He glanced at his cellphone’s screen before flashing it at me. It wasn’t a call or message. Just a blip from an app I didn’t recognize.
“This place looks like an abandoned old barn, but the security on it…” He pocketed the phone. “Top notch.”
“Nolan?”
He walked away to inspect the equipment on an old work bench. “I know you think little of me. It confuses me. I’ve never had to prove myself or earn anyone’s respect. You? You’re a challenge.”
It didn’t sound like such a compliment now.
Nolan continued, talking mostly to himself. “My grandfather worked this land and made his own fortune. My father was the best damn lawyer in the state and raised his family here. I took that money and name and reputation and thought it would impress you. What else can I do to make you look at me the way you look at him?”
My mouth dried. “It’s just…how I feel. You can’t control that.”
“You don’t want this deal any more than I do,” he said. “Sure, it’s good publicity. Local hero offers help to restore community landmark. I’d work it into my campaign. But here’s the problem.” He picked up a heavy tool from the bench and tested its weight against his hand. “I know you. I know the kind of person you are.”
“What kind of person?”
He smiled. “You won’t blackmail someone…even if you hate them. Sooner or later, the guilt would eat at you. All those sweet little candies would taste like ash in your mouth. You’d have to come clean…and you’d ruin me by clearing your conscience.”
“I won’t.” My words stuck in my throat. “I just want my shop back. I won’t talk. I promise.”
“A promise is worth nothing from an honest person doing wrong. No matter what I do, you’ll become a liability.” Nolan stalked to the door, edging into the shadows. “Just like Maddox.”
The door burst open, splintering under a shattering kick. I shouted as Maddox crashed inside, his gaze too focused on me to recognize the danger lurking in the dark.
I shouted his name. Nolan swung the tool in his hand. It struck Maddox by the ear.
He dropped, hard.
My heart stopped. Maddox moved, but not quickly. Dazed. He was hurt. He needed help.
And Nolan replaced the wrench only to approach me with duct tape. He ripped a piece and slammed it over my lips.
“Sorry, Josie,” he said. “I really hoped this would end differently.”
I twisted in the ropes, but Nolan moved away, cell phone in hand. He dialed a number and taunted me with a finger pressed to his lips. I screamed into the tape anyway.
“Chief Craig?” Nolan kicked Maddox’s ribs as he tried to stand. “Look, I got a problem. Josie Davis and I were spending the night together, and her ex showed. Yeah, Maddox. He came after me.”
Nolan shouldered the phone and reached for his knife. He grimaced and slashed his own palm.
“Chief, he’s got Josie, and I don’t know what he’s gonna do. You gotta send someone up here before it’s too late.”
He ended the call. What the hell was he doing? His wound splattered blood everywhere, and he made sure to bleed over Maddox.
“Know that I do love you, Josie.” Nolan studied me, as if for the last time. “But I need to protect myself and move on from this obsession.”
A lighter flashed in his hand. I stiffened, searching the barn. Old wood. Barrels of oil and gasoline. Boxes and crates. The place was a tinderbox.
And we were trapped inside.
Nolan lit the edges of an old newspaper. He tossed the crumpled sheet onto a bundle of straw in the far corner. Flames immediately danced along the dried bale.
He was going to burn the barn to the ground.
Nolan pulled and antique lamp from the wall and pitched it into the fire. The glass shattered, and the fire eagerly lapped at the leaking oil. It billowed into a ferocious curtain of flame that seized the barn and everything inside.
He dropped the lighter into Maddox’s coat pocket. Maddox gripped his arm, but Nolan’s punch dropped him again. Nolan turned before he opened the barn door.
“Goodbye, Josie.”
Oh god. I screamed as Nolan slipped into the night, and screamed again as the door slammed shut, feeding the fire a burst of oxygen before trapping us within.
The ropes sliced my hands.
Maddox stopped moving.
I shouted his name, but the tape muffled everything the fire hadn’t obscured in its roar.
I never thought I’d be surrounded in fire again, but the smoke roiled over the barn. I twisted the rope enough to loosen it, but I could only drop to the ground.
The flames ruptured through the floor, aiming for Maddox.
I could do nothing to stop it.
We were going to die.
