Page 157 of A Dangerous Proposal

The SUV was on fire.

A twisted wreck of metal and flame.

Fyor was on the ground nearby, unmoving.

Oh my god!

Madison’s stomach plummeted, but instinct took over.Jax.

Spinning wildly, she searched the playground, her vision darting between running figures, parents scooping up their children desperate to flee.

Her breath came in short, sharp bursts, her body locking up as full-blown terror took over.

Where is he?

She shoved to her feet.

“Please.” She grasped the hand of a young mom with two children clinging to her. The woman was on the phone with someone, asking for an ambulance. “Can you stay with my friend. I need to find my son.”

The woman barely completed her nod before Madison was yelling. “Jax?”

Too many people.

I can’t see him!

Her pulse pounded in her ears, fingers ice-cold.

Cami’s lashes fluttered. “What’s—” She winced, struggling to push herself up.

“Stay down,” Madison ordered, frantically scanning the sea of bodies. “I need to find Jax.”

A group of people had gathered around Fyor, checking on him, and more were clustering around Cami, many clearly on the phone with emergency services.

Madison turned back toward the bench.

The woman said she’d watch Jax.

Madison glimpsed the baby carriage through a crowd of people, and she sprinted toward it her legs trembling.

Jax is right there.

I’ll see him any second.

But when she reached the carriage, bile rose in her throat.

The woman was gone.

The baby carriage sat untouched.

Madison’s fingers shook as she reached for the blanket, a horrible premonition slamming into her.

The tiny foot hadn’t moved.

Not once.

With trembling hands, she yanked the blanket back?—

A guttural, broken scream tore from her throat.

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