Loving Lies

by Linda Kage

  Shit. This wasn’t going to be good. How the hell was he supposed to see where he was going, let alone find his way back out?

  Lifting his shirt, he used the cloth to cover his mouth and nose. Then he yanked his keychain from his pocket to find the flashlight Bailey had given him for his birthday. Clicking it twice until the light and laser beam both came on, he started to move away from the door. But he was scared to let it shut and possibly not be able to get open again. So, instead of keeping the flashlight with him, he plugged it into the doorjamb, letting a small stream of fresh air filter in behind him.

  Then he rushed further into the burning building, his cane clutched in one hand and thumping ominously against the floor.

  First thing he did when he turned a corner was run smack into a sobbing, hacking girl dressed as a medieval wench. He grasped her arm hard to get her attention when she did nothing but cling to him. Screaming in order to be heard above her crying and the blaring fire alarm, he shook her once.

  “Hey! Have you seen Aubrey?”

  “He’s trapped,” she finally babbled, the only understandable thing she’d said so far, and the only thing to put the fear of God into him. “I couldn’t help him. He’s trapped.”

  “Jesus. Where?”

  He had to shake her again before she pointed. “Down there. Oh my God, they’re going to die. I couldn’t help them. We’re all going to die.”

  “No. We’re not.” He shoved her around the corner, pointing at the red laser beam through the smoke. “Follow that red light. It’s the door to outside, okay? You’ll be fine. Now, go!”

  She nodded and took off running.

  Jonah didn’t wait around to make sure she got out okay. He limped down the hall, yelling, “Aubrey! Aubrey!”

  His throat burned and eyes watered. He had no idea what he was doing. This had to be the stupidest thing he’d ever attempted. But he couldn’t give up, couldn’t turn around and head back to the exit. She’d said his friend was still alive…trapped.

  Sean would never forgive him if he left now.

  “Aubrey!”

  Just as his head went dizzy and he didn’t think he could go on, he heard a faint call. “Here! We’re here.”

  He dashed forward, gnashing his teeth when his leg tried to give out on him. He could barely make out a doorway, which he charged through to find himself on the wings of the stage. The water sprinkling system had gone off in here, and it immediately doused his hair and clothes and made the floor under his cane unbearably slick.

  But the fire still crackled ahead, refusing to die completely where the water assault didn’t quite reach. A few lasting flames tried to finish off the incinerated castle. What was worse, Aubrey lay only a few feet away, trapped under some fallen set trees along with two other people while those few flames crept closer.

  “Help us. Please help us,” wailed a guy with his entire chest pinned.

  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.

  But Bailey was just as willing to fight dirty. She grabbed a handful of red hair and yanked. “You are not going inside that building.”

  “Get…off…me!” She screamed again and managed to fling Bailey off, losing a chunk of hair in the process. But just as she reached for the door handle, it came flying open, smacking her in the arm. She cried out and clutched her elbow as a terrified girl careened into her.

  “Oh my God. Oh my God.” Tears tracked through the black soot on the girl’s face. “I thought I was going to die. I thought I was dead.” Clinging to Tess, she hugged the first person she saw. “He saved my life.”

  “What? Who?” Tess demanded. “Did you see my boyfriend? Is he okay?”

  “I don’t—” Pausing to cough and cry some more, the girl shuddered. “I don’t know. I was lost. It was so smoky. I couldn’t see where I was going. And suddenly there was this big guy with a cane. He pointed me toward this laser beam and told me to follow it to the door. And it did. It did…I think he was an angel.”

  When she broke into more sobs, Tess met Bailey’s gaze over her shoulder.

  “Oh my God. My laser flashlight is saving lives.” Bailey streaked toward the door where her flashlight had spilled to the ground after the girl had plowed her way into the alley. It was still cracking the door open an inch.

  Swiping it up, she began to kiss it in praise. “Oh, you good amazing flashlight, you. I knew you were wonderful. You did good. You did so good.”

  “Put it back!” Tess broke free of the terrified girl and yanked the flashlight out of Bailey’s hand. “Jonah needs that to find his way out.” She opened the door further to tuck the leading light safely in the doorjamb, but a plume of smoke spilled out, making her cough.

  Oh, dear God. How was Jonah supposed to survive for a single minute in there? She covered her mouth and began to cry in earnest. Bailey slipped the flashlight from her limp fingers and reverently wedged it back into the door for her, but Tess couldn’t see how he’d ever find his way through that.

  She doubled over, bawling for all she was worth. “He’s not coming back. Oh, God, Bailey. I can’t lose him again. I just got him back.”

  “It’s okay. It’s okay,” Bailey reassured her, hugging her close and stroking her hair. “Abbott’s a survivor. He made it through three bullet wounds and a coma. If anyone could make it out of there, he can.”

  If? Why was she saying if? If was totally not acceptable.

  Pushing away from Bailey, she went back for the door. “I have to get him out. Now.”

  This time when Bailey wrapped her arms around her, Tess wasn’t playing around. She rammed her foot down on her friend’s instep and pounded her elbow backward. Bailey doubled over with a groan.

  As soon as she was free, Tess yanked the door open only to hear his voice…calling her name.

  “He’s right there,” she cried, surging forward.

  “Tess!” Bailey screamed, following her inside. “No!”

  But Tess had already tripped over what seemed like a pile of bodies. When she felt at least three arms, she moaned. “Help me, Bailey. Dear Lord. How many of them are there? Help me get them outside.”

  Both girls grabbed arms and legs and started dragging. As soon as they reached fresh air, Tess sucked in a breath, only to discover she and Bailey had saved Aubrey and some stranger. Both were unconscious.

  She and Bailey exchanged glances. “Jonah had to be right there with them. I heard his voice.”

