Riverbend Road

There was a momentary pause. “What should we say?”

“Sing a song. How about ‘Jingle Bells’? Here. I’ll start.”

She started the words off and then stopped when she heard two young voices singing the words between sobs. She whispered a quick prayer for help and courage then rapidly picked her way over rubble and debris as she followed the song to its source, which turned out to be two white-faced, terrified boys she knew.

Caleb and Lucas Keegan were crouched together just below a ladder up to the loft, where the flames sizzled and popped overhead.

Caleb, the older of the two, was stretched out on the ground, his leg bent at an unnatural angle.

“Hey, Caleb. Hey, Luke.”

They both sobbed when they spotted her. “Officer Bailey. We didn’t mean to start the fire! We didn’t mean to!” Luke, the younger one, was close to hysteria but she didn’t have time to calm him.

“We can worry about that later. Right now, we need to get out of here.”

“We tried, but Caleb broked his leg! He fell and he can’t walk. I was trying to pull him out but I’m not strong enough.”

“I told him to go without me,” the older boy, no more than ten, said through tears. “I screamed and screamed at him but he wouldn’t go.”

“We’re all getting out of here.” She ripped the wet cloth in half and handed a section to each boy.

Yeah, she knew the whole adage—taught by the airline industry, anyway—about taking care of yourself before turning your attention to helping others but this case was worth an exception.

“Caleb, I’m going to pick you up. It’s going to hurt, especially if I bump that broken leg of yours, but I don’t have time to give you first aid.”

“It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. Do what you have to do. We have to get Luke out of here!”

Her eyes burned from the smoke and her throat felt tight and achy. If she had time to spare, she would have wept at the boy’s quiet courage. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She scooped him up into a fireman’s carry, finally appreciating the efficiency of the hold. He probably weighed close to eighty pounds but adrenaline gave her strength.

Over the crackles and crashes overhead, she heard him swallow a scream as his ankle bumped against her.

“Luke, grab hold of my belt buckle, right there in the back. That’s it. Do not let go, no matter what. You hear me?”

“Yes,” the boy whispered.

“I can’t carry you both. I wish I could. You ready?”

“I’m scared,” Luke whimpered through the wet T-shirt wrapped around his mouth.

So am I, kiddo. She forced a confident smile she was far from feeling. “Stay close to me. We’re tough. We can do this.”

The pep talk was meant for herself, more than the boys. Flames had finally begun crawling down the side of the barn and it didn’t take long for the fire to slither its way through the old hay and debris scattered through the place.

She did not want to run through those flames but her dad’s voice seemed to ring again in her ears.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you’ve got.

Okay, okay. She got it, already.

She ran toward the door, keeping Caleb on her shoulder with one hand while she wrapped her other around Luke’s neck.

They were just feet from the door when the younger boy stumbled and went down. She could hear the flames growling louder and knew the dry, rotten barn wood was going to combust any second.

With no time to spare, she half lifted him with her other arm and dragged them all through the door and into the sunshine while the fire licked and growled at their heels.

CHAPTER TWO

SHE MADE IT only a few steps out of the burning structure into the blessedly sweet air and blinding sunlight before strong hands reached to take both boys.

“Careful of Caleb’s leg. I think it’s broken,” she mumbled, not even sure who was helping her and very much afraid she was going to be sick now from a combination of the smoke choking her lungs, the exertion and delayed reaction.

“We’ve got to move, before the whole thing tumbles down around us.” As her vision adjusted to the shift in light, she saw Cade, his face set and hard, carrying both boys as if they weighed no more than a couple bags of sugar.

“You coming?” he growled.

“Right behind you, Chief,” she mumbled, then called on the last of her strength to follow Cade as he rushed away from the structure toward a cluster of emergency vehicles just arriving on scene.

He headed straight for the ambulance pulling in just behind the first water truck. Before they reached it, a couple of paramedics jumped out and grabbed a gurney out of the back. They were two of the best in the volunteer department, she saw with relief. In seconds, Ed Cutler had Caleb on the stretcher.

