Chapter 9
Chapter nine
Burn It Down
Maverick
Every nerve ending in my body zinged with fear as I saw the flames.
God must’ve had a sick sense of humor. Twenty years to the day, and then this.
Cheyenne jumped out of the truck before I could even slam on the brakes. Panic surged within me, swelling and rising with each breath I sucked down. My lungs stopped working. My body seized up. I didn’t even know how I managed to stop the truck and park it.
Just like that, it was like I was eleven years old again. Fear pinned me in place as I just sat there for a moment staring at the flames. Cheyenne’s screams cut through the night, louder than the roar of the fire.
No one talks about how loud it is. The sound. It ain’t peaceful like when you sit before a fireplace or a bonfire. It’s like the fire…it’s alive. It’s angry. And it wants to consume any and everything.
Cheyenne’s wails—raw and visceral—dragged me from my thoughts, spurring me into action. Just like Ellie Mae’s had all those years ago.
Fuck.
I swallowed past the growing lump in my throat and slammed the driver-side door open before racing toward Cheyenne. A crew of firefighters fought the fire, aside from the two she struggled against.
“Maverick, it’s Brandy! She’s in there!” The pure, undiluted terror in her voice, written plainly on her face, made the lump in my throat grow larger.
I needed to do something. Had to. Had to stop the terror in her tone like I should have done all those years ago for Ellie but couldn’t. Fear and determination warred within me, sending a jolt of adrenaline straight through my veins.
I hadn’t been able to save Ellie Mae, but I’d be damned if I didn’t save Cheyenne’s dog.
I don’t know if anyone chased after me as I ran headfirst toward the flames, sweat already coating my brow as the heat assaulted me. Covering an arm over my mouth and nose, I tried to breathe in through the fabric of my shirt—whatever I could to save my lungs.
The door was open already, fire snaking out like gnarled fingers as it consumed and destroyed every bit of flammable surface in sight. My eyes stung and watered, my vision blurring as I raced up the steps and into the main aisleway.
“Brandy!” I coughed as I tried to call for her, inhaling a lungful of smoke.
My body seized up, fear gripping my heart so tight I thought I might keel over and die. The heat, the smoke, the smell, it brought back every painful, terrifying memory. A swell of panic chased away whatever adrenaline had spurred me onward a moment ago.
Just like that, I was back in the car. Just like that I didn’t know what to do.
One minute I stood there, the next I was on the floor. My eyes blurred with tears—of terror or from the smoke, I couldn’t tell you.
“Mavie!”
Ellie Mae’s screams cut through all the chaos. Mom and Dad lay hunched lifeless in their seats. Flames licked at them. Licked all around us, destroying everything in their path as they made their way for Ellie Mae and I.
One of my arms hung useless at my side, pain—blinding pain—pulsing from my elbow down to my fingertips. My head swam, my vision doubling, tripling during some moments. I just wanted to sleep. Sleep sounded so nice. It beat this hell.
But Ellie Mae’s screams turned shriller, pained.
I turned and clawed at the seatbelt straps of her car seat.
Instead of buying her a proper one, like Dad said he would, he’d resorted to tying the straps from when he’d gotten angry and cut her out of them once when he was drunk.
I struggled with the knots, flames searing my fingers, my hands, my arms.
But the pain would never compare to the screams.
A whine broke through my thoughts, followed by a distant, weak yip.
I blinked through the tears as I pushed up from the prone position I’d landed on the ground.
“Brandy?” I croaked out before falling into a fit of coughs.
Another whine.
I scanned through the smoke and flames, my gaze landing on her directly under the bed at the other end of the hallway. She whined again, even as her tail wagged in a single thump. On my hands and knees, I scrambled over to her, a trickle of hope pulling at my heartstrings.
“Come on, girl,” I choked out as I made my way toward the foot of the bed.
She whined and thumped her tail again but made no effort to move. She could have been hurt, could have just been scared stiff, and as much as I wanted to ease her out from under the bed, I just didn’t have time.
