I make it back to the window. I can’t see fire in the room itself, so I jump in without wasting time. I hear Dragon fall in behind me. There’s smoke, lots of fucking smoke, but no real flames. It seems the blaze has been limited to the site of the homemade bomb. Thank fuck it was a homemade bomb and small. It took out half of the kitchen and started a fire, but had the man been a professional, there would have been nothing left.

You can’t see a damned foot in front of you for the smoke and haze. I’m holding my breath and I’ve got my arm up over my mouth and nose, but soon I could be in real trouble.

I feel my way through Carrie’s bedroom and out into the hall. I can hear Dragon behind me, but I can’t stop to check on him. I have to hurry. If Bull is in here, there’s a limited time to get to him. He’ll die of smoke inhalation. Hell, I can already feel the burning in my lungs. I make it to the hall bath first.

“Bull!!!” I call out, but can’t find him anywhere, even with the low visibility, had he been in there I would have.

That only leaves one room. Holding onto the wall I make my way to the spare bedroom. The door is locked. I use my shoulder and ram it, Dragon joins in and it breaks away from the frame and opens up. Lying on the bed is Bull. He’s unconscious, that much is clear. Still, even through the smoke I can see the blood. A fucking lot of blood coming from his head! I don’t have time to inspect him further, I grab him in a fireman’s hold and start back the way I came. Dragon leads the way to our escape route, none too soon. The heat is closing in on us and you can hear the crack of wood all around. We need out of here before the whole damn place collapses on us.

“Damn Bull, you are a big motherfucker,” I say to no one in particular, as I struggle to carry this hulk of a man.

We make it back to the bathroom much quicker, but by now the flames have spread and they are reaching out towards us like deadly hands. The creaking of weakening beams becomes louder.

Dragon helps me carefully get Bull out the window, handing him out to Gunner and Frog. He then insists I go out the window first and since we’re both coughing like little bitches, I don’t argue. He plows out just seconds behind me and we drag our tired asses from around the house and back to the garage.

I see Carrie the minute I turn the corner and she runs straight at me. She’s a damn mess, but at the same time so achingly perfect. She is the answer to every dream I’ve ever had.

I grunt as she connects with my body at full force. She wraps her arms around me and I grab hold of her ass and lift her up. A second later her legs are locked at the back of my ass.

“I was so worried,” she whispers against my lips. I push into her mouth kissing her hard. My throat is burning and dry but I do not give one damn. I need this. Our lips break away slowly and I give her one more chaste lip touch before pulling away completely.

“Care Bear. I’m okay.”

“I love you, Jacob.”

The words give me the familiar kick in my gut and a speeding heart. They also bring me a feeling of joy. I can’t stop myself from kissing her again—this time with everything I’ve got inside of me. Our tongues dance and mate and then war with each other, fighting for dominance. Even the taste of smoke can’t stop the flavor of Carrie from coming through. This woman is better than a drug. She’s like pure air and I need her to survive.

“Bull?” She asks and I shake my head, because I don’t know.

I’m jealous which is fucked up seven ways to Sunday. My brother is in bad shape, even I could tell that through the smoke. Yet, here I am jealous because my woman is worried about him. Hell, I’m worried about him. I grab her by the back of the neck and turn her face towards me.

“Give me the words.”

She looks thoroughly confused and I understand, because I am too. Still, she takes her hand and moves it along the side of my face. With her other hand, she places it over my heart and applies gentle pressure. The warmth of it is enough to calm the heavy beating.

“I love you, Jacob.”

“Sir, we need to check you over,” I look over my shoulder and there’s a paramedic standing behind me.

“I’m fine, see to my brother.”

I don’t want to be bothered. I want to stay with Carrie. It’s weak and totally the wrong time to be feeling shit, but crowds trigger panic attacks. I do not want to have one of those surrounded by strangers and having my brothers here would make that shit worse. I hold on tightly to Carrie’s hand. Can she tell how it shakes? I look at her face, but she just smiles. I pray I’ve kept it hid.

“The other wagon has your buddy,” the paramedic explains referring to the other ambulance. “Please sir it’s my job, you inhaled a lot of smoke. Let me just check out your lungs. I also see some blood, it won’t take long.”

I’m about to tell him to fuck off when Carrie’s hand goes to my side. Is it wrong to get turned on with all the shit going on around us? I swear I can feel my dick harden as her hand moves along my side and her fingers tease against the edge of my jeans.

“Jacob, you’ve been hurt!”

I look down as she pulls my shirt up. It’s a jagged cut down my side. It’s nothing, but my woman is worried about me and I’m an ass enough to eat that shit up. So, I let her guide me to the ambulance. I sit on the base of the bumper step, while the paramedic does his business.

I’ve barely settled before the guy pushes an oxygen mask in my face as a ‘precaution’ whatever in the hell that means. Then, Carrie leaves me to go check on Bull.

Motherfucker!

I’m left with a piece of plastic held over my mouth and nose, watching her cry over another man.

I want Bull to survive. I love the man, I want him to be okay and I know he is in scary ass shape. That said, right now in this moment, I want him to get better so I can kill him.

I look over at Dragon and he’s pretty much being poked at like me. We look at each other for a second and nod. Shoving the masks back, we head over to Bull with the paramedics yelling behind us.

We make it to the wagon where they have Bull inside working on him. Shit, it looks like someone bashed his head with a baseball bat. That’s the only thought I can form before it hits me that they are performing CPR on my brother. What the fuck? I knew he was bad, I had no idea he wasn’t fucking breathing.

One paramedic is applying chest compressions, while another is squeezing a balloon like thing with a mask attached over his face. There’s still another one holding up paddles.

“Clear!”

One of them hollers and the others back away while the paddles are put over the heart and he’s hit with electricity. His body jerks. We all look at a monitor willing it to move. There’s just a green line and it’s barely moving. They assume their first positions again and you can hear the electricity surging from the paddles, as the other paramedic turns the knob increasing the charge.

“CLEAR!” She calls again.

I feel Carrie curl into my side and I hold her close. We wait while Bull is hit again. The beep of the machine is faint as a heartbeat is found, but it seems like thunder and the line on the screen appears steadier.

“Let’s get him to the main road. Medi-vac is waiting for transport to send him down to UT,” one of the paramedics orders.

“You’re flying him out?” Dragon asks and my heart stops in my throat.

“Sir, your friend has major head trauma and went into respiratory failure. UT is the closest trauma center around equipped to deal with head trauma like his.”

“I’m going with him,” Dragon says starting to get in the ambulance.

“Sorry sir, I can’t allow that. You can drive down to Knoxville,” she pulls out a card from her pocket and hands it to Dragon. “You can call that number, give them your friend’s info and they can give you updates. Now we’ve got to go.”

She bangs on the ambulance doors with a strong thud and slams them shut. We watch the ambulance take off, each one of us in shock. I don’t think any of us thought we could lose Bull until we watched the paramedics struggle to keep a heartbeat.

Carrie looks up at me with soot and dirt marring her face. You can see streaks left behind by the tracks of her tears.

“Will he make it?” She asks her voice weak.

“Damn straight he’ll make it,” Dragon growls, running towards his SUV. I see Frog and Gunner pile in with him. Crusher was taken to the hospital earlier. I need to check on him too. I need to get to Tennessee…. Fuck.

“Let’s go to the club, get cleaned up and go check on Bull.”

“Okay, Jacob.”

We walk towards the group hand in hand. Even with all the shit that has gone down, I can almost smile at the feeling that settles inside of me. My hand tightens over hers as we move forward…together.