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Russ! Yes! “Good to see you.” I shook his hand and peered around him. Ben lay on a bed with his eyes closed. He had bandages on both of his hands. “How’s he doing?” I asked.
“He was banged up pretty bad and has some second-degree burns from where the accelerant caught fire on his clothes. Lotta smoke inhalation.” He crossed his arms. “You know he’s being charged with arson, right?”
“Fourth degree?”
“Yep.”
“Can I go in there?” I asked.
Russ frowned. “ ’Fraid not. He’s eighteen. Only his lawyer and family are allowed in there.”
Family. I used to be that to him.
“Has his mom been here yet?”
He nodded. “Yesterday. But she had to leave for some kind of meeting.”
I scoffed. “Always working.”
“She in realty?”
“No, home health care.”
Russ scratched the stubble on his chin. “Said she had a meeting with a realtor.”
Realtor? Why would Ms. Talbot need to meet with a realtor? Unless…
“Look.” My chest tightened, and I rubbed the heel of my hand against it. “I’m the only real family he’s got right now. And we haven’t spoken in days. Can you give me, like, five minutes? Please.”
“I don’t know—”
“Please.” I looked into the room again. “There’s something I gotta say to him.”
Russ checked the time on his watch. “Five minutes. No more.”
“Thank you.”
Russ quietly closed the door behind me. I grabbed a chair and pulled it up next to Ben’s bed.
His eyes flickered open. “Hey.” His voice was scratchy.
“Hey.” I poured him a cup of water. He drank it all in one long gulp. “How are you feeling?”
He wiped his mouth with one of his bandaged hands. “Like hell. You?”
“Same.” I took the cup back and set it on the table. Everything I rehearsed in the truck, all the calm questions and phrases, felt silly now. I wanted to hit him, shake him, scream at him for being such an idiot.
“Reed.” Ben pressed a button that raised the back of his bed up a little. “I’m so, so sorry. Is Eliza okay? Are you okay?”
“We’re okay.” Anger burned behind my eyes. “But it could’ve been a lot worse.”
“I know. Christ, I’m so sorry.” He let his head fall back against the pillow. “I don’t even know why I went there. One minute Eliza told me about not smoking, and the next my arm was on fire…”
“When I got to you, you were passed out on the floor. I tried to get you out, but there was too much smoke.”
“You’re the one who came to get me?” He lifted his head off the pillow. Eyes wide.
“The guys and I split up and looked for you all over town.” I took off my hat. “I had just left the library gardens when I smelled smoke and saw it coming out of the theater.”
