Chapter 20
where there's smoke, there's fire
Dax
As Nolan takes off into the woods after Miles, I start cutting through locks and pulling up the doors.
Junk.
More Junk.
Weed.
"Saige!?" I shout. "Where are you, baby? Can you hear me?"
This is taking too fucking long. The chainsaw is already starting to stick. I pull my keys from my pocket and hit the trunk button. "Hey, you giant, smelly, dumbass!" I shout. "Over here!"
Seconds later, Elias appears shirtless at the end of the aisle. "I'll cut the locks; you pull the doors up."
"You think she's in here? Where's Nolan?"
"He's killing Miles in the woods. We don't really have time to talk about it." His eyes move from the storage units to the forest, the wheels turning in his head as he debates going after him, too.
I know how much he hates him—how fucking angry he must be, but Nolan can handle it. He needs to love Saige more.
"Hey…" I pick up the chainsaw and move to the next lock. "Saige needs us. Get to work."
Another nothing. And another nothing.
I pause, getting Elias's attention. "Elias…"
"What?"
"Do you smell that? I think it's smoke."
All the color drains from his face. "Yeah. I smell it."
"Well, where…" Before I finish the sentence, one of the metal doors lifts. Smoke billows from the unit as a blonde woman wearing pajamas, slippers, and a long robe steps out, her hands bound in front of her. As she pulls the rolling door down, Elias shouts, "Isla! Stop!"
But she doesn't stop. She takes one look at Elias and takes off—not into the forest, but toward the road, calling out for Miles.
I drop the chainsaw, and we both run toward the door.
Elias gets there first, and when he pulls it up, we're met with a thick cloud of smoke. A false wall reinforced with soundproof panels divides the space into two—the front lined with shelves of food, gallons of water, and other supplies.
Fire rages behind the false wall. Flames engulf the left side and the bottom of the makeshift door.
I lunge forward, pulling it open, and jump back as flames shoot out, consuming all the oxygen left in the room. Once they settle again, I see her—slumped against the far back corner of the room, her eyes closed.
Before I can move, Elias rushes through the door and to the back of the unit, taking her into his arms before noticing a thick rope tethering her to the wall. He tugs, but it doesn't come free. "Help me!" he shouts.
I follow but don't clear the flames as easily as he did, and the bottom of my left pant leg catches fire. "Fuck!"
I grit my teeth while the flames burn through my clothing and melt my flesh, the two of us tugging at the rope, but then it hits me. Lifting my leg, I hold the flames to the fibers, and once it catches, Elias tugs, and it breaks in two.
He carries her out the door, his sweats catching fire this time, and I follow close behind. While he lays her down on the snow-covered gravel, I grab a gallon of water, dousing the flames on my leg.
"Saige!" he shouts, shaking her. "Saige—wake up, baby."
"Here!" I toss him a gallon before collapsing onto my knees beside them, coughing. "You're on fire. Move."
I start CPR while Elias tries to put out the flames, which have now spread past his knee. He groans as he pours water over them and then limps back into the unit for more.
I have to make her breathe.
Elias falls back on his ass and then lies in the gravel beside us, his leg badly burnt, remnants of the material from his sweatpants stuck to the waxy, oozing flesh.
I look away, tilting Saige's chin back and holding her nose before exhaling into her mouth.
"I hope you know what you're doing," Elias groans.
"I do," I tell him, moving back to compressions. One…two…three…
Or at least I hope I do. It's been a while since I had to learn this for health class, and those were just dummies. It wasn't my girlfriend.
But as I start a third round of compressions and Saige still hasn't moved, panic overwhelms me. The adrenaline wears off, and fear takes over.
Pain takes over, and I become aware of the burnt flesh on my lower leg.
"Hey!"
I look over, but just for a second—just long enough to catch a glimpse of Nolan before he sprints toward us.
I think it's Nolan. He's hardly recognizable—his face, hands, and even his glasses covered in blood. His clothing is torn, exposing a couple of inches of scarred flesh on his abdomen and a deep, bloody cut just beneath his pecs.
He skids to a halt in the gravel beside us before dropping to his knees. "Is she okay?"
"I don't know," I tell him without stopping. "I don't fucking know!"
"I can do it!"
"No. Can't stop," I tell him.
Nolan cups her face in his bloody hands, smoothing tangled hair away from her eyes before gently tapping her cheek. "Wake up, princess," he says. "Can you hear me? It's time to wake up, baby. You're safe."
"Where's Miles?" Elias asks, his voice weak, eyes now closed.
"Dead. Very dead this time. I left him face down in a river."
"Good…" he says before his body goes limp.
"Hey!" Nolan shouts. "Stay awake, asshole!"
When I bring my lips to Saige's again, she inhales deeply before coughing into my mouth.
Nolan rolls her onto her side, patting her back while she coughs, tears streaming down her bloodstained cheeks. She looks at Nolan before turning back to me. "Dax…" she says, her lower lip quivering. "Am I dead?"
