Before she could even crack open the window an inch, the sheriff yanked something off his duty belt. In the same motion, he raised it high in the air, and the object extended into a baton. The sheriff swung as Chris stumbled back, his arm rising to deflect the unexpected blow.
Sucking in a breath, Daisy lurched back. Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion. She couldn’t take her eyes off the horrifying tableau across the street, but when the sheriff lifted the baton again, something popped in her head, and she was able to move in real time again.
She charged for the door, unlocking and swinging it open, only to come face-to-face with Tyler.
The sheriff’s attack on Chris still playing in her mind, Daisy attempted to shove past him, but he dropped the gas can and grabbed her arm. She tried to yank it free, but he held tight.
Daisy didn’t hesitate. Lurching toward him, she moved in close. Sent off balance when she quit pulling against him, Tyler stumbled back.
Stepping into him, she drove the heel of her hand upward at his nose, forcing herself to follow through instead of pulling the strike like she had in training. The knowledge that he was trying to kill her helped, and rage added power to the hit. Tyler released a sound that would’ve made her feel bad if Chris wasn’t being beaten at that very moment, and if that punk kid wasn’t trying to keep her from him.
Her knee connected with his groin. When he doubled over in pain, she grabbed his hair as she raised her leg again, kneeing him in the face. Using her grip on his hair, she shoved him away from her, and he went down. She didn’t wait to see if he got to his feet again, but turned and ran toward the stairs instead.
At the top, she jerked to a stop. Fire was everywhere.
Flames ran across the floor and danced up the walls, making it feel like she was about to descend into hell. Smoke filled the space, rolling in thick clouds at the ceiling. She glanced back at an unmoving Tyler. Even after everything he’d done, she couldn’t leave a kid to burn.
Running for the hall closet, she grabbed a couple of blankets and hurried into the bathroom. Daisy turned on the shower and tossed the blankets into the tub before stepping under the spray. The freezing-cold water shocked her lungs, but she forced herself to stay until her clothes and the blankets under her feet were soaked.
She was shaking uncontrollably by the time she grabbed the blankets and ran back to a groaning Tyler. Tossing a soaked blanket over him, she wrapped herself in the other and then grabbed handfuls of his coat under his shoulders. Daisy pulled him across the floor to the top of the stairs.
With a rough jerk, she started pulling him down the burning steps. The first couple were the hardest, until momentum and gravity kicked in, and Tyler started sliding faster and faster. By the time they reached the bottom, Daisy was having to hold him back, fighting to keep his weight from bowling her over. She was desperate to stop and try to catch her breath, but she forced herself to keep moving, reminding herself that there was no catching her breath in a smoke-filled house.
Glancing behind her, she flinched at the flames that had overtaken the hallway.
Chris, she reminded herself. Help Chris.
Readjusting her grip on Tyler’s coat, she started pulling. His body slid more easily across the wood floor, and she ran backward, the heat of the fire surrounding her. Steam from her clothes and blanket joined the smoke in the air, making it hard to see.
As she turned into the dining room, Tyler’s legs bounced off the doorframe. Daisy, her chest heaving as she tried to suck in enough oxygen, felt her arm muscles shake under the strain of his weight.
“Almost there,” she told herself, coughing out the last word as the smoke burned her lungs. Just one more room to get through, and they’d be at the front door.
The kitchen was an inferno. Daisy didn’t allow herself to pause or even slow. If she did, she’d never go into the kitchen, and then she, Tyler, and Chris would all die. She wasn’t about to give Chris up—not for another seventy or eighty years.
Her fingers tightened around Tyler’s coat, and she backed into the flames. The heat was incredible, covering her skin and the inside of her lungs in seconds. A piece of flaming debris fell from the ceiling onto Tyler’s head, and his hair caught fire.
Grabbing a corner of his blanket, Daisy yanked it over his head, smothering the flames. As soon as it was out, she renewed her grip on his coat and started pulling again. As she slid Tyler past the stove, she thought of the gas lines it contained, how it could easily explode. Moving faster, she pulled Tyler through the entryway until she bumped against the interior door.
Yanking it open, she stepped through and then remembered. The world spun, driving her down to her knees.