I heard the screen screeching as they shoved it out the window just as I found Gray sitting under the small table in the corner of the room.
“Gray, come here, baby,” I said, sliding my hands up his legs and torso until I could feel his little armpits. I pulled him out from under the table and held him tight to my chest as I got to my feet, staggering under the slight weight of him.
“Lily’s got you,” I said, keeping my face next to his as I bent at the waist. Smoke had filled the room in the short time since I’d closed the door, and I kept my eyes shut tight as I pressed Gray’s face against my neck. “Almost there,” I rasped, opening my eyes just long enough to watch Draco’s shape disappear out the window.
“I’ve got you.”
The house shifted and I tripped, almost falling to my knees as I took those short steps to the desk. Every inch forward seemed like it took an eternity.
“Lily,” I heard just in front of me as I finally felt a very faint brushing of cool air against my face. “Come on, baby girl.”
Two more steps and my stomach hit the window ledge.
“Gray,” I rasped, pushing him toward the person I couldn’t see.
I opened my eyes as my cousin Will took Gray from my arms. “I’ve got him. I’ve got him,” he reassured me as he pulled Gray away. The baby’s little hands had been holding my t-shirt so tight that Will had to forcefully yank him back.
“Lily,” he called, scratching at my arms as he tried to keep his hold on me.
As soon as he’d handed Gray off to the person behind him, he reached inside the window and dragged my tired body out.
I don’t remember the next few minutes.
I know that the fire department got there. They quickly took over and placed masks on each of our faces, and within a few minutes, had us loaded into ambulances.
I saw my mom running toward me.
I saw my brother falling to his knees between the boys, who were sitting in the grass, holding hands.
I saw Leo, holding Gray, but staring at me, terrified.
Then, from above me, a familiar face smiled reassuringly as they got me onto a stretcher.
“Hey, stranger,” he said. “How you doing?”
“Brent,” I rasped, reaching for his arm. “The baby?”
“You’re pregnant?” he asked, glancing at his partner.
I shook my head and waved my hand toward Gray. “The baby.”
“Oh,” he said, nodding his understanding. “He’s going to be just fine.”
“Him before me,” I ordered, shaking my head in protest as they started to load me into the back of the ambulance. “No. Him before me.”
I sat up and started tearing at my mask, frustrated that he obviously couldn’t understand me. I met Leo’s eyes across the grass, pulling at the shit they’d used to strap me down.
“Dandelion, don’t,” Leo shouted, taking a few steps forward.
I grunted when Brent’s long fingers gripped my wrist and pulled it gently away from my restraints. He slid the oxygen mask back on my face before speaking.
“He’s okay,” Brent said sternly as my mom climbed into the ambulance with us. “You have to go first, okay? He’s getting checked out, but you’re my responsibility and we have to go now.”
“You’re okay, baby,” my mom said, her hand coming to rest comfortingly on my shoulder as the ambulance doors closed. “Everyone’s okay.”
I closed my eyes and passed out.
Chapter 24
Leo
In a daze, I rode with my boy to the hospital to get checked out.
It took them a few hours, but the doctors finally decided that beyond a little smoke inhalation, he was perfectly fine. The paramedics hadn’t seemed particularly concerned when they’d driven us to the hospital, which had calmed me a bit, but when they’d advised me to have him checked, I’d jumped on it. He was so little that I had a hard time believing that he was fine.
When I’d seen that smoke coming out of the house, and then the windows upstairs shattering from the heat, I’d nearly vomited. Tommy had been the one to tackle me into the grass, and if he hadn’t, I don’t know what I would have done. It had taken him and Rocky to hold me down. Will and Grease had held Cam.
I gritted my teeth at the memory as I wrapped Gray’s sleeping form in a blanket and readjusted him on my shoulder. I could have killed them for what they’d done, and if there hadn’t been two of them, I probably would have.
Watching a house burn when you knew your world was inside was something I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. There wasn’t a word that adequately described the terror I’d felt. It was all-consuming, suffocating, so intense that I’d thought at any moment, it was going to literally kill me.