To the Stars (Thatch #2)(40)

“Can you trust us for a few minutes?”

Again, she nodded without any hesitation.

I set her down when Pete came back, and spoke as quickly as I could while trying to keep my tone calm for the girl’s sake. “We’re going to wrap this around you, and I want you to squeeze your eyes real tight when we do. When I pick you back up, I want you to pretend that you’re flying, okay?”

Behind the mask, I got a hint of a smile, and I was going to take that as approval, because we didn’t have any more time to waste. Wrapping the comforter so there wasn’t a part of her showing, I yelled for Natalie to close her eyes and get ready to fly, then followed Pete through the fire. We didn’t stop running, but Pete slowed to go behind us, and I knew he was making sure that the comforter had made it through without catching.

We passed the guys with the hose just as they were coming into the house, and as soon as we were a good distance outside, I set Natalie down and ripped the comforter off her. I brushed the hair off her blackened face, and smiled when I realized she was still squeezing her eyes shut.

I grabbed the oxygen mask again and said, “You can open your eyes, brave girl.”

She cracked them open before letting them widen, and greedily took the mask from me with the hand that wasn’t holding her blanket. “I flew,” she said matter-of-factly before she put it to her face.

Pete came up behind me and held a hand up for her. “That was some great flying, little girl!”

Natalie slapped at his hand with her blanket-covered one.

“Natalie!” the babysitter screamed as she ran toward us. “Oh my God, Natalie!”

On some unknown instinct, I grabbed Natalie into my arms before the babysitter could get to her, and stood.

She looked at me with a frenzied expression. “Please, let me hold her.”

“Have you spoken to anyone about how the fire started?”

“Y-yes, I just finished. Please let me hold her.”

“She needs to be looked over by EMS,” I responded, just so Natalie wouldn’t have to go back to her, and began walking over to one of the trucks.

“Parents are on their way here,” Sergeant murmured as we passed him, then followed us. He quickly became enamored with the brave three-year-old, and stood there talking with her as she told him about how she flew in the dark while the EMTs looked her over.

“Is she going to be okay?” the babysitter asked, and tried to get into the truck, but I shot an arm out in front of her. “W-we didn’t mean to! I had no idea what would happen. I thought the candles were far enough from the curtains.”

“We?” I asked in a dangerously low tone.

She looked at my sergeant, then back to me, and after her mouth opened and shut a few times, she stuttered, “M-m-my boyfriend came over. We used the guest room next to Natalie’s room; I lit a bu— A few candles. Some were on the window seat, and there are long curtains there, but I thought they were far enough away, I swear, I thought they were!”

I nodded slowly and shrugged. “Well, accidents like this can happen if you’re not careful.” Relief started washing over her features at my reaction to what she’d been telling me, but quickly left when I leveled a glare at her and asked, “What I want to know is, why you didn’t grab Natalie on your way out. You said you tried to go to her window from the outside, but if the fire started in the room next to Natalie’s, then why wouldn’t you have just grabbed her before you ran out?”

“Alexander,” Sergeant warned, but I didn’t stop glaring at the teenage girl in front of me, or waiting for a response.

“Because it got too big,” she said too quickly, and her eyes darted everywhere except to look at me.

“No, you could’ve easily gotten her. Try again. Why didn’t you grab her?”

She swallowed roughly a couple of times, and her body seemed to crumble. “We left the room to get ice cream, and then never went back in there because he wanted . . . because I—” She started sobbing and slapped a hand over her mouth. “I didn’t know it would happen!”

“So you didn’t fall asleep then?”

“What?” she asked with wide eyes.

“Earlier, you said you fell asleep. Are you saying that didn’t happen?”

“N-no.”

I watched as she looked all around, her shoulders jerking with silent sobs. “Are you going to arrest me?”

I huffed. “No, I’m not a cop. I’m just not letting you near that little girl, and I wanted the real story because the first one didn’t make sense. Where’s your boyfriend anyway?”

Her eyes got impossibly wider with fear, but before she could make up some other bullshit excuse, she shrugged like she was exhausted and said, “He was afraid he was going to get in trouble. He ran as soon as your truck started coming down the street.”

“Well, he sounds great. Some advice: dump him, and stay away from me for the rest of the night.”

“Alexander,” Sergeant said again in an annoyed tone.

“I’m done,” I responded, and turned back to the truck to find the EMTs finishing up with Natalie; her smile widened when she saw me. “Superman!”

I barked out a laugh. “Superman? Is that who I am?”

“Yes, because you can fly,” she responded, as if it were old news.