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Kit cried out with a desperate look behind her. “Nico’s got to go to jail.”

“Too late,” Gideon said, voice hard and flat.

When Gideon hoisted Cullen’s shoulders, he saw what his brother meant. Nico’s body was being swallowed by the sizzling lava, literally devoured. In five seconds he was gone, rifle and all.

Gideon and Kit ran with Cullen to the truck, sliding him into the bed.

“I’ve gotta drive,” Gideon said. “Archie, can you ride in the back with him?”

Kit spoke up. “I will. Archie’s got the baby.”

Archie started to protest, and Cullen did too.

“Get moving!” Kit commanded Gideon.

She braced herself against the metal bed as Gideon took the wheel. The truck tore off. He felt the force of the fiery mass chasing them, rattling the earth around them. From his vantage point he watched the trees disappear one by one, as if a massive tunneling beast was sucking them down.

The truck pivoted, jerked, sending the two of them banging around as Gideon desperately tried to keep moving forward.

Kit braced herself, one fist clenched in Cullen’s jacket to anchor him. He saw reflected in her terrified eyes the stream of fire that chased them, the ground opening into a chasm that sought to join the lava-filled ravine.

It was a race now.

Cullen forced his fingers to curl around hers.

“Don’t you die,” she whispered, tears flowing down her face. “You big galoot.”

As the heat became unbearable and the metal bed of the truck began to feel like a griddle, they catapulted onto a different road, free from trees. A scattershot of gravel raked the chassis, but above that cacophony came a glorious sound. The whapping of helicopter blades.

The truck jerked to a stop, and suddenly there were people, uniformed and one in a yellow vest.

“Them,” he said to the first one who climbed into the truck bed. “Get them aboard.”

“No,” Kit said. “Archie and Tot are being loaded in. I’m waiting with you.”

“Yes,” Cullen grunted as forcefully as he could, giving her the full impact of a law enforcement command. “You will get in that chopper right now or Gideon will drag you.”

Gideon stood at the edge of the truck bed, hands on his hips.

Kit looked from Cullen to Gideon, probably trying to work out how much of the stubborn, bossy traits was genetically shared.

She huffed out a breath and climbed out of the truck.

The medic applied a clotting agent to his wound, and he and Gideon rolled Cullen onto a stretcher and carried him to the helicopter where they strapped him down.

Archie was belted into a seat next to Kit, Tot clutched to his chest.

They lifted off, rotors whirling up a storm of debris. The helicopter danced and dipped, angling so far to one side that he caught a view through the window of the catastrophe unfolding below them, the mountainside falling away, rivers of red devouring whatever and whoever had been left behind.

Annette.

Kit turned toward him and stretched out her hand to take his. He knew she was thinking what he was. Annette had risked everything to ensure her baby wasn’t a prisoner like she had been. You done good , Annette.

He closed his eyes, feeling the weight of every arduous mile they’d traveled, and prayed for the woman who’d offered up her life for her baby’s.

His senses grew fuzzy, and he fought to stay conscious while the rescue worker monitored his vitals for the flight to an airstrip a safe distance from the spewing mountain.

In a haze, he was aware of the helicopter landing, of being moved into a vehicle—an ambulance, he supposed—to be transported to the hospital.

And the beautiful sound of a baby crying.

· · · · · · · · · · · ·

He woke up in a hospital room. Kit ... He jackknifed to a sitting position, head swimming.

“Slow down or you’ll rip out all the tubes.” Gideon sat with his heels on the edge of the hospital bed. He looked freshly showered and shaved, his muscular frame relaxed.

“How long?”

“Have you been out? Two days.”

“Kit ...?”

“Was treated for dehydration and a concussion and various minor injuries. She’s been here practically the whole time, but Tot’s grandmother arrived an hour ago, and she went with Tot to meet her at the airport.”

“So Tot’s...”

“In perfect condition, the best of all of you.”

He let out a huge breath and silently thanked the Lord. He felt a pang at what was about to happen for Tot and her grandmother. It wouldn’t be easy for Kit to navigate that emotional firestorm alone. He wished he could have been there with her.

“When am I getting out of here?”

“If you’re a good boy, this afternoon. Maybe they’ll give you a sticker if you don’t try to hurry them along.

