Chapter 18
Chapter Eighteen
Scarlett
The rope dug into my wrists, as smoke began to fill the side of the house.
Ronin had dragged me to the old Ackerman place, and I still couldn’t catch up.
My thoughts kept blending, and I knew the blood seeping down my face meant whatever cut he’d added there when he’d hit me, hadn’t stopped bleeding.
I didn’t think I had a concussion, but for all I knew, it was worse than I allowed myself to believe.
The place Hudson had bought was still somewhat erect.
Though half of it had been destroyed in the mudslide, the other half had been torn apart while they had done their best to save as much of the materials as possible.
Ronin had found the dirtiest place of it all and tied my arms around one of the metal poles that were keeping the roof up.
At least that’s what I thought the point of those were.
Honestly I couldn’t quite figure it out, and as smoke continued to fill the room, everything hurt, and I knew I needed to get out of here soon.
If not, I was going to die of smoke inhalation long before the flames hit.
Coughing once again, I tugged on the rope, using whatever strength I had to pull and try to make a way out of here.
Nobody knew I was here. Nobody knew that I was going to die in a place filled with memories that everybody kept burying. And they should. Hudson was going to make this place full of life and love and happiness, now I was going to die within its walls.
And he would blame himself for not being there.
Because after everything that had happened, we had needed a moment to breathe, because we trusted and loved each other enough for that.
And I was going to die here, weak and unable to protect myself, because I couldn’t figure out how to get out of the tightening rope.
I tugged on the binds again, trying to get myself loose. No one was going to save me. I needed to do it myself.
“Come on. You can do this. Why can’t I be like one of those people in an action movie that always has a knife or a shard of glass on them, even in their pajamas?
” I coughed again, the room beginning to heat up.
Sweat and blood leaked down my temples as I continued to work on the ropes, rubbing them at the corner edge of the hole.
It wasn’t going to be enough. There were no jagged parts of the metal for the rope to snag on, and I couldn’t break my wrist or dislocate my thumb or do anything that an action star would be able to figure out.
I was going to die. Ronin was going to have the last word after all, and I was going to die here.
I would never forgive myself for what this was going to do to Hudson. Because I knew that he would never let himself feel again.
Damn Ronin. Damn this house, and damn everything.
The sound of a gunshot echoed through the room, and the forest, and I froze, smoke seeping through the walls.
I coughed again, my nose itching, eyes burning. “Hudson!” I screamed.
Because it had to be him out there. I just knew it.
Who else would Ronin be shooting at in this moment?
Maybe I was delusional, maybe it was the smoke, but Hudson had to be out there.
We had saved each other before, maybe we could figure out how to do it again.
I tugged harder, twisting my arms to try to create friction.
A few strands began to unravel, and tears streamed down my face as I continued to pull, kicking at the bottom of the pole to try to get it loose.
The flames were getting higher, and the roar of them echoed through my brain.
I wasn’t going to die here. I couldn’t die here. I wouldn’t let Ronin have the satisfaction. I shoved again, pushing and shouting.
There was a scramble of feet, a shout, and more screaming.
“I’m in here! Help!”
Coughing, I shoved and kicked, crying as the rope refused to budge.
Damn Ronin. Damn everything.
“Scarlet!”
I froze in that instance, my throat tight. That wasn’t Hudson’s voice.
It was Luna’s.
Another gunshot, or perhaps it was a tree snapping, I couldn’t tell. Dizziness began to set in, the smoke too thick.
It couldn’t be Luna. Ronin was not allowed to touch my sister. I planted one foot on the pole, gripped the rope, and screamed as I pulled, using all of my strength. Another part of the rope snapped, but not all of it.
“No. I refuse. No, no, no, no, no.”
“Scarlett!”
Another shout, this one deeper.
I turned, coughing as my shoulders shook, and then Hudson was there.
“Get out of here!” I called out. “The flames are too high.”
“Not without you.” Hudson pulled a knife out of his pocket, and I let out a watery laugh that held no humor.
“Of course he would have a knife. Why couldn’t I just sleep with a fucking knife?”
“We’ll make sure you have weapons on you at all times.”
“I know you’re placating me, but we’re going to have to do this. Okay?”
“Keep your head down, the smoke’s getting thick. I’ve got this.”
And then the ropes were loose, but instead of sighing in relief, I pushed Hudson down and threw my body on top of him.
“What—” he began as part of the roof caved in, landing where Hudson had just been kneeling.
Then he rolled us over, covering me as well, as we both tried to stagger to our feet.
“We have to get out of here,” he called out over the flames, coughing.
He shoved off his flannel and covered my head with it. “Keep low.”
“What about you?” I asked, my throat so raw that dizziness started to seep in.
“I’ve got you, Scarlett. I’ve got you.”
My knees buckled, as the smoke was nearly too much, and then Hudson had me in his arms, as he ran through the back door that laid nearly on its side.
“Scarlett!”
Hudson set me down on the ground, moved the flannel off my head, and I blinked at Luna’s voice before turning back to the old Ackerson place.
