Between the Stacks

Chapter 49

I started to feel very, very dizzy.

Someone must have noticed. I felt supportive hands on my shoulders, and someone saying "Come with me," and then I hardly remembered anything at all.

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I really, really, wanted to sleep.

That was my overriding concern. Not the fact that I was partly responsible for causing the fire. Not the fact that I was now sitting in the back of an ambulance. Not the fact that I still didn't have a job.

All my problems could be solved by sleeping.

A friendly paramedic had given me oxygen through a mask. That had woken me up, but the adrenaline was starting to wear off, and I would have paid a million dollars (heck, a billion) to curl up in bed. If I thought I could have sprinted away without anyone noticing, I would have. The only thing that held me back was knowing that I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I would likely spectacularly faceplant into the concrete.

The back doors of the ambulance had been left open, and I watched as more firefighters trooped into the building. I huddled closer into the shock blanket.

This was, perhaps, a new low for me.

I wanted sleep. I wanted my family. I wanted Wesley-

"Emma?"

A voice, husky and muffled by the rain. It came from the left of the ambulance.

"In here," I said, my throat aching with the effort. "Wesley."

And there he was, framed by the open doors, the concern on his face immediately melting into something softer. The rain had plastered his hair to his forehead, and his clothes were stuck tight to his skin, outlining his body.

No. No. I was not about to go through a terrible experience, just to ogle his abs-

(But they're fantastic, a terrible voice in my head said.)

"I got here as soon as I could," Wesley said, clambering into the ambulance. He ducked down as he sat beside me on the tiny metallic bench. "I knew, I just knew that you were going to be involved somehow."

"It was only partly my fault," I said. "It was Katherine Jaworski who actually knocked over the candle."

"Katherine Jaworski?" His eyebrows would have flown off his face if it was possible. "What did you do?"

I filled him in: my accusations, the candle falling over, the subsequent blaze.

"I knew exactly what to do," I said. "I'd actually read the fire safety manual this time. Not that I did much different. But this time I knew what I did was right."

"I'm just glad you're okay." He dropped a kiss on my forehead. "Even if what you did was very, very dumb."

"I'm not sorry. I had to approach her."

Wesley grabbed both of my hands and held them between his, warming them up. "Did she say anything? Before the fire?"

"No." That was my biggest regret: maybe, if the fire hadn't started, we could have continued the conversation. Maybe I could have found out the truth. And now I would likely never know.

I put my head on Wesley's shoulder and fought the urge to cry. We sat still for a moment, listening to the rain pinging off the room and to the crackle of radio conversations from the paramedics and firefighters around us. There were no injuries, from what I could gather.

Then Wesley's phone rang from the pocket of his jacket. He ignored it.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"I don't care. They can wait." The ringing stopped, only to start a minute later. He finally fished it out. "Sorry-"

He cut himself off when he looked at the screen.

"What?" I asked.

From the angle of his phone I could see that the name on the screen was Sierra. Why did I recognize that name? Wesley accepted the call.

"Hello?" he said. I could hear a tinny voice on the other end of the line. "Sierra. Of course I remember you."

He mouthed CBC to me. Right, the reporter who had interviewed Wesley after his presentation.

"Yes, there's been a fire." Then a knowing gleam flashed across his eyes. And I knew, in that moment, what he was about to say.

He looked at me as if to ask, Is this okay?

I nodded. If I couldn't find out the truth, maybe a professional could.

Wesley adjusted his phone. He took a breath. "But actually, I have a bigger story for you. What do you know about Katherine Jaworski?"