Page 15 of Rescued Dreams (Last Chance Fire and Rescue #8)

FIFTEEN

Y ou and I, we’re the same, aren’t we?

Amelia couldn’t get those words out of her head for the remainder of her shift.

The fact no more calls came in had allowed her time to absorb it all. Hooded men, assailants, and their tools being sabotaged. Now this? A destitute girl who wanted her help.

She opened the passenger door for the young woman who had asked for her. “Thank you for waiting, Cherise.”

“You can call me Cherry. We’re friends now, right?” The younger woman set her hand on her rounded abdomen. She’d told Amelia she was sixteen weeks pregnant.

Amelia had never been pregnant, but from what Zack had been telling the crew—updating them on Naya’s progress all through her pregnancy—she knew that sixteen was a few weeks before the ultrasound where she could learn the baby’s gender.

“Okay, Cherry.” Amelia nodded. “I’m happy to take you anywhere you need to go.”

Cherry slid into the seat, shifting on the cushion before she drew her feet in.

She seemed slender—maybe more so than she should be—making Amelia want to ask if she’d eaten.

But then, she also seemed like the kind of woman who expected others to care for her or provide for her.

But Amelia didn’t know her all that well, so it wasn’t like she could assume.

She moved around the hood of the car. At least with this woman here now, she didn’t have to think about herself being the victim of something dangerous. She could focus on Cherry and what this lost-seeming young woman needed from her.

Amelia had listened for a few moments before asking Cherry to go down to the Bridgewater Café and get something to eat while Amelia finished her shift.

Since Cherry had no money, Amelia had given her a twenty.

Having money gave a person a little confidence, even if it was just to get a muffin and a drink.

Now they had to figure out what to do.

The idea stalled Amelia so she didn’t start the car. She didn’t even put her seatbelt on. She shifted in the seat, holding the keys in her hand, and faced Cherry a little bit. She didn’t know where to begin.

“It’s almost like we’re sisters.”

Amelia could see how she might feel that was true. “How long did it last?”

“Two years.” Cherry winced. “I’m not proud of it.

I did a lot of things I realize now I shouldn’t have gone along with.

Nicholas…he just twisted everything so that I didn’t know what was me and what was his idea.

” She shook her head. “Now that I’m out of the relationship, I can see more clearly.

There was a lady at the crisis pregnancy shelter in Seattle who talked me through a lot of it.

She helped me see that he manipulated me into believing him and going along with everything. ”

“I’m glad you got out safely.” Amelia couldn’t imagine if she’d discovered she was pregnant in the midst of everything that’d happened in Benson. The fact Nicholas hadn’t changed and was still victimizing women he was in relationships with made her sick.

Amelia had saved herself. But in keeping quiet, she hadn’t saved anyone else from going through the same thing.

“What made you come here to Last Chance County? It’s a long way.”

Cherry said, “The bus goes through Boise and Salt Lake City and comes here. I suppose I was thinking I’d head somewhere warm for the winter, but I ran out of money.”

“How did you know to look for me?” Amelia had been targeted too much recently to not worry about this. A person she very much wanted to keep her location from…had discovered exactly that. Not Cherry, necessarily. But it wasn’t a stretch that Nicholas might come here looking for her.

Cherry picked at a loose thread on the hem of her oversized sweater.

“He talked about you. Mostly to rub it in my face when I didn’t measure up.

You’re a firefighter, and he always told me how strong you were.

How I should be stronger, stand up for myself.

Then he’d drag me back down. I think he got a sick kind of satisfaction from watching me build myself up just so he could destroy me. ”

Amelia knew exactly how that went. She’d lived it, and in the middle of all of that, Nicholas had been lacing her coffee with small amounts of a stimulant that caused her to act erratically, with paranoia and hallucinations.

It had taken weeks and a long process of elimination for her to figure out what was wrong with her—and what had caused it.

Or, who.

She spotted Ridge coming out of the firehouse. Nearly everyone else had dispersed after the next shift showed up to relieve them. He saw her in the driver’s seat of her car, and who she was with, and motioned making a phone call, mouthing, Call me later.

Amelia nodded.

“I don’t know where to go. I guess I was thinking about finding a church or something. Seeing if they can help me out with some money.” Cherry bit her lip. “Or I could stay with you for tonight? Just until I figure out what to do.”

“I don’t have room in my place.”

Cherry seemed almost surprised by that. Why, when they didn’t know each other? Unless Nicholas had bragged that Amelia lived in a huge mansion, just to make Cherry feel poor. It wasn’t like this woman could sleep there in her condition. With no furniture or heat.

