“I knew I would find you here, Richard. It was only a matter of time before you came sniffing around her again. I’ve been watching her everywhere. Sooner or later, I knew I would catch you!” Brandi’s screech could probably be heard from the parking lot. Too bad no one was in the parking lot.
Had she planted the cameras?
Richard, in tried and true cheater fashion, exclaimed, “It’s not what you think!”
Yeah, hello? Gun? Wrenched arm. Gross guy? Not exactly a love connection.
Brandi’s abundant chest trembled with the force of her breaths. “I don’t want to hear it, Richard! You were too stupid to know how to skim money off of those policies. I did that for you.”
Sarah’s less well-endowed chest was constricted from being up on her toes, but, yeah, she was pretty sure she smelled smoke. “Uh, Richard?”
Brandi lashed out at Sarah. “Do not speak to him! He’s mine now!”
“You can have him.” That one slipped out. Richard gave an extra jerk to her arm, hard enough to make her eyes water.
“Brandi, baby, I’m not here for that. I told you, I was only pretending to want her. I was doing it for us. You know that. Remember?”
“You left me!” The crazy woman stuck her bottom lip out in a childish pout.
Is this chick for real? Doesn’t she see the freaking gun? Sarah was definitely smelling smoke now. She didn’t know if her vision was getting foggy from the pain or if there was something on fire in her bar.
“I didn’t leave you. I told you I had to lay low! Baby, they’re after me!”
Somehow, the woman finally caught sight of the gun. “Are you going to shoot her?” Brandi’s eyes lit up in gleeful anticipation.
“Let me handle this.” Richard gripped Sarah’s wrist tighter. “You messed up the last time you were supposed to take care of her.”
Sarah’s legs were getting tired from trying to relieve the pressure on her arm. She realized she was sucking in her stomach too. As if that would deter a bullet.
Wait. Last time?
“Brandi, you were the one to mess with my car?”
She folded her arms over her chest and beamed with mean satisfaction. “You would be amazed what a mechanic will let you do for a blowjob.”
“Brandi!” Richard sucked a breath in, in shock. Unfortunately, that meant he exhaled his rancid breath in Sarah’s face. “You were only supposed to flirt with him.”
She leaned against the doorjamb and flashed a spiteful sneer. “Guess I got carried away. Besides, I know you’ve been fucking around with Kelly.”
Richard twisted them a little more so he could plead his case better. “She means nothing to me.”
Sarah was stuck in an episode of Days of Our Lives, Twilight Zone edition. This couldn’t be real. Too bad Rod Serling couldn’t pop out and flick his cigarette on Brandi.
Brandi sniffled, “He didn’t mean anything to me either. I did it for you. You wanted Sarah out of the way, so I did what I had to do.” She eyed them. “Do you have to have your hands on her?” Sarah closed her eyes. The woman was jealous that Richard had taken her hostage.
“It’s only for a little while.” To Sarah. “Give me the money.”
Sarah had had more than enough. “Listen, you lunatics! Forget the money. Let me go. Don’t you smell the smoke? We need to get out of here!”
Richard, glanced around them, finally taking in the hazy conditions. “Brandi, what did you do?”
Brandi pointed an accusing finger before letting her arm drop to her side. “I thought you were in here, fucking her. I was going to see to it that you burned in Hell for it.” She narrowed her eyes at Richard’s arm around Sarah. “For all I care, you still can!” Brandi ran out, slamming the door behind her, only to have it pop back open again.
“Brandi, baby, wait!”
“Go to Hell!” Brandi screeched like a banshee as she headed for the back exit.
“Brandi!” Richard kept the gun trained on Sarah while he called out over his shoulder, “You know I love you!” He coughed on the smoke and then he laughed. He muttered, “That’s my girl.”
“What the…”
He pushed Sarah away from him.
Richard was grinning like an idiot. “Brandi’s right. She always had the brains.” He shook his head in wonder. “Sometimes I get distracted by her tits, but she’s the one who takes care of things. She remembered something I forgot.” He barked out a laugh. “It was my idea too!”
“What?”
“Life insurance.”
“What life insurance?”
“The five-hundred-thousand-dollar policy you took out when we got married.”
“I never…”
“Sure you did. Guess who the beneficiary is?”
That rat bastard! “No!”
“Yes.” He drew closer to her, and Sarah backed up. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to shoot you.”
She tried to take a relieved breath. The air was getting too heavy.
“Policy only pays out for a natural or accidental death.” He loomed closer. “Passing out from smoke inhalation and dying in a fire qualifies.”
“I’m not going to…”
“Oh, yes, you are.” Richard’s arm came up and the butt of his gun slammed into her temple. Sarah didn’t have time to pray that her ex-husband’s face wouldn’t be the last thing she saw before she died. Everything went black as she collapsed.
