Once Upon A Half-Time: A Secret Baby Romance (68 page)

S
moke coiled in my lungs
.

Was this Hell? I didn’t smell sulfur, but her screaming would haunt me for all eternity.

My eyes didn’t want to open, but something in my brain kicked to life. I hurt now, but I’d hurt a hell of a lot more if I didn’t move my ass.

That heat crept closer. I remembered getting trapped in flames before. A year ago I ran into Josie’s burning shop absolutely terrified, not for my own safety, but because Josie might have been hurt. I sacrificed myself then to save her. I’d sat in jail, bandaged and in pain, waiting for her to come to my side.

She didn’t, so this time I’d come to hers.

I rolled over. That was a mistake. The violent, acrid smoke thickened the air. The night was dark, but ash and embers blackened the barn. My head ached. Blood dripped from above my ear. Whatever the fuck he hit me with was hard enough to nearly crack my teeth.

I shouted. The sound ripped through my head. Everything hurt.

I couldn’t see Josie.

My cell phone flashlight did nothing. I crawled, hand over hand, deeper into the barn. Away from the heat. At least I remembered the layout from when I rewired the lighting. Two exits, two doors, a shit ton of windows. None that would help me now as the flames consumed everything. The walls and roof lashed with fire, and all the scrap parts and seed and straw fed the inferno.

Christ, and I even did him a favor. Nolan’s barn was so badly wired a single spark would have burned the son of a bitch to the ground. I thought I fixed it.

Instead, I got the front-row seat.

And so did Josie.

Something muffled her screams. I clawed toward the sound, praying it was her and not a figment of my imagination, a hallucination from the smoke and head trauma.

The fire moved too fast, and I shuffled by inches, not feet. Where the hell was she? Why couldn’t she move?

My hand struck her bare foot. She kicked, and the muffled cry wavered.

I got her.

And she was alive.

But not for long. We were surrounded by too much smoke, too much heat, and the hungry flames that licked the floor. I reached for her, ripping the tape from her mouth.

“Just
go
!” Josie struggled against the ropes that bound her to the support beam. “I can’t get out. Save yourself.”

“I’m not leaving you.” I coughed through the smoke. “I’ll untie you.”

“Maddox—”

“I’m not leaving you!”

Josie squirmed, but the ropes didn’t release their hold. I searched my jacket for my knife, but the movement was too quick and my fingers too dulled by the blow to my head. I dropped the blade into the darkness.

“Maddox, go! I already took a year of your life away!”

“And you’re living the rest with me!”

I groped the floor, scraping against the boards, the support post, and finally, nicking the blade. The sharp edge drove into my hand. I didn’t care.

I’d chop through my own arm if it meant freeing Josie from the ropes. The blade didn’t cut smooth, or maybe my head leaked more brains than blood. Josie turned, flexing the rope. She wove her arms up and down, tearing through the fibers. I lurched.

The knife struck her wrist.

She shouted, but the rope frayed and she was freed. She didn’t bother holding the wound. The knife tipped from my fingers, but she seized it and worked on the other ropes.

The smoke burned in my lungs. A rough cough battered my head. I leaned forward. Too much.

I went down.

“Maddox!” Josie didn’t stop sawing through the rope. “Get up! Please!”

“I’m up.” A lie. At least I could still lie. That was impressive for a man about to die.

“I need you!” Josie wiggled, shifted, tugged at the ropes. Her arms slipped out, but a thick cord bundled her feet. “Stay awake. We gotta get out of here.”

I was awake.

Think I forgot to talk.

Or I couldn’t. Probably why I was having trouble moving my arms. Legs.

Everything.

Thoughts.

Eyes. They burned in the fucking smoke.

“
Maddox
!” She escaped and leaned over me, trying to pull me up. But Josie was a hundred pounds of sugar. “Come on.
Pleas
e
.”

“Go.” The word grunted from my chest. “I’ll follow.”

“No, you won’t.”

Not as good a liar as I thought.

I rolled. The motion blinded me then cracked me with pain. A flicker of heat drew so near Josie screamed. She took my arm and pulled. I lurched. She pulled again.

A thundering crash shook the barn. Josie dove over me as the beams above shattered, and the fire leapt from the roof and into the sky. The ceiling collapsed, shredding timbers and shards of wood to the floor.

The entire barn was on fire, and the fiery wreckage blocked one of the doors.

“Maddox, let’s
go
.” Josie begged me to move.

Her words wavered and broke through her coughs. She pulled me, and the pain erupted from my head. I couldn’t figure out which was up, down, heaven, or hell.

“Don’t do this.” She forced me onto my hands and knees. “Get up, damn it!”

No. She was wasting time. She had to get out. I swore. So did she.

