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A horse bolts past me, its hooves skidding beneath it.

The old timbers groan under the heat, fighting a battle they'll never win.

"Keira!" I shout, though the fabric over my mouth muffles it.

I search desperately through the smoke until the ladder finally appears.

Each step rising higher steals another breath. My lungs burn, and my eyes stream so badly I can barely see the hatch when I reach it.

I hammer both fists against the wood. “Keira!”

All I can hear is scratching and kicking from the other side.

“The bolt’s stuck!” she yells.

“Get back.”

I fist the hatch, driving as much force as I can into the wood. Pain tears down my arm and through my hands with every strike.

Metal scrapes against metal. Seconds blur and sweat rolls down my spine. After what feels like an eternity of fisting the door, the frame splinters, and the hatch flies open, revealing Keira’s smoke-streaked face.

She twists back for Saint’s gun where it’s lying on the boards.

“Leave it.”

“But—”

“You enter the yard with a gun in your hand, and one of ours will drop ya before they see your face.” I grab her wrist. “Leave it.”

She scurries on all fours and turns before dropping onto the ladder. Smoke curls around us. An explosive crack tears through the barn below, and the ladder shakes.

Dust, sparks, and burning straw rain from the rafters.

Another beam splinters somewhere beneath us.

"Faster!” I shout, hearing her cough.

Once we’re both on solid ground, a gelding canters along the aisle, eyes rolling white with fear as it charges blindly past us.

I grab Keira’s arm and flatten us both against the wall. Then I drag her down to the floor so we’re both on our hands and knees. She’s wheezing now, the heat and smoke too much.

I pull off the wet t-shirt and wrap it around her face. "Stay beside me."

She nods.

Heat lashes across my face with such force my skin feels tight against my bones as we crawl to the doorway.

The second we burst through the barn doors, rain lashes against my skin, shockingly cold after the furnace behind us.

I drag fresh air into lungs that refuse to work, folding over as a violent cough tears through my chest.

Smoke burns the back of my throat while Keira hunches over beside me, fighting just as desperately for every breath.

The battle hasn’t stopped.

Gunfire still cracks beyond the yard. Men shout through the rain, their voices muted beneath the relentless thud of helicopter blades.

Then another voice cuts through all of it.