“Summer! This way!” Molly called out.
The smoke almost choked me as the sound of flames crackling off in the distance confused me. There was so much smoke, and yet I saw absolutely no flames.
Was the fire somewhere else in the warehouse?
“Come on,” Molly said as she took my hand, “we have to get out of here.”
“Follow me!” Porter called out.
“Tanner!” I exclaimed.
I reached out for him as Molly tugged me down the hallway. I didn’t want to leave without him, though. I didn’t want him to perish in the fire. And when he reached out for me, our fingers touched. Electricity jumped from my body to his as my skin sizzled with desire.
With love.
With fear.
“Go with Molly,” Tanner said, “I’ll be out there soon enough.”
The steadiness of his voice only betrayed the shaking quality of my own. I was worried as fuck, and the further Molly dragged me down the hallway the more the smoke enveloped his body. I wanted to call out to him. I wanted to rush back to him and drag him out with me so that I knew he’d be okay.
But once Molly coughed, my attention snapped over to her.
“Here, we need to get you some fresh air,” I said.
With smoke billowing into every open corner and crevice of the place, I wrapped my arm around Molly’s back. I helped her down the hallway as her right hand clasped her stomach, almost as if she were trying to lift it up. She waddled alongside me, moving as quickly as she could. But when I saw a sea of smoke rushing around the corner in front of us, I looked around for an alternate route.
“We’re gonna die in here,” Molly said breathlessly.
I gritted my teeth. “No, we’re not. Follow me. Come on.”
I darted into a room that connected two of the hallways and burst through the other side. I looked to my right and saw nothing but a wall of smoke, but when I looked to my left, I saw what looked like paradise. I saw the opening to the living room down the way about twenty feet, and there didn’t seem to be a shred of smoke in its wake.
So, we turned down that way and booked it for the front door.
Molly’s coughing had me worried and we had to stop to catch our breath a couple of times, but we finally made it to the living room. However, I was wrong on the smoke.
The smoke simply hadn’t crept around the corner yet.
“Fuck!” I exclaimed.
“You guys! Over here!”
I didn’t recognize the voice, but Molly did. “Finn? Is that you?”
“Hey! Down here!”
Then, Molly’s eyes widened. “Finn! We can’t see you!”
The smoke grew thicker by the second as my eyes darted around, trying to figure out where the hell that man was. I backed us up into the kitchen, trying to stay away from the bulk of it as footsteps fell heavily against the floor. The sound came closer before Finn rounded the corner, his eyes dancing between the two of us.
Then, he took each of us by our hands and tugged us along.
“The front door is the quickest way out. Follow me,” he urged.
We rushed along behind him and I helped Molly steady herself on her feet. The sound of crackling flames grew louder, and I looked around to see if Tanner was anywhere near us. Was he still in the building? Had he gotten out?
What the fuck was he doing?
“There!” Molly exclaimed.
Finn had to really work to get the front door open, but when he did we all dashed outside. Molly and I rushed toward the treeline before we turned around, and I was still confused at the sight I saw.
“Why aren’t there any flames?” I asked breathlessly.
Finn ripped his mask off. “Shit. The cellar.”
Molly furrowed her brow while she panted for air. “Wait, there’s a cellar?”
I put my hand on Finn’s shoulder. “There’s another level to this place?”
He acted like he didn’t hear us, though, because all he did was slip his mask back on. He rushed away from us, booking it around the side of the warehouse while we called out for him. But it was no use. Finn moved quicker than any person I’d ever seen in my life, and within seconds he was out of sight.
Before Josie sprinted up to us.
“Molly! Summer! Jesus Christ, thank fuck you guys are all right.”
She wrapped us up in wonderfully-tight hugs that made my eyes water with tears.
“Do you know where the guys are?” I asked.
Josie looked at me with her own red eyes. “No, I haven’t seen them at all. I smelled the smoke while I was cooking food and immediately got whoever I could see outside. I’ve been trying to find Archer ever since I got out here. Do you know where they are? Please tell me they’ve made it outside.”
Molly cupped her cheeks. “They have gas masks on. They’re probably locating the source of the fire. You know they’re okay. They’re always okay.”
