Her body tensed, ready to leap away from his grasp but then she realized his clothes were still on fire and yet he didn’t stir to extinguish the flames. He must have broken his neck in the fall, she thought. With him paralyzed, she entertained for a moment the perfect justice it would be for him to make his way to the pit of Hell already on fire. And then she did what she couldn’t understand. She stripped off her coat, ran to him, and smothered the flames consuming his body.
“What are you doing?” Tony’s voice croaked. The damage Natalie had caused to his larynx made his words came out in a raspy broken whisper. He inhaled another wheezing breath.
She couldn’t respond. The look that met hers was that of desperation. As much as she wanted him dead, she realized he didn’t want to be alive either. She grabbed his hands and began to pull him away from the collapsing barn.
“Let me die, Natalie,” he forced out another whispered directive.
“Shut up!” she said, as she continued to pull him across the barn floor. Once they were next to the Subaru, she released him and jumped into the driver’s seat. The key ring only had five keys but she tried each one until it slid into the ignition. She turned the key and sent a quick prayer.
Special Agent Hawk stepped from black SUV and stared at the fully involved inferno before her. The sirens in the distance, the pulsating lights of emergency vehicles already on the scene and the roar of Captain Seth Parker’s helicopter twenty-five yards away didn’t register. If Natalie was inside that hellhole, all the firefighters in the county, still several minutes away, couldn’t save her now.
“Damn it,” she said as the back of the barn began to fall in on itself.
As the Subaru came to life, another thunderous sound drew Natalie’s eyes away from the ignition. The air filled with orange hail as the roof and walls crumbled. They covered the place where Tony had fallen with a cascade of glowing flame, black soot and gray smoke. The ravenous blaze ignited the loft and it too fell victim to the fire’s voracious appetite.
Through the windshield, she saw the roof over her now fully involved as well and knew within seconds it would collapse on top of Tony and the car.
“Don’t save me Natalie,” Tony’s broken voice crackled above the thrash of the snarling flames. “Save yourself. I must die. You were destined to kill me.”
Natalie looked at the pathetic waste lying just outside the car door and knew she could do just that without regret. This had been his plan all along. He not only wanted to die, but he wanted her to kill him. What insanity? All the destruction and terror he caused just to make her angry enough to kill him, but for what reason? Oh, he had that and so much more coming, but he manipulated this outcome. Why, she realized, she might never know.
She slammed the car door, jammed the gearshift into reverse and stomped her foot on the accelerator pedal. The car hesitated as if it too had a death wish, unwilling to the leave the halls of Hell behind. She realized the parking brake must be set and searched the compartment until she found the release.
Natalie tromped the pedal to the floor again. The back tires spun violently throwing a cloud of dust into the face of the billows of smoke rolling toward her. The Subaru jerked to a start and began to race backwards toward the wooden door.
Like the Phoenix rising from its funeral pyre, Angela saw a sedan, the Osorio’s Subaru she had pursued most of the afternoon, burst through the barn door. It gave way without resistance. She pulled her service weapon, dropped to one knee and crouched prepared to give fire.
Natalie slammed her foot on the brake pedal and tore open the car’s door. She met another gun. A silhouette frozen against the strobe lights of emergency vehicles pointed a weapon at her.
“Natalie Beaumont?”
“Yes,” Natalie said and jumped from the car. She cleared the door and ran back toward the barn.
“You can’t go back in there,” Angela shouted.
“One of them is still alive,” Natalie yelled over her shoulder. “I’ve got to save him.”
_____
©
Jearl Rugh 2012
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