* * * *
Josh saw the smoke when he hit the parking lot. “Holy shit! No!” His hand shook as he tried to push in the numbers for 9-1-1. He didn’t wait for the dispatcher to ask his emergency. “Fire! There’s a fire at Sarah’s Suds and Spuds. Send…” His mind blanked on the words “fire truck.” He couldn’t think. “Send help!” He didn’t remember ending the call. He shoved the phone in his pocket and made a mad dash for the building.
Most of the smoke was coming from the back where Sarah’s office was. Josh made it to the back door, but it was locked from the inside. “Shit!” He shot around the front and tore through the front entrance. “Sarah!” The bar was hazy with smoke. They had to get the fire out before it reached the liquor. Once it hit the store room or behind the bar, the place would be one huge Molotov cocktail.
“Sarah!” The smoke was thicker in the hallway. He got on his hands and knees, hoping to suck in a little oxygen and crawled along the floor. Josh couldn’t see anything farther than a foot in front of him. He pulled his T-shirt over his mouth and nose, to block out the smoke. The heat was intensifying. Trying to peer through the gloom, he saw where the fire had started. The women’s bathroom door was closed, but Josh saw the bright orange and smoky gray flickering in the gap between the door and the floor. The fire was eating its way through the room. It wouldn’t be long before it spread down the hallway to the bar and the shelves of liquor.
There was a crash and a boom. He heard the roar and was blasted with another billowing wave of black smoke. He froze on his hands and knees. This was all too familiar. Josh couldn’t breathe. Flashes of memory that he’d only seen in his nightmares came at him. He was sucked back to Afghanistan.
Josh and his crew were supposed to be performing routine maintenance for ground support. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something about one particular vehicle hadn’t felt right. Some sixth sense screamed at Josh to back away, but his friend, Jake Jacobs, was already lifting the hood. He remembered calling out to Jake to get away from the Jeep. It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Jake, shorn scruff of hair bleached from the sun, face already dusty with sand, turned his head to see what Josh wanted. His inquisitive smile disappeared, and his light blue eyes widened when he saw Josh running for him, waving his arms like a bat out of hell. Josh never made it to his friend.
The concussive blast from the explosion had thrown him back yards from where he’d been standing. Everything had gone lights out. He woke with his ears ringing and his head feeling like a brick wall had slammed into it. Josh wiped hot, viscous liquid from his face. He thought it was oil from the Jeep until he was told later that it was blood from his head wound.
With a Herculean effort, he’d forced his eyes open, only to be faced with a horrible truth. Jake was gone. Amid the smoke, fire, debris, and confusion, the only thing left of Lance Corporal Jacobs was a lone boot lying on its side. No! Jesus, no! Not Jake! Josh tried to scream out, “No!” The word never made it past his lips. His head fell back, and the darkness had overtaken him again.
Josh must have blacked out for real because when he woke up, he realized he was in a smoky hallway. The hardwood floor planks underneath him were warm. Wood, not sand. Where the fuck was he? Josh stared at the floor, trying to get his bearings. It all came rushing back then in a kaleidoscope of catastrophic images. Sarah! He was home, and he had to get to Sarah.
Josh ignored the cold sweat that broke out all over his body from the flashback. His past and present had run headlong into each other, and he needed to get his shit together. He wanted to take deep breaths to calm the pace of his runaway heart. It was slamming like a kick drum against his rib cage. In the miasma of smoke, it was impossible to sip even a little clean air. Oxygen was becoming a luxury. How long had he been out?
Pushing back up, Josh called out. “Sarah!” He coughed on the smoke invading his lungs. Josh had to get to her. She should have answered him. He heard a pounding sound farther down the hallway. It was muffled yet frantic. Crawling forward, he found the office door on the right, slightly ajar. From his kneeling position, Josh could see the golden-blonde tendrils of Sarah’s hair where she was lying next to her desk. She wasn’t moving.
“Sarah!” He rushed to her and shook her but she was unresponsive. He laid his head to her chest, praying to God for a heartbeat. Please. Josh couldn’t hear past his own pulse drumming in his ears. “Please, sunshine.” Josh had to trust she was alive. He couldn’t waste any more time trying to revive her, or they’d get trapped in the fire. There was no way to pick her up and carry Sarah over his shoulder without dropping from even more smoke inhalation. He grabbed her under the arms and dragged her out into the hall. The flames had crawled past the restroom, licking greedy tongues of fire toward the wall of booths up front. They were cut off and couldn’t get out that way.
