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“Derek!” a voice called out. It was Stephen Parker. He was with another woman who Derek recognized as a well-known reporter. “Where’s Sophie?”
“We haven’t heard anything yet,” Derek replied blandly.
“Why are you guys here?”
“Maia was with Sophie.”
All pairs of eyes swung to Jack, who continued to stare stonily at the razed house without acknowledging the newcomers. The rage and fear in him was palpable, rippling close to his skin. No one wanted to speculate on the fate of the two women. It was a one story house. Even if it were expansive, the firemen should have found them by now.
A commotion caught everyone’s attention. Paramedics rushed to the front of the house when a fireman emerged, carrying a limp body. A second fireman followed, hoisting a similar load.
All four of them charged forward, but a line of police officers prevented them from getting close to the fire victims.
“That’s my wife!” Jack snarled.
“Sir, the paramedics are doing all they can,” an officer said firmly, then looked at the rest of the group. “You all need to back off.”
Jesus Christ, Derek thought. He wasn’t sure he could hold it together either. If it were not for the color of their hair, telling the women apart would be impossible because Maia and Sophie were covered in soot.
Everyone fell silent as the paramedics frantically administered CPR.
One of the women started coughing.
“Oh, baby girl. Thank god!” the reporter cried, collapsing beside her friend. Oxygen was quickly administered to Sophie.
All the medical personnel shifted their attention to Maia, who was still unresponsive.
“Come on, babe. Please,” Jack pleaded and then more forcefully said, “You are not dying on me, damn you!”
Tense moments passed until finally, Maia heaved as violent coughing racked her body. “Fuck!” she croaked. The paramedic started chuckling, partly in relief, partly in amusement. The red-haired Guardian didn’t even wait for the paramedic to fit the oxygen mask over her. She simply grabbed it from his hands, fitting it over her face, and inhaled deeply.
Derek watched his friend sink to the ground in relief beside his wife. The medical personnel did not have the heart to turn him away and instead worked around the couple to check on Maia’s vitals. Jack gently cradled his wife’s head on his lap and threaded his fingers repeatedly through her hair, murmuring soothing words. There was extreme emotion emanating from the scene before him. Derek was drawn to Sophie, who was presently being fussed over by her two friends. He wanted it to be him fussing over her. This was getting complicated.
* * *
“No way arewe taking that trip tonight,” Jack told his wife firmly. “I’m taking you back to the apartment, and you are sleeping this off.”
Maia, as usual, was treating this incident as just another day in the office, and it was pissing her husband off. Derek left the two to argue and walked over to Sophie who was sitting on the bumper of the ambulance and receiving a final once over from the paramedic. He had made a decision tonight; she was coming home with him. Surely one night couldn’t get complicated, but he’d be damned before he let her stay with Stephen Parker, who probably wouldn’t know how to handle a gun. Nor would he leave Sophie with her friend Beth Turner, who probably had her own enemies being the nosy reporter she was. Derek was right, sleeping arrangements were being argued over this very second.
“Sophie is staying with me,” Stephen told Beth firmly.
“Nope, she’s coming with me, I know tae-kwon-do,” Beth retorted. Derek rolled his eyes—as if tae-kwon-do could stop an attacker with an assault rifle. Time to throw down.
“She’s coming with me,” Derek said in a matter-of-fact voice.
“I am?” Sophie whispered.
“No, she isn’t,” Beth cut in, scowling at Derek.
“Yes, she is.”
“Um, shouldn’t that be my decision?” Sophie asked, eyeing the two of them cautiously. Stephen was chuckling, obviously enjoying the exchange.
“No,” Derek and Beth said simultaneously, glaring at each other.
“You think Lockwood, I’ll let you get your grubby little fingers on my friend?”
“I’ve don’t have grubby little fingers, they’re long and hard and I know how to use them,” Derek shot back. He grinned at Sophie and would bet the good physicist was blushing adorably under all that soot.