“I didn’t have much time to assess the situation but it looked like he broke his ankle. He jumped out of the hayloft once the fire started,” Wyn explained, keeping a careful eye on Ed’s partner Terri Michaels as she hooked Luke up with an oxygen mask.

“Thanks. Sit down before you fall over,” the bald EMT ordered her. “Terri, get a mask on Wyn here too.”

“I’m okay,” she said. “Don’t worry about me. You’ve got enough on your hands with the boys. They come first.”

“You’re going to let them treat you,” Cade growled. “And then you’re going to explain to me why the hell you thought you could defy a direct order.”

The paramedics exchanged glances and then pointedly busied themselves with Lucas and Caleb.

“I had no choice. You can see how quickly that thing flared out of control. When I rolled up, only the loft was engulfed but I knew it was only a matter of time. If I hadn’t gone in, Chief Gallegos would be sending his guys in for body retrieval and we both know it!”

“Another ten seconds and they would have been looking for three bodies!”

Though the June afternoon sunshine was warm and the fire put out plenty of heat, Wyn shivered. As her adrenaline spike ebbed, the reality of the situation began to soak in like that water spraying out of the firefighters’ hose.

In nearly five years of law enforcement, she’d never had such a close call. She and the boys all could have died inside that fiery barn. If she had been thirty seconds later...if she hadn’t been able to move as quickly...if one of those blazing timbers had crashed to the ground.

No question about it, they had been lucky.

She swallowed, suddenly light-headed. She didn’t realize she swayed until Cade grabbed her.

“Sit down,” he ordered harshly, though his hands were gentle as he helped her to the ground. Terri came over with an oxygen mask and a water bottle.

“Did you call another ambulance for her yet?” Cade asked.

Terri looked wary at his clipped tone. “No. We’ll check her blood gases first. Could be, we can treat and release at the scene with a few more puffs of oxygen.”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Wyn answered through the mask, then spoiled the words with a paroxysm of coughing.

When Wyn finished, Cade’s silver-blue eyes looked as fierce and hard as the Redemption Mountains.

“If the paramedics don’t ship you to the hospital, take your vehicle and clear out. You’re officially suspended without pay for the next seven days.”

For a moment, she thought the fire had messed with her hearing. “What? I just saved two lives!”

“And almost lost your own in the process.”

She glared at him. “You can’t suspend me! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“You disobeyed a direct order and your actions could have endangered others.”

“How?” she demanded.

“You turned off your radio, didn’t you? You had no idea what the status of the other responding personnel might have been. Nor did we have anybody on scene to provide status reports on the fire until the first engine rolled up.”

She had no answer to that, especially not when he reached down and unclipped her radio from her shoulder. When he turned the dial up the air was immediately filled with voices and static as Chief Gallegos and his team communicated through the airwaves with dispatch about their needs.

“I made a judgment call,” she said. It sounded weak, even to her. Okay, maybe she had ignored department policy, but those two boys chattering to the EMTs were proof that her judgment call had paid off.

“The wrong one. I’ll see you in seven days,” he answered tersely, then turned and stalked over to the fire command center.

* * *

CADE HAD NEVER been more angry.

The fury prowled through him, harsh and wild like the fire burning through Darwin Twitchell’s dilapidated barn.

He had to be able to trust her to do exactly what he asked. Out of all six officers in this small ragtag Haven Point police department, he trusted Wynona most. She was smart, hardworking, compassionate and insightful.

She had natural instincts and seemed to always find the perfect way to allay any tense situation, from drunk altercations down at the Mad Dog tavern to hot tempers between neighbors.

He figured she came by those instincts naturally, since she was fourth-generation law enforcement in these parts.

He didn’t want to suspend her, especially not when they were in the middle of their busiest time of the year with the summer tourist season heading into full swing. But what alternative did he have? This wasn’t the first time she had ignored his orders but he vowed it would be the last. He wasn’t a control freak but he had to know that his officers would follow the chain of command.

He glanced back at the ambulance. She looked so fragile and vulnerable sitting there in the grass, her cheek sooty and strands of wheat-colored hair slipping free of the thick braid she always wore on duty.

