Page 74 of When You Saved Me

“Fuck!” I screamed, raking my hands through my hair. That’s when I noticed Charlie moved and her eyes fluttered open. My heart skipped a beat, then started racing again.

Bending over, I knocked gently on the window. Careful not to startle her. “Charlie,” I said her name again.

Dazed, she took a moment to shift her gaze toward me. When she finally noticed me, she twisted toward the door, putting both hands on the glass window. A wince had her nose scrunching.

“Deacon.” I saw her mouth move, but I could hardly hear her through the window.

“Can you get the door open, Sunshine?” My voice cracked as I took in the wound on her forehead. It was deeper than I originally thought. I needed to get her the fuck out of this car. I needed to have her in my arms.

Still slow to move, I watched patiently as she fiddled with the door handle then looked up panicked.

“It’s okay,” I said calmly, reverting to my decades of training. “Is it locked?”

Her blue eyes assessed the arm of the door where all the switches were, and she pressed the button to unlock it. Then she tried the door handle again and it still didn’t work.

“I’m going to try the other doors, just hang on tight.”

She nodded then I moved to the driver’s rear door and jostled the handle. Nothing. Quickly jogging around, the doors on the passenger side wouldn’t open either.

“Damnit!” I slammed the palm of my hand against the metal frame. That’s when I heard the whip of flame igniteand felt the heat of my worst nightmare against my skin. The engine had caught fire. And Charlie was still stuck.

“Deacon!” I heard her scream this time and I looked through the passenger window to find her bright eyes alert with fear.

No. This isn’t happening. This isn’t fucking happening.

Frozen. I couldn’t think or move. All I could see was the terror on her face. Ice moved through my veins keeping me stuck as my own horror took hold.

Think, Deacon. Dosomething.

There was a loud pop sound from the engine as another bright flame burst from the right side. It broke my haze, and I burst into action.

“Hold on!” I called out to her, and she nodded vigorously from shock.

Running as fast as my legs would take me, I headed for my truck and opened the toolbox in the bed. Grabbing the crowbar, I ran back to Charlie’s car and told her to lean away from the door.

She did and I jammed the crowbar into the crack where the door met the frame. Metal scraped and cracked as I pushed the crowbar back against the frame. It was starting to work, but the fire was getting closer to the windshield, bright red flames bursting out through the seam of the hood.

“Deacon, hurry!” Charlie yelled as she pulled on her seatbelt. “I’m stuck!”

Time was running both at lightning speed and as slow as a snail as I jammed the crowbar back into the door seam again and again, pulling my way down the edge until I wasable to get it nestled through the small opening near the lock.

The sharp smell of gasoline strengthened around me. If the fire got to the gas tank…

No.

Focus.

With one more stab of the crowbar, the door released, and I was in. Charlie let out a strangled whimper as she threw her arms around me. “Deacon,” she gasped my name like it was the only thing keeping her together.

I nearly broke down right then, but we weren’t out of the woods yet.

“Come on, Sunshine. We gotta get you out of this thing before the fire spreads.”

“The seatbelt is stuck.” She pulled at the gray belt across her chest with a panicked gesture.

With a snick, I slid my knife out of my pocket and flipped it open. Right before I put it to the belt, a loud groaning sound came from the front of the car.

“Deacon?” Charlie’s voice wavered as we both looked forward to where flames were now consistently shooting out of the seams of the hood. The dashboard was radiating heat that was already starting to tinge my skin.

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