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I want to tell him that I think I'm pregnant, but I can't. If I don't make it out of this house alive…if they grab me…I don't want him to know that he may be losing a baby, too.
"I love you so fucking much, Mila. Run, baby. Please get out there."
I stumble toward the closet door, tears falling freely down my face.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Roman
"Jesus fucking Christ," Finn whispers beside me, his gaze locked on the house burning half a block up the street.
Fire engines and police cars line the block, parked haphazardly wherever they found space. Hoses and equipment are stretched and scattered all over the place, with firefighters in full gear scrambling to try to contain the blaze. The few neighbors who are home mill around in their driveways in groups, gawking at the sight of my townhouse burning to the ground.
I don't give a fuck about the house.
"Mila!" I roar, slamming the truck into park and throwing myself out of the driver's door with the truck still running. My feet hit the concrete hard as I race toward the house. Black smoke and flames billow out, making it hard to breathe. Even from this distance, the intensity of the heat rolling from the fire sears me.
My heart lodges in my throat, terror clawing like razorblades through me as I race down the street, weaving through the fire engines and police cruisers. Several different people shout and run after me, but I pretend not to hear them. All I can think about is her.
Her and those gorgeous green eyes.
Her and that sweet little voice.
Her and the way she smiles at me like I'm the center of her world.
Her and the terror in her voice as she hid in the closet.
Her and the fucking silence on the line when we lost contact while she was still inside.
Please, God, tell me she made it out of there.
Up close, the nightmarish scene is even more horrific. The bottom floor of the townhouse is entirely engulfed in flames, and smoke billows from the top in massive black waves. Half the firefighters on scene work to keep the fire from spreading to neighboring homes. The other half aims their hoses at the townhouse, trying to beat back the flames. The fire burns so fucking hot I feel the heat scorching at my skin.
God, baby, please tell me you aren't still in there.
A sob builds in my chest at the thought, breaking from my lips in a tortured groan. I push through the line of firefighters attacking the fire, elbowing my way between them.
I fucking promised to keep her safe.
Someone grabs me, rough hands grasping and holding me back as I try to duck underneath the tape stretched across the roadway. I fight, shoving them off me in an attempt to get inside to Mila.
"You can't go in there, Gregory," Octavio Hernandez, an LAPD detective and close friend, yells in my ear.
I shake him off, flinging him away from me. He lands on his ass on the roadway with a shouted curse.
A ferocious snarl rips from my lips as another LAPD officer grabs for me, trying to contain me. I don't know who he is or where the fuck he came from, and I don't really care. I fling him off, too, and slam my elbow into his face. Bone crunches, blood splattering from his broken nose.
"Goddammit, Roman!" Finn shouts from behind me.
Someone else yells something, and then a foot hits the back of my thigh so hard it knocks me to the ground. I land on my knees, and spring back up in an instant, spinning toward the source of that kick.
Hernandez and two LAPD officers I don't know back away from me with their hands in the air. The other is still on his ass, blood pouring from his broken nose.
"Settle down," Finn snaps, getting right up in my face, and I know he's the one who kicked me.
"Do not fucking touch me again," I growl at him, taking an offensive stance. He's damn near the same height I am, and has about sixty pounds on me. I will fucking kill him if that's what it takes, but I actually respect him enough to know I'll regret it if this comes to blows between us.
"Think, man," he says quietly. Sweat trickles down his bald head as he stares me down, not intimidated by the fury pumping through me.
