Chapter 33 Liam
LIAM
Glass shattering somewhere in the house woke me from a dead sleep.
Flinging the covers off, I leaped from the bed and grabbed my rifle off the far wall, then kicked the bedroom door open wide as I took a single step into the hallway.
As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I scanned the distance for any sign of the intruder. I already knew who was here, and if I caught either of them, I’d put a bullet in each of them and then kick them out of the house to bleed out on my grass.
With measured steps, I continued down the hallway until I reached the living room. It was trashed. I didn’t need the lights on to see that my things had been slashed and my TV busted.
I swung my rifle to the left as a rustle caught my attention. Rushing to the kitchen, I fired a single shot at the figure running past the large picture window. With a cry, he fell through the glass and tumbled out into the night.
“Goddamnit,” I hissed.
I only took one step toward the back door when something hard hit the back of my head, sending shocks of pain through my skull. I hit the floor, my cheek taking the brunt of the fall.
In the fading darkness, I saw boots stomping out the back door and into the night before everything went black.
The acrid scent of ammonia filled my nostrils as I choked on the thick smoke filling the air, causing my lungs to burn with every breath I took.
My eyes burned as I peered through the haze of flames and smoke, struggling to remember where I was or what had happened. Rolling to my side, I dug my nails into the wood floor, dragging my way toward the front door that seemed miles away.
Every strained gasp of air set my lungs on fire, but I fought through the pain even as the growing fire licked closer to my body. The entire place was surrounded, not a single inch of the exterior walls left untouched. If I was going to get out of here, I had to do it fast.
The ceiling creaked above me as beams shifted in the rafters. With a single glance at the ceiling, I knew I had minutes before the whole thing came crashing down around me.
“Get moving,” I coughed out, trying to motivate myself when my body was begging to rest.
My head ached and the room doubled in my vision, but I kept pushing, kept hoping that I could make it out in time. With renewed strength, I clawed at the floor, grasping anything I could to pull myself further along. I was getting close, and soon, I would be out of here and breathing fresh air.
A sharp snap from above sounded just as a beam landed on my lower back, crushing me under its weight. Crying out, I shifted my weight, desperately trying to break free from the burning rafter, but it was too heavy.
The fire burned against my bare skin, sending pain signals to every inch of my body. I tried to roll, to push the wood off me, but it was too heavy, and I had no leverage to wedge underneath it.
Panting from the exertion, smoke filled my lungs, sending a wave of agony through my body. I was going to die here, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Bailey would never know how I truly felt, or that I had planned to make it all right. My secrets would die along with me, and Bailey would always think of me as the man who broke her heart.
My eyes grew heavy as the fire made it impossible to breathe. With no way of escaping, I rested my head against the heated floor and watched as flames licked against the walls of my house. It would all be over soon, and the pain would be gone.
“Get that side!”
My eyes slowly opened at the sound of the voice. I recognized it, but the last time I’d heard it…
The weight on my lower back and legs vanished in under a minute. I was free, but still unable to move.
Michael kneeled in front of me, the urgency on his face stark. “Stay with me, brother.”
With dizzying speed, he had me up on my legs, and he was hauling me out through the flames burning at the frame of the front door. Stumbling down the steps, the fresh air burst into my lungs, sending waves of relief through every cell of my body.
I collapsed on the ground as Michael’s arm slipped from under my shoulders, and then he rolled me over, pressing his hands to either side of my face as he forced me to look at him.
“Are you okay? Talk to me, Liam!”
A harsh cough ripped from my body as I sucked in a large gulp of air. Sitting me up, he clapped me hard on the back, forcing the air into my lungs.
“Fuck, stop hitting me!” I snapped when his hand hit a particularly nasty piece of scorched skin.
“Why the fuck is your house on fire?”
He wasn’t a hallucination. He was really here, on my property, saving my ass from burning inside my own house. I gripped his arm hard, staring at him in amazement.
“Why the fuck are you here?”
A cocky grin slid across his face as I continued to gape at him. “That’s not exactly the welcome home I was expecting.”
“I called 9-1-1,” a woman said, rushing over to sit on the other side of me.
I did a double-take at the beautiful woman, then slid my gaze back to my brother, but never got the chance to ask who the hell she was because another coughing fit seized me.
“What the hell happened?” Jeff shouted, slamming his truck door as he raced toward the burning house.
Michael stood, facing our younger brother and blocking his path to me. Jeff skidded to a stop, the look of shock evident as he blinked several times as if he wasn’t sure it was really him.
“Did you do this?” Jeff asked.
“Excuse me?”
Shaking his head, he laughed. “Sorry, but…you’re here and—”
“So, I must have set the fire because I’m here?” Michael snapped.
“No, that’s not…I was only joking.”
“Right, because there haven’t been enough accusations about my life.”