“Maddox, I’m
pregnant
.”

That word was more of a blinding shock than the strike of the metal tool against my head. I blinked. Grit and ash ground into my eyes. I drew a breath to speak but only coughed.

Pregnant
.

She was…

And she and my baby were trapped.

This wasn’t happening. I had to get her out. I couldn’t die, worthless and pathetic, on the floor of a burning barn. It wasn’t a surge of strength that forced me to move. It was terrified adrenaline.

I finally had my family—Josie, a baby, everything I ever wanted.

And it was on the brink of ruin.

She yelled. I forced my arms forward, sliding against the uneven floor. She ground her way at my side, clawing ahead and reaching the door before me. She couldn’t kick it open. It stuck in the frame.

One of us had to force it. I swore a breathless groan and struggled to my feet. The air choked me, driving through my lungs like each breath slashed with knives. I couldn’t see. It didn’t matter. I knew where to aim.

I slammed into the door.

Not enough.

I retreated a step. Two. Three. The world sucked away the oxygen and replaced it with agonized heat.

No time left.

I crashed my body into the wood, and nearly shattered my shoulder. It worked. The door swung open in shards. I fell to the ground.

Josie
.

I turned, reaching to help her.

I never made it.

Arms grabbed us, dragging us from the barn just as the walls groaned and shuddered. The entire structure burned through, blackened and charred in minutes. Josie screamed as the frame collapsed, falling upon itself in blast of heat, ash, soot, and destruction.

Men twisted me from her, and the flashing lights surrounding me weren’t the reds of an ambulance. They blasted me in blue.

Chief Craig rolled me onto my back. EMTs tried to stick an oxygen mask over my face, but he ordered them away. He slammed a knee between my shoulder blades and whipped handcuffs onto my wrists. Pain exploded through me, but I couldn’t do a damn thing.

“Andrew Maddox, you’re under arrest for arson and the attempted murder of Josie Davis and Nolan Rhys.” He dug his knee into me. “And this time, I got you for good, you son of a bitch.”

I said nothing.

The world darkened, and my thoughts focused on Josie.

She was pregnant.

At least I had one thought to comfort me when I went to jail.

Except I had a bad feeling I wasn’t leaving Saint Christie’s police station alive.

T
he EMTs fought me
. I struggled to escape from the ambulance.

They held me down without a problem. I’d sucked in too much smoke, and my head turned foggy and pained.

I knew Frank and Kathy, the husband-and-wife EMT team. Kathy shined a light in my eyes, and Frank tucked the oxygen mask over my nose and mouth.

“There you go. Just like Matt.” He chuckled.

“Maddox.” I coughed, and my vision blurred with a dark halo.

“Don’t worry.” Kathy silenced me with a soft cluck of her tongue. “Chief Craig has him. He won’t hurt you anymore.”

They had it all wrong. I yanked off the oxygen. No wonder Granddad hated the damn thing so much. The cough stole my breath. I tried to tell them, but my throat was coated in acrid ash.

Shouting echoed over the yard. Kathy and Frank forced me to lie down.

Maddox
.

Something was wrong. He was hurt. I struggled again, but this time they didn’t have to hold me down. I felt too heavy to move. Kathy tucked a blanket over my body and took my vitals as my blood pressure spiked.

She leaned over me, brushing my face. “Josie, how do you feel? Are you hurt?”

Only one thing mattered. I squeezed her hand and forced the words out.

“I’m pregnant.”

And then I collapsed.

* * *

I
t was
the second time I woke in the hospital after a fire.

The first time was terrifying because I had no idea what had happened. The second was worse. I feared the devil I knew because I saw the chaos he caused before. He wasn’t done with us yet, and I dreaded what was to come.

The IVs dripped and machines beeped. They had me on oxygen. It did dry my throat—Granddad was right. I batted the tubes away.

My room was just outside the nurses’ station. I caught their attention as I woke up. I wasn’t particularly fond of Suzie Adams in high school, but at least she’d dropped the attitude now that she was an adult. Putting on thirty pounds also helped the former cheer-captain gain a bit of humility.

“You’re awake.” Suzie checked the machines. “You’re so lucky. No burns, no damage from the smoke.”

“The baby?”

Suzie reserved her judgement. She had a toddler with no daddy at home.

“Everything looks okay. The doctor wants to see you. He’ll be in shortly.”

“Maddox?”

Suzie didn’t want to answer that. “Chief Craig is here. He needs to get your statement.”

“Wait.”

Suzie bolted from the room. Damn it. I couldn’t focus, couldn’t think. A blue uniform immediately took her place. Chief Craig closed the door, and I tried to silence my coughing. Couldn’t. He didn’t look like he cared much.

