“Over here,” she called from the far side of the table. “On the floor.”
He raced around the table, forcing himself to ignore the bodies there. Lexi was lying on the floor on her side, bound to a heavy, wooden chair, the ropes around her wrists so tight her fingertips were starting to turn purple.
Jerking the chair upright, Dane pulled his Gerber rescue knife off his belt and cut the ropes around her wrists, upper arms, waist, and ankles. He worked as fast as he could, knowing the situation upstairs was getting worse by the second.
Lexi tried to stand the moment he cut the last rope, but immediately stumbled. Dane caught her in time, easing her down to the floor in alarm.
“My feet are completely numb,” she said, panic in her voice. “I can’t walk!”
“It’s because you were tied up for so long. You’ll be okay, but I have to get you out of here.”
Putting his knife away, Dane scooped her into his arms and ran for the steps. As he expected, the fire was much worse upstairs, and he immediately began coughing and gasping for breath. In his arms, Lexi did the same.
He looked around, wondering where the hell Logan was. They had to leave—now.
Suddenly, a tall form emerged out of the smoke from the dining room. Dane was about to let out a sigh of relief, but then he realized it wasn’t Logan.
“She can’t leave!” Lambert shouted, running at them like an enraged linebacker. “Not yet!”
With Lexi in his arms, all Dane could do was drop his shoulder and brace for impact. But at the last second, two other figures darted in from the direction of the living room and slammed into Lambert, knocking the doctor across the room. Logan, Trent, and Lambert ended up in a heap in the floor. For a guy who didn’t look like he worked out a lot, Lambert was damn spry Jumping to his feet, he ran down the stairs to the basement.
“The dead bodies he stole are down there,” Lexi said in between coughs. “He killed all three of them and now he thinks he can save them. He’s insane.”
Dane figured that last part went without saying, and was more than ready to let the deranged killer try to save as many corpses as he wanted—not that Dane thought that was very likely.
Logan headed for the stairs. “I’ll get him!”
“You don’t have time!” Dane shouted. “This whole house is going up any second. There won’t be enough oxygen left up here by the time you come back with him.”
The detective met his gaze. “I gotta try. It’s my job. You two go. Get Lexi out of here.”
Logan turned and charged down the steps before Dane could say anything else. Dane would have gone after him, but Lexi was coughing again. He had to get her out of her.
He turned and nodded at Trent. “Lead the way!”
Trent led the way out of the kitchen. Dane followed, cradling Lexi closer to his chest to protect her from the flames as much as he could.
“Hold your breath!” he told her then darted across the smoke-filled living room. The flames had engulfed almost the entire back of the house, and were racing across the ceiling even as he and Trent ran. The heat was so intense his skin tingled in pain before he’d made it a dozen steps. But he kept going, knowing that if he went down, Lexi would never survive.
When they finally reached the door front door and burst into the cool night air, Lexi breathed it in as fast as he did.
Firefighters and paramedics were there to grab Lexi out of his arms the moment he stepped outside. Dane looked up to see six DF&R vehicles from stations 29, 57, and 58 all lined up along the street. Two dozen firefighters, including Jax, Kate, Kohl, and Tory, were already working to contain the fire.
“There’s a DPD detective in the basement,” he shouted. “He’s in there with the killer.”
Kate and Tory charged through the front door without hesitation, as two firefighters from the five-seven urged him and Trent toward the nearest rescue truck. When they got there, the paramedics from Station 29 already had Lexi sitting on a gurney. They were giving her oxygen and checking the abrasions around her ankles and wrists. He brushed aside the oxygen mask one of the men held out to him and instead ran to her side.
“Are you okay?” he asked urgently, looking at her feet for the first time and realizing she wasn’t wearing shoes. The fear of what that sicko doctor night have done to her warred with the fear that she’d been tied up so long she might have sustained serious damage.
She pulled off her mask to give him a small smile. “The feeling in my hands and feet is coming back now. They’re tingling like crazy, which is a good sign. I’ll be fine.”
He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her close. “Lambert didn’t…hurt you…did he?”
She shook her head against his chest. “No. He drugged me at the hospital, and I woke up here, surrounded by dead people. I’m a little creeped out to think about him changing my clothes, but as bizarre as it sounds, I think he thought of me as his sister. He would have never hurt me.”
“He would have burned you alive,” Trent murmured through his oxygen mask.
Lexi nodded. “Yeah, there is that.”
