Part 21 (1/2)
”Let her escape,” Toms said. ”I don't care. You can take her place.”
She rolled over hard and threw him off. When she did, she inhaled smoke far too quickly and started to cough again. The vision that she had just regained went hazy again as she scooted herself back, gagging on the smoke and wondering if she was going to suffocate or burn to death first.
My gun, she thought. If he gets it before I do, maybe a shot to the head would be faster.
As if birthed by that thought, the room was suddenly filled with gunshots.
Two of them.
Avery tensed up, waiting for the pain, sure that she was dead.
Three seconds pa.s.sed before she realized that she was still breathing.
”Avery,” a voice said. It was a voice that made her nearly start crying. She might have done just that if the smoke hadn't been strangling her.
It was Ramirez.
She felt his hands on her shoulder. ”Can you get up?” he asked.
She nodded and got to her feet. She swayed a bit but steadied herself against him. ”I can't see. He sprayed me with something...some sort of...ah G.o.d. Where's Sophia?”
”She's fine,” Ramirez said as they made their way to the stairs. ”I sent her running out the back door. The living room floor upstairs is already starting to buckle and burn. Come on...you reek of lighter fluid. Let's get you upstairs before it's too late.”
She could barely see anything as Ramirez led her up the wooden stairs. She banged her s.h.i.+ns a few times and almost fell down but Ramirez caught her. When they were up the stairs and into the hallway, she was able to take her first whole breath without the hazard of smoke.
She was half-dragged through the kitchen, where the back door was standing open. The fresh air was a blessing...like cool water in the desert.
”Wait,” she said. ”Water...for my eyes.”
Ramirez quickly took her to the kitchen sink. As he helped her splash water into her eyes, Avery realized that she could hear the place burning. Boards were popping and the structure was creaking all around them. Slowly, the smell of smoke started to meet them in the kitchen.
As Ramirez gently helped her clean her eyes, the first thing she saw clearly was his face. Knowing that it was a foolish waste of time, she flung her arms around her him and kissed him. She again almost resorted to tears, which was unlike her. She managed to hold them back as they broke the kiss and hurried outside.
Avery collapsed on the gra.s.s in the backyard not too far away from Sophia. Ramirez sat beside her in the gra.s.s and she listened as he called the fire department to report the fire and then called O'Malley.
Avery was in and out, coughing one moment and feeling hazy the next. She was pretty sure she pa.s.sed out somewhere between Ramirez looking over Sophia and hearing the first wail of sirens approaching them in the distance.
”You almost died,” Ramirez said, looking down to her.
”I know,” she said. ”It all happened so fast and I lost control.”
”I know. That's how you are. But you're alive. That's the important thing.”
Avery nodded and looked over to Sophia. Her eyes were open, looking up the darkening evening sky. She reached out and took Sophia's hand.
”How are you doing?”
Sophia tried to speak but only cried.
It was the only sound in the yard until the first of several fire trucks pulled up three minutes later.
CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN.
Avery sat at the table, O'Malley and Connelly on the other side facing her. Nothing much had happened in the two weeks that had pa.s.sed ever since she'd made it out of Roosevelt Toms's house. In fact, the only thing that felt different to Avery was the sore and discolored scar on her leg. She'd managed to come out of the inferno with nothing more than a second-degree burn and fatigue brought on by smoke inhalation.
Outside of that, most everything was the same. That included the decision that O'Malley had given her to make sixteen days ago.
She tried to focus, to push the flashbacks of the flames out of her head.
A promotion, she thought. I like what I do now. If I take the sergeant position, I'll have to deal with more politics. But the respect...the sense of accomplishment...
”Avery?”
It was Connelly. Every now and then when he was at his most sincere, he would call her by her first name. Never O'Malley, though.
”Yes?”
”This is your decision,” he said. ”You will not be looked down upon if you choose not to take it. And if you do take it, it would take effect at the end of next week.”
”That's right,” O'Malley said.
Avery shrugged. ”I just don't know. It seems...too unexpected, I guess.”
O'Malley sighed and leaned forward. ”This isn't about what happened in that house, is it?”
”What do you mean?” she asked.
”You almost died,” he said. ”If Ramirez had been ten or twenty seconds later, you would have died. I've been there before. It scares the s.h.i.+t out of you. And there's no shame in that.”
”No. It's not that.”
O'Malley nodded. ”So...is this a no?”
Avery gave a thin grin. Under the desk, her burn scar itched. ”Is this a one-time offer?” she asked.
O'Malley and Connelly exchanged a look and shrugged at one another. ”Honestly, probably not,” O'Malley said.
”Then it's a no for now.”
Both men nodded in unison. She was pretty sure they had been expecting it. O'Malley drummed his hands on the table and then cleared his throat. ”Connelly, let me talk to Black in private, would you?”
Connelly took his leave without a word and closed the door behind him. For a moment, O'Malley studied her with great interest.
”Have you gone to see Sloane Miller since you came back to work last week?” he asked.
”No.”