She slapped the floor. “Get the hell up and come with me. I love you, dammit.”
I pressed my forehead to the floor. “Ahh, hell, that’s not fair.”
“I don’t really care about fair right now, pal. I am not doing this today.”
The doors busted open as a trio of men in full gear poured into the room, shouting details about the structure.
Trick or Treat was in serious trouble, but right now, the only thing that mattered was Dahlia and our kid.
“Help me!” Dahlia popped up off the ground and waved to two firefighters. A woman and a man pushed display cases out of the way as they made their way over to us.
Another sudden crack and the Grim Reaper careened forward.
Dahlia covered her head as debris from the fire scattered around us.
“Get her out of here!” I yelled over the roar of water overhead, which was no match for the flames. Suddenly, the glass front door broke open.
Four more firemen thundered through with a hose.
“Ben, get the lady out of here, will you?”
“On it.” He scooped her up by the middle to get her off the floor.
“Wait, no.” Dahlia kicked out.
“Hellcat, get out of here. Let the professionals handle it.” I gritted my teeth as the gummy bear display dug into my shoulder. I could feel the gush of blood as my periphery started sparkling. Fucking great.
The male firefighter dragged her out the door.
I rested my forehead on the floor for a second to get my bearings. “Is she gone?”
“Yeah, she’s gone.”
“Promise?”
“What’s going on, sir? What’s your name?”
“Nolan.”
“Okay, Nolan, what’s going on?”
“This is my store. I’m pretty sure the acrylic shattered when it fell, and it dug into my shoulder.”
“Fuck. Sorry, begging your pardon.”
“Oh, I’ll be saying fuck for the duration. What’s your name?”
“I’m Jenny. Let me just get another set of hands over here.” She popped up and disappeared.
The floor sparkled and shimmered as blood slipped over my shoulder. I blinked against the smoke and dabbed at my eye to find blood dripping from my head too. There was no way I was going out like this. I’d just finally found someone who made this stupid world worth living for.
And a kid.
Couldn’t forget the kid.
I shook my head against the tunnel vision coming for me.
“Okay, we’re back. I’ve got Adam here to help me.”
I flattened both of my hands on the floor, ready to help push this thing up and off me. “You promise Dahlia is out of here.”
“She’s in the bus—er, ambulance outside. She’s safe.”
“Okay.” That was what mattered. “And Lyric?”
“Working on it. Let’s just worry about you, huh?” Adam’s voice brooked no argument.
I wasn’t really great at that, but I wasn’t going down in this candy store. Not today, dammit.
“Okay, I’m going to lift this big bitch onto my shoulder and Jenny is going to take a look at that shoulder and make sure we can get you free.”
“Got it.”
“Here we go.”
It shocked me how fast it came up. What the hell kind of jacked-up dude was this Adam guy?
All too quickly, it was followed by a searing pain. I didn’t want to scream, but I didn’t have a choice.
