The smoke hung like a shroud, choking in its intensity, and while the fire raged around me, all I could think, all I could hear, all I could see was Ellie Mae. Her screams. The tears in her eyes. The feel of her fingernails clawing at my arms as I tried to pull her out.
Tried and failed.
Failed.
Panic settled around my heart, suffocating me more than the smoke in my lungs. Ice slithered down my spine, my mind going foggy. My vision blurred, darkness closing in around the corners.
Not again. I couldn’t pass out again.
I still don’t know how I survived the accident. The firefighters and paramedics were just as surprised. An act of God maybe, or probably just dumb luck. But I didn’t think I’d be as lucky this time around.
Something warm and wet bumped my cheek, a soft whine following it. How had I ended up laying down again? Brandy’s brown eyes, full of terror, pegged me in place.
Fuck.
I tried to suck in a calming breath, but no cold air slithered down my throat or swelled in my lungs. Only a scalding trail of smoke and ash, searing every inch of me. I coughed, my vision blurring once more, the screams in my head getting so loud I couldn’t think straight. Would they ever go away again?
Brandy nudged me once more, a whine escaping her. I shouldn’t have been able to hear it over the blaze, but I did. It broke the paralysis in my limbs, giving me strength I didn’t think I had left in me. One second, I was on the ground, the next scooping her up again as I stumbled forward. A curtain crashed down beside us over the kitchen table, raining down more ash and embers. Just as we got to the door, a hulking figure in a turnout held out a hand, shouting something through his oxygen mask at me as he pulled us out. I couldn’t make out the words, my brain a haze of smoke. My lungs barked in agony as I struggled to get air down. But as he dragged me away from the flames, the scorching heat of the fire was replaced by the damp, summer night air. Not quite the relief I was looking for, but better than before.
My vision blurred, sound wobbling in and out of focus before going quiet all together as memories bombarded me.
Ellie’s screams. Her face full of tears. That last look we shared before I was ripped out of the truck by some stranger. My outstretched hand reaching for her as I roared and cried and flailed to get back to her.
She had been all that was good and light in the world. Neither of us had been dealt a particularly good hand at life, but Ellie never cared. Never understood how bad we had it. She’d only been four. She didn’t deserve to die. Didn’t deserve this fate.
She deserved a good, long life. A mother and father who loved her. Cherished her. Not this.
Darkness threatened to overwhelm me completely, the yawning black abyss of oblivion a welcome sight. Maybe now, I’d finallyget to be with her again. My body didn’t hurt anymore. My lungs didn’t burn.
I’m comin’ Ellie.
A hum cut through the silence. I couldn’t make it out entirely, but it was soft, feminine.Ellie.
Warmth came next. The touch soothing, gentle but insistent.
And finally, light. Like a ray of sunlight in a dark, gloomy, shitty world. I moved toward the light. Hoping, praying, that wherever I went to next was wherever Ellie Mae was.
But the blinding light softened, the touch became more insistent, and the voice—not Ellie’s after all—held a worried edge to it.
“Maverick! Maverick, it’s okay!”
I woke up with a jolt, sucking air down my throat, only to dissolve into a fit of coughing. Soft hands gripped my shoulders, the brightest set of gemstone eyes fixing me in place.
“Cheyenne,” I choked out.
Chapter ten
Deeper Than The Holler
Cheyenne
Idon’t know howlong Maverick was in the trailer for. It could have been two minutes, but it felt like twenty. Longer even. Each second that ticked by felt like a lifetime, fear gripping my heart tighter, tighter, tighter.
I’d stopped fighting the firefighters the minute Maverick raced for the trailer, my body suddenly paralyzed in place. He’d run into a burning building for my dog. He didn’t even know Brandy. Not really. He was either crazy or a goddamn super hero.
Some of the terror eased in my chest as the firefighter dragged him out and away from the flames. As soon as he was on the ground, Brandy bolted out of his arms, her wild gaze searching for me.
“Come here, girl,” I urged, squeezing her to my chest as she barreled into me. Running my hands over her fur, I scanned her for injuries. Nothing that I could see, though she smelled god-awful. But the relief was short lived as they dragged Maverick’s motionless body toward the ambulance.
