Country Love

Chapter Seven

Bradley jumped from his truck as soon as he threw it in park. The tiny cottage house was in flames… He felt panic in its purest form as he wondered if Isabelle and Sara were still inside. He was running toward the house when the door of Isabelle's cavalier opened.

"Badley!" Sara exclaimed. Bradley felt relief at the sight of the little blond haired girl.

"Where is your mommy?" he asked. Sara pointed at the house and Bradley didn't wait around to hear anything else before running inside.

His lungs burnt instantly and he could barely see through the haze. The entire downstairs was flames and smoke.

"Isabelle!" he yelled and then began coughing as he breathed the smoke deep into his lungs.

"Bradley?" he heard Isabelle's voice come back from upstairs. He ran to her ignoring the pain in his lungs and the burning on his skin from the heat of the flames. He found her in her bedroom desperately throwing things into a suitcase.

"What the hell are you doing?" he demanded. "You have to get out of here!"

"I have to save this stuff.. It's all I have!" she argued. She seemed to be searching for something in the closet. Bradley didn't waste any more time talking. He grabbed her around the waist and threw her over his shoulder.

"Bradley what are you doing! I have to find the money! I can't lose it!" she yelled. Bradley ignored her protests but when he got out to the hallway he saw that the stairway was full of flames. If he carried her down she'd be burnt up.

He went back into the bedroom and pulled the sheet off of the bed. He ran across the hallway, with Isabelle still over his shoulder, to the bathroom and turned on the water. He soaked the sheet and then sat Isabelle down on her feet.

"I have to get that bag." she said with panic in her voice. Bradley shook his head.

"Whatever it was it isn't worth getting killed over." he said. She nodded.

"Yes it is." she said. "It's all I have."

"No that little girl outside scared to death because she's worried about her mommy is what you have." he said. Isabelle bit her lip to keep from crying and then screamed when he threw the sheet over her head, making her look like a very wet ghost on Halloween and then tossed her back over his shoulder.

Bradley took a deep breath, focused all the discipline he'd learned from his time in the core and then ran through the flames as quickly as he could, thinking only about how he had to get Isabelle out safely.

He sat her on her feet and pulled the wet sheet off of her once they were safely outside. She looked at the cottage that was now completely engulfed in flames and fell to her knees. Everything was gone. Her money. Her clothes. All of Sara's things… All of it was gone. She buried her face in her hands and cried. Her mother in law was right. She couldn't take care of Sara on her own. What kind of mother let her daughter live in a house without smoke detectors? What kind of mother would have left supper cooking on the stove and not stayed there to supervise?

Sara's tiny arms wrapped around her neck and broke through her self pity and grief.

"It's okay, mommy. Badley saved you" she said gently as she rubbed her back. Isabelle stood up and looked at Bradley who was staring at her with an odd expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" he asked and she could hear how scratchy his voice sounded from being in the smoky house.

"You saved my life. If you hadn't come I never would have made it back out of that house." Isabelle said matter-of-factly. Bradley reached out and smoothed some of her damp hair away from her face.