My knee threatens to buckle on my first step, but I grit my teeth and run for the door. It’s too hot to touch. Yanking my sleeve down over my hand, I try the knob. “Son of a bitch!” Even through the fabric, it burns.
There has to be another entrance. Some way in that isn’t the temperature of molten lava. But there’s so much smoke. Why didn’t I insist we take the warehouse sooner?
On the east wall, there’s another door. This one’s a mite cooler. But it won’t budge. It’s not locked—the knob turns easily—but even when I throw my shoulder against the metal, nothing happens.
“Whiskey, I can’t get in. The door won’t budge!”
West grunts, then I hear a single shot from his M4. “Metal expands.” Another shot. “You need the battering ram. Or another way in.”
I hightail it back to the van. Inara’s still laying down cover fire. “Fucking asshole just won’t die,” she mutters as I pass her.
The portable ram weighs close to forty pounds. More than once, I stumble, off balance, as I drag my ass back across the parking lot and around the building. Adrenaline lends me strength I shouldn’t have, but the pain in my shoulders almost sends me to my knees on the first hit.
The second connects solidly, but the door doesn’t buckle. A third is off center.
“Nash!” I yell, swinging with everything I have in me. The metal screams, and I’m starin’ at a wall of flames bigger than hell and half of Texas.
“Nash!” I lift my sweater over my nose and mouth, and step into the firestorm. There’s so much smoke, I can’t see shit until I trip and land on something big and bulky and…oh, God.
The man I love is face down, covered in blood. He doesn’t stir. Neither does Angelo, who’s lying next to him, holding Nash’s hand.
For a split second, I can’t move. Nash would want me to save his father first. But…
“If you die on me,” I scream as I hook my arms under Angelo’s and drag him back toward the door, “I’m never gonna forgive you!”
The inferno spits at us, and sparks hit Angelo’s legs. In a heartbeat, his pants catch fire. Dropping him on the asphalt, I strip off my sweater and start beating at the flames. Nash is still in there, but I can’t let his father burn.
“Move!” West shouts. I leap out of the way, and he jumps on top of Angelo, wrapping him in a thick, wool blanket to smother the flames.
Racing back inside, I roll Nash over. He starts coughing and jerks when I grasp his arms. “Don’t fight me!” I snap. “We’re gettin’ out of here.”
His eyelids flutter and he stops flailing. Each step feels like a mile. He’s got thirty, maybe forty pounds on his father, and I’m fadin’ fast. But then Graham’s at my side. “I’ve got him. Trust me. We’re right behind you.”
Trust me.
Last week, those two words wouldn’t have meant spit to me. But now, I can let go. Nash is alive, and my family’s got my back.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Nash
“Darlin’? Can you open your eyes for me?” Gentle fingers caress my cheek.
My throat burns, and I start to cough. Panic has me struggling to sit up. Everything’s hazy, like I’m seeing the world through a dirty window, but nothing could hide Raelynn’s blond hair. Or the bright pink streak across her forehead.
Someone hands her an oxygen mask, and she presses it over my nose and mouth. “Just breathe. You’re safe. We’re all safe.”
After a few seconds, I can’t not hold her. The mask hits the bed, and then she’s in my arms. “Thought…I’d lost…you,” I wheeze.
“I’m too ornery to die.” Her tears drip onto my shoulder, and I start crying too. Until a man clears his throat from behind her.
“I’ll be outside.” West touches her arm briefly, and Raelynn grabs his hand.
“Thanks for stayin’ with me. I couldn’t…”
“Had to make sure you didn’t test that knee,” he says, a hint of a smile curving his lips. Turning to me, he sobers. “Nash, your father’s in the ICU with severe smoke inhalation. His doctors don’t think he’ll need to stay there more than twenty-four hours though. He also sustained second-degree burns to both legs and his hand. He’ll have some scarring, but overall, he was lucky.”
“Lucky you were there, you mean,” Raelynn says. “West came runnin’ with a blanket like a gen-u-ine super hero.”
