The world went tilt-a-whirl again as Danny swung her off him and started shoving her over a landslide of debris, through the gaping hole that was about five feet from the ground.

People reached for her. People on the outside . . . were reaching for her. Firefighters—it was Moose, Danny’s former roommate, who helped pull her out.

Except then she did the math.

“No!” she yelled as she kicked and fought. “Not without him, I’m not leaving without—”

There were voices, a volley of talk around her as she was dragged over rough concrete blocks and bricks, splinters of beams and hunks of metal.

“Danny!” she yelled. “Get Danny!”

A gust of wind pushed the smoke back into the building and his hooded head and mask were briefly revealed, his arms pinwheeling as he tried to get over the avalanche. Their eyes met one last time, and even though they were separated by so much, she could make out the blue of his stare—or at least told herself she saw it—

The entire building collapsed without warning, the three floors dominoing down, ash, soot, smoke, and flames joining the rush of dusted concrete, brick and mortar, that exploded out of the hole.

“No!” she screamed. “Danny!”

Chapter 5

Tom had been waiting for three years for this call. This screaming trip across town. This pull-up-to-a-scene with screeching tires and sweaty palms, this choking panic, this paralyzing fear.

This reality that his sister was trapped in a burning building.

The slide show in his head was single frame, from the past and