Page 19 of Girl Lost

She nodded and scrambled onto the counter. He pushed the window open.

A tight squeeze, but she managed to wriggle through.

“Luna! Grab my hand!” Blade boomed from below.

A hand reached up, and Luna disappeared into the smoke chasing her out the window.

Corbin boosted himself up. His injured shoulder screamed in protest. Following Luna, he squeezed halfway through the opening and glanced down. The ground seemed miles away.

His shoulder throbbed. Pain radiated down his arm, but he had to get down.

He jumped, landing hard. Legs shaky. He stumbled and collapsed on the weedy lawn. A uniformed officer used a blanket to smother the flames on his back.

Salas was on the sidewalk with Blade and other officers working to get his shoes and vest off. Patches of his pants had burned away. He writhed and moaned.

Corbin couldn’t look. He returned his attention to the house. The flames roared with a hungry fury, consuming the structure.

Sirens wailed in the distance, but he didn’t think there would be much left by the time the firemen doused the structure. Any evidence of Stryker being held captive here was now lost to the flames.

Luna shrugged out of her tactical vest and lowered herself to the ground. She sat so close beside him that their shoulders touched. Ash and soot smeared her face. She rested her arms on her knees. Smoke wafted from her shoes.

“How’s that for a welcome home?”

She coughed a laugh. “Baptism by fire?”

“Literally.” They sat watching the house burn. His stomach knotted as he thought about Luna’s legs on fire. In that moment, his brain controlled his body without him thinking. Now he hated himself for even letting her be there in the first place. But this was his shot. His one chance to tell her what he’d been holding on to all these years. He just had to work up the courage to say it. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m a little toasty, but I’ll be okay.” She nodded at the flaming house. “Someone set a trap for us. Doused everything in lighter fluid.”

“The fire moved too hot, too fast. Lighter fluid doesn’t do that. This was something else, something highly volatile.”

“That’s above my pay grade,” she said.

He offered a half-hearted smile. They were talking around whathad really happened in there. How she’d been paralyzed by the fire and unable to move. He wanted to ask about it, but the sirens made it impossible to hear. And if she told him it was classified, his head might explode.

Emergency vehicles screamed to a stop on the street behind them. They cut the sirens but left the red and blue lights whirring. First responders shouted commands and information, using their training to get the scene under control. Paramedics took over caring for Salas, and he heard Officer Gordon arguing with the paramedic about riding with Salas in the ambulance.

Corbin didn’t move to get up. Instead, he watched Luna watching the fire. There was so much he wanted to say but nowhere to start. The mistakes of the past loomed over them like a shadow, but it wasn’t time to shine the light there.

Not yet.

Luna turned her head and caught him staring at her. “What?”

Needles stabbed his throat. The pain wasn’t from smoke inhalation. “We could’ve died in there.”

She nodded.

“We could’ve died, and I never would’ve had the chance...” He ran a thumb over her cheek, wiping away a bit of the dirt.

The fact she didn’t pull away was a good sign. Something had changed between them, and he had to say the words before the moment evaporated. “I just ... I need you to know ... I’m sorry.”

Without a word, Luna shoved herself up with her palms and moved past him. Eyes cutting forward, she skirted around him, making sure to keep her distance. The heat of the fire on his face was nothing compared to the fury that radiated from her.

Like a chump, he just sat there. Watched her weave through the crowd of gawking onlookers, shaking her head.

Perfect. He’d taken a risk. Opened up. And Luna had walked away. Again.

Maybe some bridges were simply too damaged to ever be rebuilt.