Page 116 of The Two Last Moments

Keeping as low as I can, I race to where Ryan is lying on the ground. I heft him over my shoulder. I can’t think about the fact that Nina’s home is going up in flames. That the contents of this garage represent a lot more than just some cars and tools. These are memories of my grandmother, my granddad. And Lark. The days we spent here getting to know one another. Falling for each other.

I don’t understand what happened out here, who is responsible for this. But I can’t think about any of it.

I run outside to the street and lay Ryan next to Lark. Travis is bent over her. He looks up at me with sheer, terrified panic in his eyes.Myeyes. A reflection of the same desperate terror that’s overtaking my soul.

“She’s not breathing!” Travis cries.

The sirens are getting louder. A truck is responding, but every split second counts. And I have two injured people in front of me.

“Do you know CPR?” I ask Travis.

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Try to help Ryan,” I tell Travis. “Do whatever you can.”

Then I dive toward the woman I love. Because for me, there’s no choice. I have to choose her. Every time.

As I start chest compressions, I murmur to her. Beg her. “Please, Lark. I love you. Stay with me. Stay here with me, please.” My voice is shaking. Tears flood my eyes. I’m a medic, for fuck’s sake, and I’ve been through crises much worse than this. I’ve been deployed in war zones. Treated my teammates who just lost their legs to an IED. This isn’t how I react.

But I’ve never seen the woman I love dying in front of me.

We haven’t had enough time together. Everything I want with Lark flashes in my mind. How much she means to me. Our future. Ourforever.

It can’t end like this.

Finally, Lark drags in a breath, coughing and choking. My heart starts beating again.

Paramedics suddenly surrounding us, working on Ryan. Barking questions at me. Firefighters are swarming too, guys I probably know, but I can’t tear my focus from the woman I love.

I move out of the way for the medics to give her oxygen. But I stay close enough that my gaze doesn’t waver from hers.

“I love you, Lark. I love you.”

* * *

Two days later,I pull up to Nina’s house. Lark tries to get out, but I put my hand over her middle. ”Wait, let me come around for you.”

“You don’t have to. I’m fine.” Her voice is still a little ragged from the smoke inhalation. Though it’s much better than it was at first.

“I know you’re fine, but I’m not. Let me take care of you.”

She gives me a small eye roll, but she lets me come around to her side and help her up. The woman is lucky I’m not carrying her right now. I just want to spoil her in every possible way. Do anything I can to make her feel protected and loved.

She’s told me over and over again that what happened wasn’t my fault, just like it wasn’t hers. I’m still working on getting it through my head. Used to be, I was the one reassuring her.

We get up to the porch, where Travis is waiting for us with a mega-watt grin. “Hey! Welcome home!” He crushes Lark into a hug, and I just barely hold back from scolding him to be careful. “Nina’s so excited to have you back.”

The past two days have been some of the most difficult I’ve ever spent. In the aftermath of the fire, Lark and Ryan were both rushed to the hospital. Lark had suffered smoke inhalation, as well as a concussion. Ryan was in far worse shape, with an overdose of morphine adding to the smoke that choked his lungs. But incredibly, he survived. He’s still in the hospital with his family at his side.

Aiden, Quinn, and Cliff have been shuttling back-and-forth between Nina’s house and the hospital, making sure we all had food and anything else we needed. My other friends from Station Two and West Oaks PD have been making appearances as well. Jess has been working overtime at the house helping Travis with Nina, and my uncle hasn’t left his mom’s bedside throughout this entire ordeal.

There were some really scary moments early on when the doctors were checking over the extent of her injuries. When I had no idea what had really happened.

And then, finding out that it was Starla. Realizing that the person responsible for Lark’s suffering was right under our noses all that time. Had been alone with Nina countless times. That messed me up. Made me want to tear up my insides if it could somehow rewind the clock and change what that woman had put my family through.

My only consolation is that—for all her bravado, all the brazen things she did—Starla didn’t get away with it.

Nina figured it out. In those initial moments of chaos, when the ambulance was roaring away and West Oaks FD was putting out the garage fire, Nina insisted on having her iPad. It took a few minutes to get clearance from the firefighters, but Travis was able to get back in the house for Nina’s device. Immediately, she pulled up the app for our security system and checked the cameras. Then she told the police, who’d already arrived by then, that Starla must have done it. Nina had spotted her nurse fleeing the garage.

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