Page 62 of Hold Your Breath
A rain of sparks danced across her back. Her yelp of pain came out as more of a hoarse huff of air, and she shoved over onto her back to smother them before they could burn her. It ran through her head on repeat—the image of her pajamas going up in flames, her skin charring, the pain… Her puffs of breath turned into legitimate sobs she couldn’t seem to stop. Tears rinsed her eyes, and her vision returned for a moment. She immediately wished it hadn’t.
An enormous beam—black and glowing red, like it had just been tossed from hell—lay across the couch, dropping sparks and burning bits onto the floor…and Lou. The now-flaming cushions were the only thing keeping the beam from crushing her. With rasping, desperate sobs, she rolled, escaping from the threat.
Her evasive maneuver left her in the center of the room, disoriented and unsure of which way she should go. A growing sense of dizziness reminded her that every breath was poison and her time was running out. The entire room was ablaze, bright and deadly.
She desperately tried to plan, not to curl up and wait to burn, to die. Bathroom? The only window was too high and too small for her to fit. Living room? She might be able to squeeze through the opening in the ancient crank-style windows, but they opened to the front of the house, right wherehewas waiting. The thought of the horrific figure who’d left her to burn destroyed the tentative hold she had on her sobs. They ripped through her, painful and hoarse. If she managed to escape the horror inside her ruined cabin, he’d be waiting—waiting to finish what the fire had started. Either way, she was dead.
Please,her mind begged.I don’t want to die!
Darkness was creeping around the edges of her blurred vision. Her skin felt dry and so, so hot. Lou struggled to push herself to her hands and knees, but her arms slipped out to the sides, dropping her on her front. Her mind screamed at her to move, to get out of this nightmare of smoke and heat and blinding flames, and she tried to pull forward in a belly crawl. Her arms weren’t working right, though, and she didn’t know where she was going.
She turned her head, blinking away tears from smoke and regret. That thing with Callum was so new, and she’d never know how their story would end.
Or maybe she would. Maybe it would end with her dying in her cabin.
Knock it off,the voice in her head, the only part of her that wasn’t pathetic and whining, ordered.Move.
Forcing her heavy, uncoordinated arms in front of her, she dragged her body forward an inch and then two. She didn’t know where she was going or what her plan was, but she did know that she wasn’t going to give up and die, sniveling and helpless. Another pull, and she advanced painfully slowly across the floor.
A large shape interrupted the pattern of the flames, and she blinked her watery eyes to clear them. When she saw the human figure running toward her, she started shoving herself backward.He’s inside! He’s inside and going to kill me!her brain shrieked. But then his face—blackened and familiar and so beautiful—was close to hers.
“Callum?” she mouthed, unable to force any words from her roasted throat. He was talking to her, but she couldn’t hear over the roar of the fire. That was okay, though, because it was enough that he was there, hoisting her off the floor and against his chest. She allowed her body to go limp. It wasn’t up to her to save herself anymore. Callum had come for her.
As they approached the door, Lou opened her mouth, trying to force words through her burning throat. She had to warn him about the attacker—what if he was still out there? Before she could speak, the masked figure appeared, and her words of warning emerged as a hoarse, almost silent scream that was swallowed by the thunder of the flames.
She braced for an attack, but Callum ran toward the man, rather than away. Squinting through watery eyes, she realized that this man was in full bunker gear and was urging them out of the open door, rather than kicking them back into the burning cabin. Callum flew through the doorway, and the cold air washed over her for the second time that night. She sucked in breath after breath, exhaling in a hacking cough that shook her entire body.
The firefighter ripped off his SCBA mask, revealing Ian’s furious face. “Put her down, Cook, so I can check her.”
Callum’s arms tightened for a second before he started to lower her. Before her socked feet could touch the snow, however, he lifted her again and walked over to sit her on the back bumper of one of the fire rescue trucks.
Another firefighter, Steve, hurried over to them with a med bag and a stack of blankets. Ian opened the kit, but when Steve moved to wrap the blanket around Lou, Callum grabbed it.
Instead of looking offended, Steve dropped his now-empty hand on Cal’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Get her covered then. Anyone else in there?”
It took a moment to register that the question was directed at her. Lou shook her head as Callum tucked the blanket around her without his usual precision. When she looked at his hands, she was startled to see that they were shaking. Ian fit an oxygen mask over her face and then fished her hand out of the blanket so he could clip something over the end of her finger. A muscle worked along his jaw the whole time. Lou watched it, a little confused.
“Why are you so mad?” she asked in a croak of a voice.
His narrowed eyes met hers as he dug through the med kit with more force than necessary. “Because Cook acted like a reckless asshole.”
Her glance flicked to Callum, whose own jaw was clenched tight. Steve was urging him to sit down next to her.
“Cal?” she repeated doubtfully.
“Reckless.Like fucking jumping in a fucking frozen reservoir without any fucking gear.” Ian emphasized each swearword with a hard yank on the unrolling blood pressure cuff. He reached for her arm, which she offered a little tentatively. As pissed as Ian was, though, he was still gentle as he wrapped the cuff around her bicep.
Callum adjusted his cap, leaving additional black streaks on the bill. “I know. ButLouwas in there.”
“And I was going to get her out. I was putting on mygear. So I could go in the burning cabin and notdie.” Ian pulled a pen out of his pocket and wrote something on his hand before taking her pulse. Snowflakes landed on her cheeks, making Lou realize how cold she was, despite the blanket. She leaned against Callum, who immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. His hands were still shaking, she noticed.
“That was pretty dumb, Cal,” she rasped. Air scraped at her raw throat, making her wince.
“Don’t talk,” he ordered, and kissed the top of her head. “And it wasn’t a thought-out decision. You were in the cabin. The cabin was on fire. I had to get you out.”
Ian just grunted, but he put a truckload of irritation in the sound. “You’ll be fine, but you need to get checked out at the hospital. Medics are on their way, but they got caught on the wrong side of an accident on the highway, so they’re still twenty minutes out.”
“I’ll take her. We’ll be halfway to Connor Springs by the time the ambulance gets here.” Callum stood. Raising a skeptical eyebrow, Ian looked at Steve.
