I slammed into the door.
Not enough.
I retreated a step. Two. Three. The world sucked away the oxygen and replaced it with agonized heat.
No time left.
I crashed my body into the wood, and nearly shattered my shoulder. It worked. The door swung open in shards. I fell to the ground.
Josie.
I turned, reaching to help her.
I never made it.
Arms grabbed us, dragging us from the barn just as the walls groaned and shuddered. The entire structure burned through, blackened and charred in minutes. Josie screamed as the frame collapsed, falling upon itself in blast of heat, ash, soot, and destruction.
Men twisted me from her, and the flashing lights surrounding me weren’t the reds of an ambulance. They blasted me in blue.
Chief Craig rolled me onto my back. EMTs tried to stick an oxygen mask over my face, but he ordered them away. He slammed a knee between my shoulder blades and whipped handcuffs onto my wrists. Pain exploded through me, but I couldn’t do a damn thing.
“Andrew Maddox, you’re under arrest for arson and the attempted murder of Josie Davis and Nolan Rhys.” He dug his knee into me. “And this time, I got you for good, you son of a bitch.”
I said nothing.
The world darkened, and my thoughts focused on Josie.
She was pregnant.
At least I had one thought to comfort me when I went to jail.
Except I had a bad feeling I wasn’t leaving Saint Christie’s police station alive.
Chapter Twenty One – Josie
The EMTs fought me. I struggled to escape from the ambulance.
They held me down without a problem. I’d sucked in too much smoke, and my head turned foggy and pained.
I knew Frank and Kathy, the husband-and-wife EMT team. Kathy shined a light in my eyes, and Frank tucked the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth.
“There you go. Just like Matt.” He chuckled.
“Maddox.” I coughed, and my vision blurred with a dark halo.
“Don’t worry.” Kathy silenced me with a soft cluck of her tongue. “Chief Craig has him. He won’t hurt you anymore.”
They had it all wrong. I yanked off the oxygen. No wonder Granddad hated the damn thing so much. The cough stole my breath. I tried to tell them, but my throat was coated in acrid ash.
Shouting echoed over the yard. Kathy and Frank forced me to lie down.
Maddox.
Something was wrong. He was hurt. I struggled again, but this time they didn’t have to hold me down. I felt too heavy to move. Kathy tucked a blanket over my body and took my vitals as my blood pressure spiked.
She leaned over me, brushing my face. “Josie, how do you feel? Are you hurt?”
Only one thing mattered. I squeezed her hand and forced the words out.
“I’m pregnant.”
And then I collapsed.
***
It was the second time I woke in the hospital after a fire.
The first time was terrifying because I had no idea what had happened. The second was worse. I feared the devil I knew because I saw the chaos he caused before. He wasn’t done with us yet, and I dreaded what was to come.
The IVs dripped and machines beeped. They had me on oxygen. It did dry my throat—Granddad was right. I batted the tubes away.
My room was just outside the nurses’ station. I caught their attention as I woke up. I wasn’t particularly fond of Suzie Adams in high school, but at least she’d dropped the attitude now that she was an adult. Putting on thirty pounds also helped the former cheer-captain gain a bit of humility.
“You’re awake.” Suzie checked the machines. “You’re so lucky. No burns, no damage from the smoke.”
“The baby?”
Suzie reserved her judgement. She had a toddler with no daddy at home.
“Everything looks okay. The doctor wants to see you. He’ll be in shortly.”
“Maddox?”
Suzie didn’t want to answer that. “Chief Craig is here. He needs to get your statement.”
“Wait.”
Suzie bolted from the room. Damn it. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t think. A blue uniform immediately took her place. Chief Craig closed the door, and I tried to silence my coughing. Couldn’t. He didn’t look like he cared much.
“Josie…” Chief Craig’s tone spiked my heart rate. Unfortunately, he could hear it on the monitor. “I’ve already spoken with Mayor Rhys.”
“Chief…it wasn’t—”
“He explained that you two had a secret relationship.”
My lungs seized. The panic stuck inside the thick ash coating my chest. “Not true—”
“He also told us that Maddox was threatening both of you. Nolan said he worried for your safety, and that it was not unexpected that Maddox would attempt to break you two up.”
