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“Once she learned about Will’s death, she said she was done working for Roger. She didn’t want the money he was offering. Not when her chance at love was gone.”
Naya gasped and raked her hands through her hair. “Ingram. Roger shot her. She’s at my house.” Naya took a step toward the sidewalk.
Basuto held out his hand. “She’s alive. They took her to the hospital.”
Naya’s shoulders dropped. “Thank You, Lord. But how?”
“She’s the one who called 9-1-1. Apparently, Roger thought she was dead and mumbled something about going to Ethos. She overheard it and told us you guys were here.”
“So it’s really over?” Naya turned to Zack, then back to Basuto.
“I’m going to need your statements, but yeah.”
When they finished giving Basuto the rundown of what happened, Naya said, “Are you able to confirm who was behind my attack at the mountain?” She rubbed her arms.
“We have a copy of Will’s secret files, and they share everything.” Basuto grimaced. “Will executed the attack at the mountain and started the brush fire. Even wrote the note on your car and had Sylvia plant it.”
“So they all had different roles in Roger’s schemes?” Zack frowned.
“Seems that way.” Basuto nodded. “The files say Hudson was responsible for shooting at the fire truck during the parade. And the attempted gas leak. He even helped start the fire at Roger’s house and the chemical leak at Ethos to shift suspicions to Green Warriors.”
“Unbelievable.” Zack shook his head.
Naya sighed. “Thank you for everything.”
“Just doing my job. You two should go get checked out now.” Basuto pointed to the ambulance.
Zack walked hand in hand with Naya over to Trace and Kianna.
The Lord might be giving him a second chance with her after all these years, but he wasn’t sure he could say the same about his job on Rescue.
Amelia shouted orders, and everyone worked together to battle the blaze.
Zack wanted to be one of them. Wanted to belong at the firehouse. But he didn’t know how he could make that happen.
THIRTY-FOUR
Naya sat in her car parked by the firehouse and refreshed her email inbox. The spinning circle stared back at her.
“Any word?” Ingram’s voice echoed through her phone speaker.
Today was Thursday. Two days after the fire at Ethos and Roger’s and Hudson’s arrests. Today was also the day she’d find out who her boss had selected for the promotion.
Drew had told her to take a couple of days off work to recoup, and she’d spent the past forty-eight hours sleeping and rearranging her office space at home, thanks to the painting Zack had helped her do last week.
Naya squeezed her eyes shut, then opened her left eye a smidge. The blurry phone screen came into focus.
She opened both eyes and skimmed the list of emails with the blue dot next to them—a reminder of all the to-dos she had to check off her list.
She scrolled through the list once more.
“Nada.”
“It’s early. Maybe he’s still making his pick.”
“After everything that’s happened, I don’t think I want the promotion.” Sure, the story her boss had originally assigned them could make headlines. Given the people involved and the impact on the community, it probably would. But she’d forfeited that information and handed it over to Tucker. Would the human-interest piece she had submitted instead be compelling enough? It certainly wasn’t what Drew had originally assigned her. “So why am I holding my breath for this decision?”
“You’re a gifted storyteller. You want hope to shine through, and you do it by sharing people’s journeys.”