Page 102 of Loving Lies (Granton University 3)

Jonah knelt next to Aubrey and took his hand, shaking uncontrollably.

“I think…I think my leg’s broken,” Aubrey said, gagging on his own tears and coughing.

Jonah nodded. “I’ll get you out,” he promised. He dropped his cane and grabbed the thick tree trunk. But, shit! Were these things made of steel filled with concrete or what?

Gritting his teeth, he roared through the pain in his straining muscles, braced the foot from his one good leg against the wet floor and shoved with all his might. When metal groaned and barely budged, the three trapped underneath gave a relieved shout and began to push with him, crawling free as best as they could.

His adrenal glands must’ve suited up and gone to work, because in the next instant, he pushed the tree away from them and shoved it to the side. The booming sound of it landing again was loud enough to rattle his teeth in his head.

After managing to ground himself after the release of all that weight against his shoulder, he reached for Aubrey. But his friend resisted. “No! Them first.”

Oh, you gotta be kidding me. They didn’t have time for him to save three people. But Aubrey was right. No way could he just leave them here.

Glancing at the other two, he gulped. Both were just as bad off as Aubrey was, mangled and bleeding profusely. None of them would be able to walk. They were all doomed, except he refused to admit defeat.

Declining to think through the impossibly of it, he simply started loading bodies into his arms and, settling them over his shoulders, two on one, one on the other. They were fairly small, but still, the bulk piled on top of him bore down on his bad leg. It buckled under him once. But he gritted through it and kept walking, one slow torturous step at a time. They might’ve made it away from the fire, but the smoke was just as deadly.

The first hall they came to was so congested with smoke, he couldn’t even see down it. Breathing hard, he sucked nothing into his lungs but thick, choking soot. He tried to pick up his pace, but the faster he attempted to go, the slower he actually went. It felt like he was moving through lung-collapsing sludge.

When he turned the last corner, he spotted the thin ray of red light from Bailey’s laser flashlight, and he literally started to weep. Tears flooded his cheeks, and sobs wracked his chest. He wanted to tell the people piled on top of him they were almost there, but the effort seemed to take too much of the strength he didn’t have left.

He knew he was crushing Aubrey as he leaned heavily against the wall, but he figured it was better than tumbling all four of them to the floor. After a second to rest, he pushed away and took another step. Pure stubborn willpower was the only thing making him move forward, because he was out of oxygen, out of strength, and his leg was screaming with agony.

But he refused to give up. Just ten more yards. Five. Three.

His knee buckled. White-hot pain shot up his entire body. All four of them went down in a heap.

“No!” The girl sobbed, clinging to his shirt. “No. Please.”

“It’s okay,” he panted, patting her hand, wishing he could get a good, clean lungful of fresh air right about now. “It’s…”

Coughing, he pushed them off him so the four of them could all crawl with nothing but their arms. He trailed behind so he could push them forward when one of them started to give up.

“The door,” he wanted to say and ask someone to open for him, but he was too busy hacking to form the words. His head fogged up as if smoke had seeped in through his ears and made his entire brain fuzzy. If he didn’t get the door open and drag these people outside before he lost consciousness, none of them would survive to see tomorrow. They were only a few yards away. Surely, they could make it the last few feet.

But, fuck, those feet felt like miles.

A vision of Tess filled his head. He wanted to see her again, more than anything. He wanted to hold her, marry her, and start a life with her.

He wanted to live.

A tear slid down his cheek. “Tess,” he choked out just as his world went black.

Chapter Thirty-One

TESS’S HEART STOPPED in her chest as Jonah disappeared into the performing arts center. Screaming his name, she clawed at Bailey’s arm to break free.

“Please. Don’t do this to me.” She’d just found him again. Losing him one more time wasn’t an option.

“He’ll be back.” But Bailey’s reassuring tone was so calm it actually had the opposite effect.

Rage boiled inside Tess. Bailey had been the one to keep her from following him inside. Bailey had been the one to tell him to stay away from her at the hospital. Bailey was keeping her from him right now.

Rearing her elbow back, she slammed her best friend in the ribcage. Bailey cried out and lost her grip, and Tess scrambled forward, going down on hands and knees before she regained her footing. She actually got close enough to the door to reached out and open the handle when her best friend tackled her from behind.

Blacking out for a second from the pain of her concrete landing, rough gravel biting into her hands and knees, Tess shook her head, and then screamed in

frustration, trying to buck Bailey off her back.

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