“I’ll take you to a nice motel. Don’t worry about the cost.” Amelia turned the car on. “I can pay for a couple of nights so you have somewhere warm.” She didn’t mind giving this woman some money for food, even if it was only enough for a cheap fast-food meal.

Even though Cherry thought they were sisters in a way, the only thing that bonded them together was the worst time in both of their lives. Who wanted a connection like that? She’d spent the last few years trying to escape that time. Now it would be brought to mind every time she saw this woman.

“Thank you so much, Amelia. I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t able to help me.”

Amelia pulled out of her parking space and drove to the freeway interchange, where there were a couple of motels on either side of the road.

They always seemed to cluster together. She was more of the solitary type, but not because it was her choice.

She’d lost the father she loved, and thanks to the family court, she’d had to return periodically to her father.

Eventually she’d lost her mother as well.

Meg was the closest thing to family she had left.

Except for the other firefighters at Eastside Firehouse.

She had a feeling that if she told them she considered them to be family, they’d be surprised she felt that way.

Which was why she didn’t plan to tell them.

As she drove, she couldn’t help thinking about her brother and if she’d really seen him at that fire scene. What a crazy day. She needed more than twenty-four hours off to process it all and get some rest. Never mind reaching the point where she actually figured out how to resolve the situation.

Now Cherry had shown up?

There was no way a pregnant woman had come here looking for an ally—or a friend—with an ulterior motive.

She wasn’t going to suspect this woman, because what could Cherry do to her anyway?

She was going to give the woman a little money and send her on her way.

Neither Cherry nor the child was Amelia’s responsibility past basic concern from one person to another.

Not in the middle of whatever was going on.

After all, the last thing Amelia wanted to do was put this woman and her precious unborn child in danger simply because Cherry had chosen to find Amelia and ask for help.

She got the young woman all checked in to a room, then hung back in the lobby. Amelia wasn’t going to walk her to the room, and Cherry didn’t need Amelia to carry that saggy duffel for her when it didn’t seem so heavy. “Take care of yourself, Cherry.”

Cherry’s expression shifted. “What if he comes here? What if he tracks me down?”

Now she was scared? She’d seemed relieved before, but not fearful. “Do you think he’ll look for you?”

“I’m carrying his child.” Cherry’s eyes filled with tears. “I really should stay with you.”

“I really don’t have the space, sorry.” Her cabin was barely big enough for one person. Having Ridge in there eating pizza with her had only reinforced how small it was.

He hadn’t seemed to think less of her for having a tiny place, so she figured it was her insecurity.

“The police in this town are good people. They do their jobs well.” Amelia wanted to believe that was true, anyway. Even if they had no idea what had been going on at her house. “If you have a problem, call them. They’ll get here faster than I will.”

“He’ll take me before they get here.” Cherry gasped. “I might not be able to call 911 in time.”

Amelia said, “You have to do what it takes to protect your child from him. But I’ll call an officer friend of mine and ask them to come by later and check on you. Is that all right?”

Cherry sniffed. “If you think that’s enough to keep me safe from him.”

Amelia might seem like she didn’t care, but there was something about this situation that told her not to get involved.

She wasn’t part of Nicholas’s life. She wasn’t required to help Cherry beyond this.

A needy woman who seemed just a little too unable to stand on her own two feet…

Amelia wasn’t like that, and people who were tended to rub her the wrong way.

She was either trying to run as far away as she could from the person she had been with Nicholas. To the point where she rejected anything that seemed even close to it.

Or she’d been burned by lies far too many times, and it had made her a horrible person.

“You have my number,” Amelia said. “But you need to call 911 if you even glimpse him out the window. Or if he calls you. Okay?”

Cherry nodded. “Okay.” The word sounded small.

“Get some rest.”

Before she could draw Amelia in more, Amelia turned and headed for the door. She’d walked away from Nicholas and rebuilt her life. This woman was going to have to do the same thing. There were programs she could draw from and people whose nonprofits or organizations were there to offer help.

The idea this might be another one of Nicholas’s manipulations didn’t sit right, not with a pregnant woman. But the tiny chance it could be? She wanted to run away.

On the way out, she called Ridge from her phone.

He’d told her to.

She walked to her car, listening to it ring. Not even thinking about why she’d reached out to him.

“Hey.” His strong, steady voice filled her ear.

“I don’t have to turn myself in knots to help her. I don’t have room. That isn’t my life. It’s hers. I got out of it.” She had to pause and take a breath.

“Okay, so there was a lot there. Want to come over for dinner? We can talk about who that woman is and what she told you.”

Amelia got in her car and closed the door fast, almost like someone was chasing her. But there was no one there.

It’s not happening again. She wasn’t going to let it.

“Amelia?”

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll come over. Give me your address.”