Something Worth Saving
by Chelsea Landon
Release Date: Feb 4, 2014
Hosted by: Southern Belle Book Blog
Synopsis
Blurb
I’ll tell you a story about two people who loved with everything they had and fought for what they believed in despite the world around them. They fought for something worth saving.
The story is something beautiful. It’s a story about me.
My reality, the story I’m telling, is that I share Jace Ryan with the world and he keeps us safe. The warmth of his heart and body, all beautiful, and worth saving.
Some would now venture to wonder, what’s missing then?
And I ask myself that a lot.
But it’s the nights that get me because you see that there? That hesitation? The question where I asked myself what’s missing?
You see everything around us tests our will, our faith, and our ability to tell right from wrong, to believe there’s good when there’s only evil.
To me, it’s a fate among the toughest deciding on its path. It’s the restless sounds at night that I awake to wondering what I’m missing. The ones that crept deep in my bones and reminded me that this story, while still being written, had taken a turn into something darker, a place I never thought we would be.
It was one night, one fate and something tragic destroying something beautiful.
Heavy sheets of smoke curling and rolling together constricting my visions of this life I had.
You see that there?
That wrenching pain in your gut knowing not everything as it seems?
Look closer. That nervous energy you now have, stumbling over words you can’t say, a voice muffled under a mask, a moaning plea to be saved, slurred words on the tip of your tongue, there’s the something tragic.
When I have nothing left to give, nothing left to say, it’s him that brings me back to the moment, in the arms of my firefighter, the warmth of his heart and body, struggling to save his family.
Excerpt
Jace
Primary Search – Something Worth Saving
“Engine 10, Ladder 1 ...Battalion 22 ...800 block, cross streets are University and Western ...”
When the apartment address came across the scanner, I went cold. I’d never felt fear like that. It was instant, from my head to my toes, numbing and all-consuming.
The guys looked at me as we loaded onto the truck. “Is that your ...” Their voices trailed off as I started to shake, my head nodding vigorously.
We pulled out. Anxious eyes watched me carefully, not knowing what to say.
I had just talked to her. She was fine.
And then my thoughts went to one person. Ridley.
My breath tripped when the apartment number was called out on the scanner and Mike turned around. This was real. This was so fucking real, and I had to deal with it.
“They’ve activated a second alarm already...”
I felt sick. My stomach dropped, my heart stilled, and I could almost feel the blood drain from my face.
Never did I think he’d actually hurt her. It never crossed my mind.
And all this time, the warning had been there. But most of all, I had pushed him toward it. I had baited him with the one thing that had the power to destroy me. That was the worst feeling of all. I knew it now ...something he’d known all along.
With my mask and air already on, we came around Western, and the smoke was billowing through broken windows shattered from the heat on the fourth floor. Our apartment faced the back so I couldn’t see how bad it really was, but there was no stopping me when I got off that truck.
My dad tried to catch me. Kasey tried, too, and Axe even blocked me, but not this time. I was going in no matter what. They wouldn’t stop me like they did at the pier.
As with any firefighter, I was there to access the situation and respond based on my training. How can you do that when your mind is stuck on one thing?
How do I save my family when I’m so clearly caught up with anger?
My hope was slipping through my own fingers as I was forced to make one decision, one that changed lives. I climbed the stairs, forty pounds of gear weighing me down as I took them two steps at a time.
The thick brown smoke and the sagging wood let me know I didn’t have long. If I was going to get to them, I needed to move now. I started taking the steps three at a time and finally reached the fourth floor.
All I heard now was heavy breathing — my own, that hollow sound the SCBA made, the beep of our monitors tracking me as I searched through smoke thick enough to blind you. As a matter of fact, I couldn’t see anything. All that surrounded me was the roar of the nearby flames and blackness.
Sweat poured down my neck and back under my bunker gear.
Where I was standing, the temperature was a mere 150. Maybe a little higher. Near the ceiling, it could be thousands. Crawling, I made my way to the door. Axe was beside me now, Denny and Kasey behind him.
When I got to our apartment and saw that it was fully engulfed, I lost my head in the smoke and reacted as recklessly as I felt, consumed in my own flames. My family was in there, and I let that thought take over.
Playlist
1. A Beautiful War – Kings of Leon
2. Breathe Me – Sia
3. Grey Blue Eyes – Dave Matthews
4. Closer – Nine Inch Nails
5. This Moment – Katy Perry
6. As I’m Leaving – David Gray
7. In My Veins – Andrew Belle
8. Be Still – The Fray
9. Darling Nikki – Prince
10. Stroke Me – Mickey Avalon
11. The One I Love – David Gray
12. Say Something – A Great Big World
13. Syrup & Honey – Duffy
14. Simple Man – Lynyrd Skynyrd
15. You Found Me – The Fray
16. All Through The Night – Sleeping At Last
Character Casting
Author Bio
A stay-at-home mom, Chelsea Landon spends her days drinking entirely too much caffeine, baking sugar-sweet treats she never eats, and jotting down notes for her novels. A dreamer at heart, she’s creating happily ever afters. She’s a lover, a writer, a dreamer, would rather type than speak, wants to remember everything, loves lots of ice in her drinks, and is slightly introverted.
Ten Fun Facts about Chelsea Landon
1. I love Pinterest. LOVE it.
2. Love coffee. Even more than Pinterest.
3. I’ve always wanted to be a bartender. See #4.
4. My favorite movie is Cocktail. Which has inspired my next book Come Sundown.
5. I travel a lot. Road trips are considered a past time to me. I could get in a car and drive for hours with my music blasting and no destination in sight.
6. If I could go anywhere tomorrow it would be Australia.
7. I constantly feel like a bad parent. Little tiny lives depend on me and that stresses me out.
8. Because of #7, I’m sure I have anxiety.
9. My favorite book is The Outsiders but followed closely by anything Janet Evanovich writes.
10. My favorite color is teal. I hate gray. I wish it would decide what color it wants to be. Black or white. Funny enough, I have a lot of gray shirts. And clearly teal can’t decide what color it wants to be either, can it?
Giveaway
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