Lucy had in her hand what was possibly the smallest fire extinguisher known to man. The white powder did nothing to stop the inferno. She dropped it and collapsed onto the ground.
His heart stopped beating.
He couldn’t lose her.
Smoke continued to fill the kitchen, the heat from the flames intense. He wrapped his arm around her to hoist her against his chest. She sobbed. Cruel, wrenching sounds escaped from her small frame. He carried her from the apartment.
Lucy wheezed against his chest. A slippery, wet warmth oozed from her arm.
Adrenaline seared through him, and every muscle in his body clenched.
He had arrived too late.
She was hurt.
Rancid guilt multiplied as he hurried down the steps to the little patch of lawn beside Dixie’s apartment.
Dixie barked orders at some of the neighbors who had appeared while he was inside. They sprayed garden hoses at the burning building. Flames burst higher through the roof, unresponsive to their efforts.
“She’s hurt.” He laid Lucy on the grass next to where Dixie stood. “Her arm is burned.”
Dixie’s eyes got huge, and she raised a hand to her mouth. “Lord in heaven.”
“M-m-itzy’s in the house.” Agonized tears in Lucy’s eyes reflected the fire behind him.
“I’ll get her,” he promised her.
“Will, no. You can’t go back inside.”
He wouldn’t let her lose anything more. “I said I’ll get her.”
“Her arm,” William said to Dixie.
Dixie knelt beside her. “Ambulance is comin’.”
“What? I’m not…” Lucy glanced down. “Damn. W-when did that happen?”
Dixie tugged off her purple cardigan laid it across Lucy’s chest.
The jarring bleat of a fire engine got louder.
Dixie smoothed Lucy’s matted hair and jerked her chin at William with a glance to the burning building.
“I’ll hurry,” he whispered to Lucy.
It took everything in him to leave her there and bolt back inside. One of the men with a hose hollered at him to stop. But he didn’t listen.
Soupy, black smoke met him at the entry. Stumbling into the room and squinting against the filmy soot nearly brought William to his knees.
A sizzling explosion from the kitchen shifted the foundation. William coughed against a surge of smoke. Another crash rained debris around him. His heart ricocheted against his ribs. The kitchen ceiling had caved in.
He would find Mitzy and get out.
Lucy loved her. He loved Lucy. The thought shifted the foundation of more than the apartment. It shifted the foundation of his life.
He loved her.
So by some convoluted formula, it was his responsibility to ensure the cat survived.