Tears dripped down Josie’s cheeks, mimicking my own. “He has to be okay. He hates fire. Can’t stand the shit. Archer!”
“Shh, shh, shh, shh,” Molly said softly.
“Archer, please!” Josie roared.
Then, out of nowhere, I heard the echoing voice of someone returning our call.
“Josie!”
She pulled away from Molly, her eyes as wide as saucers. “That’s Archer. Did you hear him?”
“Summer!”
My heart skipped a beat. “Tanner! Holy shit!”
The second I saw their bodies walk forth from the smoke that had softly enveloped the side of the warehouse, I took off running. Tanner looked like he was limping and Archer was one more smoke cloud away from falling to his knees, but they were alive.
However, when they got out of the smoke and dropped Raven to the ground, I gasped.
“Oh, no,” I murmured.
“She’s barely breathing. We need Cole,” Archer said through his panting.
“Archer, thank fuck,” Josie said breathlessly.
The two of them enveloped one another in a hug as I cupped Tanner’s cheek, making him look at me. “You did good. You did so, so good.”
He swallowed hard. “I need Cole. She needs Cole. Have you seen him?”
I furrowed my brow. “You don’t know? You were with him when you wanted me to go with Molly. That was Cole in that mask, right?”
And when he didn’t answer me, panic rushed its way through my veins.
If the guys had been so caught off-guard with all of this that they had lost track of one another, then we were all scattered in the wind. There was no plan, and no next step. All there was… was surviving.
Making it out alive.
Hoping, and praying, everyone else was as well off as us.
“They’re going to be okay,” I whispered.
Tanner shook his head before he looked down at Raven. “Hey, can you hear me? Raven?”
He tapped her cheek softly, which made her groan. But she didn’t open her eyes and she barely moved.
“Raven, it’s me. Summer. Can you hear me?” I asked.
“Do you hear that!?” Molly exclaimed.
Off in the distance, if I strained my ears enough, I heard the sound of horns honking. Sirens squealed and roared out with purpose as they slowly crept closer to us. Relief washed its way through my veins as the sound of the horns grew closer, because I’d lived in the city long enough to know what a fire truck sounded like.
And there was an army headed in our direction.
“They’ll have ambulances,” I said breathlessly.
Tanner groaned as he strained himself, picking Raven back up into his arms. “Let’s get her to the treeline. She’s still too close.”
“Please tell me you know where the rest of the guys are,” Molly said.
Tanner shook his head. “I’m sorry. There’s so much fucking chaos, but I’ll go back and—”
I slapped his arm. “You’re not going back in there. Not on my watch.”
He glared at me. “Those are my brothers.”
“And I’m the mother of your child. What if Cheyenne were standing here? Would you go back then?”
Molly whimpered behind me. “Please, Tan. You have to find Cole.”
Tanner’s eyes pleaded with me, but I shook my head. “Your daughter needs you. I need you.”
Molly gripped my hair and pulled me to her side. “And I need Cole! I need him to go get Cole because I can’t do this alone! I can’t raise this child alone! Stop being so fucking selfish and let him go get—”
“Molly!” Cole roared.
She released my hair as sobs of relief fell from her lips. “Is that—”
“Molly!” Cole bellowed.
She quickly looked over at me. “I’m so sorry.”
I shook my head and hugged her tightly. “Don’t you dare be. We’d be the exact same way if the situations were reversed. Now, go.”
I wiped away her tears before I relinquished her, and she hobbled over to Cole. I watched him scoop her up into his arms the best way he knew how, and a few seconds later the fire trucks appeared out of nowhere. They barreled down the deserted road and dumped out in front of the warehouse. And as Tanner wrapped his arms around me, everyone else slowly made their way out of the smoke and gathered at the treeline behind the fire trucks.
While we all watched as the firemen got to work.
“What are we going to do?” I asked breathlessly.
I looked up at Tanner and watched him draw in a deep breath.
“I don’t know where we’ll go, but I know what has to happen.”
I swallowed hard. “What do you mean?”
And when he looked down into my eyes, I saw an angry determination behind them.
Before he foreshadowed what was to come with his words.
“We need to end this, Summer, once and for all. That’s what needs to happen.”
