“Call me,” she said. “The very first second you know anything.”
I kissed her forehead, breathing her in longer than necessary, soaking in her sunshine for a moment. “I will.”
Leaving her alone in my apartment felt so normal and unfamiliar at the same time as I ran down the steps and jumped into my cruiser and kicked up gravel on my way toward the scene. The drive through the dark night felt endless as I raced to the address.
I didn’t tell Goldie where the fire was because she would have spiraled and insisted on coming with me. But I couldn’t do that because I couldn’t focus if she was there. It was bad enough that Rhea was.
Sirens from her fire station and one town over echoed through the night, my lights flashed off empty dark storefronts and sleeping houses. It wouldn’t take long before the entire town woke up to the dire call.
My mind kept playing the same thing repeatedly as I drove to the ice rink where the accident had happened.
It wasn’t an accident at all; I could feel it in my bones. The ice rink was out in the middle of a concrete island, surrounded by a massive parking lot and empty grass fields. There was no chance a vehicle hit the building by mistake, and I didn’t even have to be on the scene to know that.
Before I made the last turn toward the community rink, I could see the glow of fire and red lights. Firelight painted the night sky orange, thick smoke boiling upward toward the stars like a warning flare. There was a truck buried straight through the back side of the building, flames licking up its side, smoke spreading into the structure.
I got out of my cruiser, throwing my badge and gun on as I took it all in. Glass littered the parking lot, and people in various stages of shock stood on the edge of the pavement, faces glowing orange as they watched. The rink wasn’t empty when the accident happened.
Chaos.
My heart hammered in my chest as fire crews swarmed the scene, hoses snaking across the pavement, engines roaring. I scanned faces desperately.
Where was she?
Where was Rhea?
“Brooks!” Thomas yelled as he ran by, dragging a hose behind him. “Help me run this line!”
I didn’t hesitate, grabbing the heavy hose and pulling with him toward the hydrant on the edge of the parking lot.
“Where’s Dalton?” I yelled over the noise of the diesel engines and the snapping of the fire behind us.
“Interior,” he shouted over the noise as he wrenched open the hydrant, nodding to the inferno behind me. “First team thatwent in. There was a rec league playing when the truck hit the building. She went to check for a driver.”
My chest tightened as I turned back toward the scene.
I walked away from him, unable to help any more than I had as I scanned the giant opening around the truck. The heat was brutal, even from the perimeter. I could feel it baking my skin, the taste of smoke clogging the back of my throat.
Then—
An explosion hit.
A concussive blast rocked the ground and sent a shockwave through my chest as I fell backward on my ass. The flames surged, windows blowing out in a burst of sound and light.
And then horns.
Every engine on the scene started blaring.
The air horns screamed through the night, long and urgent, louder than the chaos around us.
“Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.” An ominous voice echoed through every radio on the scene. “Evacuate! Gas Leak!”
My blood ran cold as I sat up and stared at the opening as firefighters ran from the fire.
“Pull them out!” someone screamed. “All units out, now!”
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I stared at the burning building, my mind screaming her name over and over as if that alone could pull her free. It felt like every second passed in slow motion as the fire ripped up the side of the building. The firefighters all evacuated, running from the fire as they turned their attention on trying to extinguish it from the outside. But as I scanned all the faces of those outside the building, one face was missing.
Rhea.