Beneath his anger lurked something else, something he didn’t want to look at too closely. He only knew that he couldn’t remember ever feeling that bone-deep fear that had sent him racing out of the station to his vehicle and then bulleting through town to the fire scene.

She was a police officer. One of his police officers. He would have worried about any of his guys who stopped responding while out on a call.

He put it away when he saw Erik Gallegos heading in his direction.

“What’s the status?” he asked the fire chief.

“Barn looks like it’s going to be a total loss,” Erik answered. “Old thing was about to fall over anyway, next time a stiff wind blew off the lake. At this point, my crew is just trying to put out the flames and make sure it doesn’t spread to the undergrowth.”

“That a concern?”

Erik shrugged. “Not really. All the rain we’ve had the last few weeks has reduced the threat level for now, but you never know.”

Cade hoped they had another six or seven weeks before fire season hit, especially since some places in the higher elevations were still covered in snow.

The chief jerked his head toward his EMTs. “Wynona okay?”

He followed the other man’s gaze, where Wynona was smiling and saying something to the younger of the Keegan boys. “Seems to be.”

He thought about leaving the situation there but figured word would spread soon anyway and he might as well get out in front of it.

“I gave her a week’s suspension for disobeying a direct order and for turning off her comm.”

Erik snorted. “Seriously? Harsh. You know you would have done the exact same thing.”

That was different, though Cade couldn’t quite pin a finger on why. “Your guys were four minutes behind her. She should have waited for somebody who could search the premises wearing proper gear.”

“Four minutes is a long time for two scared little boys,” the fire chief said.

Cade still knew he had made the right call. That had been four minutes of hell he never wanted to live through again, trying to raise her on the radio, then rolling up to the scene a half minute before the fire crews to find the place engulfed and no sign of her.

When she had burst out of that door seconds later like she was some kind of freaking avenging angel, carrying two kids with smoke and flames pouring out behind her, his blood had turned as cold as a jump into Lake Haven in January.

His stomach still felt hollow and shaky.

“It could have been a hell of a lot worse, if not for Wyn. I’ll take a little mild smoke inhalation and a broken ankle over the alternative.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“Lindy-Grace and Ron are both on their way. I asked Ed and Terri to wait a minute longer for the boys’ parents to make it here before they roll out to Lake Haven hospital.”

Erik gave him a careful look. “You going to refer the boys to juvie court for trespassing and vandalism?”

“We can cross that bridge eventually.”

He should probably have a word with the boys before they left the scene. He could always catch them at the hospital or after they were discharged, but in his experience, time sometimes had a way of distorting the truth.

He should have remembered his duty, first and foremost. Yet another reason to be pissed at Wynona.

He headed back toward the ambulance. She had risen from the grass and now leaned into the rear of the ambulance trading jokes with the boys, who still looked small and frightened.

He had gone to school with their mom, Lindy-Grace, and considered her a friend. She was a sweetheart who threw the best barbecues in town and often dropped off baked goods at the police station.

He had heard rumors that LG and Ron were going through a trial separation. That must be tough on the boys. He didn’t want to pile it on when they were already scared and one was injured, but he really did have a job to do, trying to find out what happened.

When he neared the ambulance, Wyn gave him a wary look and stepped aside, as if afraid he was going to yell at her again. He ignored her and stuck his head into the ambulance.

“Hey, boys. How we doing in here?”

The older one—Caleb—paled another shade when he spotted him. The EMTs must have given him something for the pain of his ankle, which was encased in an inflatable splint. “Are you gonna take us to jail because we started the fire, Chief Emmett?” he asked.

“We didn’t mean to do it,” the younger boy whimpered before Cade could answer. “It was just a junky old barn. Nobody used it for nothing. That’s what our dad said. So we decided to make it our clubhouse and we were gonna roast hot dogs for lunch. We were supposed to go on a campout with our dad tonight but then he said he had to work so we couldn’t go.”

“Since we already had the hot dogs and stuff, we decided to have our own campfire,” Caleb said.

