Page 107 of Silver Fox Daddies

“We’re getting out of here,” I tell him.

I cover my airways and jump out into the first floor, dodging the flames that are still growing in size. Successfully dodging them makes me more confident that we can actually survive this if we hurry.

Smoke blurs my vision, thick gray smog taking over the basement. Embers fly, some spitting onto my skin. I wince but force myself to go on, discovering more dead bodies—the ones we killed a short while ago.

The smell of burning flesh makes me retch.

I reach the staircase, only a short distance away from Cash now.

I don’t even recognize the body next to him anymore. The features have all been burned off. I don’t see much, my vision obscured by both smog and tears, but Idosee one of the dead man’s eyeballs melt, sinking into the socket.

“Cash? You need to jump.” The flames are roaring now. He can’t hear me, too busy coughing up all the smoke that has entered his airways. “Cash?”

Fuck.

I dive in, leaping over the flames that threaten to burn me. They wrap around us, like a moat, trapping us in. I hurry and bring Cash to his feet, his body dead weight. The coughing fades away in my ears, replaced by the fire that now roars louder than ever.

I wrap my arm around his shoulders, hand clamped under his armpit just enough for the two of us to remain stabilized. Turning around, I spring back. The flames have grown taller, flaring up into the air, some a short distance away from the roof.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I mutter between my own coughing.

Dread fills my body, immobilizing it. What if Diesel is right? What if we don’t make it out of here? My breathing hitches now, not because of the lack of oxygen, but because we have failed Melissa. It’s all my fault.Iwas the one who wrote my number inside the book. If I had never done that, she never would’vedrunkenly texted us. We never would have met up, and she would be safe—not about to be burned alive.

Butwouldshe be safe with a psychopathic father?

Clearly, he’s just been waiting for the right time to use her, as a means for him to win.

Melissa would have never been safe with a father who has always seen her as an instrument, not a daughter.

I have to do this.

I have to save her.

Cash and Diesel too.

If there’s anyone that’s dying here, it’s myself and Jax. We’re the ones that have inflicted the most damage. We deserve to have our skin melted off, our bodies turned to ash. Cash, Melissa, and Diesel are all good people. I will die saving them.

A two-inch gap opens. Taking my chance, I lunge forward, throwing Cash over to the other side first.

Excruciating pain cuts through me. Turning back, I notice fire ribboning around my calf, taking everything below. I fall to the ground in agonizing pain. All I want to do is cut the thing off, but I muster up willpower, focusing on moving my thigh upward, the part of my leg I can still feel.

My yell distracts Cash from his coughing spell. He whips around, face covered in ash, and links his arm with mine, heaving me forward as walls of fire build.

“The staircase,” I hear him say. He turns to Diesel and Melissa, repeating the same. “Quick! Before it?—”

Too late. The fire gets there before us, teasing us, licking the old, rotting wood before it goes in to eat it.

“You all have to…go…now.”

Through my foggy vision, I see Jax appear from behind Diesel. I don’t see his face, just the outline of his body. Taking advantage of Diesel’s distraction, he pushes him, knocking him off balance.

He topples, Melissa too.

The pair of them fall to the ground, just as a ring of fire circles around them.

23

CASH

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