by Helen Lacey
The look on Grant’s face—his expressive dark eyes going so flat and cold—before he turned and walked away almost finished what the smoke had started and killed Wren Everett.
Five months ago, she’d thought walking away from him would be the hardest thing she ever did. Seeing him again was harder. Even with her lungs filling with smoke and her eyes watering, in that unguarded moment he’d recognized her, she’d seen all the pain she’d caused him.
And as Cait’s partner pressed a mask to her face and ordered her to breathe, she watched Grant’s expression harden before he turned and walked away.
That hurt even more than her lungs trying to expel the smoke she’d inhaled.
“Wren, you can’t cry right now,” she heard Cait say. “You need to concentrate on breathing.”
She hadn’t even realized she was gasping harder and her vision was even more blurry until Cait told her she was crying, but it didn’t surprise her. When she’d broken Grant’s heart, she’d done a heck of a job on her own, too.
“Deep breaths,” Tony said in a kind but firm voice. She tried, but she couldn’t stop coughing.
“Were you living here?” Cait asked her while fussing over her, taking her vitals. Since she had a mask over her face and was supposed to be breathing, Wren nodded. “Why?”
All she could manage was a small shrug, and she was almost thankful when another round of hoarse coughs gave her a good excuse not to answer. Cait would have a lot more questions. She’d been somebody Wren considered a friend and the feeling had probably been mutual, but when she’d ghosted on Grant, she’d had to ghost on Gavin and Cait, too.
“Save the questions for later, Cait.” Tony looked at Wren for a long moment before turning to his partner. “I think she needs to go in.”
Wren didn’t even want to think about how much an ambulance ride to the emergency room was going to cost her, but when Cait nodded, she didn’t bother to argue. Cait was stubborn.
“You inhaled a lot of smoke and you lost consciousness,” Tony explained. “The doctors will check out your lungs and heart and make sure everything’s clear.”
“That sounds ominous,” Wren said, her voice raspy and muffled by the mask.
“Just a precaution,” Cait said. “Did the smoke detectors go off? You should have had plenty of warning, with time to get out.”
“There were no alarms.” It was all a little fuzzy in her head, but she was sure the smoke detectors hadn’t gone off.
Tony swore under his breath—but not so under his breath that she didn’t hear it—and shook his head. “Asshole landlords, willing to risk lives to save a few bucks. Hell, you can get them for free if you’re not too lazy to make a phone call.”
“I remember hearing the sirens,” she said. “But it’s not weird to hear sirens around here and I was exhausted, so I must have fallen back to sleep. When I woke up again, I was already coughing and the smoke was burning my eyes.”
She’d panicked and her first thought was that her ex had found her. That the phone call that scared her and made her walk away from the life—and love—she’d found for herself hadn’t been enough for him.
Cait set something on her lap. “When Grant picked you up, this was under you, so Aidan grabbed it on the way out.”
She couldn’t look down far enough to see it because Tony was holding the oxygen to her face, but she put her hand on the object and actually managed a small smile. The black, well-broken in leather wristlet hadn’t cost her a lot, but her car keys, license and debit card were inside. They weren’t much, but at least she wouldn’t have to stand in line at the RMV for hours before she could even start rebuilding her life.
Once they’d secured her for the ride to the ambulance and Tony was driving them away from the scene, Wren closed her eyes for a moment and tried not to think about Grant.
The last time she’d seen him in person, he’d knelt on the edge of her bed to kiss her goodbye before he left for work. He’d told her he loved her and that he’d see her later. Whenever the confusion and hurt in his voice when she’d told him on the phone they were done tried to fill her mind, she pictured that morning instead. It still hurt, but it was easier to remember the happy times with him.
She didn’t want the expression on his face before he walked away from her tonight to be her new last memory of him.
“As soon as we’re released from the scene,” Cait said, interrupting her thoughts, “I’ll stop in and see how you’re doing. I don’t think you’ll need to be admitted, honestly. And I have tomorrow off, so I can sleep in tomorrow if Gavin doesn’t wake me up after his shift.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
“So you already have somebody else who’s going to help you out?” Cait folded her arms. “Who is it?”
“What? I don’t...”
“Maybe I didn’t know you as well as I thought I did, but if I had to bet, I’d say you’ll be alone at the hospital and when they release you, you won’t have anywhere to go, but you still won’t pick up a phone and call any of us.”
Since she’d plugged it in to charge before collapsing on her bed, Wren didn’t currently own a phone, but she knew that wasn’t the point.
“Am I wrong?” Cait insisted. When Wren refused to answer, she nodded. “That’s what I thought. So I’m just going to show up.”
Tears blurred Wren’s vision again, but this time they had nothing to do with the smoke. She didn’t deserve this kindness. She’d done a shitty thing to a man Cait considered family, but she still wouldn’t turn her back on her. Maybe it was the EMT in her, but Wren could see the concern and caring in Cait’s eyes.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“It’s going to be okay, Wren. Whatever happened before and whatever’s happening now, it’s going to be okay.”
She had to believe it would be okay. Maybe she was just being paranoid. The building was a dump and she didn’t need an expert to tell her it wasn’t up to code. It could have been an electrical fire. Or a toaster mishap. There was any number of things that could have started the fire.
It didn’t mean Ben had found her.
Flare Up
by New York Times bestselling author
Shannon Stacey.
Available January 29, 2019, from Carina Press.
Copyright © 2019 by Shannon Stacey
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Helen Lacey for her contribution to the Fortunes of Texas: The Lost Fortunes series.
ISBN-13: 9781488041785
Her Secret Texas Valentine
Copyright © 2019 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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