Jessie stood beside the door as if concrete encased her feet.
“Jessie.” Mia tugged on the girl’s ankle. “Go to the porch and wait until someone comes.”
She nodded but didn’t move.
“Go, now!” Mia shouted, though it pained her to yell at this physically and emotionally exhausted child.
Jessie snapped from her daze. “I’ll bring Uncle Ryan to help when he gets here.”
Mia nodded her approval and watched until the plodding little feet moved out of sight. Mia wanted to be rescued more than anything, even if that meant Ryan did the rescuing.
On the off chance she missed an escape route, she pulled her body back inside and looked around. Thirty feet to the wall of flames. Thirty feet of hay and dry timber waiting for fire to consume and destroy. Sizzling flames obliterated the path to the window and the front door. A miracle or the doggie door were her only ways out.
Please, I can’t handle this. Coming back here is all I can manage. This is too much.
Really? She was calling out to God?
Hah! He hadn’t answered her prayers for years. Starting with when He allowed her mother to die. Now Wally.
She was on her own again. The way God seemed to like it. Well, she wouldn’t lie down and die.
Drawing her legs up, she crammed her upper body through the opening. The frame tore at the gash on her side. She bit her lip to control the pain as she squirmed and twisted.
Right, left, up, down, she pushed.
Nothing. No movement in the door.
She tried to ease back to find a tool to widen the opening, but she couldn’t move. Not a fraction of an inch.
“Face it, Mia, you’re stuck.” Looking up at the smoke-filled sky, she relaxed her muscles to conserve her energy for another try.
The irony of her situation struck her as funny. She laughed in tiny giggles, hinting at a major meltdown.
She’d summoned all her courage to return to Shadow Lake and face the people who’d hurt her the most, only to die in a fire in her first hour in town.
* * *
Ryan stood on the porch of Evergreen’s main lodge with his niece Jessie. His two-way pager continued to emit details of the fire from the holder on his hip. No need to listen. He had a clear view of the blaze and had all the information he needed. Mia was stuck and needed rescuing. End of story.
“Stay right here.” He forced himself to ignore his niece’s tears and pointed to EMT Lisa Watson. “Watson will stay with you, and I’ll be right back.”
He grabbed his pry bar and charged down the wide steps. Praying the rest of his all-volunteer crew arrived soon, he rushed toward the barn. Surging flames consumed the left half of the building, cracking and spitting glowing embers.
Life-sucking flames.
This was bad. Really bad.
Was he too late? Could it be a repeat of that horrible day three years ago?
Stop, Don’t think about that now. Today you’re on time. You will save her.
He charged at the roaring inferno. He had on his SCBA tank and mask to breathe clean air as he dodged raining debris like an Olympic hurdler—one weighed down by the heavy turnout gear.
If he hadn’t been nearby when his pager went off, no one would be here to rescue Mia, and he would have another tragedy on his hands.
He careened around the corner.
Whoa! There she was. Mia. His Mia. No. Not his anymore.
