“Okay.”
“The second floor was failing. Ortega ordered everyone outside.”
“Okay.”
“I was near the stairwell when I heard something.”
My skin prickled.
“What?”
He swallowed.
“A kid.”
I stared at him.
He continued quietly.
“I thought maybe I was hearing things at first. There was a lot of noise. Alarms. Wood cracking. People yelling over the radios.”
“But?”
“I heard it again.”
His eyes finally met mine.
“A little girl was crying.”
I sat completely still.
“How old?”
“Seven, maybe eight.”
I felt cold.
“Why was she inside?”
“Her father worked in one of the storage units. Apparently she’d been with him earlier. During the evacuation, everyone believed she’d already gotten out with another employee.”
“But she hadn’t.”
Cole shook his head.
“No.”
I already knew what came next.
I didn’t want to hear it.
But I knew.
“You went back.”
He said nothing.
“Cole.”
“Yes.”
I stood so fast the chair scraped against the floor.
“You went back into a building that was actively collapsing?”
“She was still inside.”
“You had an evacuation order.”
“I know.”
“Your captain told you to get out.”
“I know.”
“And you went back anyway?”
His jaw tightened.
“What would you have wanted me to do?”
The question stopped me.
I opened my mouth.
Nothing came out.
Because there was no answer I could give him that wouldn’t make me hate myself.
Cole looked away.
“I could hear her screaming for her dad.”
My anger drained into something heavier.
“I found her behind some shelving. Part of the ceiling had come down and blocked the hallway.”
I sat again.
He continued.
“She was terrified. She wouldn’t move at first.”
“What did you do?”
“I told her my name.”
That detail nearly broke me.
“I told her I had a wife waiting for me at home who gets really mad when I’m late.”
I covered my eyes.
“Seriously?”
“It worked.”
Despite myself, I let out a tiny laugh.
Cole smiled.
“I carried her toward the stairs. We got maybe twenty feet before the support failed.”
I looked at his sling.
“That’s when you got hurt.”
He nodded.
“I covered her.”
My throat tightened.
