Lambert’s eyes were almost glazed over as he relived that horrible moment from his past. It was impossible to hear him talking about seeing his family die in a fire and not think about Dane. Their stories were so similar, yet Dane had become a firefighter, risking his life to save others from the same fate that befallen his parents, while Lambert had become psychotic.
She wanted to ask why he was doing this now, after all these years, but realized she already knew the answer to the question. All it took was the memory of the media interviewing Lambert outside the ER triage area and asking him to tell them all about the amazing kid who’d saved his entire family from a house fire. That would have certainly been enough to set a person like Lambert off.
“I wasn’t in time to save them.” Lambert drew himself up, his eyes taking on a resolute, determined expression. “But, this time, I will save them. Then everything will go back to being the way it was.”
Giving her a smile and a nod, Lambert turned and headed for the stairs. Crap, he was really going to do this.
“Stop!” Lexi shouted. “You can’t do this. It won’t bring back your family.”
Lambert glanced at her over his shoulder. “Don’t worry, sis. I’ll be home from playing in plenty of time for dinner.”
Lexi shouted for Lambert to come back. But he wasn’t coming back. He was too far gone for that. She didn’t know where in the house he was going to start the fire, but she had no doubt he was getting ready to do it right then.
Pulse pounding, she struggled against the bindings tied around her wrists, ignoring the damage she knew she was doing to her skin, but they still wouldn’t give. Desperate, she jerked side to side and front to back, hoping the chair would weaken and break. If it did, she might be able to scramble out of her bonds.
She heard a thud upstairs, followed immediately by a sloshing sound that was impossible to ignore. Then the smell hit her.
Gasoline.
Lambert was dousing the first floor with gas.
Screw it. Lexi opened her mouth and screamed for help at the top of her lungs, praying there was someone nearby to hear her. If not, then she was going to die.
* * * * *
Dane heard Lexi’s screams at the same time he saw flames flickering through the windows of the traditional ranch style home west of Garland. Shouting for Trent to get DF&R out there and that one of their own was in the building, he ran toward the front door of the house.
“Slow down, Dane!” Logan shouted, falling into step beside him. “We have a murdering psycho in there who’s already killed three people. He won’t hesitate to kill more.”
Dane didn’t care. The drive out here in Logan’s unmarked police car through Friday night traffic had been torture enough. Now that they were here, there was no way in hell he was going to leave Lexi in a burning house, no matter what he had to do.
Dane kicked in the front door, slowing only long enough to let Logan enter the house first with his weapon drawn. He immediately followed the cop inside, trying to see everywhere in the smoke-filled room at once. Heat and the scent of gasoline rolled toward him in waves from a long hallway that he assumed led toward the bedrooms. All it took was one flash of flames to remind him that he wasn’t wearing his turnout gear—or a SCBA.
“Lexi!” he shouted over the roar of the fire. “Where are you?”
There was nothing but silence in the roar of the fire, but then a shout came from somewhere down below them.
“In the basement!”
Her voice was hard to hear over the flames, but he knew without a doubt it was Lexi. Relief rushed through him.
“Be careful!” she added. “He’s up there somewhere!”
Leaving Logan to worry about Lambert, Dane took off for the kitchen, praying that was where he’d find the entrance to the basement. If it was in the other direction, they were screwed. The flames were already too high to ever get through that way.
Dane found the door to the basement near the old-style refrigerator in the equally antiquated kitchen. Logan grabbed his arm as he yanked open the door. The detective was already sweating and gasping for breath in the heat and smoke filling up this side of the house. Thanks to the gas Lambert had used to start the fire, the flames were spreading way faster than they should have, even in a place as old as this one.
“I’ll stay up here and make sure Lambert doesn’t try to trap all of us down there,” Logan said. “This could be a trap, so be careful.”
“You, too.”
Giving him a nod, Dane turned and raced down the dark steps. Within a few feet, the air started to clear and turn cooler, and he breathed it in gratefully.
The scene in the basement was like something out of a frigging horror movie. A single chandelier shone light on a table piled high with food. Three dead bodies sat positioned around the table dressed in retro-style clothing and staring unseeingly at the plates in front of them. Lexi wasn’t in sight though.
Dane’s heart pounded even harder.
“Lexi, where are you?” he shouted.
