Page 26 of Rescued Heart

He needed something to go right today.

Zack stepped to the end of the weights. “Let me exchange the tens for fives. You’ll nail that and still get a new max-out number.”

Except at that moment, the fire alarm blared.

“Rescue Squad 5. Building collapse. Person trapped.” The dispatcher gave the address.

Zack barely beat Eddie out the door. They raced down the station’s hallway and into the open bay area where the fire truck awaited them. Ridge and Bryce sprinted right behind.

Eddie jumped into his turnout pants and then boots. He had his jacket on before any of his other crew members. He grabbed his helmet and gloves and hopped into his seat.

Once Bryce slammed his door shut, Ridge pulled the fire truck out of the station and flipped on the lights and sirens.

Zack bumped his fist against Eddie’s arm. “You ever gonna tell me what happened between you and Bianca at your truck?”

“Wait.” Ridge honked the horn and eased them through a crowded intersection. “Rice wasn’t here yesterday when she showed up. How’d he see her?”

Zack leaned closer to Ridge. “After the secretary gushed over how much she loved one of Bia Pearl’s movies, she mentioned that Eddie coached a youth baseball league on the south side of town. Bia Pearl showed up there. Twice.”

Ridge weaved the truck through a two-lane road lined with parked cars on each side. “Twice?”

Eddie watched as they zoomed through a stop sign. That was kind of how he felt about the current conversation—a little out of control. “Shouldn’t we focus on the rescue we’re heading into and not Bianca?”

It was Bryce’s turn to smirk. “Bianca, not Bia Pearl, is it? No wonder you were trying to raise your max lift today.”

Eddie eyed his lieutenant, who shrugged and then added, “I overheard as I walked by the weight room.”

Eddie pulled his jacket away from his chest. “Do you use everyone’s first and last name when you talk about them now?”

Bryce widened his grin. “Don’t know. I haven’t known any movie stars.”

Ridge slowed the truck when he got to a gate across the road. “This says it’s our location.”

A boundary fence stretched on both sides of the gate. A row of picketers marched on the grassy sidewalk, sandwiched between the road and fence.

The gate arm lifted, and a man in a security uniform with a walkie-talkie pressed up near his mustached mouth ran out to them and pointed ahead. “Straight back toward the city scene.”

“The city scene?” Eddie stuck his head out the window. A parking lot stretched before them. Trees bordered a sidewalk, and through the branches there was a row of trailers. One of the doors had the wordwardrobeon it.

Eddie swallowed. “Where are we exactly?”

Zack grimaced. “Pretty sure it’s Last Chance County’s new movie set.”

Eddie’s stomach ached like someone had punched him in the gut. Was Bianca hurt?

Another security guard held up his hands, and Ridge parked. Everyone jumped out of the truck.

“They’re this way.” The security guard heaved out a breath as he stood beside Bryce, wiping sweat off his brow. “But your truck’s not going to fit.”

“What do we have?” Bryce asked.

“Somehow a set building collapsed, and a woman’s leg is pinned.”

A woman. Like Bianca?

Eddie ran to the side of the truck and opened the correct compartment for the stored jack.

As Eddie followed the others down a sidewalk path skirted with trees, he came around the corner of four two-story buildings. A crowd stood around a heaping mess of downed wood and pieces of drywall. The dark-headed woman was half covered with a stack of broken boards. She had the same slender frame as Bianca. With all the dust covering her face, he couldn’t quite tell who lay trapped.

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