“Allie? You okay?”

“Yes.” Allie heard the thunk of timber falling and her stomach turned over. “What just happened? Ash?”

“Nothing. Go outside, Allie. Just back up slowly the way we came in.”

“I’m not leaving you there. Can’t you ever just trust me?”

“I—”

“Tremont?” Reese called loudly. “Tremont, what’s your twenty?”

• 114 •

RetuRning tides

“Here.” Allie raised her Mag and looked over her shoulder, blinking as a half dozen lights focused on her. “Part of the floor collapsed. Ash Walker is down there.”

“This is the fire marshal.” A big dark shadow appeared beside Reese. “Stay right where you are, Officer. We’re coming to get you out.”

“No, not until—”

“You’ll evacuate as ordered, Officer,” Reese said. “We don’t need another casualty. You can’t help Ash if you’re under a pile of rubble yourself.”

As firefighters in turnout gear and halogen headlamps slowly drew near, Allie turned back to the black hole that had swallowed Ash. She couldn’t leave her there. She couldn’t. She focused her light in front of her again and started to crawl forward when a firm hand grasped her shoulder.

“You’ll just endanger her, Allie,” the fire marshal said. “We’ll get her out.”

Another firefighter appeared next to her and Allie had no choice.

She let herself be guided out into the crisp, clean night air.

“It’s my fault,” Allie said, her voice breaking.

“What happened?” Reese asked.

“We were almost finished and then I misstepped and everything just collapsed.”

“What’s her status?”

“She’s conscious. She says she’s all right, but—” Allie heard her voice shaking and consciously steadied it. She didn’t want Reese to think she couldn’t handle an emergency. “I haven’t had any visual contact since the collapse.”

Flynn appeared by Allie’s side out of the throng of officers, volunteer firefighters, and EMTs. “Allie,” she said urgently, “are you hurt?”

“No, I’m okay.”

“You don’t look it.” Flynn’s expression was tight and tense, but her voice was calm and professional. “Your hands are bleeding, your pants are ripped, and there’s blood running down your leg. Let me get you back to the rig and check you out.”

“No,” Allie said, although she felt shaky all of a sudden. “I need to—”

• 115 •

RAdCLY fFe

“Go with her,” Reese said. “You’re all in, Tremont. You’ll be shocky in another few minutes.”

Allie stiffened her shoulders. “Sheriff, I—”

“I’ll update you as soon as they get her out. But I don’t want to see your face back here until you’ve been cleared by medical.”

“Yes ma’am.” Allie was cold and dizzy, and when Flynn put her arm around her waist to guide her through the crowd, she leaned into her, grateful for her strength and her warmth.

v

Tory rapped on the examining room door and stuck her head in.

“Dr. Burgoyne? Got a minute?”

Nita patted the knee of the elderly woman she’d been examining.

“I’ll be right back, June.” Outside in the hall, she asked, “Problem?”

“Reese just called. The EMTs are bringing Allie Tremont over.

She and Ashley Walker, an insurance investigator, were caught in a building collapse. Allie is going to need some stitches. I don’t know Ash’s status. If she’s seriously injured, we’ll have the EMTs transport her to the airport and medevac her out of here.”

“Do you want me to take care of Allie or pick up your patients?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to see to Allie myself. She’s one of Reese’s people, and Reese always takes it hard when she has an officer injured. I’m just going to be hovering otherwise.”

Nita laughed softly. “I understand. If one of Deo’s crew were injured, I’d feel the same way.”

“Thanks. If they end up bringing Ash here, I may need you to evaluate her if I’m tied up.”

“No problem. Just have Randy call me.” Nita sighed. “I hate to hear about this kind of thing. Deo and her crew are in and out of those unstable buildings all day long. I know they’re all professionals, but the chance of an accident is so much higher than on a regular job.”

“I know.” Tory squeezed Nita’s hand, oddly comforted that she wasn’t the only one worrying in silence about her partner. “Trust her.

Deo’s good at what she does.”

Nina cocked her head and smiled. “Is that what you tell yourself about Reese?”

“Every day,” Tory said. “Every single day.”

• 116 •

RetuRning tides

v

“Hey, Allie,” Tory said as two EMTs wheeled Allie on a gurney into the treatment room. Allie had an IV running in her left hand and a blood pressure cuff around her right biceps. She was pale but alert.

“How are you doing?”

