Page 37 of Love Songs

Of course she did. I would have, too.

“Where was she?”

“Second floor, east hallway,” he said. “But take the back stairs. The front ones collapsed behind us.”

Fuck. She was going to get trapped in there. I knew I was going against protocol, and Juno would be pissed that I came to rescue her while she was busy rescuing someone else, but panic flared brighter in my chest. My sister could kick my ass later,aftershe made it safely out of there.

I radioed Captain Burgess as I pulled on my breathing apparatus and charged inside, ignoring his shouts in my ear to stand down.

“Juno,” I shouted, pushing through thick, black smoke. I made my way to the second stairwell at the back of the building and started climbing while flames licked at me from the first-floor landing. I’d cleared all of five steps before a section of the stairwell collapsed behind me, closing another escape route.

I called out Juno’s name again and again as I reached the second floor. My heart raced and sweat dripped down myface. Wood snapped and glass shattered as floors and ceilings collapsed nearby.

“Juno!Oof.” Someone coming out of an apartment banged into me, knocking me off balance, but I recovered quickly.

“Conor,” Juno shouted, and a powerful wave of relief washed through me, nearly dropping me to my knees.

“We have to get out of here,” I said, reaching for the child she had over her shoulder.

She shook her head. I thought for sure she was going to rip into me for coming in here against orders, but she gestured to the door she’d come through, either not knowing or not caring.

“There’s another little boy in there. I promised,” she implored. “Bathroom.”

Shit. We needed to get out, but there was no way I was going to leave anyone behind, especially a kid. Death by fire was a horrible way to go.

“I’ll find him. You get out of here.” I pointed the other direction down the hall. “Stairs collapsed. Go that way.”

She hesitated for a second, and I knew exactly what she was thinking because I’d have been thinking the same thing—leave no one behind.

“Go!”

She turned and ran down the hall, dodging a flaming ceiling beam as it fell.

Cursing, I raced inside and found a young boy of maybe ten crouched in the bathtub with a wet blanket draped over top of him. There was no way in hell Juno would’ve made it back up here for him, but at least she’d done what she could to keep him as safe as possible.

I bundled him up and threw him over my shoulder, crashing into my sister once again when I reached the hallway.

“What the hell are you still doing here?” I yelled at her.

“We’re trapped,” she barked back.

“Son of a—”

I kicked open an apartment door across the hall and raced for windows that were blown out from the explosion. If we couldn’t get down the stairs, we could get down a fire escape.

Except the ladder was well out of our reach. Fortunately, our truck was positioned nearby, on the east side of the building. I radioed Shepherd with our location so they could get the hydraulic ladder into position. Flames closed in on us while we waited for what felt like an eternity, but I knew wasn’t more than thirty seconds before the turntable ladder was in place.

When it was, I shouted at Juno to go first. Once she and her limp but precious cargo were out, I followed, but thought I heard something—or someone calling out.

“Did you hear that?”

Juno looked up at me from the ladder. “Hear what?”

I glanced over my shoulder, straining to hear anything over the snap, pop, and roar of the fire. The fire had closed the room behind us, too. There was no way I was getting back in there.

“Don’t you dare, Conor James Holliston,” Juno barked, but I heard the worry in her voice.

We were out of time.

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