Page 38 of Rescued Dreams

“Okay.” She ran a gloved hand down his back. “We should get up and get you seen by an EMT, huh.” She tried to keep a warm, even tone in her voice so his alarm didn’t continue to rise.

Amelia sat up, looking around at the chaos. Izan and Della were putting the fire out. The truck driver was yelling from behind them and waving his arms around. People had gathered. Other cars had pulled over for people to watch or see if they could help.

Above them, the sun fought to be seen behind a heavy bank of clouds, the day mild in temperature. Hot days with a fire to fight were the worst.

To her left, Ridge lay back on the ground, the injured woman on his other side, where Amelia couldn’t see her.

She twisted around and spotted rescue squad’s truck parked between spectators and the traffic trying to pass the scene on the road. Amelia covered the kid’s ears with her gloves and screamed, “Medic!”

Fastest way to explain, given there was more than one victim here and the ambulance hadn’t arrived yet.

Were Kianna and Trace done at the hospital yet, or had another bus been dispatched to their location?

Bryce crouched in front of her, assessing the kid.

“Ridge is hurt. He has the driver.” Over the back end of the car, she saw Eddie telling the truck driver to calm down. Zack helped Della and Izan, while Zoe ran to Ridge.

“This kid will be okay.” Bryce grabbed his radio and asked how long the ambulance was going to be. The response came back as mere minutes.

Amelia blew out a breath. “The Jaws of Life malfunctioned and the car blew.”

Bryce frowned. “Equipment failure?”

She nodded. “Ridge got us in the car by breaking the glass. Otherwise these two would be gone up in flames.”

The harsh realities of her chosen career were painful on occasion. More often than she would like, considering any loss was one too many. But it happened. The hard truth was that they couldn’t save everyone they tried to rescue. Fire consumed far too much.

And to think, she’d been rattled that Ridge might’ve been talking to someone about her on the phone. It hardly seemed relevant right now, when innocent lives were at stake.

She turned back to see Ridge sitting up. “You okay?”

He nodded, shaking off what had happened. He rolled his shoulders. “I’m good.”

“And the woman?”

He looked at her, and Amelia didn’t like the despair in his expression at all. For some reason, she felt it more than she usually would, seeing his reaction to the state of the victim.

A siren cut the air around them.

Bryce said, “Give me the child,” and scooped the kid into his arms. Amelia didn’t have time to object. All she could do was sit and think about finding some energy to get up. She looked around at the crowd, thinking of all the things she’d have done now if she were still lieutenant.

With rescue squad here to assist them in getting this situation taken care of, Ridge had help. She didn’t need to overstep the bounds of what she was authorized to do.

Faces in the crowd stared at the scene, a little bit in awe of what the firefighters were doing. She didn’t hang out with anyone really, outside of Meg, so she never saw anyone she knew.

Until she did.

Amelia frowned. That wasn’t…it couldn’t be…

He stood between two others, behind them and barely visible. Long blond hair hung over his ears and down past his shoulders. A scar bisected his eyebrow, and he had a tattoo on the side of his neck above the collar of his jacket. She couldn’t even see the rest of what he wore.

Her brother.

No, it couldn’t be. Elam was locked up in prison and had been for more than ten years, convicted as an adult so that at barely eighteen, he’d had to serve his time in prison with hardened criminals decades older than he was.

The idea was terrifying, because she knew he’d be learning from them the whole time, and when he got out, he’d be so much worse.

But that shouldn’t be for several more years.