“For real?” Maverick asked.
“Yeah.” She huffed out a breath. “I’m sorry, but can we go get her?”
“Of course we can. How the hell else is she going to get home?” They finally got to the main road, and he turned in the direction of town.
“Honestly, I think she hoped we’d be a while so she’d have time to collect more things to bring back to the new place. Damnit. I’d really hoped she would see how nice it was without all the clutter and want to keep it that way. Who was I kidding?” Her stomach dropped. She’d been kidding herself, clearly.
“It is what it is, Al. You’ve given her a nice place, and you can help her keep it up if you want, but you can’t force her to change her ways.” He took her hand and held it against his thigh.
“I know you’re right.” And what a difference it was to have someone to help shoulder the burden of dealing with moments like these. She forced a deep breath. It was only some stuff. It would be fine.
Within fifteen minutes, they pulled up to the curb in front of her mom’s old place. The driveway was largely blocked off with the most obvious and disgusting of the trash that they’d carried out during the move. Which was going to make schlepping whatever new boxes or bags she’d packed a pain in the butt, but it was too late to worry about that now.
“I’ll go get her,” Alexa said, opening her door. She caught the smoky scent of a wood fire or a cookout, making her thing of the yummy burgers they’d had at the carnival. God, that had been so much fun.
“You’re not going alone, woman. Especially if she has a bunch of shit to carry.” He joined her and they made their way up the driveway.
Looking at the house, Alexa couldn’t help but think that it seemed dark, although there did seem to be some light—
Not light, a flicker. And a pale haze hung in the air. The scent of wood burning. And then she knew. Oh, God, she knew.
She gasped and bolted. “Maverick, the house is on fire!”
“Alexa, wait!” Maverick yelled.
But she couldn’t. Her mother was in there. In that death trap of a house—even with everything they’d removed, it was still loaded down with crap all over the floor. Her heart pounded and her ears rang. The world closed in on her as she burst through the front door—
“Oh, Jesus,” she moaned. Smoke hung thick in the dark air, a roiling, looming beast. She stopped short inside the living room. Fire engulfed the kitchen at the back of the house and was crawling into the living room, climbing up the walls, licking at the ceiling, and consuming the piles on the floor. “Mom!”
Maverick was right behind her. “Get out. I’ll find her.”
“No, I’m not leaving without her,” she said, coughing. But at least she could call for help. With shaking hands, Alexa dialed nine-one-one.
“What’s your emergency?” the operator answered.
“House fire with injured people inside at 825 Walnut Street. Hurry,” she yelled, coughing again. The dispatcher asked a few more questions, but Alexa finally cut her off. “Just hurry.” Because the heat was making it hard to breathe.
Maverick turned to her. “Alexa, I’ll find her. Go.”
“I’m not going without her and we don’t have time to argue. This place is going to go up fast so we can’t wait for help. Let’s just find her and we’ll all go together.” She turned on the flashlight on her phone, but the light almost reflected off the smoke. “Mom? Answer me!”
“Cover your mouth and nose with your shirt,” he said. She did, pulling it up over her face. “Cynthia!” he yelled, as they made their way farther in. He tripped over something he couldn’t see, going down on a knee. God, the floor was a hidden debris field.
The fire popped, spraying an arc of embers as the fire found more fuel and spread surprisingly fast. Alexa screamed and ducked, but they had to keep going. Moving slow because they couldn’t see what was underfoot, they made for the kitchen. God, this was her nightmare come to life. The thing she’d always most worried about with her mother’s hoarding, ever since that fire when she was a kid. They got as close to the kitchen as they could with the fire consuming the doorway.
The heat threatened to sear her skin and wrung sweat from her body. Her chest was so tight that she couldn’t get a deep breath, the asthma she hadn’t dealt with in so long kicking in. “Mom!” she yelled, finding it harder to project her voice. “What if she’s in there?”
He moved past her one more step, the flames stretching out above him now.
A giant crack and a big piece of the ceiling caved in. Right above Maverick. The fiery debris rained down on him, taking him to the ground.