SWNOVELS Chance: Chapter 45
The barn was on fire.Flames licked up the sides of the building when Kane turned into the driveway. Chance’s heart nearly stopped at the sight.
Kane sped down the drive. There was a hunter green truck with tinted windows sitting a few feet distant from the barn, and a four-wheeler parked beside it. The man who stood in the open door of the truck, watching the flames, turned at the sound of them barreling toward him.
Ronnie Junior dove into the driver’s seat and slammed the door before fishtailing in a circle and flooring it. Kane swore as he sped past Junior, heading for the barn. He didn’t have to ask where Chance wanted him to go.
Rory was in that barn. He knew it with every fiber, every cell, in his body. Junior hurt people. And animals. Leaving her to die in a burning barn was exactly the kind of evil thing he’d do. He was a sick fuck who hadn’t yet paid the price for his crimes because his daddy fixed it every time.
Not this time. Chance didn’t care that the man was on his way down the drive, intent on escape. He wouldn’t get far.
Seth was already on the phone, barking a situation report at Ghost and the others. They would intercept Junior, or they’d make sure the cops did. Either way, he wasn’t escaping this time.
All those thoughts flashed through Chance’s mind in the space of a heartbeat. Because he could only think about getting to Rory. Was she still alive, or had Junior killed her before setting fire to the barn? Because if he had, if she died, Chance would stop at nothing to make sure the asshole didn’t live to see another day.
No matter what happened to him for doing it.
Kane skidded to a stop in the mud. Chance was out the door and sprinting for the open barn doors while his teammates went for the hose that was used to water the garden.
The flames had engulfed the face of the barn, licking at the loft doors. The heat of the fire pressed him back, but love carried him forward. He couldn’t get any wetter than he already was so he threw his arm across his face and ran through a wall of flame.
Inside, the smoke swirled, but it was drawn upward by the tall ceilings. He ran down the aisle, searching for signs of Rory.
“Chance,” she yelled from one of the open stalls, and his knees nearly melted. “Over here!”
He rushed to her side, dropping into the hay and cupping her face to reassure himself she was really there and he wasn’t hallucinating. There was no time to hold her or kiss her. He started to pick her up, but she yelled at him over the roar of the flames.
“We have to get Jimmy out!”
She pointed behind her. A body lay utterly still, blood soaking the hay beneath.
“You first,” Chance said.
She shook her head. “No! He’s going to die. He may already be dead, but I can’t leave him. His mama deserves a body to mourn. Get him out and then come back for me. Please, Chance!”
“Stay here,” he ordered before rushing to the body on the ground. There was a faint pulse as he scooped Jimmy Turton up and threw him over his shoulder. Then he returned to Rory. “Can you walk?”
“I’m really dizzy. Musta hit my head.”
He reached down to yank her up and anchor her at his side. “I’ll support you.”
“I don’t want to drag you down. I’m too much weight with Jimmy—”
“You won’t,” he growled. “We have to go now, kitten. There’s no time to argue.”
“Okay. I trust you, Chancey Pants.”
Dear God, that she could call him a nickname at a time like this. Gave him hope that she was really okay.
He took off for the barn doors as fast as he could manage with Jimmy over his shoulder and dragging Rory along at his side. She wasn’t quite the dead weight Jimmy was, but it was close. But Chance wasn’t letting go of her for anything in this world. Not when she was his whole world.
He hesitated a moment when they reached the flaming entrance, trying to find the best path. Just as he was about to attempt to breach it, praying they didn’t burn to a crisp, the flames climbed higher.
Then a jet of water shot through the fire and sizzled a big hole in it.
Chance rushed forward, barreling through the doors with Rory and Jimmy held tightly to his body. When he was well clear, he eased Jimmy to the ground. Rory let him go and sank to her knees to press her flannel shirt against Jimmy’s chest while Chance fished his phone out and called for an ambulance. Kane and Seth kept spraying the water into the barn and across the façade, trying to keep the fire contained.
In the distance, sirens wailed. Chance gazed down at Rory’s blond head, at her bare shoulders covered only by a tank top, and thanked God that she was still alive. Still his prickly, brave, beautiful Rory.
She looked up, met his gaze, and amazingly enough, despite the rain and the muck and everything that’d just happened, she smiled at him.
Home.