Page 28 of Ruined

Was this really how I was going to go out? What a fucking cruel way to die.

“Adelaide!” Tristan roared. “Baby, if you’re alive, please fucking answer me!”

“Tristan?!” I called out, coughing again.

“Fuck, Addy, where are you?” he yelled, his panic increasing.

I screamed when a board fell from the roof, and I jumped out of the way just in time before it collapsed on top of me. “I’m trapped!” I told him just as I realized it myself, fear gripping my chest.

I placed my hand over my belly as I began coughing so hard that I was gagging, my shirt not doing much to help with the smoke in the air. “Tristan, it’s hard to breathe!” I managed to choke out.

“I’m coming, Addy. Just hang in there, baby,” Tristan told me.

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

I dropped to my hands and knees, clawing at my chest.

Joey, babe, I’m so fucking sorry that I couldn’t protect your kid.

Everything went dark.

Chapter Fourteen

Tristan

Addy was no longer responding to me. My heart was racing so fast that I was sure I was either going to have a heart attack or a stroke. I had to fucking get to her before it was too late. The part of the building that she was trapped in was already burning high and hot.

“I’ll go through the back,” I informed Jesup. “The fire shouldn’t be too bad in there.”

He nodded, still speaking to the 9-1-1 operator on the phone. I rushed around the back of the building, Troy hot on my heels. I was terrified that something had happened to Adelaide. I could barely fucking think past the panic swirling in my head, creating every worst-case scenario.

I looked at Troy when we reached the back of the building. “If I’m not out in two minutes, something happened,” I told him.

Troy nodded. “Be careful, bro.”

I nodded, rushing in. The heat and the smoke were almost unbearable, but I pushed through, desperate to get to Addy. She was the only one who hadn’t been able to get out.

And then, I saw why.

There were burning boards all around her, blocking any escape route she could have taken. She was passed out on the floor, but I knew she wasn’t going to last much longer if I didn’t figure out how to get her the fuck out of there.

Whoever had set up that explosion had done it perfectly. It kept Adelaide from being saved.

And something in my gut told me that was the plan all along. Someone wanted to shut Addy up.

“Troy, I need help!” I roared.

I heard him behind me a moment later, and he cursed. “What’s the plan?” he asked me as he looked around the burning building, trying to find a way to her.

“We’ve got to get one of these boards out of the way,” I told him, the panic in my mind making it extremely hard to think straight. All I knew was that I fucking needed to get to her before it was too late.

He nodded in understanding.

Fucking hell, please let her be okay.

I couldn’t lose her.

“Help is here!” Jesup shouted into the burning building.

---