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“I’m sorry, sunshine.” He turned to face her, and she didn't like his expression.

Didn't want to understand what it meant even as part of her knew.

“Open the door,” she ordered. The smoke was too thick up there at the top of the room, choking out what little oxygen there had been left.

“I’m sorry,” Jake said again, and she could see in his eyes that he meant it.

She could see the hopelessness.

The despair.

The guilt.

None of them were what she wanted to see.

Her eyes stung, her throat burned, taking a breath was next to impossible, and her skin was smarting in several places where she was sure the flames had scorched her skin.

The wet blankets that had been covering her shoulders had fallen off somewhere along the way, and the one on her face had tipped back so it was dangling off her head when she’d looked up at Jake.

“Open the door,” she insisted.

They had to get out.

Now.

Didn't Jake understand that?

“I can't,” he said softly, so softly she could barely hear him over the sound of the fire.

Or maybe it was the sound of her own harsh, panicked breathing that drowned him out.

That couldn’t be true.

They couldn’t be trapped.

This couldn’t be how they died.

Yanking herself free from Jake’s grip, Alannah threw herself at the door and hammered on it. “Open the door,” she screamed at the top of her lungs as she pounded as hard as she could.

“Stop, honey. You're going to burn up any energy you have left on something that won't help,” Jake told her as he grabbed her and pulled her up against his chest, pinning her in place with a strong arm wrapped around her chest.

What did it matter how she used up the last of her energy?

If they were going to die, they were going to die.

“Please,” she whimpered as exhaustion hit her all at once, and she sagged in Jake’s hold.

His lips touched the top of her head and he sat on the top step, pulling her down with him and holding her cradled on his lap. “I’m sorry, sunshine. So sorry. I never meant to bring this to your doorstep.”

“Not your fault,” she whispered as she snuggled closer. If she was going to die, she supposed there were worse ways to go than being in the arms of her very best friend in the entire world.

There was nothing left to say. They both knew they weren't going to survive until firefighters found them, so Alannah let her eyes drift closed and tried to block out everything happening around her.

Just as she was starting to drift away, she could have sworn she heard loud voices, then what sounded like something smashing into the door.

Positive she was hallucinating, she tucked herself closer against Jake, wishing it would just happen already and she would hurry up and die. Being trapped like this was like being in a nightmare. Only there would be no waking up. At least not in this world.

“Jake!”

She could have sworn that was Jake’s younger brother Jax’s voice.

“Get her out of here, hurry,” Jake said, and she felt him shifting her.

No.

If she was going to die, she wanted to stay right where she was.

Maybe she mumbled something, but she was getting sleepy, and she didn't want to be disturbed.

Didn't seem to matter what she wanted.

Someone lifted her and the next thing Alannah knew, she was choking on clean, fresh air.

Clean air.

Fresh air.

Not the thick, smoky air of the fire-filled basement.

They were free.

Rescued.

Saved.

Opening her eyes, which she hadn't even realized were closed, Alannah looked for Jake. She knew it wasn't him holding her because the person smelled too clean, and both she and Jake smelled like smoke.

Coughing and spluttering, she looked around as she was carried outside the building and into the street, straight over to an ambulance where paramedics were waiting for her.

When she was set down on a stretcher, she saw it was Jax who had carried her out of the burning building as he crouched down so he was able to look her in the eye.

“You okay?” he asked. One of the medics put an oxygen mask over her mouth and nose, the other picked up her wrist and began to check her vitals.

Unable to speak as she continued to cough, Alannah focused on sucking in deep breaths of the oxygen as she tried to look around him.

She was okay, but where was Jake?

She needed to see him, needed to know that he was alive.

What would she do if he hadn't survived?

The only reason she was there right now was because of him. If he hadn't been with her, if she’d been alone in her office, she would have panicked and never figured out a way to save herself.

Her best friend had quite literally saved her life, and she wouldn't survive knowing he’d given his own in the process.

Grabbing the oxygen mask, she yanked it down as panic grew inside her, taking over everything else. “Jake?” she croaked, looking at Jax and begging him with her eyes to tell her that his brother was okay.

“Is going to be fine,” Cade Charleston announced as he stepped into her line of sight.

Not who she wanted to see right now.

She wanted—no needed—to see Jake.

How else could she believe he was okay?

“Where is he?” she begged. If Jake was really okay, why wasn't someone taking her to him? Didn't they know that was what she needed right now? Not paramedics, not oxygen, not her vitals checked, the only thing that was going to help was seeing Jake.

“In an ambulance right beside yours,” Cole Charleston said, stepping up beside his older brother.

Since she’d known Jake and Jax since she was four years old, she’d been around when their dad married the Charleston brothers’ mom.

At the time, she’d been thirteen, the same age as the twins Cooper and Connor, Jax had been a year younger, Jake a year older.

Cade had been fifteen, Cole eleven, and the baby of the family, Cassandra, was only five.

While it had been a rocky start for the family, after learning their parents appeared to be married in name only, all seven of the siblings had bonded and rallied together.

All of Jake’s brothers, biological and step, were like brothers to her, too, and normally she’d feel safe around any one of them.

But not today.

Today she needed only one thing.

And that was Jake.

“I need to see him,” she whimpered as she fought through another coughing fit. Her lungs seemed to want to cough their way right out of her body.

“No,” Cade said firmly, in what she knew was his don’t bother arguing with me voice. “What you need is to sit right there and let the EMTs do their job.”

“Please,” she whispered as tears blurred her vision. The last thing she wanted was to beg, but she also knew that without seeing Jake for herself, she would never believe he wasn't still down there trapped in those horrible flames.

Cade sighed, but his gaze softened, and he stepped away for a moment. Then a stretcher appeared where he’d just been standing with Jake sitting on it.

Just like that, all her anxiety melted away.

Jake’s eyes were open, he was wearing an oxygen mask just like she was, and he appeared to be arguing with the medics trying to treat him.

“Sorry, sunshine. I was trying to tell them I had to see you first,” he told her. His voice was rough from the smoke, just like hers, but they were both alive, and that was all that mattered.

But as her fear for Jake began to recede, a different reality was starting to settle in.

That fire wasn't an accident.

Someone must have told the childcare worker to leave with the children because they hadn't been in the basement along with her and Jake. Then that person had barricaded the door to her office, set the basement on fire, and then locked the door at the top of the stairs.

Whoever that person was had wanted her and Jake to die.

Had actively tried to kill them.

Shivering as the full impact of the last several minutes settled down upon her, Alannah shot a grateful smile to Jax when he tucked a blanket around her, and then she let her gaze slowly travel to the six men surrounding her.

They were all watching her with a mix of concern, guilt, and regret on their faces.

“I think you better tell me what the heck is going on and why I almost died today.”