Maneuvering to slide Sarah out the back, he heard the thumping sound again. Julie was still here! He tested the door to the store room and found that it was already getting hot. Josh grabbed the knob to open it, but it was jammed. She must have been lying in front of the door. “Julie!” His voice was barely a rasp from the smoke. “Move so I can get to you.” There was no response from Julie. They were running out of time. He tried the door again and was overtaken with a fit of coughing. “I’ll be back for you!” He dragged Sarah farther until he reached the back exit. He pushed on the lever. Nothing happened. Sarah lay like a lifeless doll on the floor. Please be alive.
This wasn’t how it was going to end for them. He’d finally gotten her back. She loved him and he loved her. That was worth fighting his way out of the near inferno and taking Sarah with him.
Josh reared back and smashed his shoulder against the door until it crashed open. He fell out onto the asphalt, sucking in gasps of gloriously clean air. He reached in and pulled Sarah out with him.
Alex Ross was barreling straight for them. “Is there anyone else in the building?”
Josh had trouble talking. His throat felt scorched. “Julie,” he rasped out. “Store room.”
Alex was on the move. He called out over his shoulder, “We need help! Get the EMTs over here.”
He glanced up just as Alex dove into a turbulent wall of smoke. Josh picked up Sarah, and with his last reserves of energy, picked her up and carried her as far away as his legs would take him. A medical guy tried to take Sarah, but Josh wasn’t about to let her go.
“Sir, we have to treat her.” Some young kid in a crisp white uniform, who didn’t look old enough to shave yet, held his hands out for Sarah.
“Treat her,” Josh swallowed against the dryness in his throat. “But I’m not lettin’ go.”
Josh made it to the rear of the ambulance before his legs gave out. He landed his ass hard on the asphalt and still managed to hold on to Sarah. He cradled her and pushed her smoky blonde tendrils off her face. “C’mon, Sarah. Wake up.” He rocked her. “Come on, this is no time to be sleepin’. C’mon, baby girl. Open your eyes.”
The EMT slipped an oxygen mask over Josh’s face. He tried to bat it away. It was no use. When the guy let go, Josh slipped it off and put it on Sarah. “Breathe.”
The baby-faced kid took her vitals. “Pulse is a little thready. Sir, we need to take her.”
Josh rocked her a little harder. “Sarah, I’m here. I’m not leavin’. You can’t leave either!”
Her eyes fluttered open. The clear plastic on the oxygen mask fogged up from her breath. Sarah’s brows furrowed. “Josh?”
“Right here, honey.” His vision was blurring. He wasn’t enough of a liar to say that the tears were from the smoke.
“Am I dead?” Her emerald green eyes glowed bright against her soot-streaked face.
“No, Heaven’s got enough angels. You’re stayin’ right here with me.”
She rasped out, “Good. Glad it’s your face,” and passed out again.
Josh loosened his hold so the man could take her. “I’m goin’ with her.”
The EMT eyed him warily. “Of course you are. You need medical attention too.”
He shook his head. “Sarah first.” There was too much adrenaline pumping through Josh for him to feel any pain.
Baby-face shook his head and set a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry. My partner’s here. Plenty enough of us to go around.” He nodded toward another guy to help him.
They strapped Sarah onto a stretcher and pushed her into the back of the cab. Josh barely made it up and in the ambulance on his own steam, but he managed it. Now that his pulse rate was getting closer to normal, his right arm was starting to feel funny.
Josh watched the back door to the bar and caught sight of Alex, tricked out in all his firefighter gear, hoofing it out to the parking lot. Julie was in his arms, her shiny black hair matted and grimy from the smoke. Thank God. She was covered from head to toe in soot, yet conscious enough to have her arms wrapped around his neck. Josh hoped that was a sign that she would be okay. Alex carried her to another waiting ambulance while the rest of his men doused the flames taking over the bar. Josh was relieved they’d all made it out of there.
Poor Sarah. She was going to be devastated. She was so proud of her business and now it looked like The Suds and Spuds wasn’t going to be saved. With the way the fire was blazing, Josh didn’t think there would be anything left.
Someone would pay for doing this to her. After the obvious tampering with her car, the planted cameras, and the harassing texts, there was no doubt in his mind that the blaze had been set deliberately. Josh would find the person responsible, and God help the son of a bitch who tried to take his Sarah away from him.
As soon as he took a seat next to the stretcher, the medical techs slammed the doors and took off hell for leather. Josh watched and listened as the EMT checked Sarah’s vitals and called out stats into the radio hooked to his shoulder. She was still unconscious, yet he could see the telltale movement of her chest rising and falling with each breath, each puff of air a miracle in and of itself.
He grabbed her sooty fingers and held on with his own black-smeared hands. The mess of their clasped palms should have looked obscene next to the stark white of the stretcher sheet. At the moment, Josh had never seen anything more beautiful. Sarah was alive, and he hadn’t lost her. No matter what happened next, come Hell or high water, he’d never let her go.