Page 25 of Scars of Fate

I counted each person as they passed.

Then counted again.

Someone was missing.

“Where’s Janice?”

Wynn stopped instantly.

“She went back for one of the injured men.”

I closed my eyes for half a second.

“Of course she did.”

“I told her I’d help⁠—”

“No.”

“I’m going.”

Before Wynn could argue, I sprinted back into the warehouse.

Smoke rolled across the ceiling.

Flames climbed one wall where a fuel drum had ignited during the firefight.

Concrete groaned overhead.

The building wasn’t going to remain standing much longer.

“Janice!”

A weak voice answered.

“Over here!”

I followed the sound to a collapsed office.

A massive steel beam pinned one corner of the room.

Dr. Janice Turner knelt beside an elderly man trapped beneath a slab of broken concrete.

“I can’t leave him.”

I didn’t waste a second.

I grabbed a length of steel pipe from the debris and shoved one end beneath the slab.

“Get ready to pull him out.”

Janice stared at the concrete.

“That’s too heavy.”

“That’s why I’m using leverage.”

She smiled despite everything.