Chapter 20
TWENTY
E ddie set the pan of perfectly cooked brownies on the hot pad in the firehouse kitchen. He’d managed to get the dessert into the oven on their lunch break before the start of the last session. Apparently, the mayor’s request for Eddie to be on the film set could be trumped by a safety webinar.
He grabbed his cup of coffee and downed the bottom of his fourth cup. He had three minutes to get back to the webinar and only two more training hours. Then he could go pick up Bianca—for a real date.
Eddie covered a yawn and grabbed a stack of plates. Unless he’d dreamed up his and Bianca’s conversation last night.
Eddie had stared out the back window of Officer Ramble’s squad car. “I’m not sure it’s wise for you to get involved any more with Nathan.”
For her own safety, not because he was jealous.
Bianca had spun to face him as they waited for the set’s all-clear. “I’d only be seeing if he’d let something slip on the phone about the Duke or his involvement with Carter’s attack. Or even my missing money. If this is my chance to clear my name, prove that I didn’t lie, shouldn’t I take it? Plus, the police need my help.”
Eddie fisted his hand. “What if he figures out what you’re doing? If Nathan is behind what happened to Carter, you could be the one…”
The one hurt.
Bianca’s fingers rested on top of his. “What if you were beside me when I called him?”
She licked her lips, and Eddie’s eyes traced the movement.
He scooted away from her. “I’ll be there if you want me to be. You were there for me with Mary, and it’s only fair?—”
“Eddie.” Her soft tone made him lock his attention on her eyes.
Hope and fear swam together. “What if you…were beside me not because of a deal but because you…What if we had a real date? No more deals.”
“What do you mean, no more deals?”
“Your youth center donation is still safe, but you know in the movies, when the star and the hometown hero fake a relationship but then it becomes real…”
Had it become real? For her too?
Eddie swallowed. “I’m not sure the Bia Pearl would want to date small-town Eddie Rice.”
Bianca shook her head. “I want to date the compassionate man who makes me laugh, worries about my safety, and points me to the truth. That’s the man I’m falling for.”
Eddie’s heart boomed almost as loud as his mind. She was falling for him?
Wasn’t he also falling for her? “What would a date like that look like?”
Bianca leaned forward. “Milkshakes, flip-flops, and…”
Eddie leaned closer. “A movie?”
Bianca stopped a breath from his lips. “I’m starting to think I like real life better than a pretend happily ever after.”
He knew he did. Eddie had closed the gap between them at the exact moment Officer Ramble had opened the door.
But now, instead of Officer’s Ramble’s voice giving them the all-clear, it was Zack’s.
“What’s taking so long?” Zack marched straight into the kitchen and pulled out a spoon.
Izan jogged in next. “Don’t let Zack take all the middle. Chief gave us a four-minute-longer break to help you with the brownies. I think the chief’s craving chocolate.”
Eddie shielded the top of the pan with his oven mitts. Maybe real life wasn’t always better than the movies. “Chill. You gotta wait until I cut them so each slice has the highest ratio of crust to chewy center.” Just how his grand-ma’am had taught him.
Izan shared a look with Zack. Then Izan said, “We can’t let the brownies get cold. Stephens, hold Rice down while I grab the pan and run. We’ll split the best part fifty-fifty. The chief can have the rest.”
“Tempting.” Zack pointed the end of his spoon at Eddie. “Our friendship could handle at least one rumble. Especially because we all know how delicious your brownies are.”
Eddie pulled the brownies closer to him. “Can’t hardly mess them up. They’re from a box.” Except his grand-ma’am had shared how to make them special—peanut butter chips.
Izan wrinkled his nose. “So was that tuna meal you made last week, and that was…interesting.”
“Speaking of interesting…how did things go with Mary last night? Sorry I couldn’t make it.”
“Four minutes won’t cover that update.” Eddie tugged off his oven mitts. “Fine. One hot spoonful each.”
Zack inched his spoon closer to the brownies. “Did you go by yourself to meet Mary?”
“Do I smell—” Ridge strolled into the kitchen but stopped halfway to the counter and gave Eddie a confused look. “Wait, I didn’t know you still worked here.”
Eddie rolled the pizza cutter through the brownies. Man, he shouldn’t have caved so early. The heat made the cut marks mash together. “Sounds like funny guy doesn’t want any brownies to help him through the webinar.”
Ridge grabbed a plate. “Nah, man. Just giving you a hard time about being with your girl while we’ve been at the day job all week.”
“I’ve done my job and?—”
Zack cleared his throat. “Speaking of your girl, did Bianca go with you last night?”
Eddie kept his focus, lifting out the squared brownie slice, but at the last second, the edge crumbled back into the pan. “She went. Joel Gillian was there with Mary. It went worse than I thought. Joel had a heart attack. Then when I took Bianca home, Carter had been attacked. I guess the only good thing from last night is that I’m going on a real date with Bianca tonight.” He scooped out a piece of brownie. “Who wants this one?”
Izan and Zack stared at him.
Ridge shoved half his brownie in his mouth. “Should I schedule the class about how to have a long-distance relationship with your movie-star girlfriend before or after the one about how Mary still hasn’t figured out how she hurt you?”
