Page 67 of Xavier

I bent down to see if I could hear her breathing, and the sudden cacophony of a ceiling coming down had me jumping back and pressing myself against the cabinets behind me. Debris and smoke suddenly filled the kitchen, making it hard to see where the hell it had fallen.

Waving my arm in front of my face did nothing aside from making me feel lightheaded.

The woman next to me groaned softly.

Oh thank fuck.

I scooped her up, noting she was a little heavier than her husband but not by much. I threw her half over my shoulder in a fireman’s hold while reaching for my axe and climbing to my feet. As I finally got closer to where I’d come from, I realized a large partition of debris blocked us in, the ceiling having fallen right outside of the entryway into the kitchen.

Looking around, my heart sunk when I discovered there was no other door leading outside—effectively trapping us like sitting ducks.

Fuck.

The window above the sink was our only escape.

Could we even fit?

We have to. There’s no other way.

I wasn’t going to die in this damn kitchen—nor was I going to let this woman die with me. As a search and rescue firefighter,I had too much experience under my belt to let something like a fallen ceiling blocking me from the point-of-entry to force me into giving up.

Not when I had a damn kid and boyfriend to get back to.

Shifting the woman’s weight on my shoulder, I swung my axe back and shattered the frame and glass all in one go. The glass shards exploded outward, leaving nothing but the remnant pieces still stuck to the frame that I scraped at with the back of my axe head.

It was an awkward angle but I managed to hoist the woman up off of me and out through the window. With a momentary wave of guilt, I shoved her out of the window and winced when I heard her hit the ground outside with a groan.

Well, it was better than burning to death in a fire.

I threw my axe out next hard enough that I knew it would miss her completely and then I catapulted myself up over the sink and onto the ledge of the window. She was on her side, facing away from the house, a pained expression on her face.

Carefully slipping down from the sill, my body pitched forward and I just barely caught myself before I face-planted onto the ground along with her. I was crashing from my adrenaline rush—cut short by the lack of oxygen to my damn brain.

The woman groaned again, clearly feeling how the fire was cooking us by being so close to it. Forcing myself up from the ground, I grabbed her arm and began dragging her around the side of the house, stumbling when above me, another window shattered and rained glass down onto us.

Using my body as a shield to protect her was only so useful when I began to grow dizzy once again.

“Cruz! You fucking idiot!” someone yelled.

My vision blacked out right when a pair of hands grabbed onto me.

“Are you suicidal!” the voice chastised.

Belatedly I realized it was Eddie.

And then I was gone.

CHAPTER 26

Gage

The last phonecall I ever expected to receive was a number out in California that I didn’t recognize.

While I had half a mind to ignore it, something nagged at me to answer it. Almost like I had some guardian angel whispering over my shoulder that it had something to do with Xavier.

Because who the hell else did I know from California that would be calling me this late at night?

“Hello?” I answered.

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