quality he admired.
The woman had gotten under his skin in a big way, but damned if he didn’t like it.
Ray had hopes for more time with her. He’d never been in love. The possibility of it had always scared him… until now. But Sam had opened his eyes to a life outside the job. And he wanted one with her.
“You’re not getting out of our bet, Sam.”
He forced a smile and picked up his pace. And as he ran through the shadows toward the fireball lighting the night sky, he prayed it wasn’t already too late.
“You won’t be needing this anymore.” Jess pulled the gun Jake carried next to his belly. The bartender looked as if he would object, but backed off. “And since you carried him in here, you’re taking Max out. Pick him up.”
“No, I don’t want him touching my dad,” Seth protested. “I’ll take him.”
Jess was about to put up an argument, but seeing the look in Harper’s eyes, she knew better. He tried to mask his pain with a stern expression that she’d never seen before. If there was ever a time that Seth had meant business, this was it.
She pulled him aside, away from the others.
“Take my jacket and cover Max’s face. The smoke will be bad where we’re going.” She squeezed his arm. “And if you can’t do this, don’t be the hero. Ask for help, or you’ll both die.”
“Got it.” He nodded. “I trust you, Jessie. Lead the way.”
She knew what a concussion felt like firsthand, and Harper was doing a pretty good job covering up. But with the extra load and in his shaky condition, he’d be pushed to his limits. He wouldn’t be able to stay low where his chances were better. Carrying Max would put them both at risk for smoke inhalation, but she didn’t see an alternative that Harper would tolerate.
“Don’t worry. I’ll look after him,” Alexa reassured her and turned toward Seth, putting a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s get your father.”
In seconds, they were ready to go, with Jess in front, standing at the door.
“Stay as low as you can and stick close,” she said. “If you lose sight of the person in front of you…yell. We’re heading for the kitchen.” She waved her hand to show them the direction. “There’s a door to the basement below.”
“The basement?” Jake questioned, shaking his head. “Goin’ deeper into hell is crazy.”
“There’s a way out down there…but we’ll have to work at it. If that’s not good enough, Jake, there’s the door. You feelin’ lucky?” She glared at the man who had put them in this situation. When he avoided her eyes and kept his mouth shut, she added, “I didn’t think so. Now let’s move out.”
Jess looked into the eyes of her friends one last time, but when her gaze found Jake, she clenched her jaw and didn’t hide her resentment. She didn’t trust him, but like it or not, he was part of the group and would need her help out of Millstone’s inferno.
Sometimes it sucked to have a conscience.
After they cleared the room, the heat was unbearable. Staying low only made it marginally better. The conditions made her more worried for Seth and his father. She covered her mouth with her forearm and took shallow breaths, dodging fiery obstacles in her path, careful not to lose Harper. He followed her, but the smoke made it nearly impossible to see him. She felt his presence and kept moving. And she prayed the others were close behind. She had underestimated the noise. If one of them got lost now, she wasn’t sure she could hear their call for help.
Sam had been right about the upstairs. The staircase had been engulfed in flames, with part of the steps burned through. And the collapsed ceiling at one end of the hall made it impossible to head back the way they’d come in. Eerie sounds roared through the corridors until she heard the loud, splintering rumble of the old mansion coming apart above her. The noise intensified, and her heart beat faster. It sounded as if the second floor was about to come down on top of them.
Jess reached a hand out for Seth. But when she didn’t find him, she panicked. She flailed her hands into the murky black and leaned back until she touched something solid—Seth’s leg. He stopped, and she gripped his thigh, tugging at his jeans. She pulled him with her and took one step at a time.
She crept toward the back of the house, guided by her memory. Any familiar traces of the old mansion were burning, soon to be nothing more than charred rubble. But when she got to the basement door, it was open. And pitch-black smoke surged from its depths.
Shaking, she grabbed for Seth again. Harper had trusted her with the safety of his father. Feeling him next to her now—still willing to believe in her—gave Jess comfort. She couldn’t let her friends down. Sam had been willing to sacrifice her life to rescue her. And without hesitation, Alexa had accompanied her into a hostage situation, knowing it would be dangerous.
But doubt was a powerful enemy.
Jess second-guessed what she had done and racked her brain, trying to think of another way out. Yet everywhere she turned, their predicament looked more hopeless. The fire had ravaged the ground floor, and the upper stories were ready to fall. And she knew Harper couldn’t stand much more.
She ducked down and peered through the door to the basement below. In the distance, fire reflected off the cement floor, but it was a pale comparison to what scorched her back. And the ceiling heaved with dense smoke, a swirling toxic surge that cut the room in half. But her instinct for survival forced her to take that first step down— back into Millstone’s torture chamber.
Danny Ray’s hellhole would be the key to their survival—or the death of her and those she cared about. The irony wasn’t wasted on her.
CHAPTER 28
Jess looked for anything familiar to orient her, but as she crept down the basement stairs, she saw the fire had changed everything. The ventilation system that had been her ears when she was a tormented child now belched smoke that made it hard to see. And sections of the ceiling had collapsed, sending heaps of fiery debris to the cement. Walls had started to catch fire.
But she had to focus and keep going.
Into the cavernous space, she felt her way along the basement wall toward the back. Although the smoke was still bad, the heat from the fire was less intense than it had been on the floor above. And with pockets of flame burning, they made the room bright enough to catch murky glimpses through the deepening haze.
The conditions were marginal, but she had made the right choice—for now.
She kept one hand on Seth and led the way until she found what she was looking for—the familiar wooden post that marked the spot. When she stopped and tugged at Harper’s jeans, he collapsed next to her, coughing out of control. But he still held his father in his arms, with her jacket covering the old man’s face and head.
“Hang on, Harper. I’m getting you and Max out of here,” she promised.
After giving Seth a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder, Jess helped place his father on the floor, propped against a brick wall. Harper slumped next to Max and managed to say “Thanks” before a brutal coughing jag took over. Seeing him so drained scared the hell out of her.
When she felt the others settle next to Seth, she counted heads and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized everyone had made it. But Sam worried her. Unlike her normal feisty self, her friend slid to the floor, exhausted. And her face was streaked with tears, the soot leaving dark tracks on her cheeks. She leaned closer to brush back Sam’s hair.
“Catch your breath…and pray. God might still listen to you.” She kissed her on the forehead and got down to the business of survival.
Jess ran shaky fingers along the basement wall, feeling for every crack and crevice. But when she felt a faint breeze brush her skin, she knew she’d found it—the hole that had given her hope all those years ago—the one she had made as a child.
“This is it,” she muttered. When someone touched her shoulder, she turned to see Alexa.
“What is?” The woman dropped to her knees, gasping for air.
She groped for Alexa’s hand and helped her find the small gash in the brick wall.