As much as he liked Lindy-Grace Keegan, he had never much liked her husband, Ron. The guy had always struck him as a self-absorbed workaholic who didn’t know a good thing when it lived in his house. The story just confirmed it.

“If you have to arrest somebody, arrest me.” The older boy held out his wrists as if he expected Cade to slap cuffs on them right there. “It was my fault. All of it. I tried to start the fire and I guess I used too much kindling.”

“No, I didn’t make the ring good enough,” his brother protested. “You should arrest me.”

“But if I hadn’t fallen when we jumped down from the loft, we could have run out and called for help. I’m the one responsible. Arrest me.”

Wyn made a soft sound and he risked a glance down. Her eyes were suspiciously moist and he felt an answering tug of emotion. It would take a harder man than he was not to be touched at this evidence of brotherly love, each trying to shoulder the blame for the other.

Would any of his brothers step up to do the same for him? He wanted to think so but he wasn’t sure. Hell, his own father would have shoved every single one of his boys in front of a firing squad if it meant he could save his own skin.

“I’m not going to arrest anybody—” he started to say, but didn’t finish the sentence before a distraught female voice cried out.

“My babies! Where are they? My babies!”

“Mama,” Lucas cried out and Lindy-Grace lifted her head at the sound like a bird dog on a pheasant.

An instant later, she and Ron were both there. Lindy-Grace shoved him aside to jump into the ambulance so she could hug and kiss each boy, babbling about how much she loved them. Ron, ashen-faced, stayed next to Cade.

When she finished hugging them, she frowned ferociously at both of them. “You are in such big trouble!”

At her words, both boys burst into tears.

“We’re sorry,” the younger one wailed. “We’re so sorry, Mama.”

“We didn’t mean to,” Caleb blubbered. “It was an accident. We had a fire ring and everything but then the fire jumped out onto some hay and we couldn’t put it out. I knew we had to get out so we jumped down, only I fell hard and hurt my ankle and couldn’t get up and Luke wouldn’t go without me, even though I told him and told him to go.”

“We were so scared,” his brother interjected. “We couldn’t get out and we were crying and praying and then she came in and helped us.”

They pointed to Wynona, who smiled and waved weakly.

“Wynona Jane Bailey,” Lindy-Grace exclaimed. “You saved my boys.”

She jumped back down from the ambulance and wrapped Wynona in a tight embrace that couldn’t have felt the greatest on his officer’s smoke-seared lungs.

“If I live to be a hundred and three like my great-grandmother LuLu, I will never forget what you’ve done here today,” LG said through her tears.

He knew just what Wyn was thinking when she arched an eyebrow at him. See? Not everybody thinks I screwed up.

She hugged Lindy-Grace for a moment before deftly extricating herself. “It wasn’t a big deal. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Any other officer on the Haven Point Police Department would have done exactly the same thing. Isn’t that right, Chief Emmett?”

He was spared from having to answer that by Lindy-Grace’s effusive gratitude.

“I don’t care. They weren’t there. You were. Cade, I sure hope you’re going to give Wynnie a medal!”

His jaw clenched and he opened his mouth to answer but one of the EMTs spoke up before he could get the words out.

“Actually, he suspended her for a week without pay,” Terri Michaels offered, with a dark look in his direction.

The women in Haven Point apparently stuck together.

“What?” Lindy-Grace exclaimed. “Suspended her! Are you kidding?”

Cade ground his back teeth. How was he supposed to defend his position to the mother of the two boys Wynona had risked her life to rescue? Yes, he was glad everything had turned out relatively okay except for Caleb’s broken ankle. But procedures were in place for a reason.

“It’s an internal police matter,” he finally said. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to the scene. Boys, we’re not done talking about this. But now that your mom and dad have had a chance to make sure you’re okay, you need to be checked out at the hospital. I’ll come by later to ask you a few more questions about what happened here and I’m sure Chief Gallegos will have a word or two for you as well.”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison, looking chastened at his stern tone.

He walked away without risking another look at Wynona, wondering how he seemed to have lost control of the entire situation.

