Fifteen minutes later, I prepare to open the front door to Seasons, using the key Sterling gave me, but the door’s ajar. One of the security team must already be here.
I walk inside and head down the dim hallway. It’s all mood lighting from here to the main bar area.
I head through the door at the end that leads toward Sterling’s office, flicking on the light with one hand and balancing the tray of coffees and brown paper bag of breakfast things in the other. I use the key Sterling gave me to open his office door. It’s definitely one of Denver’s team who are in. If Sterling was here then his office would already be unlocked.
I step inside and turn on the light.
I don’t know how he spends so much time in here without natural light. His office doesn’t have any windows. Probably a good thing considering that time he went down on me on his desk. My eyes rake over the dark mahogany wood on the far side of the large room, the memory making my thighs clench.
Maybe I should lay myself out on it like he suggested? I’m sure I’d like his reaction if I do.
I smile to myself as I place our drinks and food onto the desk, then put my purse down on one of the sofas and shrug out of my coat. He’ll be here any minute. Maybe I should send him a text of me sitting on his desk to make him to hurry up.
I pull my phone out of my purse and curse at the dead screen.
“Ugh. Again.”
The battery has been draining ridiculously fast for a couple of days now. I’ve been meaning to get a replacement, but I’ve been busy talking with new clients and haven’t done it yet.
I pull my charger from my bag and plug it into the socket beneath Sterling’s desk, leaving my phone next to our coffees to charge. The pink rose quartz heart I gave him catches my eye and I pick it up, turning its smooth surface over and over inside my palm.
“Unconditional love and healing emotional wounds,” I muse, placing it back beside the desk phone.
I lift up the receiver and am halfway through punching in Sterling’s cell number to see how close he is, when a bang that sounds like the door to the main bar area stops me.
I grin. It’s probably him. He always checks the main bar area on his way in each morning to make sure the team from the night before cleaned up properly.
Another bang catches me off guard and I drop the handset on the desk.
“You’re so loud!” I call with a giggle as I walk out into the hallway.
I head to the door at the end of the hallway, serving the bar area and main entrance, and reach for the handle.
My phone rings in his office.
It could be the newest client I’ve taken onto my books. A widower from San Francisco. I think Sterling inspired him that it’s never too late to choose to live again.
I falter for a moment. I can call him back.
I grab the door handle in an excited rush. It’s only been a couple of hours, yet I’m giddy to see Sterling again.
I’m ridiculous.Ridiculously, sickeningly in love.
I yank the door open. The hallway seems darker than when I arrived.
I squint, my eyes starting to water. Maybe the light went out. There’s a smell of… I take in a breath and immediately choke out a cough.
The air is thick, cloying.
Unbreathable.
Thick black smoke billows up the walls, circling around the ceiling in a cloud.
Something’s on fire.
The sound of shattering glass pierces the air from inside the bar area as smoke pours from the open doorway.
I rush to the fire extinguisher on the wall, but the metal is hot and sends a sudden lancing pain up my arm. I recoil, cradling my hand against my body as the thickening smoke makes it harder to see.
