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I wheeze again, my body working to expel the toxins I inhaled. The fireman forces me to the ground while police officers surround us. “I’ll tell them, okay? I’ll tell them.”
He runs off toward the apartment, and I turn to find another fireman working on Athena. Her red coat dark. I crawl forward, putting my hands in her fur. “Hey, hey, hey.” Tears stream down my face. Raeann has to be up there. Athena never would’ve left her side, and Raeann wouldn’t have left her either. “Come on, girl.”
The fireman affixes oxygen as well as he can to her muzzle. A slight fog fills the plastic.
I sit up straighter. She’s alive. “Athena!”
“She needs a vet,” the fireman says.
I don’t even know who her vet is. How could I have overlooked something so important? I slip out my phone and call Joey. He answers on the first ring. “Boss.”
“Joey, I need a vet for Athena. There’s…” I choke back emotion. I can’t even find the words that won’t dissolve into crying. “I need one now. There’s been a—” My mind doesn’t want to say the word. My love—my life—is still up in that apartment. IfI think about it too long, I will rage. But the best I can do for her right now is find help for Athena. “There’s been a fire.”
Joey, as usual, is all business, just with zero snark. “Are you at the store?”
“Yes.”
“I got it taken care of.”
“Okay.”
“Boss?”
“Yeah?” I clear my throat to keep the sob at bay.
“Raeann and Tab?”
My grip on the phone tightens. “We don’t know yet.”
He takes several seconds to answer. So unlike him. “Okay.”
The line goes dead, and I cuddle up next to Athena, working my hands through her fur. Little by little, she becomes more alert. I stare at the mouth of the empty staircase that the now-round, full hose travels up.
Two men place a ladder against the building in front of Raeann’s window. I watch while they ascend the rungs and lift the window molding with a crowbar. A breath holds in my chest. Athena paws me, and a deep whine expels from her chest. I squeeze her paw and let out the rush of air in my lungs. “I’m okay, girl.”This dog. Damn.“I got someone coming for you, okay? I promise.”
“We got one!” a voice yells.
I whip my head around to stare at the window. A coif of blonde hair tinged with black emerges. I jump to my feet, walking that way. Legs come out next, the fireman somehow holding her horizontally as he descends the ladder. Paramedics push forward, and I follow them, dodging people. “Raeann!”
The paramedics immediately start giving her chest compressions. I kneel next to her, grabbing her hand, squeezing it. She’s covered from head-to-toe in dark ash. I watch helplesslywhile they work on her, my brain relieved and terrified at the same time.
“What about Tab?” I ask.
No one must hear me because no one answers.
“Hey, Athena’s alive,” I whisper to Raeann, hoping that’ll help stir her. “I have a vet coming right now. Joey’s on it.”
“There’s a pulse,” someone says.
An inhuman noise erupts from my throat. Behind me, the fireman assisting Athena says, “Hey, hey.” Suddenly, Athena is beside me, placing her head on Raeann’s leg. These two have lived through things like this before. They’re survivors.
“Clear the area. Let’s get her to the hospital.”
I pull Athena back, giving the paramedics room. “Who are you?” one of them asks.
“Her husband.”
The word flies from my mouth as easily as uttering my own name.