Page 73 of Hard Ride

“Ollie?What the fuck are you doing in here?”

Van!Shit!“You have to get out of here.Where’s Kyra?”

He’d never seen Van look petrified before.Not like this.His expression was nothing like the controlled irritation and purposeful manhunt he’d undertaken when Ollie had told him about Number One stalking Kyra.

This was something wild and terrible.Absolute terror.

“I think she’s in there.”He coughed, doubling over to try to breathe.“I’ve tried all the doors.They’re fucked.Our only chance is going to be from outside.I have an idea.”

Van grabbed Ollie’s wrist and hauled him from the building despite Ollie’s desire to turn around and go back in the most direct route between them and the woman they loved.“I trust you, Van.What are you thinking?”

With a curt nod of appreciation, Van crashed through a side door Ollie hadn’t even noticed before and out onto some sort of loading dock.About four feet off the ground, there was a HVAC vent.Van had already busted the grate off it.The chute ran straight down to the stage where another grate was letting smoke float upward into the afternoon air.

“I can’t fit in the damn thing.”Van looked to Ollie.“But I think you can.”

Ollie didn’t hesitate.“Boost me up there.”

“Go feet first so you can kick the cover off at the other end.”As he gave Ollie instructions, he looped and knotted the end of a nylon tie down around Ollie’s waist.“This way, I can pull you back up if you can’t get through.Or if you do and the smoke is too thick or your eyes start to water too much, just tug three times and I’ll yank your ass back out here.I swear, Ollie.You’re going to be okay.I’m not going to let you burn like your mami.”

“All I care about is Kyra.”Ollie couldn’t bear the thought of her in there with that malevolent smoke for another moment.“Do it.Now.”

Van cupped his hands on his knee.Ollie put his sneaker in them and marveled at Van’s strength.He seemed like he could have shot Ollie to the moon if he’d wanted to.

Ollie easily made it to the vent and put his legs inside.He’d never been so grateful for his less-than-broad shoulders in his entire life as he was when he rocketed down the metal chute like it was a slide.He braced himself but the two measly screws in the grate at the bottom were no impediment.

He shot out onto the stage, blinking as he tried to catch his bearings.

It was like he’d been delivered straight into the underworld.

The arena was an inferno.Timbers popped and crackled all around him.The overwhelming panic those noises instilled in him made it even harder to breathe than the smoke.He crawled toward the back of the stage where Kyra’s drum kit would be.And only when he was within ten feet of it did he hear it…coughing.

“Kyra!”

“Ollie?”More coughing.“I love you.”

He didn’t waste precious lungpower responding.Instead he swiped his hands out in front of him until he connected with something hard.A light stand.

And then he realized things were worse than he’d imagined.Because Kyra was trapped under the heavy equipment.He couldn’t leave her there and neither could he stand to stay and watch her roast.So he grabbed the bar and lifted with every bit of strength he had.

Nothing happened.

“Kyra!You have to push.Please, try.”

She blinked up at him and said, “I love you.”

Clearly about to check out from smoke inhalation, she seemed dazed and unsure if he was real.He hoped he wasn’t already too late.“Kyra, Van says you have to push these lights off of you to stay safe for him.Okay?”

“Van?I love him.”

“I know.Me too.”Ollie smiled down at her and said, “So that’s why we’re going to shove as hard as we can.Ready?One…two…three!PUSH!”

Together, they could move mountains.Or at least some lights.

Not very far, but enough that Kyra slipped out from beneath them.Thank God!

Ollie scooped her into his arms and tried to dash across the stage toward the faint light of the open vent, down low to the floor.It was getting so hot and so hard to breathe that he stumbled, dropping to his knees, spilling Kyra onto the floor.

It terrified him when she didn’t cry out.

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