“Josie…” Chief Craig’s tone spiked my heart rate. Unfortunately, he could hear it on the monitor. “I’ve already spoken with Mayor Rhys.”

“Chief…it wasn’t—”

“He explained that you two had a secret relationship.”

My lungs seized. The panic stuck inside the thick ash coating my chest. “Not true—”

“He also told us that Maddox was threatening both of you. Nolan said he worried for your safety, and that it was not unexpected that Maddox would attempt to break you two up.”

That smug look. Chief Craig didn’t believe a word Nolan told him, but it fit his own ends.

The chief lied. He tried to frame it on Maddox.

“
Stop
.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. We know Maddox threatened you and your grandfather after he heard about your relationship with the mayor.”

“Why are you doing this?” I clenched my teeth. “Maddox told me about Chelsea. You’re blackmailing him.”

“Josie, I’m asking you to collaborate the mayor’s story. Do that, and we’ll ensure Maddox is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

This was a nightmare without waking. A layer of embers burned every hope and dream I ever had. It buried the town, soiled us all, and threatened to choke the life from Maddox.

I forced the words out. “
Nolan
kidnapped me.
Nolan
tried to hurt me.
Nolan
lit the match.
Nolan
attempted to murder us.”

Chief Craig’s eyebrows furrowed. His once familiar and reassuring face morphed into something sinister and unrecognizable.

“I understand this is a difficult time, Josie, but I need the truth. You have to remember what actually happened. Don’t protect Maddox. He can’t hurt you anymore.”

I cried soot and grime. “Granddad was your bowling partner. You have a wife and kids. How can you do this?”

“Tell me the truth, and I’ll keep him safe.” The chief leaned close. It was the first time I feared him, and the damn monitors proved it. “He’s unstable. I can’t be sure he won’t hurt himself in that cell.”

“Don’t you dare.”

He patted my hand. I yanked it away. “Do this, and we won’t ask anything more of you. We know you’re in a…delicate condition.”

His scowl disappeared the instant he turned the handle on my door. He greeted the nursing staff with a beaming smile and promised that he needed nothing further from me tonight.

Monster
.

Was the entire town filled with monsters? Darkness and lies and hatred festered everywhere I looked, and the only hope I had that the world was good had been jailed once more for a crime he didn’t commit.

It couldn’t end this way. Chief Craig and Nolan conspired against Maddox. How was I supposed to fight the charges? I couldn’t tell the truth if no one was listening.

I sat up, clawing at the IV in my wrist. Tears rolled over my cheeks. They were about as useful as a low-calorie brownie. I could still fix this. I just had to get out of the hospital.

“
Whoa
!”

I panicked as Delta burst into the room, catching me with my hand in the cookie jar that was my escape. She dropped a teddy bear and slammed the door shut behind her.

“What the hell are you doing?” She nearly slapped me. “Get in that bed!”

“Delta, I need help.”

“You need to rest! You almost
died
tonight.”

“It wasn’t Maddox.” The coughing started to subside as adrenaline raged through me.

“Where have I heard that before?”

“I’m serious!”

Delta jerked a thumb over her shoulder. “You better tell the chief. Everyone is on a rampage thinking Maddox tried to kill you and Nolan.”

“You really think I was
sleeping
with Nolan? I’m carrying Maddox’s baby!”

“Yeah, that part sounded wrong to me.” Delta forced me into bed. “Look, I’ll help you. Just relax. None of this is good for you or the baby.”

“I need to…” I tripped over my own words. “I have no idea. I have to get Maddox out of jail before Chief Craig does something horrible.”

Delta sat on the bed, eyes wide. “Like what?”

“Like hangs him from the ceiling with a sheet wrapped around his neck.”

“Are you serious?”

“Nolan went insane and tried to kill us. Now he must be working with the chief to get rid of Maddox once and for all.”

Delta ran her hands through her wet hair. She must have rushed to the hospital straight from her shower, tucking into sweats and only one sock on the way. “Josie, this is beyond us. We can’t take down the chief of police and the mayor ourselves.”

“I know.” I couldn’t think fast enough. The damn fire still puffed smoke into my brain. “What about the District Attorney? Maybe he can start an investigation? God, I don’t know.” I covered my face. “The chief probably has friends who’d protect him. Maddox was so worried about exposing him because he had so many connections.” I groaned. “Oh, no. The chief might do something to Chelsea.”

“Can you get ahold of her?” Delta bit her fingernail. “Maybe tell her to get out of town?”

I nodded. “If I can make her to leave Saint Christie, then the Chief can’t use her to control Maddox.”