CHAPTER THREE

WYN WATCHED CADE walk away, tension radiating from him with every step.

She had worked with him for nearly three years but had never seen him like this. Usually he was calm, coolheaded, no matter the crisis. He was acting very unlike himself—being abrupt to two scared little boys, suspending her for actions he certainly would have taken himself in the same situation.

It left her feeling off balance, as if she were trying to hike up to the top of Mount Solace wearing high heels.

“Seriously, Wyn. How can we ever thank you?”

She shifted back to Lindy-Grace and Ron. She had a sudden feeling this was going to get old really quickly.

Her father had been the hero around town and people revered him accordingly. Twenty-five years as the police chief of Haven Point had earned him a reputation as a decent, caring man who would do anything for the people he served. The last difficult two years of his life had only solidified that love and respect. His funeral five months earlier had to be moved to the gymnasium at Haven Point High School to hold the crowds of people who wanted to come pay their respects.

She was no hero, just a police officer doing her job.

Her mother was going to freak. It was a wonder Charlene hadn’t hitched a ride to the fire with Lindy-Grace to make sure her oldest daughter was okay.

“I’m just happy everything worked out,” she said now to her friend.

“But a week’s suspension! You saved two lives. You shouldn’t be punished for that! What is wrong with that man?”

She couldn’t begin to guess—nor did she want to discuss it with Lindy-Grace.

“It doesn’t matter.” She forced a smile. “The boys are safe and that’s the important thing. And they’re not going to go around starting any more fires to roast hot dogs without a grown-up present, right?”

Both boys shook their heads vigorously.

“We really need to go now,” Ed said. “The docs at the emergency department have called three times trying to find out what the heck is taking so long. LG, you can ride along if you want. Ron, just follow behind at a safe speed and meet us at the hospital.”

“Right.”

“So I’m good here?” Wyn pressed.

Ed nodded as he took the oxygen mask from her. “Yeah. Your levels are great and I think Chief Gallegos would be fine with me releasing you. Just promise you’ll go straight to the hospital if you notice any shortness of breath or feel light-headed.”

“You got it.”

She signed the paperwork releasing her from their care, then waved off the ambulance as it backed away through the fire crew.

By the looks of it, the entire Haven Point volunteer fire department had turned out for the excitement, though it looked like the barn was going to be a total loss. At this point, they seemed to be trying to contain the fire to only the barn and make sure it didn’t spread to the surrounding vegetation.

She spotted Cade helping uncoil hose from one of the water trucks. No, it wasn’t his job, but that never stopped him before. He always jumped in to do whatever necessary.

With a sigh, she headed for her patrol car. When she started the engine, he looked over. He wore sunglasses that concealed his expression but she had a feeling he was still glowering at her as she drove away.

She had left her phone inside the vehicle when she responded to the fire, what felt like another lifetime ago. It rang before she even made her way past the last fire truck and when she glanced at the screen, she saw she had missed six calls—all from her mother. She had to talk to Charlene eventually but she wasn’t quite ready for that.

Just as she turned onto Riverbend Road, it rang again. This time the caller ID had her reaching to answer.

“Hey, Kat,” she said as she pulled over to the shoulder of the road, grimly aware she was too shaky to talk on the phone and drive safely at the same time.

She was greeted by an excited shriek that nearly pierced her eardrums.

“Is it true?” her sister, Katrina, demanded.

As usual, her sister’s bubbly energy made her feel about a hundred years older, though less than five years separated them.

“I’m going to say yes, though I’m not sure what you’re talking about.”

“Sam just texted me that Michelle Hunter came into the store and said she heard from her mom who heard on the police scanner that you ran into a burning building and saved about twelve people.”

Oh, the fun rumor mill in Haven Point. You had to love it.

“Don’t forget all the babies and kittens. There had to be at least a hundred of them.”

“Seriously?”

For about half a second, Katrina actually bought it. Wyn swallowed a laugh. She adored her sister, she really did, but sometimes Kat was a little too gullible—not a good trait in a second-grade teacher.