Page 200 of Phantom Mine

But it's nowhere near as painful as not knowing if Matteo is still alive. I can't feel his chest move against my back.

Please let him live.

Please.

Tears slide freely down my face, unencumbered and unconfined. Emotion leaks quietly out of me as resolve drives me closer and closer to the window.

Ten steps.

Nine.

Five.

Three.

Searing heat finds my ankle, drawing a yelp from my lips. When I look down, I find that the leg of my trousers is on fire.

I gasp and jump back in surprise, momentarily forgetting my position. It’s a split second of loss of focus, but it’s enough.

Matteo tumbles off my back and drags me down with him. He hits the ground with athud, landing on his back.

The pain jolts him awake with a heart-rending scream. I nearly cover my ears at the visceral agony echoing deafeningly in the animalistic wail.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, my love,” I chant, reaching for him.

For the second time that night, my fingers close around pure air.

I’m yanked backwards by my shoulders. I’m slow to react, taken aback by what’s happening. It’s only when I realize I’m being pulled out of the window that I start fighting.

“Stop! Let me go!” I scream and thrash in the arms of the person carrying me but never look away from where Matteo lays unmoving. “Get off me!”

Surprise turns into panic when I clear the window frame. I can only watch helplessly as I’m taken away from Matteo.

“Please, let me g—please! I can’t leave him!” I beg, verbally pleading as vehemently as I’m physically assaulting the faceless man holding me. “Matteo! MATTEO!”

I latch onto the frame and refuse to let it go, howling his name again and again, letting my fear corrode through every layer of me as I keep my gaze fixed on my fiancé.

“Please, he’s on his back,” I sob brokenly, my throat murdered raw. “I didn’t have a chance to flip him over, he’s in pain. Please help him…Please.”

I’m being carried down a ladder to safety by a fireman. No matter how hard I fight him, I can’t get him to release me.

Matteo disappears from my view.

And I lose it.

I kick and scratch and claw at my rescuer. I attack his chest, his hands, his face. Any and all available skin I can get my nails into. I don’t want to be saved if I can’t save him.

A pair of strong arms wraps around me and locks my arms down by my side.

“Valentina!”

The sound of my name momentarily freezes me.

A face comes down next to mine, words are pressed into my ear.

“Calm down,” Enzo orders coolly. “They’re getting Matteo next. He’s going to make it out, but we need to make sure you’re safe first, okay? That’s what he would want.”

His voice is endlessly comforting. I don’t know if it’s the familiarity of it or that his tone is restrained and controlled, leaving no room for my hysteria, or maybe the fact that I know he won’t let Matteo die, but it instantly soothes.

---