Page 57 of Serial Burn

The car rolled, a tumble of metal and glass, each impact a brutal assault. Her body jerked with each jarring movement, her seat belt the only thing that kept her from crashing from window to window. The flames that had started in the back crept toward the front, the temperature climbing, the smoke swirling.

And then her car came to a stop with one last gut-wrenching crunch. She hung suspended and dizzy, choking on the smoke. “God, please,” she whispered. “Help.”

The world had finally stopped spinning and she heard someone calling her name. The sound of harsh gasps filled her ears, and it took her a moment to realize the breaths were coming from her. She sucked in another gulp of air and discovered that was a badmove. She choked and coughed, the fumes and smoke suffocating. She blinked and tried to take inventory. Her shoulder and hip hurt, but surprisingly, that was it.

Adrenaline.

She dreaded how she’d feel when that wore off.

But she was alive. For the moment.

And it was time to get out of the vehicle.

She fumbled for the seat belt release with trembling fingers and it let go. She collapsed onto the driver’s side door, now her floor.

A sharp pain grabbed her leg when she stood and she had to use precious seconds to pound out the flames licking her pants. Then she stood on the edge of the seat and pressed the power button for the passenger window. A sob escaped her when it rolled down.Thank you, Jesus.She started to haul herself out of the vehicle.

Weakness gripped her, blackness swirled around the edges of her vision, and she started to slide back into the now burning inferno. If she dropped, she’d die.

A sob ripped from her throat, and she clung, clawing for a grip while her dangling right foot sought a place to find purchase.

And then a strong hand clamped around her right wrist and yanked. “Come on, Jesslyn, hold on!” With Nathan’s help, she moved up enough to plant her elbows on the side of the door and push, lifting herself out while he pulled. One moment, she was seconds from certain death and the next she was tumbling out of the passenger window and over the side to land with a hard thud on the ground. Nathan let go of her hand while she coughed and gagged, the smoke in her lungs greedily sucking all the oxygen from them.

Nathan lay on the ground next to her, having landed beside her when they fell from the vehicle. His white face scared her and she rolled toward him. “We have to move, Nathan. The car could explode.”

“Yeah, I know.” He spoke through gritted teeth, and she suspected he’d landed on his hip or maybe the rescue had caused him a massiveamount of pain. Or both. With a half grunt, half groan, he pushed himself into a standing position. She did the same and took his hand.

Thankfully, the little roll down the embankment wasn’t much, although it had felt like it lasted a lifetime. She’d done a three-sixty and a quarter in the car and hit a part of the ground that sloped upward. That slope had stopped her. She coughed, her lungs protesting the smoke inhalation. She was going to need an inhaler for the next year if she kept this up.

Together, she and Nathan made their way up the incline, with him leaning against her and her encouraging him that he could make it. At the top, several bystanders waited, many on their phones. That meant help was on the way.

“You can make it. Just one foot in front of the other.”

His answer was another grunt.

Hands reached for them as they crested the top, and Nathan went to his knees. “Sorry,” he said with a gasp, “gotta sit a minute.”

Jesslyn rested a hand on his shoulder while she tried to cough more smoke from her lungs. She looked at the burning vehicle, her stomach twisting into one big knot. How had she survived that? She glanced at the man beside her. “You saved my life, Nathan.”

“It was a team effort.”

Sirens sounded and Jesslyn lowered herself to the ground, her knees turning weak and her adrenaline starting to fade. “I think someone wants me dead,” she said.

“Really? What gave you that idea?”

She chuckled, only to go into another coughing spasm which led to tears that streamed down her cheeks. She wiped her face and sniffed, then coughed again.

She hadn’t inhaled that much smoke, had she? While everything seemed to happen in slow motion, it had actually been relatively quick.

Hadn’t it?

She honestly had no idea.

Nathan grabbed her hand and pulled her to him. She winced atthe sting in her fingers and palms and held them up to look at them. They were raw, burned, and bleeding. Her leg joined the pain party, and she gave in to lean against the man who’d literally risked his life to pull her from a burning car. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“Any time.”

NATHAN WALKED ...okay,limped... down the hospital hallway to Jesslyn’s room on the fourth floor, trying to contain his rage. Kenny had been released and two hours later, Jesslyn—and he—almost died. That was a bit of a coincidence for him. And yet, how would he know where Jesslyn was going? With enough time to arrange to be lying in wait to attack her? He wasn’t sure but figured Kenny could supply those answers.

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