Chapter 22 #2
I shake my head hard. "You don't know that he got out."
His jaw flexes. "No, I don't."
The honesty in it knocks the breath out of me worse than if he'd lied.
"Back up!" a firefighter shouts, waving us farther from the line.
Jonah walks me back with him still holding onto me, one hand planted between my shoulder blades like he's afraid I'll run straight into the scene the second he lets go.
Dust pushes over us in a thick wave. I turn my face into my sleeve and cough against the smoke. My hands are shaking so hard I press them flat against my thighs to stop it.
"Breathe," Jonah says quietly.
I drag in air that tastes like ash and try. My eyes keep pulling back to where the building was, to the churn of smoke and lights and moving figures.
Then something farther down the perimeter catches my attention. Patrol cars. More than I registered before.
I blink hard and look again. One, two, three, four.
"Why are there this many cops here?" I ask, my voice thinner now.
Jonah follows my line of sight. "Containment," he says automatically, then pauses. "Or arrests."
Arrests.
The word cuts through the panic and lets something else in.
Hope.
I wipe hard at my face and scan the cruisers instead of the smoke. Five people stand near the nearest unit with their hands behind their backs. One of them is taller than the rest, shoulders squared, a pressed collar catching the light.
My stomach drops.
"Jonah," I say, grabbing his sleeve. "Look at the one on the end."
He leans forward.
I don't wait for him to answer.
"Oh my God. That's Marvin Stein."
"He’s in cuffs," Jonah answers.
Which means this just shifted. I feel it land, quick and sharp, and I draw a breath through the smoke and hold it for a second before letting it go.
"Detective Pham must be here," I say, scanning the perimeter. I shift left to see past a hose line, then right again, trying to find an opening where someone would come through.
Jonah’s hand closes around my elbow for a second, firm enough to steady me. "Easy," he says under his breath.
I don't take my eyes off the edge of the scene. "This was set," I say, and then, quieter, "and he dragged himself into the middle of it without telling me how bad it really was."
Jonah glances at me. "Who? Stein?"
I barely nod my head, already looking back toward the smoke. “We should have seen Callum by now.”
Jonah stays close and quiet, and I take the space he gives me and keep my eyes moving, searching for one person who will lock the rest of this into place.
My throat feels tight and I swallow against it. "If he’s still inside—"
"Avery," Jonah says, sharper now. "Stay back!"
A shout cuts across the scene. "Clear the edge!"
I stop. Everyone stops for half a beat and then they move, a clean, practiced pullback. I feel the shift in the air, the way the sound changes.
"Oh no, it's the other side." Jonah lifts his hand like he wants to pull me back but he doesn’t touch me yet.
"No!" I scream, leaning forward without meaning to, eyes locked on the seam that just opened.
The wall shudders and a ripple runs through it, then the whole structure drops at once. The sound hits low and heavy and the ground jumps. I grab the tape with both hands and feel it bite into my palms as the force rolls through my chest and into my teeth.
"Back up!" someone yells. I step with them, one, two, boots scraping on gravel, then stop when Jonah’s hand closes on my arm.
Radios crowd each other. "All units clear, all units clear," a voice cuts through, then another as dust pushes toward us.
I turn my face and drag my sleeve over my mouth. It tastes like ash. I blink until the shapes come back and I can pick out movement through the smoke.
“Stay with me. You good?” Jonah asks, keeping his grip on my elbow.
I don't answer. I plant my heels and wait for the vibration to leave my legs. "I don't see him, Jonah."
Jonah keeps his eyes on the wreckage. His jaw tightens once before he speaks. "If he got out before that came down, there are a lot of places he could be right now. Ambulance. With the cops. Over by the engines."
I keep my eyes on where the building was.
It isn’t there anymore. Smoke and light and moving figures fill the space where the building used to be, and I fix on the edge of the opening like it might finally give me the one thing I need to see.
My body locks up without asking me. I don’t let go of the tape. I keep my eyes on the gap and wait.
An eternity later, there's movement at the far edge. For a second I can’t sort distance from shape, and then it resolves. A group is coming through, walking, angling toward the engines.
"Do you see that?"
"Yeah," Jonah answers, leaning forward with me.
I count them without thinking. Six. Seven. Eight. One of them moves in a way I know before I can place it.
"That’s him!" The words tear out of me, louder than I mean, my grip tightening on the tape.
For a second I lose him in the smoke and tell myself I picked the wrong shape. I blink hard and track the stride again, the set of his shoulders, and it snaps into place. It’s him. He’s upright and he’s moving.
“Callum,” I whisper, and his name leaves me like it hurts as my knees soften and I lock them before they give.
Relief hits hard and immediate.
The thought arrives late and hits harder than the collapse. Five minutes ago I was trying to figure out what came after him not walking out of that smoke, and I hated every version of it.
And right behind the relief something sharp follows because he chose this without me.
The noise drops out for a beat and the edges of my vision pull in. I drag in a breath that tastes like ash and hold it until the world steadies. The only thought that pushes through is simple and unavoidable.
A woman comes through behind him, close enough that I almost miss her at first. Her jacket is torn and dark with soot, her hair matted back from her face, an officer guiding her by the arm toward the cars.
"Why is she—" I begin. "What the hell is she doing here?"
"Who is that?" Jonah asks.
I focus on her face and lose it in the smoke, then catch it again as she steps into the light. It doesn’t land at first. It sits wrong for a second, like I’ve put the name on the wrong person.
"That’s Maureen Pike," I say under my breath, and then it snaps into place. "What the hell is she doing here?"
A firefighter has her, one arm braced around her as he walks her out of the smoke.
He slows at the tape and a police officer steps in and takes her from him, guiding her toward the cars.
She steadies on her feet like she’s not quite convinced the ground is real.
I watch that handoff like it will explain something if I don’t look away.
Jonah’s hand closes on my shoulder, firm and steady. "Hey," he says. "I’ve got you."
I nod and keep my mouth shut because I don’t trust what will come out if I open it.
My chest loosens all at once and I lock my knees to keep from folding, one hand still wrapped in the tape while I track him, then her, then back to him like I can draw a straight line between them if I look long enough.
"That’s Pham?" Jonah asks, tipping his chin toward the far side.
I follow it and find her moving through the scene, steady and direct. She stops at the nearest officer and says something I can’t hear, then shifts to the next, her hand lifting once in a small signal that moves people where she needs them.
"She’s running it," I say.
"Yeah," Jonah answers. "Looks like it."
I watch her turn toward the group coming in and speak again, and I feel it click into place even as I keep my eyes on Callum.
"He had a hand in this," I say, and the anger in it tangles up with something sharper because even now, covered in smoke and somehow still standing, part of me is furious enough to shake him and part of me wants to grab onto him and not let go.
Jonah glances at me. "This is what he couldn't tell you."
I don’t answer as Callum moves closer and I draw a breath that doesn’t settle the way it should.
He lifts his head and spots me behind the tape, and something in his face shifts before he angles toward me and starts walking straight in my direction, and I hold there with him, counting the steps without meaning to.
After everything he chose without me, I already know nothing about tonight is finished yet.