She scrambled to her knees. The hard ground bit into her skin, but she was too busy searching for an easy path back into the raging flame and inside the falling-down building to find him. He could not die. She would not allow it.
Her breath hiccupped in her chest and she choked back a sob. Despair threatened to swamp her, but she pushed the dread away. She had to believe. He was the strongest, most competent man she knew. If anyone could beat a fire, it would be him.
She tried to stand up, but her legs didn’t hold her. She crumpled back down in a heap as every muscle turned to jelly. She’d turned boneless and the shock of what had just happened began to settle in. She rotated between hot and cold as she sat there, listening for the sirens and rocking back and forth.
He could not be dead. The words screamed through her head. She wanted with all her soul for them to be true.
A rumble of noise drew her attention. Fire was so loud as it consumed and destroyed. The sound of the flames rolling over everything in their path had taken on a human vibe. Smoke lifted into the sky and settled around her as she tried to figure out what to do next and how to get in there. Her mind went blank and her heart cracked in two at the idea of Shane not getting out.
Then the pity drifted away and determination moved into its place. She could not just sit there. He had to be alive and she had to find him. She looked around, spinning in a circle and adding to her dizziness. This time she had to get up. She balanced on her palms, then lifted herself. Her knees buckled, but she eventually stayed up.
She took two steps before holding an arm over her head to fend off the mix of smoke and heat. But she couldn’t wait. She forced her legs to move. Slow and sure, she got closer, but not close enough to break in or for her frantic screams to be heard over the roar of the flames.
She stumbled and her ankle turned. Somehow she managed to stay on her feet. One more step and then a new round of confusion started. The whack to her back had her pitching forward. She put out her hands just in time to keep from landing on her face.
Her knee hit the ground first and then her hands. A shot of pain moved through her as she tried to figure out what had hit her. A piece of the house or something. The smoke made it hard to see much of anything and kept stealing her breath. With every inhale, she’d double over hacking.
She needed air to fight this fight. Rolling over to her back, she opened her eyes and tried to breathe in semifresh air. She saw something. A few blinks and it didn’t disappear. There, off to her right, she spied jeans and a man’s legs.
Her heart did a grateful flip. Shane made it out! Her gaze lifted and she saw that face. The wrong face. Tyler stood there, holding a gun.
“What are you...” It hurt to talk and she doubted he could hear her over the thunder of flames and crackling and falling debris.
He reached down and lifted her to her feet as if she weighed nothing. He brought his face in close to hers.
She tried to focus and listen to whatever he was saying. She picked out one sentence and her blood turned from burning to icy cold.
“This would have been easier if you’d chosen me.”
Chapter Eighteen
The explosion dropped Shane to his knees. The ground shook beneath him, and the walls caved in over his head. He braced his body for the blows to come. The rafters would break and wood would tumble down on him.
But he’d gotten her out. He’d shoved her out the window and heard her scream and the explosion ripping through the small house. Cam and Connor would grab her. They’d find her wandering around and take her in. Shane refused to believe anything other than that. She hadn’t been injured and wasn’t stuck in harm’s way.
With her safely tucked away in his mind, he concentrated on saving himself. He wasn’t sure that was even possible. Smoke obscured his vision, and the fall had him doubting which way led to the outside and which led to the flames.
Heat pulsed all around him. He felt his clothing singe and the hot air tear through his throat and lungs. He covered his mouth and kept low, tried to remember all of his fire training. It had been a while and he was rusty, but he looked for light. For any sign of the world outside the burning walls.
Something smashed into his shoulder as he struggled to drop to his stomach so he could crawl. Pain seared his neck and he jerked. Saw a piece of burning wood fall to the floor. That had been on him, and he knew the amount of falling debris would only increase in the next few minutes. If he was going to crawl, he had to do it now.
His face hugged the floor as he fought for the last few breaths of untainted air. Every move hurt, but he kept going. Crawled in the direction where he thought he’d last seen Makena. Noise roared around him in a deafening cadence. He twice fell to the floor when the walls crumbled around him and threatened to flatten him.