  With a nod, Bailey followed her back inside. The next round and too much coughing later, they found one more guy. But still no Jonah.

  “Where is he?” Growing frantic, Tess started back inside, hacking madly, her lungs heavy with smoke. But a shout cut her short.

  “Hey, don’t go into that building, miss.”

  When she saw a pair of firefighters jogging her way, she pointed into the opened door. “My boyfriend’s right there. I heard him.”

  “We’ll get him, then. You just stay put.” After they radioed for paramedics to come help the three people Bailey and Tess had brought outside, they disappeared into the burning building, only to reappear a half-second later, toting a limp Jonah.

  Tess launched herself at him. “Is he alive? Oh, please. Tell me he’s alive.”

  “He has a pulse,” one of the firefighters assured her. “But we need to get him on some oxygen right away.”

  That was all she needed to hear, because Bailey had been right. Jonah was a survivor. If he had half a chance, he’d make it through this.

  Jonah came to with something strapped over his mouth. But at least there was fresh air moving through his lungs. He coughed anyway, choked up by stray pockets of smoke still trapped inside him.

  “Easy.” A strange but sturdy hand clasped his shoulder and readjusted his facemask. “Just breathe deeply and relax. You’re going to be okay, kid.”

  Something shifted against his other side, and he realized it was a body. A trembling, curvy, feminine body. Tess. When her fingers grabbed ahold of his, he finally did relax and tried to turn her way.

  Her beautiful blue eyes appeared with tears streaming down her cheeks, and it struck him that he’d messed up. He’d left her outside. By herself.

  But she must’ve already forgiven him because all she did was smile. “You came back to me.”

  Jonah nodded, wanting her to know he always would. As long as his heart kept beating, he’d find his way back to her.

  He glanced around. They were sitting on the ground leaning against a tree while paramedics, police, firefighters, and news media milled around the area between crying, shocked bystanders. Noticing the paramedic who’d been lingering at his other side, he nodded to the man, silently thanking him for his help.

  The EMT nodded back with a smile. “Looks like you’re in good hands with your little ladies here,” he said, nodding toward Tess and then Bailey, who Jonah hadn’t noticed before. “I’m going to go check on some of the others. If you need anything, just wave us over.”

  When Jonah gave him the thumbs up, the guy took off, half-walking, half-jogging to help more people. Staring after him, Jonah felt the itching need to stand up and assist someone too.

  “Damn, Abbott, you totally scared the shit out of us, you know that?” Bailey plowed into him and clamped her arms around his chest. He wasn’t sure how to apologize, so he patted her shoulder, and she gave a watery laugh before slugging him. “Thanks a lot, asshole.”

  He rolled his eyes. Only Bailey.

  Across the way, more firefighters led a few coughing people away from the building. A cool evening breeze, smelling of charred wood, wafted over him, sticking his damp shirt to his chest.

  “We need more oxygen over here,” a desperate voice called. “Are there any tanks left?”

  Jonah fumbled to rip the mask off his mouth. “You can use this one.”

  “No!” Tess squeezed his arm and sent him a warning scowl. “You still need it.”

  “Don’t worry. I feel better already. Besides, I can’t hold you how I want with this damn thing on.”

  When she finally relented, he handed it over to the waiting fireman. “Thanks, man.”

  Jonah nodded and yanked Tess into his arms. She clutched him hard and buried her face into his chest as he burrowed his nose in her red curls and hugged her back. When he smelled smoke in her hair, he pulled away.

  “We’re going to have to take another one of our special showers as soon as we get out of here. You smell awful.”

  She blurted out a laugh before bursting into a fresh wave of tears. “I love you so much. I can’t believe I almost lost you again.”

  “Never,” he promised. “Never again. I love you too much to go anywhere.”

  “Hey, there’s Aubrey,” Bailey cut in, pointing.

  Realizing he’d forgotten all about his roommate, again, he zipped his attention up and saw Aubrey laid out on a stretcher that sat outside next to the open back door o
f an ambulance.

  When he struggled to rise, Tess clung to his side and kept her shoulder under his arm as if she knew he needed to use her as a crutch. But what surprised him more was when Bailey appeared at his other side to do the same thing. Wrapping his arms around both girls, he limped with them to his friend.

  Tears streamed down Aubrey’s blackened face. “You saved my life.” As he sobbed between wheezes, he reached out and grasped Jonah’s hand. “I love you, man. I love you.”

  Jonah nodded. “Yeah,” he said as he tugged Tess closer to him. “You too.”

  She pressed her cheek to his shoulder and set her hand over his heart.

  “There!” A girl’s voice called, breaking into Jonah’s reunion with his roommate. “That’s the guy who saved my life.”

  Jonah had no idea he was the subject of her attention until a male voice interrupted. “Young man.” Jonah glanced up just as a bright light blinded him. “I’m Charlie Martin with Channel Nine,” the voice continued, “and this is my daughter you saved tonight. Can we have your account of what happened?”

  Jonah lifted his hand to shade his eyes before he noticed the microphone in his face with the logo of a nearby television station on it. The hand wrapped around the microphone led up an arm until he focused on the face of a man he’d seen on the evening news almost every night.

  “I’ll tell you what happened,” Charlie Martin’s daughter spoke up, stepping in front of him and straining onto her tiptoes so she could be included into the frame. “This guy was a hero tonight. A straight-up, risk-his-life-for-other-people hero. When I fell down just feet from the exit, he immediately swooped in to lift me back up before I could get trampled.”

  “No,” Jonah started modestly, remembering her from the front foyer of the arts center. He lifted his hand to silence her. “I’m actually the one who accidentally knocked you down in the first place.”

  “But you had to fight against the crowd to stay there and help her back up,” Tess said.

  “He was amazing.” The girl patted his arm. “I was so sure I was going to die. But he saved me.”