Page 26 of Too Broken to Love

Shawn stepped into her sight line. “You two okay?”

She shoved him toward the house. “Hudson and Malcolm are inside. Don’t just stand there. Help them.” She pulled the gun from her waistband and held it out. “And hold on to this.”

“Jesus Christ, Tessa.” He took the weapon, his pupils blowing wide. “Where did you get this?”

“I’ll explain later, just⁠—”

She gasped as Hudson emerged from the house with Malcolm under his arm. “Thank God.”

Tessa took off toward them. Shawn clamped his hand on her shoulder. “Stay here.”

She broke free of his grip and ran toward the house. A wall of heat stopped her cold at the bottom of the stairs. Shawn bounded past her and supported Malcolm’s other side.

“Get back, Tessa.” Hudson choked back a cough. “The roof isn’t stable.”

She retreated as the firefighters advanced, the heat dissipating with each backward step to the sidewalk. A paramedic raced past her. She held her breath until her superhero on the fridge broke past the responders like a man built for battle.

Sweat-soaked soot covered his face and neck. A crimson streak bisected the angle of his jawline.

“You’re bleeding.” Cupping his face with both hands, she wiped blood away with her fingertip.

“Just a scratch. Are you hurt?”

He gripped her wrists and lowered her hands to his chest. For an elongated heartbeat, the commotion around them stilled as ferocity simmered beneath his controlled calm.

He led Tessa toward the ambulances. Lia and Malcolm sat across from each other in the back of the rigs. Oxygen masks covered their faces.

Hudson waved off a paramedic and pointed to Malcolm. “I’m fine. Check him for a head injury.”

Cupping Tessa’s elbow, he led her out of earshot. “What the fuck were you thinking running into a fire?”

“Same as you. My friend was in there.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It was stupid. The ceiling could have fallen. Burning debris could have ripped your arm clear off, and trapped you under a pile of flaming rubble.”

“But the ceiling didn’t fall and I have all my limbs.”

Hudson winced and looked away like she’d slapped him. He didn’t glance back at her as he stalked down the street. Since meeting him, she’d witnessed a myriad of emotions in his eyes. He hadn’t meant to reveal that hidden scar she’d bet ran the deepest.

“Hudson, wait.”

He didn’t stop.

She ran and caught up, pulling fresh, salt-laden air into her lungs. “I admit I acted stupidly, but⁠—”

He whipped around to face her. The wildness she’d sensed pulsing under his militant control broke through the surface.

He stepped within inches of her and caught her chin with his fingers. “It was stupid, Tessa. Don’t ever pull anything like that again on my watch.”

The storm he’d finally let loose slackened the tether Frank’s “keep your mouth shut” training held on her instincts. “Your watch? Right, because I’m your duty. But while you were doing what felt right, so was I, and I won’t apologize for it. I’m in one piece and I’d do it again to help my friend.”

“For fuck’s sake, Tessa, I get why you did it, but it was still stupid.” He tightened his grip on her chin. “You scared the hell out of me.”

That she would apologize for. “I know, and I’m sorry.”

“No, you don’t know. When you were a paramedic, your job wasn’t to run into a situation like that. You waited outside the hot zone for people like me to complete our part of the mission. You haven’t seen charred bodies trapped under smoldering rubble. Or victims bleeding out without their limbs, unable to move while fire blazed around them. I have. I saw what happened to Chris.”

He backed up and looked away, but she caught the flash of pain. She’d been wrong about him being scarred. His wound still seeped fresh blood.