by Roma James
“She’ll want to go there,” I said, already anticipating her reaction. God, that was going to be rough. My eyes were welling up with tears just thinking about how she was going to feel when she heard those words.
Fire.
Explosion.
“She can’t go,” Prescott said, as if that was the final answer. As if he’d never met Janessa Thoreson.
“It won’t be safe, hon,” Cole added. “We need you to keep her calm and keep her home until we can call you with more details.”
I didn’t know how I was going to make that happen. I still didn’t know how I was going to tell Janessa.
I just knew we needed to get there.
Now.
I heard Janessa scream before I even made it to her front door. When I let myself in, I saw her uncle—still with the phone in his hand—and Becca helping her up from the floor.
“No, no, no,” she kept repeating. “This isn’t happening. This can’t be happening.”
Janessa looked over at me, tears streaming down her face. “Daisy Lynn, please… please tell them… tell them it isn’t true.”
Before I’d even had a chance to say anything, she bolted from Justin and Becca’s arms, running straight for the door. I caught her, but just barely. She was running on pure adrenaline, and it felt like I’d just been hit by a bus.
“Janessa!” I yelled, gripping her tightly as she tried to drag me with her toward the door. “Honey, please stop!”
It took all three of us to finally get her to calm down enough to actually hear us. Up until that moment, I was pretty sure she hadn’t fully comprehended anything we’d said or done. In her mind, we were just keeping her from the thing that mattered most—getting to her guys.
“I have to see them,” she said between sobs, her eyes still firmly fixed on the door. “You don’t understand. I have to… I have to know they’re okay.”
“Prescott and Cole are on their way over there right now,” I said, slowly rubbing small circles on her back. “They’re going to call us when they get there, but they want us to stay here until then.”
“We’ll be right here with you,” Becca said, her sweet voice light and soothing. “You heard Daisy Lynn. They’ll give you as many details as they can when they get there.”
“Maybe you should lie down for a little while, sweetheart,” her uncle said.
Janessa shook her head and looked into my eyes. “I have to go,” she repeated.
“We can’t go,” I started to say, but she cut me off with a look that was more intense than anything I’d ever seen.
“Tell me,” she said. “If it were Cole and Prescott in that fire… tell me. Would you let anything stop you from going?”
My stomach clenched. I held her gaze for several long seconds before I looked over to Justin. He must have read my expression, because he simply nodded.
“I’ll get my keys,” he said with a sigh. “If you absolutely have to go, at least let me drive you.”
Janessa nodded as Becca and I exchanged a worried look.
This wasn’t good. This wasn’t the plan. Cole and Prescott would not be happy to see any of us there.
But she was right. If the situation had been reversed, I would’ve moved heaven and earth to get there. I would’ve walked if I’d had to.
So yeah. There really was only one answer.
We had to go.
Please let them be okay.
Please let them be okay.
Janessa had whispered the words out loud over and over so many times that I had started mentally chanting them with her. I wasn’t sure if it counted as a prayer, but I knew it couldn’t hurt.
Becca and I each held one of her hands as Justin drove us to Cade and Boone’s ranch. I knew it was a long drive from Janessa’s ranch to the Tate ranch, but I hadn’t been prepared for it to feel like forever.
That was exactly how it seemed, though. Especially since we were all so anxious, so uncertain. So scared.
I squeezed Janessa’s hand. “They’ll be okay,” I said, not at all sure whether I believed my own words.
She didn’t even look in my direction. Her eyes stayed focused on the road ahead. Her lips kept moving with those whispered words.
Please let them be okay.
Please let them be okay.
“We’re getting close,” Justin said quietly, glancing over at his niece as we turned off the main highway onto a bumpy dirt road. “Just a few more miles.”
We rode those last few miles in near-silence, all of us facing forward. It seemed like we all might have been holding our breath, and my stomach had tied itself into knots as I braced for whatever we might see.
I didn’t know what to expect.
Fire?
An explosion?
I’d never seen anything like that in real life. Certainly not someone’s house. Someone I knew.
No.
I didn’t want to think about it. Couldn’t think about it too much, or I would start to cry—and that wasn’t an option. Janessa needed me to stay strong, and that was exactly what I was going to do.
I’d stay strong for her. I’d comfort her no matter what. I’d keep holding her hand, and we’d all get through this together.
“There.” Justin pointed as the trees cleared, but he didn’t have to.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of smoke. It got thicker and darker the more we drove, burning my nose and making my throat feel like it was going to close up.
I looked over at Janessa and her eyes were wide. Her mouth was open and she was shaking her head, but no words were coming out.
The smoke was so thick that it was hard to see anything, really. But as we got closer, I could see the form of a house—or what used to be a house.
Half of it was gone. Just… gone. The part that remained was blackened and burning, with tall flames pouring out of what was left of the second-story windows.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, borrowing Janessa’s words. “Please, God… please let them be okay.”
