“Tell him why, Don,” Carter urges.
Don’s frown deepens. “We think this fucker is a firefighter.”
“What the hell?”
“Yeah, tell me about it,” Sean adds to my shock.
“He’s too good at this. He’s always a step ahead of us, and making the fires seem like accidents isn’t easy to do.”
I nod, knowing that’s the truth. Fire investigation has come a long way in recent decades. At the academy, we’re taught basic fire investigation. It’s imperative to know how a fire began to be able to pinpoint the best way to put it out or trace its next move, if need be.
“This is fucking crazy,” I sigh.
“Tell us about it. Now that you know, it’s up to you to keep this within the station. We think the more gets out, the more dangerous this situation could get.”
“I won’t say shit.”
Don tilts his head. “Now, here are the things you should be on the look out for …” he continues as he goes into what I need to keep an eye out for whenever we get a call. Particularly, on calls that involve house fires with mothers and young children.
Chapter Fifteen
Janine
“An escape room?” I question as we pull into the parking lot of a plain looking brick building that reads Williamsport Escape Room Tour. We just finished lunch at a local Thai restaurant, and now apparently we were going to work it off by hunting something or escaping from somewhere.
“What is this?” Emanuel helps me out of the car. It still gets the butterflies in my belly flapping when he demonstrates his chivalry.
“Exactly what is says. You’ve never been to an escape room before?” he questions.
I shake my head.
“Good. Popping another—”
“Don’t say it,” I warn, making him laugh. The sound of his deep chuckle moves through my body, causing me to tingle as he takes my left hand into his.
We enter the building and I glance around to see a few other patrons talking with a staff member.
“Good afternoon,” the friendly older man behind the counter greets.
“Good afternoon. Two for Allende,” Emanuel says.
The man pulls up his tickets in their system. “Ah, here you are. You get to choose which of the three rooms you want to try.”
I look up at my date.
“There’s the bank heist, zombie apocalypse, and the dig,” Emanuel says before explaining what the different escape rooms entail.
“Bank heist,” I answer excitedly.
“I was hoping you’d choose that one.”
We’re paired up with six other people and are herded into a room that has been created to look like a bank from the 1920s. There’s a man standing behind one of the closed-off windows, smiling and waving at us. We’re given instructions on what to do and what the objective for this particular room is. Within minutes we are all splitting off into our different assignments and tasks, trying to work with one another to achieve our objective. We’re on a time limit and the clock is posted at the top corner of the wall, counting down to create a sense of urgency.
There are many different scenarios that pop up out of nowhere while we’re all trying to figure out how to get out of the room with the money we’ve now stolen. When running down one hallway a man jumps out of nowhere, scaring the hell out of me.
“Ah!” I stumble backwards right into the arms of the person behind me. I don’t have to look back to know it’s him. The warmth that fills my body as he braces me tells me enough.
“I got you, butterfly,” he coos in my ears. He pushes the man out of the way and keeps his arm at my back while we make our way from the hallway to another room. There, we are given clues on to how to break out of that room. This continues and the hour flies by. I would say I can’t remember a time where I had so much fun but that would be a lie. Because the truth is anytime I’m with Emanuel it’s fun. He manages to keep a smile on my face or keep me laughing.
