“Backup line. Watch the left wall. I don’t trust it.”
His gaze tracks the structure.
“Neither do I.”
“Then treat it like it’s already failing.”
He nods and moves.
The three of them go to work with no wasted motion and no questions I do not need.
Another engine pulls in behind them, and Gabriel Hall is off it almost immediately. He crosses the yard already reading the structure, his attention moving from the upper-floor smoke to the crew advancing on the house.
“Status?”
I give it to him fast. “One occupant out. Jordan and Jesse are interior. Lance has backup. Possible extension upstairs and toward the rear. Left wall is questionable.”
Gabriel studies the house once, then looks at me.
“I’ve got command.”
I hold his gaze for a second.
He gives one short nod. “Go.”
That is all I need.
More emergency vehicles are filling the street by the time I strip off my helmet, air tank, and turnout coat and leave the gear near the command truck.
Then I turn back to Kaia.
She is sitting on the grass with the sketchbook held against her chest. One of the paramedics has already checked her overand cleared her to leave, after repeating twice that the coughing means she needs watching and any change in her breathing means she goes straight in.
She looks too pale, too shaken, and too close to that burning house.
I walk to her.
She looks up. “I’m okay.”
I do not answer because she is not.
Her stuff is inside. Her paintings. Her plants. Her clothes. Whatever pieces of her life she brought here when she decided to start over.
Gone.
And she is sitting barefoot in the grass trying to convince me she is fine.
“Zain?”
I bend and slide one arm behind her back, the other beneath her knees.
Her eyes widen. “What are you doing?”
I lift her.
She makes a soft sound and grabs my shoulders.
“You should be with your crew.”
