Page 58 of Burnin' For You

The rancid smell had dissipated with the night air, but smoke from the fire began to filter in, hover around the ceiling. And, with the gas lines alive and thick with gas, the place could torch any moment.

“Reuben—I’m...”

He thought she might say scared, but the word that came out was “sorry.”

“You’re sorry? For what?”

“For not having better aim. I thought I got his eyes, but I should have ducked or grabbed the gun or—”

“Gilly. Stop.” He touched her arm. “No. You were awesome. But we have to get out of here—”

“How about the bathroom?”

“Yes!”

He levered himself to all fours, fighting his way across the floor.

The flames crackled into the window, licking the frame, igniting the grimy curtains.

Gilly had a hold on his collar and pulled, directing him through a door toward the blackness of a bedroom. He hit his head on the jamb to the bathroom.

“There’s no window!” he said.

“No. And no toilet. But there’s washbasin and a tin tub—we could get in it.”

“We’ll never fit, not both of us. But this place has a porch which means—”

“There’s a crawl space under the house!” Gilly said.

He sat on the floor, holding onto the tub as it swayed.

“What now?” she said.

“We gotta…move…this…” He couldn’t think clearly.

“I’ll help you. We’ll do it together.” She got up, wedged her body against the wall, her feet against the tub.

He managed to get to his knees. “I can only do this once, I think.”

And then, with a roar, he ripped the tub from the floor.

Black filled his eyes, the room pitched, and he felt himself falling.

“No! Reuben, stay with me!”

But the floor came too fast, too hard. He crashed onto it, woozy.

When he pushed himself up, he knew he was going to faint.

“Reuben, don’t leave me—”

Gilly climbed over him, kicking at a drainage pipe in the floor. He opened his eyes enough to see it rip free, and with it, a chunk of board. She had her feet braced on either side of him, sawing the pipe back and forth to open a gap.

Then suddenly, he heard a splintering, and she threw the pipe out of the room.

A gap opened up, about the size of his thigh.

But, of course, just about big enough for Gilly.