Page 25 of I’ll Be There (Montana Fire #4)

Of course it made sense to have the rehearsal dinner at Pierre’s Pizza.

She’d probably personally kept them in business over the past decade.

The hometown pizza joint swilled with the robust aroma of pepperoni pizza, mozzarella sticks, and root beer.

Pictures of local football teams, old skis, a moose head, and even vintage fire axes from the first hotshot teams in the area hung on the walls.

A tiny bar, closed now, overlooked the private party from the balcony.

And at the head of the room, the Blue Monkeys, including Deputy Kyle at the drums and his cute wife, Emma, at the mic, were already warming up when Liza and Conner walked in to cheers.

Kyle looked up at her from the stage and gave her a tight smile.

He then nodded at Emma, and they launched into a cover of “Get Ready” by the Temptations.

I never met a girl who makes me feel the way that you do...

Liza laughed and Conner pulled her into an impromptu dance.

She waved to Ingrid and John Christiansen, who joined them as Jed and the guys pushed tables away to form a dance floor. Darek swung Ivy into his arms. Raina danced with Layla on her hip, Casper grinning not far away.

The guys headed to a buffet line of pizza, with Romeo challenging one of them to a pizza-eating contest.

“Hey, is that Seth Turnquist?” Liza asked as she danced with Conner.

“Yeah. He sort of helped me out of a jam yesterday, so I invited him to the party. Hope that was okay.”

“See, I’m not the only one who can’t say no.” She leaned back to grin at him. “I’m marrying the right guy.”

“Boy howdy, you are,” Conner said, winking.

The bell jangled above the door, and Liza looked over to see hockey superstar Max Sharpe stroll in, holding the hand of his daughter, Yulia. Wearing long braids and a toothy grin, she waved at Liza, then headed over to her mother, Grace, who gave her a one-armed hug.

Grace then leaned over to Max for a kiss.

A handsome man, his hair long for the season, Max held himself like a man free of the demons that could chase him someday.

Huntington’s disease, the nightmare he couldn’t dodge.

For now, he scored goals for the Minnesota Blue Ox and lived life on full throttle.

Not unlike Conner, who suddenly dipped her, the song coming to an end. Liza let out a tiny yelp, and he laughed. Whatever information he’d gleaned today from his contact, apparently it had healed him.

Maybe.

Except for that crazy kiss in the library, the one where she thought, just for a moment, he might be losing himself—or maybe trying to hang on.

Just her imagination. She was letting her past stir up doubts.

Conner took her hand and led her to the pizza buffet. Handed her a plate.

Outside the sun had begun to set, sending golden rays of fire into the front pane windows.

From the kitchen, the smells of more pizza cooking wafted out.

The Monkeys started in on “Twist and Shout,” courtesy of the Beatles, and Liza laughed at the sight of Pete and Reuben twisting as they carried their full plates to a booth.

Perfect day. And tomorrow...she sighed, leaned over, and kissed Conner as he dished up a piece of pepperoni.

“What?”

“I’m just...happy.” Healed. Strong. “And I need to tell you something later, okay?”

A tiny crease of his brow, then he nodded.

“Nothing bad.”

The crease released. “Pizza?”

“One. Only cheese.”

He dished her up.

She noticed Grace’s expression as she turned to find a table. She stood as if frozen, only her eyes moving, as if she might be smelling something.

And that only alerted Liza to...yes, something... burning .

She caught the smell the same time Grace did, but Grace walked past her, squeezing her arm. “I got this. Probably a pizza went too long.”

As Liza set her plate on the table, she noticed the finest wisp of smoke floating across the ceiling, spiriting out into the dining room.

Conner noticed it too. “Stay here.”

“Hardly.” Liza followed him back into the kitchen.

Oh. My—

Grace stood before an open oven, fanning smoke from a burning pizza. Flames licked out of the oven, tongues curling around the frame.

“Look out!” Conner rushed into action, grabbing a towel and pulling the pizza out of the oven, onto the floor. He threw the towel on it, began to stamp out the flames. “What happened?”

Grace held another towel over her nose. “I don’t know—I just opened the door and suddenly it was on fire.”

“Flashover pizza,” Pete said, appearing at the door. He held his pizza like a sandwich and shoved the rest into his mouth. “Need help?” he said, over the food, to Conner.

Conner had destroyed the pizza, and part of the floor, probably. “Where are the cooks?”

Good question. Liza looked around. Not a soul but them in the kitchen.

And somehow, despite the pizza fire being doused, smoke still churned into the kitchen. Grace opened the other oven. “Nothing here.”

Pete had hopped up on the counter and now touched the ceiling. “It’s hot.”

Conner picked up a broom. “It’s a drop ceiling. Liza, get back—” He motioned Grace and Liza toward the door, pushed the ceiling panel away.

The air whooshed in, and fire ignited the panel. Flames washed across the ceiling in a rush of heat and blaze that exploded in a roar.

Grace screamed.

Pete dropped to the floor. “Fire extinguisher!” He found one attached to the wall, ripped it off. But the flames had ignited the entire ceiling, popping, crackling.

In seconds, he aimed it and deployed foam onto the flames.

“Get out of here!” Conner yelled to Liza.

She turned and nearly ran into Jed, who kept her from going down by grabbing her shoulders.

Darek pushed past them.

She turned, for a moment caught almost hypnotically by the blaze. Roaring heat, the fire nearly doubled in twenty seconds as Pete fought it with the extinguisher.

She’d seen a grease fire demonstration once. How throwing water on the fire only spread the fire, the evaporating water carrying grease particles as they expanded and flashed throughout the kitchen. In less than two minutes the fire had engulfed the entire kitchen.

