A Promise to Protect (Logan Point Book #2): A Novel by Patricia Bradley Page A

him.
    “Where are you, Ben?”
    Carson. With a flashlight.
    “Shine it toward the right over here.” The light only made the smoke and haze worse. “TJ! Where are you?”
    “Ben?”
    TJ’s faint voice quivered somewhere to Ben’s right, and he stumbled toward it. A smoking board dropped in front of him, and he veered away from it. His head rammed a wall. “Ow!”
    He inched along the side. “TJ, talk to me, boy.”
    “I can’t see. My eyes burn.”
    “Where are you?”
    TJ coughed. He was close.
    “TJ?”
    “Ben!” The boy almost bowled him over as he latched onto him.
    “You’re going to be okay.” He hoisted him on his shoulder. “I’ve got him,” he yelled. “Shine the light on the floor so I can see my way out of here.”
    “I’m sorry. I thought the fire was out.” TJ buried his head in Ben’s shoulder. “I just wanted to get Bear.”
    “It’s okay. We’re getting out of here now.” Staying low, Ben carried TJ toward the kitchen and the light.

    Leigh paced in front of the fire truck, never taking her eyes off the path that Ben, then the fire chief, took. What was TJ thinking? What if the fire rekindled, trapping them all in the house? Her heart thundered in her chest as Ben rounded the corner with TJ in his arms, and she raced to meet them. Ben set TJ down, and Leigh knelt, wrapping her arms around him.
    “Thank you.” She mouthed the words over TJ’s head then hugged her son closer. Ben had risked his own life to save TJ.
    Ben grinned, his teeth white against the soot covering his face. He tousled TJ’s hair. “You have a brave boy here. Scared us, though.”
    She nodded, unable to speak. Leigh wanted to throttle her son and dance and embrace him all at the same time. “Why did you go back into the house?”
    TJ looked at her, his eyes wide in childlike earnestness. “I couldn’t let Bear burn up. Uncle Tony—” He hiccupped.
    “I understand, but don’t ever do anything like that again!” Leigh brushed his hair back with her hand. Soot streaked his face. The vise that had cut off her breath earlier tightened again. If Ben hadn’t gone after him . . . She couldn’t bear the thought of what might have happened.
    “I won’t, Mommy.”
    He hadn’t called her mommy since he was six. The tears she’d dammed back threatened to break and spill down her face. He wiggled out of her arms, and she choked down the knot in her throat. She got to her feet and nodded to the paramedic waiting beside Ben. “I’ll check him out.”
    Ben scooped TJ up and carried him to the ambulance, where Leigh borrowed a stethoscope. After going over him from head to toe, she decided all he needed was a good bath. And maybe a seat warming. At the very least, a good talking-to for the scare he’d given them all. But not tonight—she was too happy to have him safe and sound. She handed the stethoscope back to the paramedic. “Thanks.”
    “Anytime, Doc.” The medic turned to TJ. “Want to see what it looks like inside an ambulance?”
    “Sure!” TJ looked down at the stuffed animal in his hand then held it out to her. “Mom, would you keep Bear?”
    She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He’d risked his life for the teddy bear, but now he didn’t want anyone to see him with it. “Sure.”
    As TJ walked to the front of the ambulance with the medic, tears stung her eyes again. What she wouldn’t give to get her normal life back. It seemed an eon since she’d treated Jimmy West in the ER for a snakebite or laughed with Tony over one of his stupid jokes. Her shoulders sank. Tony was gone, and she had nowhere to live—her life as she knew it was over.
    Ben cleared his throat. “Tell me what happened tonight.”
    Leigh reeled in her thoughts and sucked in a shaky breath asshe replayed the events from earlier. “Sarah and I were talking . . . it was storming, lots of thunder and lightning. I heard something hit the house, like a limb, and then the next thing I knew, the house was on