” He got up. “Going for coffee, and no I’m not getting you any because you called me names and you didn’t do the smart thing and bail before the volcano blew, like a normal person with adequate brain capacity. ”

If he had, Kit and Tot would be dead.

And he wouldn’t have a whole new way for his heart to beat.

At the door, Gideon paused. “She’s perfect for you, you know. Stubborn, thinks she knows best, smart. But she’s way better than you deserve. Nonetheless, somehow you got her to like you.”

“You think so?”

He pointed to the table by his bed. “She brought you a present.”

Cullen waited until after Gideon left before he grabbed the small bag and opened it. He laughed so hard his body ached at the jar of green olives inside.

· · · · · · · · · · · ·

It was a solid month before Cullen was allowed into the obliterated Pine Hollow to see the remains of his cabin.

The ruin wasn’t unexpected, but it added to the ache of his healing bullet wound.

His property, like everyone else’s, was buried under the broken skeleton of Mount Ember.

The only thing still standing was the brick chimney and a section of twisted gutter sticking up from the rubble.

He was staying in a rented room in Grandlake while he firmed up his plans. The town had largely survived somehow, except for the bait and tackle shop, which had lost a corner due to a massive rock flung loose during the explosion.

The first thing he’d done upon his return was to repay the shop owners for the supplies they’d taken.

They’d protested loudly. He’d cheerfully ignored them.

Fortunately, the school district had excellent insurance and declined Cullen and Kit’s offer to pay for the bus they’d intentionally jettisoned.

Since Archie was still bunking above the library, the two of them had helped the local cleanup efforts.

Some of the roads were painstakingly cleared, and communities reopened. Many would never be.

Thanks to the coordinated efforts from dozens of agencies, the eruption only claimed fifteen lives, not including Nico, Simon, Annette, and John. It had been merely by the grace of God that he, Archie, Kit, and Tot hadn’t been added to the fatality list. Gideon too.

That morning Archie had looked up from sorting the library’s Zane Grey collection and winked at him as he left for Kit’s, a journey he took almost every day.

“Got your hair cut finally?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Shipshape.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, move out, then. You’re late.”

With a grin, he’d saluted before jogging to the vehicle on loan from Gideon. The arrangements for his surprise required a few hours of coordination, so he didn’t arrive at Kit’s trailer until after lunch.

“We’re invited to Lucy’s birthday party,” she said when he let her out of his hug, showing him an invitation covered with tiny pink balloons.

He felt a stab of both pain and pleasure. The police had discovered the baby’s correct name on a birth certificate, Lucy Elizabeth, but he could not seem to convince himself of it. In his heart she’d always be the chubby, energetic Tot.

Annette’s memorial service had been a beautiful affair with flowers and music, and he and Kit had done their best to comfort the mother who’d lost her daughter twice. Mrs. Bowman had a granddaughter who would be solace and comfort to her as she mourned.

And Tot had a father, since Kyle was picked up by a rescue unit after he’d escaped Nico and Simon at Cullen’s cabin. He’d submitted to a DNA test, which proved that Tot was indeed his child.

At present, Tot would remain with her grandmother while the legal issues were resolved about who would have custody and how visitation would be arranged.

In any case, Cullen felt sure they would find a way where they could all love Annette’s little girl.

After all, they’d all loved Annette, and that was enough to bind them together.

Cullen and Kit had visited Tot regularly too, the foster aunt and uncle.

Weird, since none of them quite knew how to behave around each other.

Tot’s grandma settled on plying him and Kit with coffee and every conceivable type of pastry and showing them photos of Annette when she was an infant.

He had no idea how the whole matter of the harrowing escape would be explained to Tot one day, but he intended to be there to share how amazingly brave her mother had been, how she’d given her life to protect her baby daughter.

Maybe he’d even write it down to preserve the details.

Kit did not say much during their visits, but she dutifully examined each and every photo Mrs. Bowman presented of her daughter.

In the rare moments when Mrs. Bowman relinquished the baby, Kit walked Tot around and around the living room when she fussed, as she’d done in the wrecked trailer and throughout their sprint for survival.

When Kit cuddled the baby, he could see how the action soothed her heart.

And it had become his single focused mission in life to do the same.