Chapter 40
Matt
Madi!
Her scream provided proof of life, so I doubled my efforts.
Holding my now useless left arm against my chest, I kept moving towards the double doors.
I will not quit.
I would save Madi or die trying.
“Madi!” I yelled as I got closer to the doors separating the warehouse from the office. “Hold on.” Cough. “I’m coming.”
I had to move fast. The fire above growled as it searched for more fuel.
“Madi!” I yelled, using my right shoulder to shove through the swinging doors. The jarring motion intensified the pain in my charred and blistered left arm.
The fire roared behind me.
I ignored the loud crashes, except to note that we needed to find a different way out.
“Matt?” Madi’s rough voice reached me as I ran through the door to the warehouse.
Thank God she’s alive. I prayed for the strength to ignore my injuries long enough to get Madi to safely.
“She’s alive.” I relayed over the comms. I ignored the gratitude coming through my earpiece because we weren’t out of danger yet.
Adrenaline flooded my system and smoke filled my lungs as I ran through the large, mostly empty, smoke filled-room.
Every step added to the agony in my arm.
I will not quit.
“I’m here,” I said, stopping in front of her and dropping to a knee. I bit back my scream when my useless left arm dropped to my side as I reached for Madi with my right hand.
“What happened to your arm?” Madi asked, her voice gritty from the smoke.
Only Madeleine fucking Sheppard would ask about my arm while tied to a chair in a burning building with blood oozing from dozens of nasty cuts.
“It’s fine. Let’s get you out of here.”
I scooted behind her after cutting the ties at her ankles.
Seeing Madi’s blood soaked hands made me see red.
She’d fought against the ropes at her wrists and lost.
She’s so fucking strong.
Using my pocket knife, I apologized as I carefully cut the ropes.
Madi didn’t respond, but her body tensed as she braced against the pain. I spared a glance and noticed her jaw was clenched tight enough to turn coal to diamond.
It wasn’t enough to her from whimpering when I touched her raw flesh. The sound tore at my heart.
Worry about your feelings later. Your only priority is getting her out of here.
“Can you walk?”
“I think so,” she answered, holding her wrists against her chest while standing on wobbly legs.
I wrapped my good arm around her. “The office is unpassable. We need to find another way out.”
The windows were too high to be useful, and I knew from the blue prints Doug sent that the emergency exit was located along the back wall.
Not an option. Fires consumed the small rooms surrounding it.
We’d never make it through.
“She set fires there first,” Madi said, following my gaze.
I looked towards the shipping and receiving doors. I wouldn’t be able to force them open with one arm, but maybe Madi and I could do it together.
Madi coughed, her body weight dropping on my arm.
The cough didn’t cover her cries of pain when she lifted her hand to cover her mouth.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. We have to keep moving.” She winced as she clung to my shoulder to hoist herself back up. The blood from her wrist soaked through my shirt.
She can’t help me with the bay doors.
“Let’s go.” With my left arm throbbing and Madi limping, we headed toward the large metal doors we didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of opening.
“South exit blocked. Heading to the east bay doors.” I told the team, trusting them to help from the outside.
“Sending fire department to bay doors. Will update.” John’s voice hitched when he asked, “How’s Madi?”
I gave the only answer I could think of that wouldn’t cause unhelpful fear or panic. “She a fighter.”
She was covered in blood, suffering from smoke inhalation, and growing weaker by the minute, but she was fighting.
Crashes sounded from the office.
Fire crackled from the south rooms.
Thick black smoke poured in from both sides.
I couldn’t crawl, so we walked on our knees, hoping to get out of the worst of the rising smoke, and covered our mouths and noses with our shirts.
I looked up and prayed that the thick steel and cement reinforced ceiling wouldn’t crash down on us.
“Go to the center door.”
“On the move,” I answered John as I adjusted our trajectory.
“Chief says to give them room to work.”
“Copy-” A coughing fit disrupted my answer. “Copy that.”
Under normal circumstances, we could’ve walked the thirty or so yards in a minute—seconds if we ran—but between the coughing induced stops and Madi needing me to support her, it took four times as long.
The sound of a saw cutting through metal echoed through the space. Sparks rained into the room, like fireworks on the Fourth of July, when the blade broke through.
My comms cracked. “Be prepared. They’re hosing down the second floor and outer walls.”
I told Madi. “We’re gonna get wet.”
“Better than burning.” She looked over her shoulder.
Flames danced along the edges of the room, hungry to consume anything and everything they could.
The smoke thickened, burning our eyes and choking our lungs as the temperature in the room continued to rise.
Madi would have suffered a slow, painful death—choking to death before the fire ever reached her.
A too vivid image of Madi dead in the chair flashed through my mind.
Every muscle in my body took a vacation, causing me to fall back on my heels and slump forward.
“Matt?” Madi choked as she tried to catch me.
It was no use; she was too hurt, too weak.
Without thinking, I put my left hand down to catch my weight.
My scream exposed my throat and lungs to more punishment.
I couldn’t answer the questions coming over the comms as I clutched my arm to my chest and waited for the coughing fit to end.
Only the more I coughed, the more smoke filled my lungs.
The room blurred as smoke replaced oxygen in my system.
Knowing I wouldn’t last long, I prayed. Let Madi live.
“Matt!”
My brain registered the terror in Madi’s voice two seconds before water rained down on us, like a miracle from heaven.
They breached the door.
Madi would survive.
We couldn’t move, so the firefighters came to us.
Bodies surrounded us.
Masks covered our faces.
We greedily sucked in the clean air between coughs.
“Let’s get you out of here,” the firefighter closest to me said when my cough finally subsided.
“Madi first,” I croaked out, pointing to her as two firemen helped her stand.
Two sets of hands gripped under my arms and helped me stand. The guy on my left was careful not to touch me below the elbow.
“There are a lot of anxious people waiting for you outside.”
“She needs an ambulance.”
“So do you. Guess it’s a good thing we have two waiting outside.”
Once we were safely outside, the firemen removed our masks. As soon as they did, four bodies crossed the police line and rushed Madi.
John was the first to hug her, followed by Jamie, then Jack and Jay.
In the bright lights of the emergency vehicles, I could see the extent of Madi’s injuries more clearly.
Slashes crossed her cheeks, chest, and stomach.
Blood soaked her leggings; the wounds visible through the blood-stained holes.
Her neck was covered in several continuous scratches.
Her wrists were circled by raw, open wounds.
And she’d been worried about me!
She’s so fucking strong.
“She needs a doctor,” I said to everyone and no one in particular. Not that it mattered, only John heard my weak attempt at giving an order.
“She’s going straight to the hospital,” John said as he carefully wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you for saving my little girl.” He didn’t bother wiping the tears from his face when he pulled away.
His sons followed right behind him.
“You can talk to them as the paramedics look them over,” the firefighter closest to me said as he turned me towards the waiting ambulances.
“I go where she goes.” I sounded like someone who’d smoked three cartons a day for forty years.
“You’re going in the same direction.”
My arm screamed with every step. Even the pressure from the ambient air was painful to endure.
It’ll heal. An arm injury was a small price to pay for Madi’s life.
Hell, I would’ve given up the entire fucking arm.
If it’d come down to it, I would’ve traded my life for hers without hesitation.