Zack shook his head.
Izan stole the rest of Ridge’s brownie.
“Hey.” Ridge’s mouth popped open. “I said what you two were thinking. Fine, I’ll say the other thing too. You can’t?—”
The fire alarm blared from its intercom on the wall, and Eddie shut off the water.
“Rescue needed at a wreck. Multiple vehicles involved at the corner of First and Wilson.”
Eddie sprinted behind Ridge. The crew raced to the bay and pulled on their turnout gear. Bryce hopped into the passenger seat as Zack slammed his door shut.
“First and Wilson will bring us only a couple of blocks from downtown.” Ridge sounded the horn as he crossed an intersection with a red light.
Finally, another set of red and blue lights flashed up again. An ambulance that wasn’t Ambulance 21 was parked in front of a semitruck that had rammed into a restaurant front. Glass and patio chair pieces were scattered along the sidewalk. The awning rested on top of the semi’s hood, and screams echoed through the broken door.
Two EMTs picked up a stretcher off the ground. It held an unconscious woman. The medic at the foot of the board hollered over his shoulder. “Glad you’re here. It’s a madhouse. Two semis, a car, and a truck.”
“We’re going to need backup.” Bryce grabbed his walkie. “I’ll call it in.”
The semitruck’s door popped open, causing the awning to wobble, and a man—mid-fifties, with more belly than hair—stumbled at the top of his steps. Bright red blood ran down his face, a stark contrast to the blue sky above him.
“Got him.” Ridge raced toward the man.
“I’ll check inside the restaurant.” Bryce motioned Zack and Eddie forward. “Rice and Stephens, get me a report on the rest.”
Eddie beat Zack around the far end of the semi, where they were met by at least twenty people, some drifting off the sidewalk and onto the roadway. All but a couple wore the same shirts. Definitely not a tourist group, with the words “Say no to stars, keep Last Chance County safe.”
The smell of gasoline hit Eddie. He turned. The sun beamed off the silver-painted truck. Sometimes his helmet could use a sun visor.
The front end of a red pickup truck was smashed against the passenger side of the first semi, whose cab had crashed into the restaurant. The second semitruck’s cab was practically up on top of the back bed of the pickup truck.
“That’s him! Bia Pearl’s hero.”
No, there was no time for any fans. Eddie dashed for the pickup driver’s door. An older man sat with both hands shaking on the wheel. The front and back of his truck were smashed, but the passenger section hadn’t been touched.
The thin, white-headed man simply blinked out his front window. No blood. No signs of physical trauma.
Eddie opened his door. “Sir, are you?—”
“I-I tried to stop. I did. But the light…the truck…I didn’t see…Please, don’t take my keys.” Tears rolled down his checks. “Sarah’s going to take my keys, isn’t she?”
A pounding came from the pickup bed where the semi’s cab rested.
Eddie stepped back. The thumps came again. Weaker. Except it wasn’t from either truck.
What was left of a tiny gray car was wedged behind the pickup and half smashed under the semi’s tilted cab. How had he missed it?
“Sir, wait right here for a second.” Eddie dashed to the car. The car engine was somehow still running, and a teenage girl beat the driver’s side window over and over.
Eddie swung his arms. “I’m coming!”
She rammed her shoulder into the door. Despite the caved-in roof, the door opened slightly. Eddie tugged on the door and wedged it enough to see that the car’s ceiling had smashed down into the back seat.
Please, Lord, let no one have been in there.
The teenage girl tried to squeeze between the pried door and the twisted metal frame.
“Easy, let me help you out.” He needed to assess and make sure her escape didn’t hurt her further.
But the girl wedged through the gap in the door, holding her arm against her stomach. As soon as her second foot hit the ground, she screamed in pain.
Eddie scooped her up and was halfway to the sidewalk when he heard a faint cry—from the smashed car.
Oh no. He tightened his hold on the girl. “Was there anyone else in your car?”
Please, Lord, let me have heard the cry from the sidewalk. That car is too smashed.
The girl burst into tears. “My sister was supposed to babysit our neighbor, but she paid me to do it, but I was running late. You’ve got to save Lacy.”
He set the teen down and grabbed his walkie. “Lieutenant, I’ve got a trapped child in the car.”
Trace and Kianna rounded the back of the semi and knelt before the girl.
“What do we got?” asked Trace.
“Her arm and foot, for sure.” Eddie transferred the teen into their care, but the teen driver grabbed hold of Eddie’s jacket.
Her lips quivered. “Please save Lacy.”
Two men jogged over from the sidewalk with their phones. “Eddie, look here. Eddie Rice. Over here.”
The taller man, wearing a Hawaiian button-down shirt, blocked Eddie’s view of the car. “Right here, hero.”
Eddie stepped around the man. “Return to the sidewalk.”
The man kept his phone near Eddie’s face until Zack yelled from the end of the other semi, but Eddie couldn’t hear over the shouts of the photographers on the sidewalk.
Zack pointed to the rear of the semitruck as his voice came over the radio. “We’ve got a gas tanker spill.”
No wonder he smelled gas.
