Rekindle (25 page)

“No. I’m fine. I’ll be home. I was just checking.”

“Oooookay. Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find us. You okay?”

“Yes. Everything will be fine. It will be fine,” she repeats herself.

“Shayna, baby, why don’t you lie down and take a nap. You don’t sound like you feel too well. Call me when you wake up and we’ll see if you’re feeling better. Maybe we can grab some dinner. Sound like a plan?” My poor friend. I know how she’s feeling, and I do
not
envy her. Wine is all fun and games until you have to wake up the next morning.

“Yeah, I think I’ll do that. Lie down, I mean. We’ll see about dinner. I have to go,” she says abruptly before hanging up the phone.

I’m staring down at my phone, debating what to do, when Cam walks back into my room and plops down next to me on the bed.

“What was that all about?” she asks.

“Shayna. She sounds worse than we did this morning. I told her to take a nap and call me when she woke up. I think I’ll just hang around here until I hear from her. Maybe we’ll meet you for dinner when you finish up at the shop?”

“Yeah, that works.” Cam shrugs. “I shouldn’t be but a few hours, so that will be perfect timing. Don’t you have plans with Rhett tonight?”

“Nah. He’s at the station today, so he won’t be over until he gets off. It will be around nine or so before he shows up here.”

“Alrighty then, buying ear plugs on my way home—check.” She nods her head and makes a pretend list on her hand.

“Oh, shut it! We are so not that bad!”

“Oh yes. You are. And I’m happy for you, so it’s all good. Although I’m wondering how much longer I’m going to need earplugs. As often as Rhett is around, I’m starting to wonder why he doesn’t just move you into his place.”

“He wants to. I’m just stalling,” I confess.

Her eyes bulge out of her head. “Why the hell would you do that?”

“Because I moved down here with
you,
and I’m not just going to jump out of our lease and leave you high and dry. Puh-lease. You know me better than that. Plus, I like living with you. And I’d miss you if I couldn’t steal your clothes.”

She laughs and rolls her eyes at me. “Give me a break. We can break the lease, chica. I can move into the studio. There’s plenty of room. If Rhett is what you want, then don’t hold back on my account. Go be with the man.”

“We’ll see. I haven’t made any decisions yet.”

“Whatever, hooker. If it were my choice between a hot guy and a big empty bed, I know what I’d choose. Every time.” She smirks and slaps my thigh before standing up. “I’m going to head out so I’ll be done in time for dinner. Call me later?”

“Sure thing. Have fun.” Cam waves before darting out the door. I barely hear the front door open and shut before my eyes get heavy. A nap sounds like a great way to pass the time before Shayna calls.

I wake up to the sound of shrill beeping. I don’t know what’s going on, but whatever it is, it needs to stop. Pronto. I lie in bed, stretching and yawning one good time before getting up. I almost trip over my blankets when I stand up. At some point while I slept, I threw them off of me. I can understand why. It feels like it’s a million degrees in this room. I just pray that our heating and air unit hasn’t broken.

I grab for the doorknob on my bedroom door and notice smoke coming from underneath my door. The smoke and the warm doorknob don’t register in my sleep-fogged brain. It isn’t until I walk out into a smoke-filled hallway and see the flames filling our living room, dining room, and kitchen areas that I realize what’s happening. I stand there, stock-still for a moment, eyes wide, just trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to do. Then I realize that the flames are coming from our shared wall with Shayna. It’s her condo that’s up in flames… It’s just leaked over to ours.

Holy shit.

“SHAYNA!” I yell, and run to the opening of the hallway, unable to go any farther. I try to figure out the best way into the living room and out of the front door. The windows in the bedroom are not an option, because they have crossbars on the outside. My heart rate has kicked up into high gear. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, this is
so not
the time for a panic attack. I have got to get myself under control, and I don’t have the luxury of spending a whole lot of time talking myself down. I brace myself against the wall, fighting the burn in my lungs from the amount of smoke I’m taking in with each breath.

God, please just get me out of here. Please
.

I take one more deep breath and try to map out the best plan through the smoke and flames. My mind is trying to do too many things at once. I’m so worried about Shayna. My house is up in blazes, true, but hers looks worse. I can’t see past the wall of smoke clouding my view.

I decide to make a break for it. That’s my only option at this point. I refuse to sit here and choke to death on smoke—or worse, get burned to death. I block those thoughts out as much as possible and round the corner, staying as close to the wall as possible, since it’s the wall on the other side of the house that’s basically been destroyed by the fire. Although, at this point, they’re creeping along the ceiling as well.

Shit.

I make it about five steps into the living room before I hear an explosion that rocks me to my core, literally. I can feel the percussions in my stomach. I scream so loudly, but it’s lost in the sound of the fire. There is a gaping hole in our ceiling where the opening to our attic used to be.

