“Housewarming gift.”
Meaning Cam understood. And he’d said he’d been unpacking him.
Here.
He wasn’t going to pressure him to move in.
All of Nic’s lingering tension, the fears he’d been holding inside, been holding on to for the past month, fell away. He breathed deep?—
And almost choked. “Do you smell that?”
Inhaling, Cam’s eyes widened a second later in recognition, and they both spun, looking up to the air vent above the door. Smoke was billowing out from between the metal slats. “What the fuck?”
The building fire alarm blared in answer.
Cam raced into the living room and grabbed his gun and badge off the window ledge. He was back in the foyer by the time Nic came out of the bathroom with two soaked pillowcases.
“Makes it easier to breathe,” he said, holding one out to Cam. “We’re going up?”
Cam nodded; no question. He was a first responder already on scene who could rescue trapped residents or help coordinate evac. This was his job and judging by the determined look in Nic’s eyes, he considered it his too. Cam didn’t bother trying to convince him otherwise. He might be a lawyer now, but the soldier resided just beneath the surface. If Nic could be on the front lines, he would be, and there were only a handful of others Cam trusted as much as Nic to have his back. He took the pillowcase from Nic, folded it into a triangle, and tied it bandanna-style around the lower part of his face.
After Nic did the same, he dug two flashlights out of another box and handed one to Cam. “You’re more recently trained in evac procedures. You lead.”
Smoke was slowly seeping into the third-floor hallway, not a full-on pour like through Nic’s vents yet, so the other residents were more disoriented than panicked. Woken in the middle of the night, driven out of their units by the alarms, they struggled to find their way to the exits in the dim hallway, the emergency lighting and signs not as bright as they should be.
“This way, folks!” Cam shone his light up at the glossy white ceiling, moving it around like a beacon. “Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” he hollered in his agent voice.
People began to hustle, taking his orders seriously.
“Boston!” Nic called from where he stood holding open the stairwell door, ushering people through. “We need to get upstairs!”
“I got it here!” A third voice entered the fray. A young man in uniform was shoving his way through the crowd, flashing a badge. “Shante Bridges, Redwood City PD. Just got home from my shift. You cops too?”
“Assistant Special Agent in Charge Cameron Byrne.” He flashed his FBI badge, then aimed the beam of his flashlight at Nic. “And that’s Captain Dominic Price, retired SEAL and federal prosecutor.” He normally wouldn’t prioritize, much less reference, Nic’s rank, but Cam didn’t want to waste time arguing who would take lead here.
Shante caught the drift. “Go on, then. I got it here. I’m sure they can use your help upstairs.”
“Thanks, man.” Cam slapped his shoulder, then hurried to join Nic in the stairwell. Using his bigger body to cut a path along the rail, Cam climbed the steps in front of Nic, the smoke getting thicker the closer they got to the fourth floor. The crowd, however, was thinning out.
Cam understood why when they reached the fourth-floor landing and heat blasted his face. “Fire must be on this end.”
“It’s right there!” shouted a woman running past them, dragging a bleary-eyed kid behind her. The next man pointed to the elevator side of the stairwell. “It’s the corner unit!” he hollered, then thundered down the stairs, picking up the kid for the woman, who thanked him profusely.
“Right above my unit,” Nic said, redrawing Cam’s attention. “We need to make sure it’s clear.”
Cam nodded and they moved into the hallway where they were blasted by another wave of heat. People were running away from this end, away from the corner unit that was clearly the source of the fire, dark black smoke billowing out from around the door’s edges. Cam laid his hand on the door—blistering hot. Cursing, he snatched his hand back and kicked at the door with his foot.
It didn’t budge.
“You smell that?” Nic said beside him. “Underlying the smoke.”
Cam sniffed and nearly hacked up a lung, but yeah, he smelled it. Taken together with how hot that door had been to the touch, there was only one conclusion. “Accelerant.”
“Has to be. Meaning we gotta get everyone out of here now.” Nic banged on the door with his fist. “First responders! Is anyone in there? First responders, open up!”
“It’s empty,” came a thin, wobbly voice from across the hall.
Cam spun, gaze following the direction of the voice to a little girl in the opposite doorway. Dressed in Wonder Woman pajamas, she couldn’t have been more than eight. Tears streaked down her face and as a coughing fit overcame her, she covered her mouth with her hand.
