Page 47 of Maggie’s Match

He leaned his back against the front barn door and watched the flames grow closer. He heard the creak of the wood structure as the fire ate it, weakened it, broke it into pieces.

He was going to die here. He’d been a fool to rush inside alone. A fool to leave Maggie all those times over the years.

He should have married her long ago. Should have never let her go.

His eyes burned from the smoke as tears rolled down his face for what he’d lost. What it would do to Maggie. She’d blame herself for not stopping him. God, he was an idiot.

Then he thought of his parents. His family. His sister.

All in all, he’d had a good life. They’d given him the best. He hoped that whatever happened now, they knew how much he loved them. All of them.

He felt his body convulse from the lack of oxygen. His lungs burned, and he willed himself to not breathe the dark smoke in too deeply. Better to pass out from lack of air than coughing and convulsing on soot. He held his breath as his body ached and demanded oxygen.

A sense of floating came over him just as his body flew backwards once more. Then he saw stars above him. The full moon shone overhead as he was pulled through the dry gravel, chunks of it biting into the skin on his bare back.

“Rick!” Maggie screamed as her face appeared above his.

“He’s on fire,” someone said.

He was doused with cold water, which shocked his system even further. Suddenly, he was shivering. Too cold.

“Rick?” she cried, and held onto him as he started to cough and spit up the soot that he’d swallowed. “I thought I’d lost you,” she said as she held onto him.

His throat was too raw to speak. His eyes burned. His leg and wrist ached with a sharp stinging pain.

“The ambulance is on the way,” Becca said, then she turned and yelled for someone to get another fire hose.

Rick glanced over and saw more than a dozen people fighting the fire. Two large fire hoses shot spouts of water onto the barn, but Rick knew it was a lost cause. Everything was gone.

Where had they all come from? How long had he been trapped in there?

“Someone… locked me… inside,” he managed to get out between coughs.

“What?” Maggie cried out. “Rick says someone locked him inside,” she said over her shoulder.

Then Bent’s face appeared above his. “Who? Did you see him?”

“Two,” he said. He held up his fingers and noticed they were black and covered with ash and blood.

“Tell me you saw them?” Bent said a little firmer.

Rick shook his head, then closed his eyes. “Could have been…” he coughed, and Bent waited until he could speak again. “Royce,” he finished.

“Bent!” Maggie cried out and disappeared for a moment. Then she returned.

“Stop him,” Rick said.

“Becca’s got him,” Maggie answered, then she glanced up. “Your ride is here.” She leaned down to brush a kiss over his cheeks. “I’m coming with you.”

He nodded and closed his eyes as the EMTs worked to save him.

Chapter Seventeen

Maggie watched the bright flames grow smaller from the back window of the ambulance while the paramedics took Rick’s vitals and hooked him up to oxygen.

She was asked a bunch of questions about him, all of which she knew the answers to. His birthday. Blood type. Allergies.

They had to use baby wipes to clean the soot and ash from his skin in order to find a vein they could get his IV into. He continued to cough and spit up saliva that looked like black tar. She held the little bag that he spat into for him.