Several police cars and three fire trucks were blocking the road, preventing us from getting any closer to the house. Justin pulled over to the side of the dirt road and turned off the engine. The moment we stopped, Janessa lunged toward the door.
“I have to find them,” she insisted. “I have to get there. Let me out… let me out!”
It took Justin wrapping his arms around her body to keep her from crawling over me and Becca, but I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
I wouldn’t have.
I looked over at what was left of the house again, and my heart hurt. I wanted to reassure her. I wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay—that her guys had probably somehow made it out safely.
But just looking at the house, I couldn’t see how anyone who had been in there might have made it out without being hurt… if they’d made it out at all.
As we watched, the fire seemed to swell, the flames on the second story seemed to shoot higher, and then there was a blast so loud it shook the truck and made my ears pop.
The only other sound I could hear was Janessa screaming as what was left of the house went up in a ball of fire.
I squeezed my eyes shut, but I couldn’t keep the tears from falling.
I covered my mouth, but I couldn’t stop the screaming.
Oh, God.
The house was gone.
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Check out what’s next for Becca and her guys in Her Alpha Cowboys, Book Three in the Men of Montana trilogy.
Excerpt from Her Alpha Cowboys
Becca
“Please let them be okay,” Janessa whispered as she stared straight ahead through the windshield of her uncle Justin’s truck. “Please let them be okay.”
<
br /> Daisy Lynn and I were sitting on either side of her, both of us holding one of Janessa’s hands as we sped down the bumpy dirt road. We’d barely spoken during the hasty drive from Janessa’s ranch. Janessa’s whispered pleas for the safety of her lovers had been the only thing breaking the tense, fearful silence.
I was scared but I knew I needed to stay strong for Janessa. If the fire was as bad as I’d feared, she would need that strength.
I might not have completely understood her relationship with the two ranchers, Cade and Boone, but I knew Janessa was in love with them. They meant the world to her and they treated her like gold. As her friend, that was all I could ask.
But now… God, I didn’t even want to think about what we might find once we made it to their ranch.
It was easy to see something bad had happened even before we were within sight of the house. The smell of smoke was in the air and I could see it billowing up over the line of trees ahead.
Please let them be okay.
Please let them be okay.
I gasped and covered my mouth as soon as the house came into view. The entire ground floor was engulfed in flames and I could see fire and smoke billowing out of the second story windows.
“My God…” Justin murmured, slowing the truck down as we got closer. The smoke was getting thicker and I could see fire trucks and an ambulance blocking the road up ahead.
I looked over at Janessa and squeezed her hand. Her eyes were wide and her lips were still moving but no words were coming out.
And then it happened.
A boom that shook the truck and nearly lifted us out of our seats. I turned back just in time to see the second story roof separate from the house as the whole thing went up in a fiery blast.
The whole world slowed down and the ringing in my ears was the only thing I could hear for several long seconds. Then everything sped back up and all hell broke loose.
I won’t ever forget the sound of Janessa’s screams.
“No! No! Cade! Boone! No!”
Janessa’s uncle tried to hold her back, tried to keep her in the truck with us. Daisy Lynn and I helped as much as we could, but Janessa overpowered all three of us. She fought like a madwoman, never taking her eyes off the blazing remains of her lovers’ ranch house.
She fought and screamed, and when she finally got away from us, she ran straight toward the flames.
“Janessa! Stop, please!” I yelled after her as we chased her down. If she heard us, I couldn’t tell. She never looked back.
I had no doubt that she was going to run right into what was left of the burning house. She was fueled by pure adrenaline and heartache. She wasn’t even going to feel the heat of the fire or smell the smoke until it was too late.
“Janessa!” I called again, doing my best not to lose my footing on the gravel driveway. “Wait! Stop! It isn’t safe!”
Even from a hundred feet away, the heat was almost unbearable. The thick, black smoke hung low in the air, making it hard to see and even harder to breathe. Janessa was only a few yards ahead of us, but I could barely see her through the smoky haze.
One last thing…
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More Reverse Harem and Ménage by Roma James
Her Three Rangers – Reverse Harem Romance
Crave – A Reverse Harem Romance
Their Pin-Up Girl – A Reverse Harem Romance
Her Hollywood Heroes – A Reverse Harem Romance
Her Men in Blue – A Reverse Harem Romance
Taken - A Ménage Romance
Shared by the Oil Barons - A Ménage Romance
Dare to Share – A Reverse Harem Collection
Craving the Billionaires – A Ménage Romance
Saved by the Hitmen – A Ménage Romance
Power of Love series
Revelations – A Reverse Harem Romance (Book One)
Crossroads – A Reverse Harem Romance (Book Two
Destinies – A Reverse Harem Romance (Book Three)
Illusions – A Reverse Harem Romance (Book Four)
Men of Montana trilogy
(older man/younger woman romance)
Her Cocky Cowboys – A Ménage Romance
Her Dirty Cowboys – A Ménage Romance
Her Alpha Cowboys – A Ménage Romance
