They made it to the scene just about the same time as the Last Chance fire truck, the Last Chance police chief, and the Allenberg sheriff, who had probably been home with his wife and kids when the siren sounded.
Red’s wife, Pat, and her knitting class, including Aunt Mim, stood on the sidewalk across the street from the theater. Dash swept his gaze over them as he dragged Todd in their direction.
“Where’s Savannah?”
“She went into the theater to save Maverick.”
Todd made a funny strangled noise that might have broken Dash’s heart if his heart hadn’t suddenly started ricocheting around his rib cage.
“Don’t you worry. She’s going to be okay.” He ran toward the theater, heedless of the shouts from the fire chief or anyone else who was organizing the effort to fight the fire.
His only goal was to find that idiotic woman who thought—
Zeph Gibbs emerged from the building, smoke billowing around him. He had Savannah and that damned cat in his arms.
Savannah’s face was black but her eyes were open. She was hugging that stupid cat like it meant the world to her.
Zeph stopped in front of him. “Here you go, Mr. Dash. Safe and sound.” He handed Savannah off.
She felt right in his arms. His little sooty princess. She wasn’t too light or too heavy. She was conscious. She was alive. His heart could slow down now. But for some reason, his pulse continued to race.
“I’m okay,” she said in a smoke-roughened voice. “You can put me down.”
He ignored her and called over his shoulder to the Allenberg County sheriff. “Stone, I need EMTs, now!”
The sheriff replied, “Already called. They’ll be here in a minute.”
“I don’t need—” The rest of Savannah’s words were lost in a coughing fit. The cat seemed unusually subdued.
“I think we need the vet, too,” he yelled.
“I’m on it,” Sheriff Rhodes said, and Dash had every reason to believe it.
A moment later, a couple of EMTs from the Allenberg County Fire Department, which had also arrived on the scene, came running over with an oxygen tank.
“We’ll take her,” one of them said, but Dash wasn’t about to let her go.
“No, I’ve got her. Just strap on the oxygen.”
“Dash, we need to figure out if she needs to go to the hospital.”
“I’m okay,” she said, her voice sounding ragged. She had turned to look at The Kismet. The fire had engulfed most of the auditorium.
The EMT strapped on an oxygen mask just as big fat crocodile tears filled her eyes and spilled down her sooty cheeks. The tears left white tracks across her face. It broke his heart to watch her as she watched The Kismet burn.
A moment later Charlene Polk, one of the docs at the Last Chance veterinary clinic, showed up. She took Maverick.
“We’ll just take him down to the clinic for observation. Smoke is dangerous for cats, too.”
Savannah reluctantly let go of the cat. And Maverick let forth a howl when they were separated. But it was all for the best. At least that’s what the EMTs said when they forced Dash to put Savannah down on the back step of their van while they checked her over.
Todd and Aunt Mim came over.
“I’m okay,” she said again, her voice shaky as she reached out for Todd.
The boy came into her arms. “Mom, I was so scared when they said you were inside.”
“I’m okay,” she said again, as if she were trying to convince herself of it. Dash turned away.
The combined fire departments of Last Chance and Allenberg County already had the blaze under control. The Kismet’s magnificent auditorium, with its painted-sky ceiling, was a total loss. But the front part of the theater, the minaret, and the marquee might be salvageable.
One thing was certain, though: The price tag for this project had just gone right through the roof, quite literally.
Still, a building could always be replaced. People couldn’t.
He turned back toward Savannah. “Don’t you ever do anything stupid like that again, do you hear me?” His voice came out louder than he meant it to.
“Dash, calm—”
“You hear me,” he said again, as a wellspring of emotion bubbled right out of him. He didn’t even know where it came from, just that it seized him by the throat and wouldn’t let go. It hurt so bad. It was like all the bad things that had ever happened in his life all at once, starting with his mother leaving, and his grandma dying, and his daddy never being around, and Gramps being hard on