Page 60 of Rescued Dreams

Amelia had an oxygen mask over her face now. Kianna jumped up and raced away.

“Is she going to be okay?” He glanced at Trace and knew he’d see how Ridge felt about Amelia. And not just because he hadn’t let go of her hand.

“She inhaled something nasty.” Trace looked up at the house. “Find out what it is and the doctors will be better able to treat her.”

“And the strangle marks on her neck?”

“They aren’t helping things,” Trace said. “Figure this out before it gets worse.”

Kianna drove the ambulance around the corner and parked it close. They loaded Amelia on a gurney, and as soon as the doors were shut, Ridge jogged back around the house. Izan and Bryce stood with Chief James and a few of the other firefighters.

Ridge said, “Truck 14 is out of service until you can get floaters to cover me and Amelia.” Now he was going to check that house. “Is it clear?” He pointed at the structure.

“It will be in a second.” Chief James lifted one brow. “I’ll call headquarters and put the request in to get your shift covered.”

A cop car pulled into the driveway and stopped over by the training house so they weren’t in the way of an engine going out in a hurry.

The setup with the monitors let out a long buzz.

“It’s clear.” Izan leaned down. “I backed up the footage, and she moves through rooms, but I don’t see anyone else. And she doesn’t look like she’s in trouble. Unless…”

“What?” Chief James rounded the table to stand beside Izan and look at the screens. Something similar had happened to the chief’s wife, Natalie, when she’d been getting to know the firefighters over a year ago. Was Macon reminded of that right now?

“I think this is footage from the first time she went through. It’s just been repeated so we had no idea what was happening.” Izan shook his head. “No wonder it seemed boring. I’d watched it once already.”

Ridge motioned to Bryce. “Let’s go.”

They moved to the stairs that led up to the entrance door. Bryce said, “You don’t think whoever attacked her is still in there, do you?”

“A little gun-shy since you tangled with a cartel and dirty politicians?”

“My fighting days are over. I’m getting married. There will be no more kidnapping, car chases, bad guys, or fighting for my life. Thank you very much.”

Ridge chuckled, but the humor didn’t last long. Officer Thomas hurried up the stairs behind them and said, “Want the guy with the gun to go first?”

Bryce shrugged. “I doubt there’s anyone in here.”

“Still.” Anthony eased by them and checked it out. He disappeared into another room in the house and called out, “There’s an open window over here.”

Ridge and Bryce found him.

“And a ladder.” Anthony stuck his upper body out the window. “Only goes down a few rungs, then they jumped. There are shoe prints in the dirt.”

“So we know someone was in here.” Ridge folded his arms. “We just have no idea who.”

Bryce said, “Maybe Patterson saw something.”

“Or someone across the street.” Anthony thumbed over his shoulder. “I’ll go knock on doors. Maybe someone has a camera that saw something.”

“I’m going to the hospital to check on Amelia.” Ridge clenched his jaw. “She could’ve died in here.”

Bryce didn’t look much happier than Ridge felt. “I’ll find out what was in the air. And how the computers were messed with. We’ll figure it out.”

Ridge nodded. They walked through the house but didn’t see anything else. He picked up Amelia’s helmet and mask and the broken radio. “What about pulling prints from this?”

Officer Thomas said, “Running prints takes weeks, and you just picked it up.”

Meaning he’d smudged any that had been there. “So we have no way to find this person unless Amelia saw them.”