He somehow kept going even though he felt as if his progress amounted only to inches. He couldn’t draw in enough breath to focus. His strength waned as his last reserves of energy petered out on him.
He kept counting in his head. Concentrated on the image of her face and how good it would be to see her, touch her, again.
Something clamped around his waist and smashed him into the floor. He kicked out and struggled, trying to lift his arms and legs despite the fact that they suddenly seemed to weigh hundreds of pounds each. The battle got away from him. His ability to fight drained from him.
In his smoke-induced stupor he swore he saw Cam’s face, filled with concern through the mask. Then his body floated. Shane couldn’t explain it and feared he verged on passing out. Hallucinations and sliding into unconsciousness. If those happened together he sensed he’d die.
With one last kick of adrenaline he surged up, thinking to throw himself into the nearest wall. Instead he slammed into something that felt like a body. Arms wrapped around him and pulled. The smoke drifted over him, and then he broke free. He could see the ground and fire.
“Shane, talk to me.” Connor’s voice washed over him.
He chalked it up to one last strange vision. Connor wasn’t exactly the last person Shane thought he’d see before he lost it. Connor held something. Then Shane inhaled and his senses cleared. A mask covered his mouth, and fresh air pumped through him, burning him. He had to throw the mask off to cough.
He doubled over as the painful hacking overtook every muscle. He felt as if he were being sliced and torn from the inside out.
The roughness in his throat made it difficult to swallow. But he was alive. Connor stood in front of him with Cam off to the side, stripping out of a blanket that had been wrapped around him.
They’d gone in after him and yanked him out. Probably never even weighed the risks. Cam had performed the rescue, but Connor had likely choreographed it. Bottom line: without them, he’d be dead. Corcoran had saved him in every way possible, including here and now. The move humbled Shane and he was filled with gratitude, but there was one piece he needed to fit in with the rest. Her.
When he straightened again, he felt weak and exhausted, as if every last ounce of strength had been used up and expired. One thought kept going through his mind. “Where’s Makena?”
Cam and Connor glanced at each other as the flames danced all around them. A gnawing sensation started in Shane’s gut. A new burst of energy hit him and drowned out everything else.
“Connor, where is she?”
Cam stepped in next to him and they stood there like an impenetrable wall, blocking his view of anything else and his line to the fire. Anxiety welled inside Shane and he had to fight to keep from tearing down the burning structure with his bare hands.
Connor held up a hand. “We need you to stay calm.”
“Where is she?” That was all he wanted to know. He could take another step, another breath, once he knew.
Connor’s hand didn’t fall. “Listen to me.”
“Just show him.” Cam stepped to the side and pointed. In the distance, on the other side of the wall of flames, a figure crouched down. Large and male. He lifted something... Shane blinked and tried to get his sore eyes to focus. Makena. Tyler had Makena.
He surged forward, intent on yelling and running. Strong hands held him back. Cam and Connor wrestled with Shane, dragging him to the ground as they covered his mouth and held on. His reduced strength was no match for their combined attack. He struggled to break free, shoving at them and landing more than one punch.
“We have to get her.” The words echoed in his brain as desperation washed over him.
Cam held him from behind and Connor knelt in front. Their will pounded into Shane, but he tried to wave it off. There was no other play here. They needed to start shooting and not stop until Tyler dropped to the ground.
“We’ll follow,” Connor said in a tighter voice than usual.
Not good enough. Shane wanted her away from that guy. He’d walked right into the safe house and planted a bomb. Had done it like a pro. No sweating or panic. In Shane’s mind that made the guy some sort of psychopath and put Makena in even bigger danger. “Now, we go now.”
“We’d never make it in time thanks to the fire.” Connor shook his head. “And we’d put her in the middle of a shootout.”
“She’ll lead us right to Tyler.” Cam said the words right into Shane’s ear.
“She is not a decoy. She can’t...no.” He looked from Connor to Cam. “Would you agree to this for Jana or Julia? No way. This is the same thing.” Words tumbled out of him. “And if you don’t care about how I feel, think about Holt. He’ll kill us all for letting her be in danger for even one second longer than necessary.”