Conner, Jed, Pete, Darek, and even Reuben fought it with towels, the fire extinguisher, and even the broom, pulling down panels, stomping out the flames.

The hiss of the fire turned feral as the flames washed out over the ceiling into the studs, turning the wood black.

Liza viced a hand over her mouth.

Conner caught a glimpse of her. “Liza—get everyone out! Right now!”

Right. Yes. Move.

She turned, but Ivy and Ingrid had already started to grab the children, heading toward the door.

Liza ran ahead of them to push it open.

She grabbed the handle. The door didn’t move. She threw her hip into it.

No.

“We’re locked in!”

John Christiansen came up next to her, and she stepped aside as he threw his weight into the door. Smoke clouded against the ceiling of the dining room.

A fire alarm sounded from the kitchen, a piercing whine that made Liza press a hand to her ear. “Get us out of here!” Screams, and not just hers as John rounded.

“The back door!” He grabbed Ingrid’s hand, who in turn had a hold of baby Joy, and headed toward the back. Kyle and Emma, however, met them in the middle of the room. “It’s locked!”

Locked?

From behind them, something exploded, and Jed and Darek came through the door, followed fast by Reuben. Pete barreled out, black-faced, holding a now-spent canister.

“Conner!”

He appeared. And for a second, he stood in the doorway of the kitchen, the fire aglow behind him, soot staining his face.

His expression reached out and ripped her heart from her chest.

The man wasn’t afraid. Just fiercely determined.

And, enraged. “We’re locked in? ” He directed his question to John, or maybe Kyle. “Okay, everybody get on the floor. Now. ”

Liza dropped to her knees as Conner and Reuben walked over to one of the tables. Together they lifted it, swung it, and as if with one mind, flung it through the plate glass window.

The high-pitched shatter ripped through her and she ducked, cowering.

Pull it together, Liza.

Jagged glass marked the edge of the window, and Conner and Pete kicked out the glass as Reuben stepped over it onto the sidewalk. “Come on! Let’s go!”

The fire roared, the kitchen now engulfed, the sirens blaring. Smoke fogged the room, and she coughed, her eyes running.

Raina was crying and Liza crawled over to her to help her. Casper held Layla to his chest, trying to protect her air.

Pete had Mona’s hand, helping her step out when—over the chaos of the fire, the screams, and the growl of the flames—a singular, stinging pop pierced the air.

Liza turned back to Reuben just in time to see when the bullet hit. When his legs buckled. When he pitched into the sidewalk, unmoving.

“Reuben!”

Conner whirled back around at the sound of her scream, and in a second landed on the sidewalk next to the big sawyer.

The second shot whooshed past Conner, hit the bricks next to him, chipping off pellets. He ducked, leaning over Reuben. “Shooter!” He grabbed Reuben under his arms, tugging him—what was he doing, no! —back into the building.

Help him! Liza moved forward, as if she might be the answer, but Micah was already there, lifting Reuben’s legs, hauling him back into the building as another shot zinged off the window frame.

They fell into the burning building, Pete bending over Reuben. “He’s still alive. Help me lift him.”

The blood seemed to be coming from a ragged wound in his upper chest. Micah lifted him.

“I got an exit hole.”

“Okay, let’s get pressure on him.” Pete grabbed a towel discarded on the floor, sooty and black, and wadded it up, laying Reuben down on it. “Get me anything. I need to stop the blood—”

Kyle had whipped off his T-shirt, now threw it at Pete, who grabbed it one-handedly, pressed it to the wound. “C’mon, you big oaf, don’t die on us.”

Conner had crouched down by the window. The fire now crawled inside the dining area, rolling in blue-and-orange flames over the ceiling.

“We gotta get out of here,” Micah said, next to him. Darek had pulled out the long table runner from under the buffet line and now helped Pete wrap it around Reuben’s chest. He hadn’t woken or responded.

Liza crept over to Conner. Blood soiled his shirt and hands, blackened from the fire. Sweat rolled down his temples, onto his chin as he stared out. He caught sight of her. “Stay down.”

But he reached out his hand and squeezed hers, fast. Hard.

“He’s shooting anyone who comes out,” Conner said, his words directed at Micah.

Who—?

“What about the back door?” Micah glanced behind her.

“Locked,” she said.

“There are two of them, remember?” Conner said.

Two of them... “What’s—”

Another explosion lit up the kitchen. Screams, more smoke boiled out. “Get down!” Conner yelled.

“We’ve got maybe two minutes before this whole place goes up.” Jed put his arm to his mouth, coughing into it, his eyes red as he headed back to help Darek.

“He wants me. I’m sure of it,” Conner said.

When Micah nodded, Liza turned hollow. “What—what is going on? ”

Conner turned to her then, and she saw it again, this time unhooded, unblemished. A full-out desperation, even horror. The thing he’d been hiding from her, what she’d tasted in his kiss.

“I’m sorry, Liza. But this isn’t finished.” He turned to Micah. “I have to.”

Micah nodded, a muscle tensing in his jaw. He turned to Liza and grabbed her arms.

“He has to— what? ”

And it was a good thing Micah had a hold of her because the man she loved got up as if to step through the opening.

To get shot, right before her eyes.

“No! What are you doing?”

“Conner—stop!” Darek skidded up behind him. “Jed and I have a plan. Just—distract him. We’ll be out of here in a minute, maybe less.”

She nearly collapsed with relief until Conner turned, a muscle pulling in his jaw, as if testing Darek’s words.

“Now. Trust me, right now, ” Darek said.

“One minute. I’ll distract him. Then it’s over.”

Over?

Then she died, right there, as she watched Conner dive through the open pane, roll, and come up behind the upturned table. “Stop! Blankenship! I’m coming out!”