My scattered brain tries to work, to land on my feet and roll. Instead, I hit the unforgiving ground with a brutal thud, landing on my shoulder. The momentum rolls me onto my back and then I curl up like a potato bug, staring at the conflagration that used to be my family’s business.
I’m yanked up by my arm and I scream. The faceless man is pulling me away, running with Murder Mittens still tucked in his jacket.
I barely hear Maury’s shouting but the man looks back at him, roaring,“RUN!”
Maury does, just as something explodes, another violent push from behind that nearly knocks us off our feet and makes my eardrums bulge ominously. I stumble, coughing and he hauls me up again, still running, Murder Mittens bouncing up and down in his jacket until we’ve made it to the next building down the block.
The fire is so powerful that it’s crisping myhair, even from this far and I scream as another explosion rocks the ground. I can hear the distant sound of sirens.
“The fire trucks, they’re coming,” I cough and wheeze. “They’ll have paramedics, they can-”
Another explosion.
All the windows in this building facing the inferno shatter, shards flying like bullets and the man pulls me around the corner. There’s an old jeep there and he opens the door, shoving me inside as a fourth explosion rumbles through the parking lot like an earthquake.
He’s in the driver’s seat and we’re racing away from the nightmare behind us, the jeep painted searing shades of red and orange from the light of the blaze.
Chapter Seven
In which Wallace is not thinking straight.
Wallace…
I dinnae know why I took her.
Scarlett Banner. She’s from the enemy’s syndicate, and she’s sitting in the passenger seat of my jeep with a stupefied expression on her soot-smeared face, clutching that little furry bastard who clawed ribbons of flesh off my chest.
What the hell are that cat’s claws made of? Titanium?
As the fire started…
That eejit night watchman was racing toward the fire, waving his arms, and screaming, “Fire, it’s on fire! Scarlett, getout!”
Feckme.
Someone else was in the building? How? I was meticulous in my research.
It dinnae matter, I pulled my balaclava over my face and intercepted the man. “I’ll get her! Callthe fire department and get back, this building’s going to go up in minutes!”
I was racing toward the front doors when he shouted, “She’s in the corner office! I can see her, she’s alive!”
Fortunate that I put that charge in Kyle’s office instead.
The back staircase was already engulfed in flame, the front stairs were still passable, they were stone, with less material nearby to catch fire.
My accelerant in Kyle’s office went off, sending a huge gout of flame through that end of the building. The third canister would take longer to ignite but when it did, the flashpoint would turn us to ash and bone in minutes.
The greedy reach of the fire was already spreading toward Marlena’s office. The lass dinnae try to open the door, clever thing. I could hear glass shattering from inside. Good. She was trying to get out through the window.
Spinning around, I looked for another way to get to her. They’d remodeled recently, a shoddy job with paper-thin walls. There was a newly-painted section around the right corner to Marlena’s office, maybe an add-on bathroom or boardroom.
I was right. It was a shite job.
I broke through the sheetrock in seconds,enough to wedge my way through and tear open the door.
Ach. It’sthatScarlett.
Scarlett Banner, eyes wide with terror, holding her cat close to her chest and gripping a broken chair. Slamming the bathroom door shut to slow down the spread of the fire, I charged toward her.
