Page 79 of Attraction & Repulsion

Was it too dangerous to go back in? Were they aborting the rescue?

Then Hunter began stomping toward the entrance. A couple of firefighters grabbed his shoulders, holding him back. He tried to shake them off until a burly man stepped in front of him. Carson recognized him as Bardot, the battalion chief she met at Station 71. His face was red, and he was shoving a massive finger into Hunter’s chest, who was scowling and deflating by the second. She couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but the chief was clearly ordering him to stand down.

It looked as though they weren’t going back for Jax. That had to be why Hunter was fighting to disobey the orders.

Carson wasn’t going to let that happen.

Eyeing the entrance, she saw that only a stream of white smoke wasspiraling out. Maybe most of the fire was on the roof and the top floor. If she could sneak in and get a quick look around, she could come back and tell them it was safe. Maybe, with some luck, she could find Jax.

Before she could talk herself out of it, Carson crept backward and managed to scoot behind one of the engines, void of prying eyes. A compartment had been left open, displaying two spare turnout coats. Dropping her bag, she snatched a coat from its hook, surprised at how heavy it was, and folded it over her arm to make it less conspicuous. Then she opened and rummaged around a second compartment. Which was pointless because she had no idea what she was looking at, let alone how to use the equipment in front of her. The jacket would have to do.

Was she crazy? Yes. Brainless? Duh. But she was determined to do something. She couldn’t let anything bad happen to Jax. When Luke and her child were killed, there was nothing Carson could have done. Now she had an opportunity to save a loved one. And she had to act fast.

Scurrying around the vehicles, she inched closer to the entrance of the mall. The beating in her chest was so hard, it was beginning to hurt. Even her nerves started to singe and fray, and a rock had invaded her stomach. Was she really about to do this?

You’re running out of time. Jax is running out of time. Don’t think, just do.

Sirens blared from additional emergency vehicles that were arriving, temporarily distracting the crew. This was her chance. Now or never.

With one last look at the courthouse and its beautiful stone architecture, Carson boldly entered the burning building.

Chapter twenty-eight

The heat was unbearable.

Carson quickly slipped on the heavy coat and fumbled with the zipper. Though it kept the worst of the heat at bay, the intensity of the fire was unimaginably hot. Already she was missing the winter snow outside.

Carson’s eyes stung from the fumes as she squinted around The Village’s main foyer. Thankfully she was familiar with the layout of the small, four-story mall. Instead of a full floor on each story, the mall featured a deck-like landing that circled around the perimeter, where visitors could peer down to the ground floor. If she could reach the middle, Carson would have almost a three-sixty view of the entire building.

The Village’s interior was surprisingly dark for a building on fire, as the smoke seemed to snuff out any usable light. And what was that roaring? It sounded just like a plane’s engine. Carson crept forward, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve. The air tasted thick and unbreathable from the smoke pluming above, its vapors finding every crevice to inhabit. Minutes. With this amount of smoke, Carson only had minutes to find Jax before her lungs would begin to suffocate and she would lose consciousness. She peeked down at her watch, one that Luke had bought her as a birthday gift, and noted the time.

When she reached the middle of the mall, Carson spun, analyzing the magnitude of the fire. It had fully engulfed the top floor, and tongues of flame teased the third to join the inferno. Red and white embers floated downward similar to the snow falling outside.

Toward the rear, Carson spotted the part of the building that had collapsed, settling on the second floor. Hadn’t Hunter said the collapse was the reason Jax hadn’t made it out? That was the first place she would look.

Once she found the stairs near the front, Carson sprinted up the steps to the second floor. The smoke became worse. Violently choking and gasping, she fell on her hands and knees, trying to get as low as possible, as she crawled toward the collapse. It seemed that her minutes would be shorter than she’d originally guessed. She needed to find Jax fast.

“Jax!” she called. Competing against the howling of the fire was useless.

Scuttling forward, she tried to avoid the glowing embers falling from above. The closer she got to the rubble, the stronger the heat became, like opening the oven door after preheating it to five thousand degrees. Like scurrying toward the sun. Sweat dripped into her eyes as she blinked away the stinging from the smoke.

The watch continued to tick. One minute gone.

“Jax!” she coughed out. “Jax!”

This was a dumb plan. Why did she think she could possibly find him in this catastrophe? Even if she did find him, what hope would she have of getting him out? The heat was nothing like she had ever experienced. There was no air quality because there was no air. There was no oxygen. It was smoke and only smoke.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. What the hell were you thinking?

A memory from Carson’s childhood crept up into her mind. During a school fire drill a fire marshal taught them what to do in case of a fire. Hisfirst instruction wasnotto run back into a burning building, even to save someone. That piece of advice must have gone through one ear and out the other because Carson was doing the exact opposite.

As if the fire itself was trying to tell her how idiotic she was, one of the falling embers landed on the top of her hand, sizzling her flesh. “Ow!” she cried, hastening her pace. She needed to find Jaxnow.

Finally, when she reached the edge of the pile of collapsed building, she stood. “Jax!” she screeched, her voice hoarse. How much smoke had she already inhaled?

Then there was a beep, piercing and sharp. Not sure if her ears were playing tricks on her, she stopped moving. There it was again. It reminded her of the noise smoke detectors made.

She scuffled over a fallen metal beam, its surface scalding the palms of her hands. Even through the smoke, a tiny, muted red dot blinked at her. She lurched toward it, as the device continued to shriek, encouraging her forward. The red dot was attached to a . . . a person.

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