Sam had been right about the upstairs. The staircase had been engulfed in flames, with part of the steps burned through. And the collapsed ceiling at one end of the hall made it impossible to head back the way they’d come in. Eerie sounds roared through the corridors until she heard the loud, splintering rumble of the old mansion coming apart above her. The noise intensified, and her heart beat faster. It sounded as if the second floor was about to come down on top of them.
Jess reached a hand out for Seth. But when she didn’t find him, she panicked. She flailed her hands into the murky black and leaned back until she touched something solid—Seth’s leg. He stopped, and she gripped his thigh, tugging at his jeans. She pulled him with her and took one step at a time.
She crept toward the back of the house, guided by her memory. Any familiar traces of the old mansion were burning, soon to be nothing more than charred rubble. But when she got to the basement door, it was open. And pitch-black smoke surged from its depths.
Damn it! Fear twisted her gut when she saw how much smoke came from below. Had she led them to the basement for nothing?
Shaking, she grabbed for Seth again. Harper had trusted her with the safety of his father. Feeling him next to her now—still willing to believe in her—gave Jess comfort. She couldn’t let her friends down. Sam had been willing to sacrifice her life to rescue her. And without hesitation, Alexa had accompanied her into a hostage situation, knowing it would be dangerous.
But doubt was a powerful enemy.
Jess second-guessed what she had done and racked her brain, trying to think of another way out. Yet everywhere she turned, their predicament looked more hopeless. The fire had ravaged the ground floor, and the upper stories were ready to fall. And she knew Harper couldn’t stand much more.
She ducked down and peered through the door to the basement below. In the distance, fire reflected off the cement floor, but it was a pale comparison to what scorched her back. And the ceiling heaved with dense smoke, a swirling toxic surge that cut the room in half. But her instinct for survival forced her to take that first step down—back into Millstone’s torture chamber.
Danny Ray’s hellhole would be the key to their survival—or the death of her and those she cared about. The irony wasn’t wasted on her.
CHAPTER 28
Jess looked for anything familiar to orient her, but as she crept down the basement stairs, she saw the fire had changed everything. The ventilation system that had been her ears when she was a tormented child now belched smoke that made it hard to see. And sections of the ceiling had collapsed, sending heaps of fiery debris to the cement. Walls had started to catch fire.
But she had to focus and keep going.
Into the cavernous space, she felt her way along the basement wall toward the back. Although the smoke was still bad, the heat from the fire was less intense than it had been on the floor above. And with pockets of flame burning, they made the room bright enough to catch murky glimpses through the deepening haze.
The conditions were marginal, but she had made the right choice—for now.
She kept one hand on Seth and led the way until she found what she was looking for—the familiar wooden post that marked the spot. When she stopped and tugged at Harper’s jeans, he collapsed next to her, coughing out of control. But he still held his father in his arms, with her jacket covering the old man’s face and head.
“Hang on, Harper. I’m getting you and Max out of here,” she promised.
After giving Seth a reassuring squeeze to his shoulder, Jess helped place his father on the floor, propped against a brick wall. Harper slumped next to Max and managed to say “Thanks” before a brutal coughing jag took over. Seeing him so drained scared the hell out of her.
When she felt the others settle next to Seth, she counted heads and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized everyone had made it. But Sam worried her. Unlike her normal feisty self, her friend slid to the floor, exhausted. And her face was streaked with tears, the soot leaving dark tracks on her cheeks. She leaned closer to brush back Sam’s hair.
“Catch your breath…and pray. God might still listen to you.” She kissed her on the forehead and got down to the business of survival.
Jess ran shaky fingers along the basement wall, feeling for every crack and crevice. But when she felt a faint breeze brush her skin, she knew she’d found it—the hole that had given her hope all those years ago—the one she had made as a child.
“This is it,” she muttered. When someone touched her shoulder, she turned to see Alexa.
“What is?” The woman dropped to her knees, gasping for air.
She groped for Alexa’s hand and helped her find the small gash in the brick wall.
“It isn’t much,” the blonde whispered, low enough so the others wouldn’t hear. “But what’s your plan?”
“Help me.”
She stood and led Alexa to the wooden post behind them, using her friend as balance when she lifted her leg to kick the base of a two-by-four that had once been part of a storage shelving unit. The base of it had been cemented into the floor. Once Alexa figured out what she was doing, she helped with a few well-placed kicks of her own. Jess heard a crack and grappled the post with her hands, rocking it hard. After it broke free and dropped to the floor, she picked it up and hauled it back to the brick wall with Alexa’s help.
“Use it…as a battering ram,” she explained as her lungs heaved for air. “We’ll need…help.”
Hands came through the shadows and hoisted the two-by-four from her arms.
“I’ll take the front.” Jake intervened and held the post. “Show me where to hit.”
After telling the man what to do, Alexa jumped in behind him and Jess took up the rear. They gripped the makeshift battering ram tight and made their first strike. She had visions of the wall crumbling away, but that didn’t happen. They struck the brick again and again.
In the dark, she couldn’t tell if they were making progress. She had to leave that up to Jake.
Grit caked her face and arms as sweat poured off her body. And with each driving blow, she felt more drained. The smoke-filled air made it hard to breathe, and every effort depleted her strength. Every time the post hit the wall, a jolt of pain radiated through her arms and shoulders. And wood splinters sliced into her hands with every jarring shove. But she gritted her teeth through the pain and fought back even harder with the next impact.
While they pounded the outer wall, Sam and Seth staggered to their feet, and yelled, “Help us. We’re down here…in the basement.” They screamed, and made noise any way they could. “Please…help us.”
But after a while Jake stopped and raised his hand. In a strong voice, he cried, “Hold it. I hear somethin’.”
Jess winced and blinked her stinging eyes, listening. And in the dark someone gripped her sore, splintered hand. She held her breath and shut her eyes to focus until she heard a rhythmic clinking. The sound was muffled yet clear. And it was far too steady to be an accident.
“What’s that?” she asked, her eyes welling with tears of her own.
Ray had run through a stand of trees that separated the back of the Millstone property from the nearest neighbor. The tactical team had set up a perimeter around the premises that had made it difficult to cross without being noticed—but not impossible.