That’s when Eddie spotted the flammable sign on the back of the second trailer. That wasn’t a pool of water the back end of the semi sat in.
Bryce’s voice called over the walkie, “Stephens, get the crowd back. Rice, update me on the child.”
Eddie grabbed his walkie and inspected the mangled car. “We’re going to need cutters.”
Behind him, Zack spoke to the onlookers. “Everyone back! The trailer contains flammable materials.”
Eddie reached the car, and through the cracked window, in the backseat of the car, he spotted a full-back booster seat that he’d thought was part of the crumbled roof. The seat had tilted forward, and the ceiling had smashed down on top of it.
But where was the child?
Eddie squeezed in through the front door. “Lacy, I’m firefighter Eddie. Can you hear me?”
A whimper floated to him.
She was alive.
Thanks, Lord.
Now how to get her out?
Eddie pushed against the door. The metal groaned but wedged open enough for Eddie to get his chest inside. There, huddled in the shadows on the rear passenger floor mat, was a girl—from the size of her, around three.
Eddie shifted and grabbed his flashlight. “Lacy, can you see me?”
She didn’t move out of her curled position. There was no way Eddie could fit back there with the roof smashed and the doors bent.
Eddie pushed his radio button. “Found the girl. Going to need those cutters.”
“Roger, en route,” came Bryce’s reply.
“The trailer has caught fire!” Zack’s panic was clear in his volume.
Eddie gripped his flashlight. Fire and gas were not the happily ever after he’d pictured. Cutters or not, Eddie had to get Lacy out—now.
He slid out of the car and yanked on the back door. But it didn’t move. He could break the window, but he might injure the girl. He couldn’t get to the passenger side with the car compressed against the building.
The roof was smashed completely over the passenger seat. She’d have to climb over the center console and to him. There hopefully was enough room for her to fit.
Eddie squirmed back inside the driver’s seat and shined his light on Lacy. Sweat dripped down his neck. Hopefully from the stress and not from flames somewhere behind him.
“Hey, Lacy.” He kept his voice gentle. “Can you do me a huge favor, girl? You like the playground, right? I need you to climb between the front seats so I can get you out.”
Lacy lifted her head out of her curled position. Her blue eyes popped against his flashlight. Tears stained her cheeks. “I-I want my mommy.”
“I know you do, sweetheart.” Eddie reached and pushed the car seat enough for him to slide into the car a bit more. “Can you come to me? Then I’ll get you to your mommy, okay?”
The girl sniffed and then climbed between the seat, squeezing her head and chest through first.
“That’s a big girl. Look at you climbing.”
She blinked up at the smashed roof that had pressed against her car seat and now threatened to scrape against her back. Her face puckered.
“I know. It looks scary. But you can slide the rest of the way out between the seat and console to get right to me.”
Please let her fit.
She wiped a tear off her cheek and then eased her hips through the small space and into the front seat.
Eddie pulled her against his chest and backpedaled out of the car.
Right behind him, Bryce skidded to a stop with the cutters in his arms. “Anyone else?”
Eddie shook his head.
Bryce waved Eddie on while inspecting the smoke and flames that covered the tail of the semi. “Get her out of here before this thing blows.”
Eddie shielded the girl against his chest.
Truck 14 must have arrived, because Izan and Amelia had firehoses aimed at the flames.
Would it be enough?
Bryce split off from Eddie and ran toward the sidewalk. “Get back!”
No one moved. At least ten phones and cameras were focused not on the wreck or the fire but on Eddie.
He nestled Lacy’s face against his jacket. She didn’t need this exposure. Eddie’s gaze landed on both of the paparazzi who had stepped in his way earlier. What if they’d blocked him for a second or two longer? Would he still have gotten Lacy out?
An EMT Eddie hadn’t met before jogged over as he reached the back of the first semi. “I heard the call. That’s my neighbor’s car. Where’s Lacy?”
Lacy peeked at the medic. “Momma!” The girl nearly leaped from Eddie’s arms at the EMT.
The medic squeezed her daughter to her chest. “Thank you.”
“She was brave and had to climb to me.”
The mother kissed Lacy’s forehead and hiccupped before turning and running down the street to another ambulance parked behind their rescue truck and a police car.
His radio buzzed and Bryce said, “We need every hose out!”
Eddie sucked in the smoke-filled air and grabbed his walkie. “Heading there now.”
“No, Rice, you get these paparazzi out of here before someone dies. Maybe they’ll listen to you.”
Eddie pivoted. His chest squeezed as if he were the spreader being shoved between two metal pieces. The Hawaiian-button-down guy stood with one leg over the hose Ridge had aimed at the flames devouring the front of the trailer.
Most of the crowd hovered against the brick building, whose corner blocked them from the heat of the fire. It was a start to safety. Now to get that last paparazzo out of the way.
Eddie waved his hands over his head at the Hawaiian-shirt guy. “Hey,” he shouted. “It’s not safe. You need to get back before the flames reach the gas tanks?—”
An explosion boomed, and Eddie bent his knees until the ground steadied. Angry flames rocketed toward the cloudless sky. Black smoke hit Eddie’s shielded face, but it didn’t block his view of the Hawaiian-shirt man now on his back, motionless.