Page 58 of Rescued Dreams

Izan should’ve been on the radio.

Why wasn’t the overhead speaker system echoing with his voice?

They should’ve shut the whole exercise down by now.

What was he seeing on the cameras?

Or not—as the case might be.

Amelia collapsed onto her hands and knees, choking. She had to get up, or she wasn’t going to make it out of here. Whatever was tinting the smoke in the air right now seemed to be something entirely different from simulated smoke.

And it was going to kill her if she didn’t get out of here.

TWENTY

Ridge showed up early for his reckoning with Amelia. He knew she would be here well before their shift started, and not just because he’d had Kane text when she left the house. She’d been here at least an hour, and he’d forced himself not to jump on the time.

Turned out to be a good thing, given the activity over at the training house.

A light drizzle dampened everything. Not even enough rain to run the wipers in his truck, but enough to put him in a bad mood. She had responded to him yesterday. She hadn’t completely ghosted him, but she’d also told him she was too busy studying for the lieutenant’s test to get together on their day off. The first chance at a date in years—not officially, since they weren’t supposed to—and she’d turned him down.

Ridge slammed the truck door.

Della looked over from her white compact. “Uh-oh.”

He slung his duffel over his shoulder and strode toward her. “Don’t worry about it. How are you?”

Della shot him an inquisitive look before rounding her car to the sidewalk.

Part of him wanted to sit on the three-foot-tall brick wall at the edge of the firehouse property and not even go in or face Amelia. “No, I’m serious. How are you?”

Della said, “O-kay, assuming you’re not having some kind of medical emergency that’s making you want to get personal…I’m fine, thank you, how are you?”

Ridge squeezed the bridge of his nose. “We’re not the personal types. I know. But it’s just small talk.” He was going to have to start somewhere if he wanted to be a better leader and a better teammate. That meant letting in more than just Amelia. “For example, I tried that new chicken place at lunch. The spicy chicken bacon sandwich was really good, but the fries were only mediocre.”

Zoe walked over with her backpack on both shoulders and her hair in two braids that started at the top of her head. “What are we talking about?”

Della said, “Lunch.”

Zoe frowned. “What?”

“We’re trying small talk.” Ridge tried not to act like this was completely awkward, but of course it was.

Della frowned. “Fine. My grandmother was making aloo gobi because I’m going to be gone, and I don’t like it. She’ll probably eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner while I’m on shift. And she thinks I’ll never keep a man unless I learn how to make saag paneer better than I do right now.” She lifted her chin. “Is that good enough?”

“It’s not aboutgood enough,” Ridge said. “It’s about getting to know each other.”

“We need to get inside.” Della wandered off toward the door.

“Can we do this in the kitchen, not in the rain? My hair is gonna frizz.” Zoe followed Della, jogging to catch up so the two women could walk together.

Ridge heard Bryce shout something, so he headed for the training house to the side of the main firehouse building. They still had fifteen minutes before the briefing started. When Bryce ran over to Izan, his body language signaled that there was a problem.

Ridge jogged over. “What’s going on?”

Izan set his phone down, a game open on the screen. He motioned to the screens in front of him. “There’s nothing wrong. She’s right there.” He pointed, but Ridge couldn’t see the monitor.

“She hasn’t come out yet.” Bryce sounded worried. “She should be done by now.”