Page 14 of Colton’s Inferno

“What have you gotten yourself into this time?” Carol asked Aiden.

“You know,” he said, “the usual.”

Carol knelt next to Lucy. “I’m going to take your blood pressure,” she continued. “And get an IV started. Then, we’re going to put you on a backboard and get you to the hospital. How’s that sound?”

Lucy didn’t love the idea of a backboard. Still, she understood that it prevented further injury. “Sounds good,” she said.

She lay back as Carol wrapped her bicep in a blood pressure cuff. Next to her, Aiden was getting the same treatment by Frank. But it was totally different from him to her. Lucy lay there quietly, letting Carol do her work.

Aiden, on the other hand, chatted with Frank. “How’d you end up working tonight?”

“Carol and I are on for the whole weekend. It was work over Labor Day,” said Frank, “or Thanksgiving.”

“Smart move,” said Aiden.

“I was worried that it might be a boring weekend,” said Frank. “Seems like you’ve kept it interesting for us.”

Fire trucks parked by the blaze. The firefighters doused the old barn with water and foam.

“Aiden,” called out one of the firefighters. “Why are you laying around? Get up and help.”

“Leave the guy alone,” said another. “He’s too busy being a hero.”

“Very funny,” said Aiden. “I’ll be right over to help.”

“Don’t you dare get up,” said Frank.

“Frank says no,” Aiden called back.

“That’s me,” said Frank. “The spoilsport.”

Carol placed a hand on Lucy’s arm. “I need you to wait one more minute,” she said. “We’re going to get a back brace for you,” she continued. “To get both of you treated as soon as possible, we’re taking you and Aiden in the ambulance.”

Carol rose to her feet and disappeared into the crowd.

At her side, Aiden’s fingertips brushed the back of her hand. “If that’s not okay,” he said, “you know, riding with me in the ambulance, I can wait.”

Aiden was obviously a favorite of all his coworkers. “I think there’d be a riot if I told the paramedics to leave you here.”

She could feel more than see his smile. “Everyone’s good to me.”

“I feel like you are good to everyone. They’re just returning the favor.” She paused a beat. “Thank you, by the way. For saving me, I mean.” Jeez, Lucy, great way to impress a guy. Everyone loves a girl who stumbles over her words. She bit her bottom lip to keep from saying something else embarrassing.

“You don’t have to thank me,” he said. “I was just doing my job.”

She squeezed his palm tighter. “These people, Carol and Frank, and everyone else. They’re doing their job. You were here for the carnival and risked your life to save mine.”

“Well, I guess this is where I say you’re welcome.”

“I guess so,” she said, wondering when she last held a guy’s hand.

Frank and Carol returned. They both held a backboard, tucked under an arm. Lucy let her palm slip away from Aiden’s. As the paramedics worked, strapping her onto the brace, she let her mind go back to those first few moments when she first smelled the smoke. Lucy recalled the flexing of the wood as she rammed her shoulder into the door. The planks had heaved while she pulled on the handle. In that moment she realized something that only came back to her now. The door was more than stuck. It was locked.

The thing was, there was an old hasp on the outside of the door. But nobody had ever used a lock—not in her lifetime, at least. That meant that someone had locked Lucy in the barn. But who would have done such a thing? And why?

As the son of the chief of surgery, Aiden had spent a good bit of his childhood at Red Grove University Hospital. While his father was always cool and composed, making sure that patients understood they were in competent hands, Aiden had been drawn to the excitement of the emergency room. But more than that, he’d admired all the paramedics, EMTs, and firefighters who risked their lives to save others.

As a firefighter himself, Aiden really was living his childhood dream. While he’d spent a good bit of his work life making sure that people got to the hospital, he had never been a patient himself.