The roof continued to cave in, as the walls licked with fire, the sounds of glass and stone being charred or breaking filled the small open space.
I coughed, my whole body racking as Hudson ran his hands over my body, checking for wounds.
“Where are you hurt?”
“Head. Lungs,” I rasped between coughs.
“I got you.”
He kept saying those words, and I wanted to say them back. But I couldn’t think. Instead I just sat there, body shaking, lungs threatening to burst, as Hudson put pressure on the wound on my head, and the sounds of sirens filled the air.
I finally turned to see Luna on the ground, holding Flynn as blood seeped from a wound on his leg.
I had no idea what had just happened, or where Ronin was, but we were out of the fire, at least for now.
As the authorities worked on the now unsalvageable home, Sheriff Macon came forward, a frown on his face.
“Get in the ambulance,” he snapped at Flynn, who waved him off.
“Scarlett first. I just have a slight flesh wound.”
“You were shot in the leg, dumbass,” Luna snarled. “And there are two ambulances now. Get in the damn thing.”
“You do like me,” Flynn said with a grin, though I knew he had to be in pain.
“I’d like you much more if you stayed alive. So please? Listen to the paramedics.”
“It’s okay, I’ll just knock him out. We went to school together, I’m allowed to do that,” one of the male paramedics said with a wink, and Flynn narrowed his gaze.
“Jack?” he asked as he leaned against the back of the stretcher.
“Oh good. You remember me. You always did like to one-up me in school when it came to grades. So I decided to move to your town and annoy the fuck out of you.”
“I believe that’s true, he also married Rumor, who’s a townie,” Luna explained, and I realized they were talking about things that didn’t truly matter in this moment to distract Flynn as they carted him towards the ambulance.
Sheriff Macon stood between the two stretchers, hands on his hips.
“Scarlett, they’re taking you to the hospital in the next town over, same with Flynn. If we have to take you down to Denver to see specialists, they will.”
“Damn straight we will,” Hudson growled.
I reached out and gripped his hand, as I wasn’t allowed to speak. They put oxygen over my mouth, and since it was the only thing keeping me awake at this moment, I wasn’t going to move the mask.
“We’ll talk about everything soon,” Sheriff Macon ordered. “But Ronin’s not going to be a problem.” He said the words with such finality, I realized that while Ronin might not be dead, he wasn’t going to step foot in Cage Lake again anytime soon. If ever.
My father and Ronin weren’t our problems anymore.
Though I knew my mother was probably worried out of her mind, she would meet us anywhere that we needed now.
Because she loved us more than our father scared her.
Or maybe it was just the idea that our brains could finally let us breathe after years of trying to suffocate us.
I watched as Flynn was put in the ambulance, and Luna stepped in with him.
I frowned, and Hudson shook his head. “The family’s on their way, but I said I would ride with you. Luna will ride with Flynn. She offered to flip a coin to see who would ride with you, but I love you, so I win.”
My eyes widened as they stuffed me into the back of the ambulance. Sheriff Macon spoke with some of his deputies, and I finally lowered the mask.
“You love me?”
He scowled, even as the paramedic helped put the mask back on my face.
“Of course I love you. You saved my life in there too you know.”
I pulled the mask back and waved off the paramedic. “I love you too. But I thought we would say this in a way more romantic way.”
“I don’t know, stayed with each other through a fire and a kidnapping sounds pretty romantic,” the paramedic said, and I narrowed my gaze at her.
The other woman just winked. “If you keep the oxygen mask on, I promise I’ll stop with the commentary.” And then she was sliding an IV into my arm, and Hudson rubbed the back of his knuckles on my cheek.
“You scared the hell out of me. But I love you, Scarlett Blair. And from now on, you don’t sleep outside my bed. Those are the rules. Because I swear to God, I’m never going to let anyone hurt you again.”
I scowled at him, before slowly lowering the mask despite the paramedic’s glare.
“Fine. We can sleep in our bed together from now on. But I love you too. Jerk. You don’t need to growl at me all the time.”
“I think I do. Mask on.”
I rolled my eyes and did as I was told, as my entire body hurt.
Ronin had almost killed the both of us. Had almost killed Flynn and maybe Luna from what I could see. I wasn’t sure how the timeline had played out, but I did know that the people I cared about most in the world had nearly died because of a man’s anger and addictiveness.
But as Hudson held me close, and we made our way to the hospital, I leaned into him, knowing that I wasn’t ever going to let him go.
I had made many mistakes in my life, and Hudson Cage wasn’t one of them.
And now, once we were cleaned up, stitched up, and healed, we had the rest of our lives to figure out what was next.
And I for one had a feeling nothing was going to be normal about this anytime soon, or ever.
And I didn’t truly mind. Not with Hudson Cage holding me, and both of us knowing that we could save each other. Even if I knew he would do his best to make sure nothing like this happened again. Hudson was mine. And I was finally able to give in.
I let him hold me, and knew it was only the beginning.