“What was that?” Evie screamed.

“It’s okay,” I said, then coughed, long and hard.

I leveraged my fingers under the window and pushed up, but it wouldn’t budge. I could feel layers of paint on the frame, which might have sealed it shut. Leaning over the fallen dresser, I felt around for fabric till my hands landed on something denim. I took a breath of the relatively good air at the bottom of the room, wrapped the denim around my hand, stood up, and punched through the window.

As my fist hit the glass, I flashed on movies in which letting fresh air into a house fire makes the room explode. At least that didn’t happen.

I knocked the broken glass out of the frame as much as I could. I saw Jordan’s mom on the grass, running toward me, and I shouted and gestured for her to come as close as she could. I think she thought she was about to help me climb out, but she reacted quickly enough when a screaming baby came flying her way.

Mrs. Conners placed Hannah on the grass as I hoisted Evie to the window.

“Come on!” I ordered.

“Don’t forget Mommy and Daddy!”

“Okay, now jump!”

CHAPTER 19

Jordan

MAGGIE WAS COVERED in soot, aside from a clean white cloth and bandage covering the cut on her head, and she smelled like sour smoke when I caught up with her. I couldn’t remember being that happy to see and smell anyone, ever.

“Where the hell did you go?” she demanded as she wrapped me in a bear hug.

“I thought I saw someone,” I said into her ear. “Running into the forest.”

She gave me a quizzical look. I squeezed harder.

An ambulance was parked in the yard that had been the Carters’. The town’s two fire engines were on the scene as well, one team spraying water onto my house and the other across the road at the Allens’, focusing on their propane tank lest it also explode.

“So it was the propane, huh?” I said, pulling my head back. My hearing had returned enough that I could make out words above the loud ringing.

“That’s what they’re saying,” Maggie said, keeping her arms loosely around me. Her voice was shaky, as if it were clogged with tears. “You saved two of the Allens. I got little Evie Moore and her baby sister out of their house, but I couldn’t get anyone else. I told her that I would save her parents, and I couldn’t. Jordan, I think the rest of her family died.”

My breath caught. I’d known Evie’s grandparents my whole life. Their son, Eric, was ten years older than me and had shown me how to change the oil in a car when I was a little kid. And I still didn’t know where Henry was. That they might all be dead was too much to comprehend.

“Those two little girls would be gone as well had you not been so brave,” I said. “Seriously, you ran into a burning building with the roof collapsing. If I’d been there, I’d have held on to you and not let you go in. You’re a fucking hero, and don’t forget it.”