She pushed herself under her bed to what looked like sanctuary, then kept squirming even though starbursts in front of her eyes told her she was about to lose consciousness. But...she wasn’t safe under here, even if it felt safe. Dark and protected, but... Fire! That was it. The bed would burn. Was burning.
Have to keep moving.
Her stomach heaved again and this time she gagged on whatever she’d brought up. Bile tasted sour in her mouth.
Keep going.
By the time she wriggled out from the other side of the bed, flames had started to crawl up the wall above it.
Could she get to the door if she went around the foot of the bed? But when she peeked, all she saw was fire. He must have crumpled newspapers all over the floor.
He.
Tiny frightened sounds broke from her throat. For comfort, she reminded herself that, if he hadn’t come in the front, at least he’d be captured on camera. Zach would know what happened. Nobody would believe she’d knocked over a candle.
Except...the receiver was in here with her. Did the cameras store digital images or were they only in the receiver? She had no idea. Couldn’t think.
But she was already crawling toward the bookcase where she’d set the receiver. She could break the window. Throw it out onto the grass, even if she didn’t have the strength to stand and climb out.
* * *
ZACH TOOK THE couple steps in one leap, wishing she’d given him a key. He realized belatedly he still had the garage remote in his truck...but going back for it would take too long and he’d still have to pick the lock on the door into house. Or kick it in. Either way, too slow. Instead he slammed a booted foot through her front window, then did it again and again until he could climb through. Inside, he could smell the fire.
As he ran down the hall, glass shattered somewhere in the house. From the heat?
Please, God, no. Let me be in time.
Fire showed beneath her bedroom door and smoke seeped out. Placing himself to one side, he cautiously opened the door. Flames climbed her bedcovers and the wall above her bed, eating the wooden frame and the bedside stand. A dozen or more smaller fires burned on the floor, too, which struck him as unnatural. Can’t smell gas, though. Smoke filled the room. The window was broken and the night air coming in was feeding the flames.
“Tess!” he roared then saw movement beyond the fiery bed, just beneath the window.
She was trying but failing to pull herself up, her hands gripping the windowsill.
There was too much fire and heat between them.
Zach bolted back across the hall and yanked the comforter from the guest bed. No time to wet it down. He took in a deep breath and held it before plunging into Tess’s room. For a terror-filled second he couldn’t see her at all, but a few feet in he saw that she had collapsed and lay completely still now. He flung the comforter open over the flames crawling across the floor and then ran across it even as he felt searing heat rising around his legs.
He reached her as he heard sirens in the distance.
He put his mouth up to the hole in the window and sucked in a desperate breath. Then, using his shoulder and forearm, he knocked out more glass. Jagged edges sliced through his sweatshirt, but the knowing meant nothing, not right now.
He bent and scooped her up. God. He didn’t want to toss her out, but he might have to.
The sirens screamed right outside now. Zach had Tess half resting on the windowsill when a firefighter in full gear appeared right outside.
“I’ll take her,” he called above the roar and the sirens, reaching for her.
With help, Zach maneuvered her to fit through without coming into contact with the shards of glass still clinging to the window frame. When her weight left his arms, he took his turn. Another pair of gloved hands reached out to help.
The minute his feet touched the ground he fell to his knees, gagging and coughing.
* * *
ZACH SAT, SLUMPED, in the small waiting room. His own minor burns and cuts had been treated, although they still hurt. He wasn’t about to take a painkiller that might knock him out. His eyes burned, too. A fireman had found him a T-shirt, which he wore in place of his bloody sweatshirt. It was his racking coughs that scared him most. He’d only been in there for a matter of minutes. Tess’s exposure had been so much greater. What if her lungs were damaged?