She stepped closer. “Look, I know you keep your demons shoved deep inside. I’ve seen them,” she whispered. “My heart breaks for you and what you’ve had to carry, but tonight, for a little while, anyway, something was different. And now it’s not.”
I closed my eyes briefly. How the fuck this woman knew how to get to the heart of me freaked me the fuck out.
“I had a dream,” she continued.
I met her eyes and saw that tears were forming.
“Your family—”
“Stop,” I rasped.
She nodded, tears slipping onto her cheeks. “You are loved Doom. Deeply. You’re not alone. Please remember that.”
I turned and rushed up to my room, closing and locking the door behind me in an effort to shut out the world.
* * *
“Vehicle on fire, Louisville Road, all units respond.”
I suited up and followed my crew into the rig, heading to the fire just like I’d done a thousand times before.
Pulling up to the scene, my lieutenant and I made a run for the car, but I was suddenly intercepted and dragged away. “What the fuck?”
“Linc, you need to back off,” Dustin, second lieutenant, ordered.
“What? Why?” I looked up and it hit me. It was Jennifer’s car on fire. “Goddammit.”
I pulled away from Dustin and made a run for the inferno. “Lincoln!”
I tried to pull the door open but it was fused shut. The window was open and Jennifer was groaning quietly. “Baby, I’m here. I’m gonna get you out.”
“Get Ez,” she rasped.
“My kid’s in the back!” I bellowed, and my brothers moved in perfect unison as the flames continued to cover the car.
“Baby, I’ve got you.”
“I love you, Lincoln.”
“I love you, too, Jenny Bean. Stay awake for me. I got you. We’re gettin’ Ezra, okay? We’ve got a party to plan, so I need you to hold on.”
I was forcibly removed from the car, despite my protests.
“You stay there, or I’m gonna chain you to the rig,” Dustin warned. “Let them work.”
They finally got Ezra out and loaded him into an ambulance. I chose to go with him while they continued to get Jennifer out. The fire had been contained, so I was confident she’d be okay.
I was wrong.
They rushed my boy to the burn unit and straight into surgery. I waited a few minutes, and then I went to find out about my wife, but when a doctor approached me, I just knew…
“Mr. Marxx, I’m very sorry. Your wife suffered a massive heart attack from the smoke inhalation. We were unable to save her or the baby.”
“The baby?”
“She was pregnant. You didn’t know?”
I collapsed to my knees…
