Alex picked up Julia’s coat, slid his cell phone into the inside pocket, and handed it to her.
“Don’t lose this,” he said, staring her in the eye, hoping she understood what he’d done.
They left, and Alex’s heart ripped in two as he stood by and helplessly watched them head into the stairwell. As soon as the door closed, he raced to his apartment and got out his work cell phone. He opened the app that could track his personal phone. Nothing. Probably no signal in the stairwell. He watched and waited and breathed a sigh of relief when a tiny blue dot finally blinked—just outside their condo building.
He called Mitch. “What do I do? If I call the police and they just attack, he might shoot someone.”
“Yeah, but they have experience with hostage negotiation and dealing with mental health issues. You don’t.”
“How long would it take them to put a team together? There’s no time for all that.”
“I’ll call my old partner, Adam. He’s the department shrink and works downtown. He could be there quick.”
“I can’t wait. I’m going to get them.”
He hung up before Mitch could protest and ran downstairs. Three firefighters stood in the lobby, talking with Rudy. One of them was a friend of Alex’s.
“Hey, Mac,” his buddy Kyle said. “What’s goin’ on? No emergency?”
“There’s an emergency all right,” Alex said. “Just not a fire. Rudy, I need Kenneth’s home address. He’s kidnapped Julia and Calvin, and I don’t give a shit if you think you’ll get in trouble. I want it now.”
“Kenneth? Are you sure?”
“I’m positive. He just marched them out of here at gunpoint. They must have left through the parking garage. Get me the fucking address.”
Rudy didn’t give him any grief this time. He went straight to the computer at his station, wrote the information on a Post-it, and handed it to Alex. It was close.
Alex checked the beacon on his phone, and sure enough, it was moving that direction. There weren’t many places to hide hostages in downtown New York City. Alex was certain he was taking them to his place.
“I called the police,” Rudy said. “But I didn’t know what to tell them, so I don’t think they’re in any hurry.”
“Call them back, and have them go to Kenneth’s apartment. Make sure they understand it’s a hostage situation, and they can’t just barge in.”
Rudy nodded and left to make the call. Alex turned to his coworker.
“Kyle, can you come with me? It’s only a couple of blocks away.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Alex and Kyle ran the two blocks to Kenneth’s apartment building while the other firefighters brought the engine around. On the way over, he formulated a rough plan for how to rescue Julia and Calvin. He prayed it wasn’t a mistake to not wait for the cops. But even if they’d arrived, which they hadn’t, he was worried they would just storm in and confront Kenneth. And since he wasn’t in his right mind, he couldn’t be counted on to make logical decisions—like giving up when police had him cornered.
Kyle was already wearing turnout gear, and it only took Alex a second to slip into an extra set. He grabbed two emergency blankets, a gas can, a lighter, and a spare helmet before thrusting a fire extinguisher into Kyle’s arms. Kyle raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
There was no doorman. They used a skeleton key to enter the lobby and ran up the stairs to the second floor. Now was when things might get dicey.
Alex shoved a blanket into the helmet, doused it with gasoline, then quietly laid it outside Kenneth’s door.
“Uh, Mac. What’s your plan?” Kyle said.
“I gotta get ’em to come out on their own. When they do, you grab the woman and the kid and haul them out of here asap. You got me?”
“Oh. Kaaay.”
“Don’t worry. This is all on me,” he said, lighting the fire and stepping back.
It flared quickly and went to blazing in seconds. Alex angled the second blanket to force the smoke under the apartment door. He tried not to think about how this would affect Calvin. That poor kid was going to end up with a real fear of fire.
He didn’t bother with the alarm this time. One, he doubted Kenneth would fall for it twice, and two, he didn’t need a hallway full of innocent people stuck in the crossfire. They would see and smell the smoke, and hopefully, that would drive them out. He’d give them two minutes. If they didn’t come out by then, Alex would break down the door.
