backroad that would take him to Shadow House. A few minutes later, he was jumping out of his truck and making his way to the front door, noting the smoke rising from the back of the building and the small group standing outside the doors.
“Where’s Sloane?” he demanded as soon as he spotted Grey making his way out the front door.
“I didn’t even know she was here,” Grey said only to bite out, “Shit!” as he glanced back at the parking lot and–
“Chase!” came the terrified scream that had everything inside him going still as he looked to his right to find Deb running toward him as tears streamed down her small face.
“Where’s Teddy and Sloane, sweetheart?” Chase asked, quickly making his way over to the little girl that never let her little brother out of her sight.
“Sloane a-and T-Teddy,” Deb managed to get out before a coughing fit took over. When she couldn’t stop coughing, she pointed toward the building. “B-back room…right s-side.”
Oh, god…
She’d barely finished getting out the words when Chase moved his ass. He ran inside and headed to the back rooms, barely aware that Grey was right behind him. He quickly made his way past the pool, the physical therapy room, break room, and kept going, only pausing long enough to grab a fire extinguisher off the wall along the way. As soon as he reached the back hallway, he bit back a curse as white smoke poured out from beneath the last door down the small hallway.
“Shit!” Grey bit out as they raced for the door.
“Careful it locks from the inside,” Grey said as Chase shoved the door open and felt his stomach drop when he spotted them. Teddy was on the floor curled up in a ball with his T-shirt over his face and Sloane–
Oh, god…
“Chase!” Grey snapped as Chase forced himself to look away and focus on getting them out of there.
He quickly took everything in, from the smoke pouring off the back wall to the flames racing along the cracks in the wall, letting him know that they didn’t have much time. With that in mind, he quickly made his way into the room and sprayed the wall with foam, hoping to buy them a little more time.
“Get the hell out of here!” Grey suddenly yelled, dragging his attention back to find Nikki running into the room. She ignored Grey, who was looking for something to shove beneath the door to keep it open and made her way to Teddy and Sloane.
“Are they breathing?” Chase asked only to scream it when she didn’t answer him fast enough.
Teddy’s startled cry had him slowly releasing a shaky breath.
Thank god, Chase thought only to feel like someone tore his heart out of his chest when Nikki said, “Sloane’s not breathing.”
“Get him out of here,” Chase said, dropping the empty fire extinguisher on the floor and moved his ass. With a nod, Nikki picked Teddy up and carefully cradled him in her arms as she quickly left.
“Baby, you’ve gotta wake up,” Chase said, squinting through the smoke quickly filling the room again as he reached for her, trying to pull her free, but she was stuck beneath the shelves.
“Come on, Pookie. It’s time to get up,” Chase said as he shifted his attention to the shelving unit as he tried to pull her free and–
“Pull her out!” Hunter said, suddenly there, picking the shelving unit off Sloane so that Chase could pull her free.
In seconds, Chase had Sloane in his arms and racing out of the room. Grey let the door slam shut behind them and was leading the way to the closest exit while Chase ignored the pain shooting down his back as he leaned down and covered Sloane’s mouth with his. He shoved past the firefighters filing into the building and kept going.
As soon as they were outside, Chase carefully laid Sloane down on the ground and set to work. He checked her pulse and nearly fucking sighed with relief when he found it…
It was weak, but it was there. He forced himself to focus and tried to pretend that his heart wasn’t breaking as he tilted her head back, gently pinched her nose shut and slowly blew into her mouth as Adam dropped down by his side with a jump kit.
“Come on, Pookie,” Chase muttered urgently between breaths while Adam got the oxygen ready.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Deb asked, sounding terrified as Hunter picked her up and held her.