Page 69 of Rescued Dreams

They circled the house and met Kane and Maria on the back patio, which now had weeds growing in the cracks of the concrete. From back here, the place looked like a deserted psychiatric facility—the kind featured on scary TV shows she couldn’t watch.

“What did he take?” Amelia said.

Kane looked up from the tablet. “He went downstairs, into the cellar. There’s a panel that opens, and he took a pouch from some kind of compartment.”

“Small enough it fit in his jacket?” When Kane nodded, she said, “What did he give you guys? Because I can’t help wondering if you got double-crossed in this trade.”

“Who knows what’s in that pouch? But we can look at the compartment.” Kane studied the screen of his tablet. “He didn’t do anything else but look around while he walked. He went right to what he was looking for and then straight back. No detours.”

“And the trade?” She looked at Ridge.

“Kane took it to the police.”

His cousin said, “I met with Sergeant Donaldson this morning and passed him what Elam gave me, which was security footage from a gas station down the street from one of the fires. It shows your hoodie guy running from the scene. He goes into the gas station and pulls his hood down, so they’ll be able to ID him.”

“Which means they can interview him and find out who he’s working with and why he did that to us.” Amelia felt better than she had in days. A little more rest and she’d be back to work. Then things would feel normal once more.

Once she passed the lieutenant’s exam, she’d have her life back.

No one would be able to take it from her ever again.

TWENTY-FOUR

“What did he take?” Eddie leaned across the table in the firehouse kitchen.

Ridge had caught them all up on the entire story so far. All the firefighters—including the floater, Warren Kaminsky, who was here to cover Amelia’s absence—were drinking coffee and listening intently. “We don’t know. Aside from the fact it was a pouch.”

He showed them the screen of his phone, where he’d taken a picture of Kane’s tablet screen on the surveillance of Elam Hilden. Was it really after eight in the evening already? They’d fried up burgers for dinner and cleaned up, opting for coffee for dessert. Because coffee.

Zack said, “Money? Couldn’t be much. That’s the size of a checkbook.”

Eddie nodded. “Paperwork, like the home’s title or bank bonds. So he can cash in. Maybe that’s the stash everyone has actually been looking for.”

Zoe gripped her mug, sitting beside Eddie across the table. She seemed to have fit in well enough on rescue squad while Ridge worked Truck. She said, “I still can’t believe people break into her house all the time. That’s crazy.”

Bryce, at the end of the table, shook his head. “She never said.”

They all would’ve helped her, and maybe that was precisely the reason she’d never said anything. Not just refusing to let her coworkers into her personal life but also using the separation to keep herself safe. Given how she’d been raised and the disastrous way her personal and professional lives had collided in Benson, he couldn’t really blame her.

“Anything on that Nicholas guy?”

Bryce gave him a slight nod. “I’ll tell you later.”

Which Ridge took to mean when there wasn’t a room full of people.

Eddie said, “What’s this?”

The whole crew would be all up in Amelia’s business if they told them all about her former boss and ex-boyfriend. Ridge had no intention of explaining to Eddie what they weren’t talking about.

He was just about to change the subject when Bryce said, “All the talk of rank tests has got me thinking. I might go for captain.”

Zack grinned.

Della said, “That’s a great idea, Lieutenant.”

Ridge set his mug down and stared at Bryce over at the head of the table. “Captain?”

“Means an open lieutenant spot.” Bryce took a sip from his chipped Midnight Sun Smokejumpers mug. “In case anyone was interested.”