Chapter 54 #2
“Angel,” I shout, my face pushed against the thin gap we’ve managed to create between the door and the frame. “You two keep pulling whatever is blocking the door. We’re going to push at the same time.”
“Hurry,” Reed sobs. “Please, Logan.”
Fuck.
Fuck.
“I know,” Madds says, his hand squeezing my shoulder hard enough to hurt. “But you need to hold it the fuck together for them. Do you understand? We’re going to get them out of here. They’re going to be fine. But you need to keep it together.”
I nod my head sharply. “Right. You’re right. Let’s fucking do this.”
“On three. We’ll take turns if we have to.” My captain wedges his shoulder against the door as he counts to three, then he pulls back before ramming his shoulder into the flimsy, hollow door.
It shudders and groans, opening another inch or two, but it’s still not enough.
“Again,” I scream.
We take turns bodychecking the door again and again. Griffin takes over for Maddox when he’s wincing in pain, but I won’t let myself stop. I can’t. Not until I’m holding both of them.
“Again!” Griffin and I push against the door as hard as we can. There’s a screeching sound from inside the room, and the door gives more this time. It’s not enough for them to squeeze through, but it’s close.
“Blair,” I shout. I nearly collapse when her tear-streaked face peers out at me, Reed’s above it. “Are you both okay?”
“Yes,” she says through her tears.
“Okay, good. I know you’re both scared, but I need you to work with us to do one more big push so we can get you out of here. Can you do that for me?”
There’s a thud from the kitchen as something crashes to the floor. Most likely one of the cabinets falling from the wall. We all scream.
“Now, baby.”
“I love you,” she says before pulling away from the door.
“Don’t you fucking say shit like that, angel. Not like a goodbye. Don’t you fucking dare.”
Filled with adrenaline and fear, I relent when Ryder shoves me out of the way so he can help Griffin make one more big push to the get door to Reed’s room open.
They let out a battle cry, putting everything into it as they slam hard into the door.
There’s a groan and a creak, and then the door is open wide enough for Reed to slip through, followed by Blair.
I pull them both into my arms. “Are you hurt? Did she hurt you?”
“We’re fine,” she sobs.
“Then we need to move,” I tell them, reluctantly letting them go. “Now. Cover your faces as best you can.”
As one, we spill out of the hallway, only to come to a halt when we’re confronted by the state of the apartment.
The fire has spread. The entire kitchen is engulfed in flames that lick the ceiling. The fire eats away at the bookshelf in the living room, and we have moments to get the hell out of here.
“Move fast. Now.”
With Blair’s hand in mine and Reed’s hand in hers, my boys and I surrounding them, we jump over flames as they lick across the carpet, their wavering tentacles reaching for us.
“Almost there,” I shout as the heat singes my exposed skin. “Come on!”
We pour out of the apartment just before something inside explodes. We’re halfway down the stairs when a group of firefighters start to ascend them.
“There’s no one in the apartment that’s on fire,” Griffin tells them.
“Thanks. Now get out of here,” the man in front shouts.
He doesn’t have to tell us twice.
Chaos greets us as we stumble out of the building and across the street. Fire trucks wail, firefighters unroll hoses, and cops shout at onlookers to move back. There’s a shout from the crowd—a familiar voice—and then arms wrap around me.
“Shit. I was so worried. I got here, and it was chaos.” Bash pulls back and studies me. When he’s reasonably sure I’m fine, he moves to hug Blair and Reed, giving them the same treatment before doing the same with Griffin, Maddox, and Ryder. “Please tell me you’re all okay.”
“I think so,” I reply.
“We need a medic over here,” Bash shouts to the assembled cops and firefighters. “They were in the building.”
We’re swarmed by paramedics then. They herd us to waiting ambulances. I hold tight to Blair’s hand and reach for Reed, who clings to his sister with this wide-eyed look of panic that fucking guts me. Blair pulls him between us, and we each wrap an arm around his back, sandwiching him between us.
He’s shaking when we come to a stop in front of an ambulance. We all are.
“Are you okay?” I ask, turning to this kid I love like he’s my own. I cup his cheeks in my palms as Blair strokes a hand through his curls. “Tell me you’re not hurt.”
Tears well in Reed’s large, brown eyes and his lips quiver as he looks up at me. “I’m not hurt.”
“Thank fuck,” I choke out, resting my forehead on his the way we do to Bash when he stops a goal. “I was so scared.”
“She had a knife,” he whispers. “She wanted to hurt Blair.”
My gaze bounces to the woman I’m fucking gone for, new panic flooding my veins, even though she’s standing right in front of me, whole and unharmed, outside of the smoke that covers her skin in a thin layer of dark grime. “Did she touch you?”
Blair shakes her head. She clamps her lips tightly together, trying her best to hold back the cries I know she needs to release. “She never got a chance.”
With one arm, I hold Reed. I hold the other open and almost stumble back when she throws herself against my chest. The minute I wrap my arm around her shoulders, she breaks.
Great, heaving sobs shake Blair’s body as Reed and I hold her. As we all hold each other. And just when I’m not sure I have the strength to hold us all together, four more sets of arms wrap around us, forming a wall of support, holding us up. Holding us together.
“We’re okay,” I murmur. “We’re okay.”
In the middle of the noise and the chaos, in the middle of the flashing lights and the glow of the building burning behind us, we hold each other together. Every broken piece.
My family is all here. We all made it out.
We’ll all be okay.
Together.