Page 89 of Burn Point

Kylie chuckled while Leah shook her head, as if she couldn’t do anything about Kylie.

They were both sadistic bitches.

I rolled to my side with a groan, thankful that we were the only three in the room and I could play it up without embarrassing myself in front of anyone else.

“You did great, Jordan. It’s a practice, one you do daily and improve over time,” Leah said.

I shook my finger at her. “Uh-uh, don’t try to work your magic woo-woo positivity on me.”

We gathered our mats and met in the front room, gathering our things. My phone buzzed with a missed call from Nate when I turned it off airplane mode.

“Nate’s party was fun. Tell him thanks again for hosting,” Leah said.

“Tell him next time to skip inviting Thoren though,” Kylie grouched. “He was a total dick the entire night.”

“Nate is worried about him. He won’t say why, but I can tell,” I said, stepping into my flipflops.

“Mike is too,” Leah replied.

“Well, when they figure out whatever the fuck crawled up his ass, maybe they can work it out so he’s not such a general asshole.” Kylie snatched a t-shirt over her head, her words muffled, but laced with pissed-off female attitude.

My phone rang in my hand, Nate’s name flashing across the screen. I swiped and put it to my ear with a smile on my face. “Hey there.”

“Skippy,” Nate’s voice was full of gravel. He sounded almost like he was wheezing. Immediately, my heart started pounding. Something was very wrong.

“Nate?”

There was a rustle on the line, and then a different voice said, “Jordan, this is Captain Mac Collins.”

My ability to stand leaked out of me and I sank to the bench at the wall. Something bad had happened to Nate. That was the only reason they would call. I fought the instinct to panic. He was okay, I’d heard his voice. I had to repeat the mantra in my head a couple of times before I found my voice again.

“What happened,” I croaked.

“First off, Nate is fine. Well, he will be. He has a little smoke inhalation from a house fire a little while ago. His throat is sore, and he’s a little wheezy.” His no-nonsense delivery settled me even further. “They’ve got him on oxygen now, if he’ll just keep the damn mask on. I’m hoping maybe you can come down here and sit with him while they monitor him.”

“Of course.”

“I’ll stay with him until you get here.” Captain Collins’s deep, gentle voice grew quiet. “I know this call is scary, and you are probably worried, but he’s going to be just fine.”

I swallowed thickly. “Okay, thank you. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Was anyone else involved?” I tried but couldn’t quite keep the tremor from my voice.

Captain Collins cleared his throat, and when he spoke it was gruff. “We had another guy get injured, but he’s going to be okay as well.”

He told me where to meet him, and I hung up, turning to face Kylie and Leah, who met me with wide eyes.

“I don’t know what happened, but Nate is at the hospital. That was his captain. He says Nate’s going to be okay, but I need to get down there.”

They burst into action, gathering bags and shuffling me to my car. Leah went to hers to follow us to the hospital.

Kylie floored it as we pulled out of the gravel parking lot, tires squealing as we hit the pavement. “Was anyone else hurt?” she demanded.

I gripped the oh-shit handle to steady myself. “He said one other guy was injured but he’s going to be okay.”

“Who was it?” Desperation laced her words.

“He didn’t say.”

She cussed under her breath and sped through a red light.

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