That smug look. Chief Craig didn’t believe a word Nolan told him, but it fit his own ends.
The chief lied. He tried to frame it on Maddox.
“Stop.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We know Maddox threatened you and your grandfather after he heard about your relationship with the mayor.”
“Why are you doing this?” I clenched my teeth. “Maddox told me about Chelsea. You’re blackmailing him.”
“Josie, I’m asking you to collaborate the mayor’s story. Do that, and we’ll ensure Maddox is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
This was a nightmare without waking. A layer of embers burned every hope and dream I ever had. It buried the town, soiled us all, and threatened to choke the life from Maddox.
I forced the words out. “Nolan kidnapped me. Nolan tried to hurt me. Nolan lit the match. Nolan attempted to murder us.”
Chief Craig’s eyebrows furrowed. His once familiar and reassuring face morphed into something sinister and unrecognizable.
“I understand this is a difficult time, Josie, but I need the truth. You have to remember what actually happened. Don’t protect Maddox. He can’t hurt you anymore.”
I cried soot and grime. “Granddad was your bowling partner. You have a wife and kids. How can you do this?”
“Tell me the truth, and I’ll keep him safe.” The chief leaned close. It was the first time I feared him, and the damn monitors proved it. “He’s unstable. I can’t be sure he won’t hurt himself in that cell.”
“Don’t you dare.”
He patted my hand. I yanked it away. “Do this, and we won’t ask anything more of you. We know you’re in a…delicate condition.”
His scowl disappeared the instant he turned the handle on my door. He greeted the nursing staff with a beaming smile and promised that he needed nothing further from me tonight.
Monster.
Was the entire town filled with monsters? Darkness and lies and hatred festered everywhere I looked, and the only hope I had that the world was good had been jailed once more for a crime he didn’t commit.
It couldn’t end this way. Chief Craig and Nolan conspired against Maddox. How was I supposed to fight the charges? I couldn’t tell the truth if no one was listening.
I sat up, clawing at the IV in my wrist. Tears rolled over my cheeks. They were about as useful as a low-calorie brownie. I could still fix this. I just had to get out of the hospital.
“Whoa!”
I panicked as Delta burst into the room, catching me with my hand in the cookie jar that was my escape. She dropped a teddy bear and slammed the door shut behind her.
“What the hell are you doing?” She nearly slapped me. “Get in that bed!”
“Delta, I need help.”
“You need to rest! You almost died tonight.”
“It wasn’t Maddox.” The coughing started to subside as adrenaline raged through me.
“Where have I heard that before?”
“I’m serious!”
Delta jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “You better tell the chief. Everyone is on a rampage thinking Maddox tried to kill you and Nolan.”
“You really think I was sleeping with Nolan? I’m carrying Maddox’s baby!”
“Yeah, that part sounded wrong to me.” Delta forced me into bed. “Look, I’ll help you. Just relax. None of this is good for you or the baby.”
“I need to…” I tripped over my own words. “I have no idea. I have to get Maddox out of jail before Chief Craig does something horrible.”
Delta sat on the bed, eyes wide. “Like what?”
“Like hangs him from the ceiling with a sheet wrapped around his neck.”
“Are you serious?”
“Nolan went insane and tried to kill us. Now he must be working with the chief to get rid of Maddox once and for all.”
Delta ran her hands through her wet hair. She must have rushed to the hospital straight from her shower, tucking into sweats and only one sock on the way. “Josie, this is beyond us. We can’t take down the chief of police and the mayor ourselves.”
“I know.” I couldn’t think fast enough. The damn fire still puffed smoke into my brain. “What about the District Attorney? Maybe he can start an investigation? God, I don’t know.” I covered my face. “The chief probably has friends who’d protect him. Maddox was so worried about exposing him because he had so many connections.” I groaned. “Oh, no. The chief might do something to Chelsea.”
“Can you get ahold of her?” Delta bit her fingernail. “Maybe tell her to get out of town?”
I nodded. “If I can make her to leave Saint Christie, then the Chief can’t use her to control Maddox.”