Riverbend Road. RaeAnne Thayne
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.