Page 13 of Jagged Burn (Kidds Beach Fire Department #2)
Through the Fire
Stefan Grey
The flames have been put out, but the house is gone.
Charred wood still smolders behind the caution tape, the stench of smoke clinging to everything. Firefighters move in the background, securing the last hot spots, but my focus never leaves the ambulance parked under the old oak tree.
Anna sits on the bumper, blanket around her shoulders, oxygen mask dangling from her fingers because she keeps pulling it off to argue with the medic. Stubborn as hell even after almost being burned alive.
My heart won’t stop pounding. I keep replaying it—the moment I found her upstairs, choking on smoke, eyes wide with fear. The way her body felt weightless in my arms, too fragile, too breakable.
If I’d been a minute later ... the thought guts me.
I stalk over, ignoring the medic’s glare, and crouch in front of her. “Are you okay?”
She rolls her eyes, but her lips tremble. “I’m fine. Stop hovering.”
“Not a chance.” My voice cracks harder than I mean it to. “I thought I lost you, Anna.”
“You didn’t,” she whispers, reaching out. Her hand cups my scarred cheek without hesitation. “You never will.”
God. She doesn’t know what those words do to me.
Behind us, raised voices catch my attention. Two cops shove Sam into the back of a cruiser, his face twisted with fury, his wrists cuffed behind his back. He thrashes, shouting my name like it’s a curse.
“You think you’ve won, Grey? You can’t keep her! She’ll see what you are! She’ll leave you!”
Anna stiffens, but I cover her hand with mine, keeping her eyes on me. “Don’t listen to him.”
“I’m not,” she says firmly. Then louder, glaring past me at Sam, “You don’t own me anymore. You never did.”
Her voice doesn’t shake. Mine does. Because she just chose me, in front of everyone, in front of him. And suddenly, I can’t hold back anymore.
“Anna.” I grab both her hands, needing her to feel this, to understand.
“I’ve been running from this for years. From you.
From what I feel. I thought my scars made me unworthy.
I thought I’d ruin you. But tonight...” My voice breaks, raw.
“Tonight, I realized I’d rather burn with you than live without you. ”
Her eyes widen, filling with tears.
I keep going, the words tearing free like they’ve been caged too long.
“I love you. I’ve always loved you. From the minute Matt dragged me into your house, and you sat on the porch with those pigtails and told me I was bossy.
I thought it was wrong. I thought it was dangerous.
But it’s the truest thing in my life. You’re it, Anna. You’re home.”
The medic mutters something about heart rates spiking, but I don’t care. My entire world is in her hands right now.
For a heartbeat, she just stares at me, tears sliding down her soot-streaked cheeks. Then she laughs, a shaky, beautiful sound.
“Took you long enough, Grey.”
And then her mouth is on mine, hard and desperate, in front of God and half the fire department. Cheers erupt around us, Matt whistles loudly, and someone yells something crude, but I don’t care. Her lips taste like smoke and survival and forever.
When we finally break apart, breathless, I rest my forehead against hers. “Say it back. Please.”
She smiles through her tears, fierce and certain. “I love you. Always have, always will. Jagged edges and all.”
My chest splinters open, relief and joy pouring out like floodwater. I scoop her into my arms, ignoring the blanket, ignoring the medic’s protest. She yelps, laughing, clutching at my neck.
“Where are we going?”
“Anywhere you want,” I say, voice rough but steady. “As long as you’re with me.”
Because that’s the truth. The only truth that matters. We walk away from the wreckage together, hand in hand, fire behind us and the future ahead. And for the first time in my life, I don’t just fight the flames. I embrace them.