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Standing, I pick her up and try to cover as much of her with my own body as I run toward the front door and kick it open. Clean air smacks me in the face and I take a full breath for the first time since I woke up and started coughing. Red lights flash and bounce around the neighborhood as two fire trucks pull up to the house and people start jumping out. Two paramedics grab a stretcher and run up to me.

“Lay her down,” one of them orders and I shake my head. “Sir, we need to check the both of you over.”

“I’m not letting her go.”

One of them lays her hand on my arm and I jerk back. “Sir, we need to make sure she’s okay. She could have inhaled a lot of smoke and we need to work quickly.”

Sighing, I give in and lay her on the stretcher as her eyes flutter open and she coughs, looking up at me. “Sawyer?”

“Hey,” I whisper, forcing a smile to my face as I cup her cheek in my hand. Pain sears through me from the burn on my hand but I clench my teeth to hold my reaction in. “How are you feeling?”

“What happened?”

I glance up as the fire begins to envelop my house and shake my head. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you are okay.”

“Sir,” the other paramedic snaps but I flick her an annoyed glance before turning back to my girl. Juliette turns in the stretcher to glance back at the house and gasps.

“Oh my God…”

“It’s okay, baby,” I whisper, my hand throbbing and my chest aching. She shakes her head and looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Your house.”

I shake my head. “It’s just a house, sweetheart. You and I are okay and that’s all that matters.”

“Sir, we need to look you both over,” the paramedic says again, more forcefully this time and I nod as I glance over at her.

“I’m not leaving her side.”

She sighs. “Fine.”

I hold Juliette’s hand, ignoring the unbelievable pain that radiates up my arm, as they direct us over to the back of the ambulance. As I sit on the tailgate, I watch two teams of two firefighters each run out of the house before they start blasting it with water. It’s funny, I’ve lived in this house for five years but when I think about what I’m going to miss about the place, it’s only my memories of being with Juliette in there that make me feel sad. I peek over at her as they listen to her heart and ask her what she remembers.

“Not much,” she answers, shaking her head, as a bewildered look crosses her face.

“Let’s see that burn,” one of the paramedics says, arching a brow as she stares down at me and I sigh as I pull my hand from Juliette’s and show her my palm.

“Are you hurt?” Juliette asks, turning to me and her eyes widen with concern. I shake my head, flashing her a smile that I don’t quite feel.

“Just a flesh wound, baby.”

The paramedic sighs. “It’s a second degree burn but it’s not too bad so I suppose you’re right.”

“See?” I say, turning back to Juliette as the paramedic begins applying some cream to my hand and wrapping it. She sighs and sinks back into the gurney, looking a little pale. “Are you okay, Juliette?”

She nods. “My head just hurts.”

“Did you fall and hit your head?” the paramedic working on her asks as she examines her head. Juliette scowls.

“I don’t think so.”

I shake my head. “I found her in the middle of the floor.”

“You’ve got a pretty good lump on the back of your head.”

I scowl. The back of her head? Almost like someone hit her with something and knocked her out. Holy shit… was there someone else in the house?

She meets my gaze, fear filling her eyes, and I nod. This is the third time she’s come close to death recently and I’m less inclined to believe it’s a coincidence at this point. A firefighter and a police officer walk up to the back of the ambulance and the firefighter holds up a plastic bag with a charred mess inside of it.