Forcing myself to stand, I nearly collapsed when the woman who appeared with Michael shoved her shoulder under my arm to steady me.
“He showed up…just in time,” I answered, my words peppered with a hacking cough I couldn’t shake.
That seemed to shake Jeff out of his stupor. Storming over, he hooked his shoulder under mine and carried me further away from the fire with the help of the woman.
“Is your life not fucked up enough? You had to try to kill yourself in a fire?”
“Didn’t set it,” I said. But I barely got the words out when a coughing fit seized my body.
I could hear the sirens in the distance, but the paramedics couldn’t get here fast enough. My lungs were burning and my skin was on fire, not that I could feel much at the moment. But I knew when the shock wore off, the pain would be excruciating.
“Not that I don’t appreciate the need to sleep comfortably, but you think you could have thrown on a few clothes before you rushed out of the burning building?”
Michael snarled at Jeff. “I had to pull him out of the fire. He’s lucky to be alive.”
“It’s not the first time he’s escaped death recently,” Jeff muttered, nodding to my wrist in the cast.
Jeff and the woman eased me down onto the bed of the truck, only releasing me when they were sure I could take it.
“I’ll grab some clothes for you,” the woman said, rushing away to a vehicle I hadn’t seen parked further back.
“Who is she?” I asked, choking back another round of coughing.
“She’s…Blake.”
“Blake?” Jeff asked. “As in…Blake of another heart? Blake of the friendly variety? Blake of a thousand lakes!” he jested.
Michael narrowed his eyes at our baby brother. “As in the woman I’m going to marry.”
“Ah, and so it comes out. You leave us and run off to find love in the arms of a devastatingly beautiful woman.” He held up his hands.
“I know. I know. It was time you found your way in the world. Us sad sacks in the upper realm of the Montana kingdom are nothing compared to the wondrous beauty of the fair lady Blake.”
“What the fuck is he talking about?” Michael asked me.
I shrugged, barely paying attention in the first place.
My lungs were straining to allow even the slightest amount of oxygen inside, squeezing every time I sucked in a breath.
“You said this isn’t the first time you’ve escaped death recently,” Michael said, getting in my face. “What the fuck is he talking about? Is someone after you?”
“Us,” I grunted out. “And Ba—”
My eyes flew to Jeff’s, and at the look of panic on my face, he understood exactly what had me so concerned.
“I’ll get the truck!”
I leapt off the back of the truck and sprinted toward his. My movements were jerky at best, but I had to get to her. He set that fire, and if he came that hard at me…
“Liam! What the fuck is going on?” Michael shouted, racing behind me.
“It’s Bailey,” I shouted as I flung the passenger side door open. “She’s—”
But I never got the words out as another coughing fit took over. Blake shoved the clothes through the window just before Jeff hit the gas and propelled us backward down the drive.
Michael and Blake ran to their own truck and followed closely behind.
Struggling to get into my pants, I hit the phone button on his console screen and searched for Bailey’s contact information. As soon as the phone connected, I resumed struggling into my pants over the burns on the backs of my thighs.
“Come on, come on!” I urged, waiting as the line just kept ringing.
“Call Archer,” Jeff demanded.
Ending the call, I dialed the prick, even though I was still fucking pissed as hell at him.
“It’s the fucking middle of—”
“Someone just tried to burn me down in my own house,” I got out before I couldn’t speak any longer.
“Archer, it’s Jeff. We’re on our way into town now. Are you near Bailey?”
“Yeah, right the fuck outside her apartment. It’s quiet.”
“Are you sure?”
“Her lights are out and it’s dead over here. Unless you want me to go up and check on her.”
“Do it,” I barked out.
I would pay for this later. My head swam with dizziness and the burning in my lungs wasn’t letting up, but it was worth it if I got to Bailey in time.
Five minutes later, Jeff jumped the curb outside Bailey’s apartment building and pulled to a stop right in front of the door. I was out before the truck was even in park, flinging the front door open that should have been locked.
My hands clutched the bannister as I dragged myself up every step, praying the whole time that she was safe. If I was too late, I would only have myself to blame.
“Bailey!” I yelled, gasping and wheezing with every step.
Jeff was next to me in an instant, hauling me up the rest of the way as I struggled to keep moving. By the time we reached her apartment, I was barely breathing.
“What is going on?” I heard Bailey shout. “Why are you even here?”
I rounded the corner just in time to see Archer holding Austin by the neck, threatening to break it if he moved.
Like an angel in my dreams, Bailey stood there, her hair tumbling in gold waves over her shoulders as she faced down the men in her apartment.
She was alive.
I wasn’t too late.
I collapsed on the floor, my breathing sawing in and out of my lungs painfully. The dim lighting from the apartment building started to fade into little starbursts in the distance, but none of that mattered.
Bailey was safe, and Austin was caught red-handed.