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“You know me.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
I pushed my way through another pile of debris, embers raining down like a storm of orange. I ducked as a beam crashed into the floor beside me. Both of us kept calling out. I also heard Maddox.
“Come on, baby! Raven. Zoe!” I raked my forearm across my face, panting from the heat. Then I was forced to double over, coughing and wheezing. I called out to them again before covering as much of my mouth and nose with my arm as I could.
A sound grabbed my attention. I stopped and listened.
There was no doubt I’d heard a voice.
“Raven!”
“Here.” It was weak but I heard her. I issued a loud bellow and rushed forward.
“They’re over here.”
I pushed and shoved, tossing debris as if it weighed nothing, determined to get to her. Then I noticed something in the flames, two female forms pinned by a piece of the roof.
“Raven. Zoe.”
“Here. Oh, God.”
One last hard shove of part of the roof and Raven collapsed in my arms.
“You came for me. For… us.” Coughing, she sagged in my arms then did what she could to shove herself away. “Zoe first.”
The smoke was getting worse. Fuck. We had to get the hell out of here.
Francois was suddenly right beside me. Thank God. “Jesus Christ. I’ll get Zoe. Get her out of here.”
“Don’t you let her die, brother or I’ll fucking kill you,” I snarled.
“Today ain’t a good day to die, bro.”
I yanked Raven into my arms. “Hold on tight, baby. One way in and one way out.” And it was going to be dicey as fuck. I’d never believed in angel wings or a greater being watching over us. But in those terrifying moments of carrying Raven through wall after wall of fire, all I could concentrate on was saying a silent prayer.
While I wasn’t the kind of man who deserved salvation, but my daughter and fiancée certainly did. If I could do one good thing before I died, it would be to find a way to save them.
“Go. Go. Go!” Francois said.
Maddox appeared out of the shadows, pushing us, guiding us. And as we all heard a rumble, felt the vibrations under our feet, I sensed the entire building was about to blow.
I’d heard it said that heroes were born every day, men and women finding the courage they’d believed they didn’t have in them.
As the rush of heat pitched our bodies forward, somehow, by some grace of God, the door was right there.
And we ran out of it seconds before a horrific blast tossed us like rag dolls to the ground. But I was still holding my beloved, trying to recapture my ability to breathe as the fire raged on.
“Oh, God. Are we alive?” Raven asked.
“We’re alive, baby. Very much alive.”
“Zoe. Zoe!”
“I’m okay,” my daughter called back.
“She doesn’t appear to be injured,” Francois said, although his voice sounded as if he was miles away.
