She lifted her head. Jed’s face was slack, his eyes open and glazed. No gruffness or impatience or annoyance would ever fill them again. Danny reached over and closed Jed’s eyes.

“Don’t!” Pressure built in Mandy’s chest until she couldn’t draw a breath. Her vision tunneled and dimmed.

“We need to get him away from the fire.” Danny hauled her to her feet and gave her a push. She stumbled backward.

Through misty eyes, she saw Danny lifting Jed under the armpits and dragging him away from the spreading inferno to a safe spot toward the house and drive. “I’m going back to help them get the others out.”

She watched the rest play out like a movie, her emotions brought to their knees by grief. One by one, Danny and Evan sawed the wood cages open. The two young women clutched each other and stumbled out. Bill jumped down, then half lifted Doug Lang to the ground. The man carried a young boy toward Mandy. He laid him on the ground next to her. They were both streaked with soot.

Mandy watched the firelight play over Jed’s features. Disbelief hollowed out her chest until there was nothing left but empty space. How could Jed be gone?

A hand touched her arm. Mandy turned.

“Do you have some water?” The man coughed. He cradled his son’s head in his lap. The boy’s eyes were closed. His thin chest rose with a breath. He exhaled with a hacking cough. Staring at the child, Mandy’s instinct took over. “Yes.” She stood. “I’ll find it.”

She found Danny’s pack on the ground and pulled out bottles of water. She slipped out of her jacket and wrapped it around the little boy’s shoulders. Samantha and Victoria dropped onto the ground next to them. Both girls were shivering and crying. They flung their arms around Mandy’s shoulders. Bill half carried Doug Lang. Drugged or hurt, the cop couldn’t stand upright.

Mandy peeled the girls off her and got them the emergency blanket from the pack. Bill enveloped her in a tight embrace. She pressed her face against his chest. A shudder passed through her. Honey sat at their feet, leaning on Bill’s legs.

Evan stood a few feet away. His slight body was thinner than she remembered, and his eyes were the bleakest of all the victims. Months of imprisonment at his father’s hands, watching his father disintegrate and commit terrible deeds, had no doubt left a permanent stain on the young man’s soul. How would he recover?

Danny was on the radio again, but he didn’t look at her as he talked into the handset.

She tried to move toward Jed’s body, but Bill’s arms held her fast. “I’m sorry about Jed, Mandy.”

God, how would she recover? Her next breath rattled through her chest. She was choking on loneliness.