A loud creak groaned from the trailer and then a loud boom as the window above the bed exploded. Glass and ash rained down on me, pain prickling along my face.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
I needed out of here. I couldn’t die like this. No, I wasn’t ready.
“Come on, girl, I got you. I got you,” I repeated again, reaching out a hand and grabbing for her collar.
Please don’t bite me.
She didn’t, thank the Lord, but she also didn’t help much either. Despite being a small thing, she sure weighed a ton as I scooped her up in my arms and made my way for the front door.
My lungs screamed, my eyes burned and I was so hot I wasn’t even sure at this point if I was on fire or not.
“Come on, pretty girl,” I murmured as I crawled toward the door. Poor thing trembled in my arms as I went.
The smoke hung like a shroud, choking in its intensity, and while the fire raged around me, all I could think, all I could hear, all I could see was Ellie Mae. Her screams. The tears in her eyes. The feel of her fingernails clawing at my arms as I tried to pull her out.
Tried and failed.
Failed.
Panic settled around my heart, suffocating me more than the smoke in my lungs. Ice slithered down my spine, my mind going foggy. My vision blurred, darkness closing in around the corners.
Not again. I couldn’t pass out again.
I still don’t know how I survived the accident. The firefighters and paramedics were just as surprised. An act of God maybe, or probably just dumb luck. But I didn’t think I’d be as lucky this time around.
Something warm and wet bumped my cheek, a soft whine following it. How had I ended up laying down again? Brandy’s brown eyes, full of terror, pegged me in place.
Fuck.
I tried to suck in a calming breath, but no cold air slithered down my throat or swelled in my lungs.
Only a scalding trail of smoke and ash, searing every inch of me.
I coughed, my vision blurring once more, the screams in my head getting so loud I couldn’t think straight. Would they ever go away again?
Brandy nudged me once more, a whine escaping her.
I shouldn’t have been able to hear it over the blaze, but I did.
It broke the paralysis in my limbs, giving me strength I didn’t think I had left in me.
One second, I was on the ground, the next scooping her up again as I stumbled forward.
A curtain crashed down beside us over the kitchen table, raining down more ash and embers.
Just as we got to the door, a hulking figure in a turnout held out a hand, shouting something through his oxygen mask at me as he pulled us out.
I couldn’t make out the words, my brain a haze of smoke.
My lungs barked in agony as I struggled to get air down.
But as he dragged me away from the flames, the scorching heat of the fire was replaced by the damp, summer night air.
Not quite the relief I was looking for, but better than before.
My vision blurred, sound wobbling in and out of focus before going quiet all together as memories bombarded me.
Ellie’s screams. Her face full of tears. That last look we shared before I was ripped out of the truck by some stranger. My outstretched hand reaching for her as I roared and cried and flailed to get back to her.
She had been all that was good and light in the world. Neither of us had been dealt a particularly good hand at life, but Ellie never cared. Never understood how bad we had it. She’d only been four. She didn’t deserve to die. Didn’t deserve this fate.
She deserved a good, long life. A mother and father who loved her. Cherished her. Not this.
Darkness threatened to overwhelm me completely, the yawning black abyss of oblivion a welcome sight. Maybe now, I’d finally get to be with her again. My body didn’t hurt anymore. My lungs didn’t burn.
I’m comin’ Ellie.
A hum cut through the silence. I couldn’t make it out entirely, but it was soft, feminine. Ellie.
Warmth came next. The touch soothing, gentle but insistent.
And finally, light. Like a ray of sunlight in a dark, gloomy, shitty world. I moved toward the light. Hoping, praying, that wherever I went to next was wherever Ellie Mae was.
But the blinding light softened, the touch became more insistent, and the voice—not Ellie’s after all—held a worried edge to it.
“Maverick! Maverick, it’s okay!”
I woke up with a jolt, sucking air down my throat, only to dissolve into a fit of coughing. Soft hands gripped my shoulders, the brightest set of gemstone eyes fixing me in place.
“Cheyenne,” I choked out.