“Her BP dropped to sixty palp so we started an IV,” the good-looking blond EMT Tory had seen the night before reported, efficiently releasing the buckles on the straps that secured Allie to the gurney.

“I know we met last night,” Tory said. “I’m sorry. Flynn, is it?”

“That’s right. No reason you should remember, Dr. King.”

“Quite the contrary. Thank you for all your help.” Tory turned her attention back to Allie. “Let’s get her over here so I can have a look.”

Flynn slid her hands under Allie’s shoulders and said to her partner,

“Chuck, get her hips.”

“I can move,” Allie said irritably. “I’m fine. I wasn’t the one that had a building fall on me.”

“Let them do their jobs, Allie,” Tory said calmly, leaning across the treatment table to help in the transfer. “So tell me what happened.”

“Nothing happened to me. Part of the floor collapsed and Ash…

Ash went down. They didn’t have her out yet when we left.” Allie glared at the EMTs. “I didn’t need to be brought in right away.”

“Uh-huh.” Tory ignored the all-too-familiar complaints and quickly scanned the EMT records. Allie’s pulse was rapid, her blood pressure erratic. “Nothing fell on you? Hit you?”

“No. I fell when the floor buckled, but it was nothing.”

Flynn rested her hand on Allie’s shoulder. “Stop fussing and let Dr. King check you out.”

Tory peeled back the leg of Allie’s uniform pants where someone had applied a field dressing to her left thigh. After donning gloves, Tory removed the bandage. “You’ve got a fifteen-centimeter laceration here.

It’s fairly deep. I’ll need to irrigate it out and suture it. Are you allergic to any drugs?”

“No.”

“Do you remember when your last tetanus shot was?”

“No,” Allie said distractedly, looking up at Flynn. “Do you think you can radio someone in the field and find out what’s happening with Ash?”

• 117 •

RAdCLY fFe

“Sure.” Flynn stroked Allie’s hair for a second and then stepped away to the far corner of the room.

“Reese will make sure she’s taken care of,” Tory murmured. “How about letting me get you taken care of?”

“Fine. Whatever. Do anything you want.” Exhausted, guilty, and just plain scared, Allie closed her eyes. “I can’t freaking believe this.

The sheriff puts me in charge and I totally fuck it up.”

“Somehow, I find that hard to believe.”

Allie didn’t think she would ever forget the sight of Ash falling, just disappearing. Even though she’d lost Ash long ago, the thought of truly losing her forever was the most terrifying feeling she’d ever experienced.

“It’s going to hurt a little bit,” Tory murmured as she began injecting the wound edges with lidocaine. “Okay?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Allie whispered. The pain in her leg was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.

v

“Stand by on the line,” the firefighter shouted up to the team on the surface, who waited to winch up the rescue sked, a molded plastic litter that could be used to immobilize and drag a victim out of the tightest of confined spaces.

“Have them drop a rope ladder,” Ash repeated for the tenth time.

“I can climb out now that you’ve got the sides braced.”

The young dark-haired man in a bright yellow turnout coat ignored her and tightened the safety straps around her waist and thighs that secured her in the narrow stretcher. After an hour of carefully removing loose debris and shoring up the remaining support structures, he’d slowly worked his way down into the V-shaped depression where she’d been lodged when a portion of the floor had fallen into the basement.

Fortunately, she’d tobogganed down on top of the debris and none of it had fallen on her. The steep angles of the cavity and the instability of the structure had made it impossible for her to climb out before.

She was still worried that the vibration set up by her ascent might trigger further collapse, and the young firefighter would be beneath her handling the guide ropes. She didn’t want him at risk. “I’m not injured.

I can climb.”

• 118 •

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“This is safer until we can get a medic to look you over.”

Ash grimaced. “I’m banged up a little, but nothing serious. We’ll stand less chance of destabilizing this area if we don’t use the winch.”

“Can’t do it, ma’am. Protocol.”

“Listen, hotshot, imagine how you’d feel if you dropped through a floor and your buddies had to bring you out in a basket.”

He grinned, his grime-streaked face devilishly handsome in the bright light of the halogen lamps shining down on them. “Definitely a dick-shrinking thought.”

“Damn right. So have a little pity. It’s your call to make, so unstrap me and tell them we’re climbing.”

He tugged on the guideline attached to the bright orange sked.

“On the line,” he called up. Then he gave her a charming boyish smile.

“Don’t worry, ma’am. The shrinkage is only temporary.”

She gripped his hand. “What’s your name?”