Chapter Twenty – Maddox
Smoke coiled in my lungs.
Was this Hell? I didn’t smell sulfur, but her screaming would haunt me for all eternity.
My eyes didn’t want to open, but something in my brain kicked to life. I hurt now, but I’d hurt a hell of a lot more if I didn’t move my ass.
That heat crept closer. I remembered getting trapped in flames before. A year ago I ran into Josie’s burning shop absolutely terrified, not for my own safety, but because Josie might have been hurt. I sacrificed myself then to save her. I’d sat in jail, bandaged and in pain, waiting for her to come to my side.
She didn’t, so this time I’d come to hers.
I rolled over. That was a mistake. The violent, acrid smoke thickened the air. The night was dark, but ash and embers blackened the barn. My head ached. Blood dripped from above my ear. Whatever the fuck he hit me with was hard enough to nearly crack my teeth.
I shouted. The sound ripped through my head. Everything hurt.
I couldn’t see Josie.
My cell phone flashlight did nothing. I crawled, hand over hand, deeper into the barn. Away from the heat. At least I remembered the layout from when I rewired the lighting. Two exits, two doors, a shit ton of windows. None that would help me now as the flames consumed everything. The walls and roof lashed with fire, and all the scrap parts and seed and straw fed the inferno.
Christ, and I even did him a favor. Nolan’s barn was so badly wired a single spark would have burned the son of a bitch to the ground. I thought I fixed it.
Instead, I got the front-row seat.
And so did Josie.
Something muffled her screams. I clawed toward the sound, praying it was her and not a figment of my imagination, a hallucination from the smoke and head trauma.
The fire moved too fast, and I shuffled by inches, not feet. Where the hell was she? Why couldn’t she move?
My hand struck her bare foot. She kicked, and the muffled cry wavered.
I got her.
And she was alive.
But not for long. We were surrounded by too much smoke, too much heat, and the hungry flames that licked the floor. I reached for her, ripping the tape from her mouth.
“Just go!” Josie struggled against the ropes that bound her to the support beam. “I can’t get out. Save yourself.”
“I’m not leaving you.” I coughed through the smoke. “I’ll untie you.”
“Maddox—”
“I’m not leaving you!”
Josie squirmed, but the ropes didn’t release their hold. I searched my jacket for my knife, but the movement was too quick and my fingers too dulled by the blow to my head. I dropped the blade into the darkness.
“Maddox, go! I already took a year of your life away!”
“And you’re living the rest with me!”
I groped the floor, scraping against the boards, the support post, and finally, nicking the blade. The sharp edge drove into my hand. I didn’t care.
I’d chop through my own arm if it meant freeing Josie from the ropes. The blade didn’t cut smooth, or maybe my head leaked more brains than blood. Josie turned, flexing the rope. She wove her arms up and down, tearing through the fibers. I lurched.
The knife struck her wrist.
She shouted, but the rope frayed and she was freed. She didn’t bother holding the wound. The knife tipped from my fingers, but she seized it and worked on the other ropes.
The smoke burned in my lungs. A rough cough battered my head. I leaned forward. Too much.
I went down.
“Maddox!” Josie didn’t stop sawing through the rope. “Get up! Please!”
“I’m up.” A lie. At least I could still lie. That was impressive for a man about to die.
“I need you!” Josie wiggled, shifted, tugged at the ropes. Her arms slipped out, but a thick cord bundled her feet. “Stay awake. We gotta get out of here.”
I was awake.
Think I forgot to talk.
Or I couldn’t. Probably why I was having trouble moving my arms. Legs.
Everything.
Thoughts.
Eyes. They burned in the fucking smoke.
“Maddox!” She escaped and leaned over me, trying to pull me up. But Josie was a hundred pounds of sugar. “Come on. Please.”
“Go.” The word grunted from my chest. “I’ll follow.”
“No, you won’t.”
Not as good a liar as I thought.
I rolled. The motion blinded me then cracked me with pain. A flicker of heat drew so near Josie screamed. She took my arm and pulled. I lurched. She pulled again.
A thundering crash shook the barn. Josie dove over me as the beams above shattered, and the fire leapt from the roof and into the sky. The ceiling collapsed, shredding timbers and shards of wood to the floor.