Page 41 of Rescued Dreams

The receptionist behind the desk called over, “I looked around for her but didn’t see where she was. I’m trying her phone now.”

Ridge shook his head. To the cops, he said, “There’s a conference room just down there. Give me a couple of minutes.” To their receptionist, he said, “I’ll go grab her.”

He rounded the halls to a set of stairs that went up to the roof and took them two at a time. The door to the roof had been left ajar, a triangular-shaped piece of wood wedged in the opening.

He left it where it was so the door didn’t lock itself and stepped onto the open—and empty—gravel expanse.

Amelia sat on the edge of the roof on the side of the building where trees blocked the view from the street. Staring at the mountains, she had her hands planted behind her, bracing her weight so she could lean back and watch birds and planes fly overhead.

“Hey.” He approached cautiously, not wanting to scare her into flinching and see her slip over the edge to the ground. “Thomas and Tazwell are here to talk to us.”

Amelia let out a long sigh.

“Do I need to apologize?” He hadn’t done anything the average lieutenant wouldn’t do on any given Tuesday. Especially one who was new to the job and facing the stress of back-to-back calls. But right now, they were something more than firefighter and lieutenant.

Given the time they had spent in her house talking about personal things, they were a whole lot more than that now. But still something far from where he had wanted them to be for a long time.

Where he still wanted them to be.

If Amelia gave him any kind of green light, then the twins would get their wish. Ridge wouldn’t be leaving Last Chance County anytime soon.

At least, not without Amelia.

She didn’t look at him. She kept her gaze on the mountains in the distance. “Doyouthink you need to apologize?”

Danger. Danger.

This was absolutely a trick question.

“I can give you a bunch of reasons why it wasn’t anything abnormal for the job we do. I can also give you a bunch of reasons why I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

She looked at him then. “I don’t need you to apologize.” Amelia held out one hand and bent her knees, planting her feet on the edge of the roof.

He grabbed her elbow and hauled her to her feet.

“I’m not a delicate wallflower, Lieutenant. I actually thought you might have been making up for all the times I yelled at you.” She gave him a tentative smile.

“Because you think I’m a delicate wallflower or someone who needs to get their own back? I don’t do revenge. It’s usually not worth the effort.”

Her expression shifted. “Revenge. That’s something I hadn’t thought of. But you’re right. It isn’t usually worth the effort. Unless you’ve convinced yourself it’s the only way to get satisfaction. Or if something changed in your situation…Hmm.”

Ridge frowned. “You’re saying you think someone might be trying to get revenge against you? That seems like something the police would want to know about.”

He took a step back.

Amelia hesitated.

“You can trust them. You know these cops, and you know they’re going to do everything they can to fix what’s happening.”

Amelia said, “Trust doesn’t come easily. I’m guessing that’s true for you as well, considering I knew you had sisters but didn’t know they lived with you until the other day.”

“True.” Ridge couldn’t argue with that. “These cops are people we’ve worked with before. Not the kind who don’t care about good people. Or don’t care about anything but their aim. These aren’t the kind of cops who have such a narrow focus that they don’t notice when innocent people get caught in the crossfire.”

“I’m counting on it.” Amelia followed him to the door.

It almost sounded like she wasn’t certain they would believe she was one of the good guys.

Downstairs in the conference room, the two uniformed cops studied the whiteboard. They turned when Amelia and Ridge came in.