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Angel jumped into the driver’s seat and cranked the engine. He was backing out as the other three were piling in.
He handed his cell phone to Reid in the passenger seat and focused on the road, breaking every speed limit between the park and the harbor. When he pulled into the parking lot ten minutes later, his heart sank to his knees. Flames licked the sky from one of the boats moored on the dock.
Angel shoved the shift into park and flew out of the car, racing toward the burning boat, knowing in his gut that Leilani was on it.
When he reached the dock, a figure jumped off the flaming boat engulfed in flame, a human torch hurtling toward him.
Angel’s heart burned. “Leilani!” He ran toward her but realized this burning person was too tall to be Leilani. What was left of her charred hair was blond, not dark brown.
She screamed like an animal in pain and flung herself at Angel.
Reid stepped in front of Angel, bare-chested. Holding his shirt in front of himself, he caught the woman and wrapped the shirt around her. “Go! Find Leilani!” he yelled as he patted the flames in an attempt to extinguish the fire.
Angel was already running. When he reached the boat, it was completely engulfed in flames, the fire so hot he couldn’t get close. “Leilani!” he yelled. He yanked his shirt over his head, wrapped it around his arms and pressed it to his mouth and nose. He sucked in a deep breath and lunged toward the boat.
Hands caught him on either side, yanking him back onto the dock.
“You can’t get on that boat,” Dev said. “If she’s on it, she won’t be alive.”
“We need to get back.” Teller tugged on Angel’s arm. “When the fire reaches the gas tank, it’ll blow.”
Angel shrugged him off. “No. She can’t be on that boat. She can’t be dead. Leilani survived one fire; she can’t die in this one.” He tried to think. “What would Leilani do?” Then it came to him. “The water. Look in the water!” He ran to the starboard side of the boat and peered into the inky black water that reflected the orange flames rising into the air.
Orange flames. Something orange floated near the side of the boat. At first, he thought it was more reflections of the flames. But it wasn’t flickering. The edges were rounded.
Angel dove into the water and swam toward the orange object. As he neared it, the heat from the burning boat became more intense.
The object was a life preserver. He looked around, desperate now. The gas tank on board could blow at any moment. “Leilani!”
A hand rose from the far side of the orange life preserver. “Angel?”
Angel pulled the floatation device toward him and spun it slowly.
Leilani had looped her arm through the rope on the preserver. Her head leaned against it, her nose barely above the water.
“Oh, baby. How did I let this happen?” Angel untangled her arm and looped his arm over her shoulder, his hand hooking beneath the opposite arm. Leaning back, he swam the sidestroke, cleaving through the water to put as much distance as he could between them and the burning boat.
“There they are!” Dev and Teller ran along the dock, keeping pace with Angel until he was far enough away from the boat that they’d be safe if it exploded. Then he swam toward the dock to a ladder.
Dev shimmied down the rickety ladder and reached for Leilani. While he pulled, Angel pushed until Teller could grab hold of her and bring her up onto the dock. Teller gathered Leilani in his arms and headed for the parking lot.
Dev and Angel caught up to him as they converged on Reid, where he knelt beside the woman who’d been on fire moments before. “She’s dead,” Reid said, staring down at her. “I could be wrong, but I think it was—”
“Alyssa,” Leilani said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“We have to get out of here,” Dev said. “If that boat blows, it could set off a chain reaction with the boats moored on either side of it.”
“Let me have her,” Angel said, reaching for Leilani.
Teller transferred her into Angel’s arms.
Reid lifted Alyssa into his arms.
They hurried off the dock and ran for the parking lot.
They’d made it as far as the line of sheds when an explosion ripped through the air.
Angel dropped to his knees and used his body to shield Leilani.
