his arms. Their eyes met, and she didn’t move her gaze from his until he was close enough so she could stroke Mitzy’s head. The cat snuggled against her hand, purring softly.
The medic glanced up from taping her bandage and raised his eyebrows at the cat.
Lucy ignored him.
“You scared me,” she whispered to Will.
He glanced at the bandage on her arm. “Could say the same. You okay?”
She followed his gaze there. Red splotches already seeped through the gauze.
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Just a scratch.”
Dixie harrumphed. “Pfft. She needs a doctor. I’ll take the cat. Hospitals get touchy if you show up with ’em.”
She plucked Mitzy from Lucy’s grasp and looked to Will, jerking her head in Lucy’s direction. “Scared yer girl. Glad ya made it out.”
Dixie was wrong. She wasn’t his girl.
Dixie turned, barked an order at one of the neighbors, and disappeared with Mitzy.
Lucy swallowed the lump in her throat.
Will’s whole body convulsed as he coughed.
“Will…” Lucy started, her blood pressure rising each time his lungs spasmed.
“She’s ready to move,” the medic yelled, and Lucy’s stretcher lurched as someone pulled her to the ambulance.
Will’s breaths were shallow, a horrible scraping sound on each inhale.
“Oxygen tank,” the medic barked.
No.