"No," I tell her, kissing her face. "No, princess; you're not dead. You're okay."
"Did you save me?"
"Yeah, we did."
"Where's—"
"Saige," Nolan interrupts, "you need to save your breath. We need to get them to a hospital. Dax, do you have your phone?"
"I can get them there faster than an ambulance can get out here." I toss him the keys; he's faster than I am, especially with this leg. "Get the car. I'm hurt, too."
Nolan runs for the vehicle while I free Saige from the rope wrapped around her waist and cut through her zip ties.
After he pulls the car up, we get Elias just conscious enough to help move his giant ass into the backseat. Saige sits in the front on Nolan's lap, her head against his shoulder, his bloody hands wrapped around her body.
"Are you okay?" I ask before pulling out of the lot. "We can trade."
"No, I don't need to right now," he says. "I'm fine."
I don't know about fine, but I believe him that he's okay with her. There's something calming about the energy coming off him now; it's not something I'm entirely familiar with.
"Right. Hold on tight."
We fly down the highway toward the nearest hospital—which is about seventy-five kilometers away—the ride silent, aside from Saige's labored breathing and Elias's groans of pain.
Eventually, we start passing firetrucks headed in the opposite direction, toward the burning storage facility, but no one stops us, and I don't slow down.
When we finally see lights in the distance, Nolan says, "When we get there, I won't be able to stay—I'll have to leave. Just pull up to the door, and I'll help you get Elias onto the sidewalk, and then you can carry Saige inside. I'll take the car."
"What? But you're hurt. You need stitches."
Nolan shakes his head. "I can't let them see me like this.
It'll be…overwhelming…not to mention the scars.
They'll want to know where they came from, and then they'll wonder if I've done this before.
They'll see his body and wonder if what I did to him was really self-defense.
I can take care of the stitches myself. I'll go home, clean up, and then I'll call their parents.
That'll be my excuse—I went to get their parents. "
"Yeah…okay."
But before he finished talking, I knew he was right. And I made my decision.
I don't want them looking too closely at Nolan, either. That's why I'm going to tell them he got there late, and Elias and I handled Miles on our own. He did what he promised—he ended this for us. He protected our family.
Now, it's my turn to protect him.
I don't need to see the body to know they won't like the idea that one man—one poor, heavily medicated and scarred man with a traumatic past—did this to another person on his own, no matter how badly he deserved it.
And Nolan got more than a few punches in on Elias earlier. We can tell them it was Miles.
"Isla…" Saige whispers. "You have to tell them about Isla. He's had her in there the whole time; they have to find her."
"She was about to lock you in and let you die."
Saige shakes her head. "It's not her fault. She's scared. She's brainwashed, and—"
"It's okay, Saige," Nolan says. "They'll find her."
Saige turns into his chest, coughing, and then starts to cry.
"I'm sorry," she sobs. "I'm sorry, Nolan; I don't want to hurt you."
"You're not hurting me," he tells her. "I'm fine, baby."
"I just can't believe you found me. I really thought I was dead.
I thought I'd never see any of you again.
She told me to take deep breaths so that I'd die before the fire got to me, and I tried so hard to get the rope free, but it just kept getting hotter, and so I did it.
I knew I was dead, and I just didn't want it to hurt. "
"It's okay," he says, kissing the top of her head. "You're not dead, baby."
"You're safe now, Saige."
We turn into the hospital parking lot, and I bring the vehicle to a stop next to a curb just past the emergency room entrance.
"I can walk," Saige says. "Just help Elias."
She gets out of the car first, and then Nolan and I pull Elias from the car and onto the sidewalk.
He's in way too much pain to pull himself to his feet now.
"Go," I tell Nolan, kissing him quickly before touching his hands, his face, and his chest. "Get out of here. I'll see you soon."
I give him a chance to pull away before smearing the blood on my face and arms, and then I head toward the doors.
"Elias, can you hear me?"
"Yes," he groans.
"Nolan wasn't there until after we pulled Saige from the fire, okay? It can't be him; it was us. We chased Miles into the woods."
"Yeah…okay."
"Help!" I cry. "We need help over here! Someone help us!"
A security guard runs toward me. "What happened?" he asks.
"We were in a fire. He can't move."
The security guard radios for help, and seconds later, paramedics are there, hauling him onto a stretcher before helping Saige into a wheelchair.
When they offer me one too, I wave them off. "I can walk."
I don't fucking like that they split us up. While a nurse takes my vitals, I pull out my phone and send Nolan a text, just as an officer steps inside the curtain.
I told them the truth. I told them that Elias and I killed Miles and left him near the river.
I love you.
I watch those three dots appear and then disappear a few times before stopping altogether. Because he knows that's it—it's done. There's nothing he can do about it now.
"Dante Hawthorne?"
"It's Dax."
"Dax, do you want to tell me what the hell happened tonight?"