Controlled Burn (Scarred Hearts) Read Free Page A

Starbucks cup.
    Gurney wheels rattled.
    “Keegan,” the woman said. “He’s in bad shape.”
    “I see that. Roland, we need oxygen and fluids.” Keegan, who seemed to be pushing the gurney, greeted the firefighter carrying him. “I heard you landed at the 10th, Delancey.”
    “Wanted something a little easier on my days off.”
    The woman carrying him was named Delancey, and she claimed fighting fires was easier. What in hell did she do for her other job?
    “Clearly,” Keegan responded in a cultured tone. The feel of their words more than the words themselves said the two knew each other and were being sarcastic. The distraction of their byplay almost kept Logan from thinking about his situation.
    Until another paramedic—Roland if he was tracking people right—came up. “Looks like mostly third-degree burns. We’ll need to leave his clothes in place until we get him to the burn unit.”
    Third degree. Shit.
    The firefighter, Delancey, dropped the tool she’d been carrying and helped lower Logan to the gurney, laying him on his stomach rather than his back. The moment she was no longer holding him, he began shaking. The breeze against his exposed nerves was hell.
    Logan tried to see Ashley but only saw another set of paramedics moving around her.
    “He doesn’t seem to be in as much pain as I’d have thought,” Delancey said. She took the mask from one of the medics and put it over Logan’s nose.
    Agony was less pain than she’d have expected to see him in? Was she a sadist or a fool?
    “He’ll only feel the edges of the burn site where the damage is less severe,” Keegan said, sticking an IV needle in his arm.
    “Until his nerves begin to regenerate anyway.” Roland’s response held the promise of more pain to come. Then he covered Logan with something that didn’t feel like a comfortable blanket, but it stopped the air from hitting him. For that he was grateful.
    He still wanted to scream over the pain and the need to know how Ashley was. He could only breathe in the oxygen coming from the plastic mask.
    She was still at his side when they reached the ambulance. Logan moved his unburned hand from beneath the blanket and grabbed her wrist. At least he thought it was her wrist.
    She leaned down, getting close. She’d taken her mask off at some point, which allowed him to clearly see the sympathy and understanding in her hazel eyes. “You’re in good hands. Let Keegan and Roland take care of you.”
    Still unable to talk, afraid that the first sound he’d make would be screams, he nodded toward Ashley. As if she understood, Delancey covered his hand. “I’ll check on her. They’ll take as careful care of her as Keegan and Roland will you. Focus on that.”
    Delancey might have said more, not that she had anything of importance to say, but her voice faded as the darkness around his vision moved in. The last thing he heard was a paramedic saying, “Passing out is good. It’ll bring relief.”

Chapter Two
    Fists of sympathy and dread gripped Delancey’s heart as the man’s hand fell away from her wrist and he was lifted into the ambulance. He had to be in unbearable pain, but even when he’d had to know he could do nothing he’d reached for the woman at his side. He should be screaming at the agonies the fire had caused and every breath would have aggravated, but he’d tried to ask about the woman.
    He was a man capable of great love. Why else would he have gone in?
    The impression of his gaze, green and piercing more from the intensity shining in them than their color, remained on her mind long after she’d gone to help her team clear the scene. It weighed on her and made her remember things she’d rather leave in the past.
    The weight grew heavier when they loaded into the truck to return to the station and Andy gave them all an update from one of the paramedics who’d taken the man and woman to the hospital.
    “Shawn called,” Andy said. “The woman didn’t make it. The man has