in his ear. Responders were almost there. Rick placed a hand on Val’s shoulder and tried to comfort her, “Can you hear that, Val? They’re on their way to help. It’s going to be okay.”
Both Stephanie and Val turned worried eyes to him. Val shifted Haddie to her opposite hip and asked, “But where are Terrell and JoJo? Why aren’t they out here yet?”
“They’re coming,” Rick assured them, hoping he spoke the truth. Stephanie gave him a look behind Val’s back. Her expression and raised eyebrow seemed to silently ask him, are they?
Stephanie took Haddie from Val’s arms. “Sweetie,” she asked the girl, “where was Joash in the house?”
“Him’s sleeping,” Haddie answered and pointed to the house. “On the couch in the libbing room.”
Rick tensed. It was only late afternoon. Being asleep this early in the day did not seem right for the active little boy. Had Joash already succumbed to smoke inhalation? His eyes scanned the house, searching for signs of Terrell and his son. Would he need to go in after them?
Another flame leaped high into the sky, directly above where Haddie last saw Joash. Still Terrell did not appear, but they couldn’t wait in the alleyway any longer. If it was Hale who had set the fire, he could still be nearby, and if he was, the isolated alleyway wasn’t the best place to protect everyone. Setting a fire in broad daylight showed just how bold Hale was willing to be. They had to move even if it meant temporarily abandoning Terrell and Joash.
“We need to get out front,” he told the women. Hopefully the growing crowd of emergency vehicles and curious neighbors would spook Hale enough to keep him far away for the time being. Rick was also concerned about Axle. Rick couldn’t imagine how freaked out the dog must be stuck inside the backseat kennel with all this commotion going on around him.
He ran a few paces down the alley before realizing that Val and Stephanie weren’t following him. “Come on.” But Val stood her ground. She seemed unable to turn from the burning inferno that held her husband and her son.
Stephanie balanced Haddie on her hip, then grabbed Val’s hand and tugged. “Come on, Val. Maybe Terrell and Joash went out the front door. We need to follow Rick.”
Finally, Val relented. They all jogged down the alley to a place where they could safely cut through a neighbor’s backyard, stepping onto the front sidewalk at the same moment that the first of the fire engines arrived. An ambulance parked behind the engine, and then behind that, Terrell ran from the same neighbor’s yard with Joash in his arms. Rick’s shoulders slumped in relief.
“¡Gracias a Dios!” Val cried out, thanking God out loud with every step as she ran to her husband and son. Haddie wiggled out of Stephanie’s arms and joined her family, leaving Rick and Stephanie alone by his patrol car, where they could hear the muffled sounds of Axle’s anxious barks coming through the windows.
Rick opened the kennel in the back, and an agitated Axle flew out onto the sidewalk, running circles around Rick’s legs, unsure of which direction he wanted to go. Rick squatted and pulled Axle in close. He massaged big fistfuls of fur along Axle’s neck, trying to calm the dog with his voice and touch. “You’re okay, buddy. Everything’s okay.” It took extra effort, but once Axle was reassured, Rick was able to turn his focus back to Stephanie. She stared at the burning house, hardly blinking. Creases formed between her eyes. He stood back up, not liking the look on her face.
“Are you okay, Stephanie?”
She didn’t answer him, just hugged her bare arms around her slim waist and shivered. He grabbed a blanket from the trunk and wrapped it around her shoulders. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you not to go out in the rain without a coat?”
She humored him with a small smile and a quick, absentminded “thanks” for the blanket and returned her attention to the fire.
Given the circumstances, it wasn’t the most relevant or professional thing to be focusing on, but Rick couldn’t help noticing how pretty Stephanie looked. Even after all that she had endured today—crawling through windows, running away from a psychopath, escaping a burning building—Stephanie was still stunning.
It wasn’t the first time Rick had noticed her beauty. He had always thought of her as an attractive girl, but watching her now he was struck by how naturally that beauty came to her. It was effortless. Without a bit of makeup, standing in drizzling rain, she was beautiful. He thought of the photo of her hanging on Hale’s attic wall. He saw again the joy in her eyes and her easy smile. He did not like seeing anxiety dimming that joy.
Without turning her head from the scene in front of her, Stephanie said to him, “This is because of me, isn’t it.” She didn’t say it like a question. She was declaring what she had already decided to be true.
He turned her by the shoulders to face him before he said, “This is not your fault, Stephanie. That is an old house with outdated wiring, and a chimney that probably hasn’t been cleaned in a while. It could have been any number of things that started that fire.” She tried to turn away, but he held her shoulders and made her look him in the eyes. “I mean it. This is not your fault.”
“But look what I’ve brought on my friends,” she said, gesturing toward the house. “They do not deserve this.” The anxiety he had seen on her face hardened into determination. Stephanie looked him in the eyes and said, “I know they will still want me to stay with them. But I can’t. I will not put them in any more danger. Wherever I go, I know that Julian will follow.”
Rick looked down into her determined face, respecting the strength of character he saw there. But he also felt her fine-boned shoulders under his hands, and an urge to protect her surprised him. Years of training and experience told him not to get involved. He had to do whatever he could to keep his professional distance. If he let things get personal, the job would consume him.
Yet here he was, holding a pretty girl by the shoulders, searching her anxious eyes for something he could do or say that would do any good, discovering that as foolish as it may be, he did not want to keep his distance.
He wanted to give her more than a pep talk, but it was all he had at the moment. “Look, you’ve been through a terrible day. Don’t worry about anything until we know more. One thing at a time, okay?”
He left one hand on her shoulder and looked toward the ambulance. Joash wore an oxygen mask and was being loaded into the back of the truck. Terrell sat on the back edge with his own oxygen mask while Val and Haddie climbed inside with Joash.
Watching them, Rick remembered the long hours Terrell had sat by him in the hospital when he was recovering from the stabbing. He remembered how Val had stocked his freezer with ready-to-eat meals, and how they had cared for Axle until Rick was on his feet again. The Watkinses were the best kind of people, the best kind of friends. Now they were facing their own crisis. It was his turn to step up and help them. And he suddenly knew the best thing he could do to help.
“Stay right here,” he told Stephanie. “I need to talk with Terrell.”
* * *
Julian Hale.
Until this afternoon, Stephanie hadn’t known Julian’s last name. In her mind, he had simply been Julian, the IT guy. She had never talked to him much, because he seemed like the kind of guy who was happiest when you got out of his way and left him alone to work. Any small talk she had attempted only seemed to make him uncomfortable, so whenever he was in her classroom,