I can hear the groaning of the boards, and I try to get out of the house as fast as possible, but that doesn’t work. Fast is never quite fast enough. I hear the crack and the breaking of the beams, so I turn to see what’s happening. A large rafter comes swinging from the hole in the ceiling. I try as quickly as I can to duck, but it’s no use. I feel the beam crash against the side of my head, knocking me off my feet, and I fall into something sharp.

I know I need to get up, and I keep telling my body to do it, but I just can’t seem to find the strength. I try to roll over so that I can crawl out of the house, but it’s no use. My body hurts so badly and my head is pounding. I try to close my eyes to gather up as much strength as I can, but it doesn’t help.

Stay awake. Stay awake. Stay awake.

I hear the voice chanting in my head. There’s nothing I can do, though.

“I can’t,” I whisper. My eyes close for the final time, and I feel my body become dead weight.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Rhett

Engine 24 respond. Condominium fire. 1325 Cleary Road. Engine 24 respond.

My world feels like it just stopped. My ears are ringing and my heart is racing as I repeat the address in my head. I feel air gush past me as my brothers rush to suit up, but I’m frozen in place, unable to move. I’ve never been in a position where fear was this strong. I feel it in every inch of my being. It’s blinding, it’s crippling, I can feel it permeating off me, and I’m helpless to stop it.

“Rhett, we gotta go now,” Luke yells, pulling me toward the truck and out of my thoughts. “Let’s get you suited, or you can choose to sit this out, but either way—I mean, if she is inside, we have to get there to save her,” he says, acknowledging my worst fear.

As I rush to suit up, I do something completely out of the ordinary: I pray. I pray long and I pray hard, to a God that I hope hears my pleas.

She has to be okay.

Pulling up to the apartments that I’m all too familiar with, I see the red and orange hues coming from the building and black smoke polluting the air all around. Jumping from the truck, I quickly do a perimeter check to see if I can locate M, but I come up empty-handed. I have to get inside now. Running as fast as my feet will carry me, I take off to the inferno in front of my face, but I’m yanked backwards with such force I almost fall to the ground.

“What the fuck?” I scream as loud as my voice will go.

“Rhett, you can’t go up, son. It’s too personal; you’ll get yourself killed,” Chief says as he tightens his grip on my arm.

“Don’t you see? I don’t fucking care about dying. I care about getting Emma the fuck out of there,
if
she’s in there.”

“These boys would risk their own lives for her, and you have to trust them to do that, Rhett.”

Time is standing still as I watch them going in and going up, working as fast as they can to search the apartments before it’s too late—before the whole places buckles and crumbles to the ground.

“R—Rhett. Rheeetttttt,” I hear someone screeching my name, sounding just as frantic as I feel.

Looking to my left, I she Shayna covered in black soot and sobbing while screaming a bunch of shit I can’t understand.

“Y—you have to save her. Please go save her. I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“Shayna, what the fuck are you talking about?”

“I called Cam to tell her about the fire and to make sure she and Emma were okay. Cam said she left Emma at home asleep because she f-felt bad. If I had known she was here. Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” She wails loudly and hits the ground. I look at Chief, who’s at her side, probably trying to decipher her crazy talk, and I use that to my advantage. I charge off into the direction of the fire, putting my headgear on while in transit. I vaguely hear the chief yelling at me but I never falter. I will find her or I’ll die trying. The place is smoldering, smoke and flames everywhere making it impossible to see your hand in front of you.

“Emma, call out.”

I hear the creaking of the floorboards beneath my feet and the howling of the vicious flames all around as I scavenge every nook and cranny, trying to find her.

“I’m calling it, guys. Everybody out of there, now! That’s an order, the whole place is going to give soon,” Chief says over the radio, but I don’t listen. I keep going.
Never giving up
hope
.

“Emma, call out.”

Pushing myself forward, my foot hits something. Looking down, I see my M covered in ash, lying there lifeless. I immediately scoop her up and put my breathing mask on
her
face so I can make my way out with her. She’s completely out of it, her arms are limp, and I see blood on her head and stomach. I feel sick as my mind races through a million different scenarios, but I’m also numb. I can’t explain the feeling stirring in me right now.

Please be okay, please be okay.

Smoke is filling my lungs with each intake of air. My lungs are on fire and my eyes aren’t even in working order now, but I know the doors are close, so I push with everything I have—all of my energy, all of my fight, all of my love. I hear everyone outside and then I feel the cold air hit my face, and that’s when I drop. I have nothing left. I feel hands on me in an instant. I feel them peeling Emma off of me and out of my arms. I try to yell at them, to beg them to save her, but my lungs protest and my voice is lost. I drift off.

“M&M, you can’t hide from me. You can’t ever hide from me. I’ll always find you.” I laugh as I see her feet underneath the curtain.

“Rhett, why do you always find me?” She huffs in frustration, throwing back the curtain.

“M, that’s what I do. I love you; I’ll always find you, even when you think I can’t.