The thought struck me so suddenly it caused a wave of morning sickness. Or maybe it was just fear. Delta was a champ and held my hair back as she helped me through the sickness.

At least the baby was okay, even if my stomach was in knots.

I fought the nausea and removed my IV. “We have to go. I have an idea.”

Delta didn’t like it already. “Please, stay in bed.”

No. No more waiting. No more secrets.

“All my life, I’ve played by the rules,” I said. “This whole town tricks you into thinking it’s innocent, and I was fooled. I said Maddox was out of his mind for wanting revenge, and he thought I was naïve for seeking justice.”

“Don’t tell me you’re going vigilante.”

“No. Chief Craig and Nolan caused these lies and conspiracies. I won’t live in a world where manipulation is the only way to solve problems and vengeance is the only real punishment. It ends now.”

I couldn’t leave in a hospital gown. Delta offered me her windbreaker. “What are you going to do?”

“I’m ending the corruption. We’re going to find Chelsea, and we’ll make her confess to the affair. Then no one can hurt her or Maddox anymore.”

Delta said it was a stupid idea, but she covered me as I raced to the door. We ran to the stairwell and busted out of the hospital through the side exit into the parking lot. She led me to her car and rooted through her gym bag for a pair of pants and a shirt.

I dressed in the car on the way to the motel. Delta drove fast, peeling out of a red light with as much displeasure as her accelerator could squeal.

“I should find Chelsea,” she said. “You need to be in the hospital.”

“You used to make me cut school with you.”

“Yeah, running out on your IV isn’t like skipping gym.”

“Chelsea might only talk to me. She was never close to Maddox. Hell, she only came around when she needed help or money.”

“Sounds like a great sister,” Delta said.

“She was his only family, broken as it was. He tried so hard to take care of her. I’m sure she’ll help him too.”

“Now who’s naïve? What if she runs? Or goes to Chief Craig?”

Then Maddox would be killed. I couldn’t fail. It wasn’t an option.

Delta pulled into the motel. Grit still coated my lungs, and I coughed all the way to the room. A light shone through the corner window. I knocked hard enough for the entire town to hear.

Nothing.

“Chelsea!” I shouted for her. “It’s Josie Davis. I need to talk to you.”

Not a sound.

I banged harder.

“Chelsea, please!”

She was content to ignore me, and why not? The town didn’t give her a reason to show her face. We pretended her family never existed. The town avoided them until I shoved Maddox into their lives and forced them to confront the problems that no one talked about. Drug use. Domestic abuse. Their parents were born rotten, but Maddox and Chelsea only shared a common name with them. They deserved better.

“It’s about Maddox.” My words hissed over a gasped breath. “He’s in danger. You’re the only one who can help him.”

The door opened partway, still connected with the chain. Chelsea peeked out. She guarded herself with a scowl, but her voice wavered over her brother’s name.

“Maddox is in trouble again?”

“This wasn’t his fault,” I said.

“Find that hard to believe.”

“It’s Chief Craig, Chelsea.”

The door nearly closed. I forced it open again. “I know what’s been happening. I know Maddox was giving him money to keep you safe.”

Chelsea groaned. “Why doesn’t anyone understand? John
loves
me. He wants to run away with me.”

Delta shared my glance. The poor girl was completely taken with a man who would destroy her.

“Right now, Chief Craig is saying Maddox tried to hurt me. He didn’t. If I go down there and argue with him, he’ll murder Maddox. I can’t do anything to help him.”

She touched the bruise on her face. “But what can I do? I’m nothing.”

“You have to come forward about the affair.”

The door almost closed again. Delta and I both pushed it open. Chelsea teared up and hid her face.

“I can’t do that,” she said.

“It’s for Maddox.”

“John will hate me.”

“Do you really want to be with a man who would threaten your brother? After everything Maddox has done for you?”

She picked at the paint on the door. “Josie, I’m a junkie. I’m a whore. No one in this town would believe me. John is the only way I can escape this life and become something more.”

“Will he actually help you?” I asked.

“I…he said he would.”

I didn’t believe her, and I knew she didn’t believe him. “Maddox and I will help you. But you’re the only one who can save him now. Please, Chelsea. I can’t do this without you.”

She shook her head, blonde hair falling over her eyes. The door slowly closed. Latched.

“No!” I pounded the frame. Delta pulled me back. “Chelsea,
please
. I’m begging you. I love Maddox. I’m trying to protect him. I won’t let anything happen to you, but you have to help me.”

“Josie…” Delta tugged on my arm. “Come on. We gotta get you back to the hospital.”

“
Chelsea
!”

“We can try again tomorrow. The doctors are going to freak out if you aren’t in your bed.”

I broke down. I couldn’t leave. I fought away from Delta’s arms.