Page 101 of Wild Scottish Beauty

“No.” Panic gripped me. “But I think someone else is.”

“Willow, no,” Agnes said.

“I saw it in a vision. Someone gets stuck inside. We have to help.”

“But how?” Sophie demanded as we turned the corner up the lane to see flames dancing in the front window of Ramsay’s shop. My heart twisted. I was out before Lia had fully stopped the truck. The front door stood open, and I hesitated at the stoop.

“Willow, don’t go in! The fire brigade will be here soon.”

“I have to. Someone’s in there,” I insisted.

Smoke billowed from the front door, and I paused, my heart hammering my chest.

“Screw it,” I said, and reaching down, I ripped off a swatch of my skirt and tied it around my face. We’d left a fire extinguisher just inside the front and back doors, and I reached for that now as I ducked inside to their shouts of protest.

Acrid smoke burned my eyes, and flames licked up the walls. Crouching, I found the fire extinguisher and pulled the pin, blasting the wall as I stepped forward.

“Help!”

It was faint, but I caught it.

“Hello? Where are you?” I screamed, unleashing another stream of foam at the fire.

“Back here,” the voice shouted, and I turned toward the back room, trying to find my way in the smoke and darkness, coughing into the fabric at my mouth. I inched closer, trying to stay low and beneath the smoke, but it burned my eyes. My chest heaved, and I struggled for breath.

It wasn’t the fire, I’d been told more than once, it was the smoke that would get you.

I tried to push forward, but the smoke kept billowing from the back room, and I blasted it as much as I could. Dots began to swim in front of my eyes, and I stumbled, dropping to my knees.

“How far back are you?” I screamed. I’d have to crawl.

“God damn it, Willow.” Ramsay’s shout behind me hadme turning, as he scooped me up from the floor and carried me through the flames and smoke back outside.

“No, Ramsay, someone’s in there.” My body shook with a wracking cough, and I burrowed into his arms, tears running down my face.

“You idiot,” Ramsay seethed. “You could have been killed.”

“Someone’s in there,” I insisted, pulling the strip of cloth down as cool air washed over me.

“And that’s not for you to take care of,” Ramsay shouted at me. I don’t think I’d ever seen him so angry before. He put me down, and Sophie wrapped her arms around me. To my utter shock, Ramsay turned and stormed back inside.

“Ramsay, no!” I shouted. I’d made some headway with the fire extinguisher, but not enough to truly brunt the force of the fire. But he was gone, disappearing into the smoke and flames, taking my heart with him.

Seconds felt like eternity as the fire brigade wailed in the background, and my entire body shook as I counted the time. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting.

Forty-one.

Forty-two.

Forty-three.

“It’s too long, it’s been too long.” I gripped Sophie’s arm, tears almost blinding me.

“Shhh, the fire brigade is here. It’ll be okay.”

The firemen shouted at us to step back, unfurling their hoses, when movement appeared at the door.

“There are two people in there!” I shouted.

---