“It’s locked.” He called back to Liam.
“Switch me spots.” Mike wasn’t as confident in Liam’s ability to open windows. It wasn’t the same as regular locks, but in under thirty seconds Liam shimmied the window open and gave him a shit-eating grin. Good thing Ben told Liam to come with him otherwise Mike would have had to try the bedroom window or break it. Something he was glad to avoid.
“Yeah yeah, thanks,” Mike mumbled. “But can you do this?” He peeked into the bathroom and had to squint when smoke smacked him in the face. It was dark black which meant it was roaring and close. He turned sideways and wiggled his arms inside, feeling the instant heat. He squirmed until his arms were free and he grabbed the toilet to help pull him the rest of the way in.
He didn’t wait to see if Liam followed but stayed low and crawled into the bedroom. The whole room was filling with smoke. A roaring fire consumed one end of the bedroom, reaching for the bed. He had to squint between the heat and the smoke rapidly filling his lungs. The smoke started drifting to the living room making it difficult to see if anyone was still there. He crawled back to the bathroom sticking his head out of the window to take in a gulp of fresh air. Liam was still on the branch.
“Anything?”
“I can’t see her. Between the smoke and the heat. Half the bedroom already caught on fire.”
“Grab a towel and get it wet that will help you breathe. Stay as low to the ground as you can.”
Mike nodded and found a small hand towel. It helped to breathe but did nothing to see. If anything, his vision was worse now. The smoke thicker. He needed to move quickly. The smoke parted and he could see the glowing of flames in the far corner of the room. It was only a few feet away and was starting to set the bed on fire.
“Des?” he called out. He doubted the mugger was still in here.
“Mike?” he heard Ben call out.
“In the bedroom.”
“We have to go. We caught the mugger. He jumped out the living room window when we knocked. Heath and Carter have him.”
“What about the other guy?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he left before Milly? Either way, we have to go.”
“I’m not leaving without Destiny. She’s in here somewhere.”
Ben saw the firm determination in his stance because he relented. Mike knew how dangerous it was staying, but he couldn’t give up on finding her. She was in this room somewhere. This was where the fire started, which meant she was somewhere in here. “We can only look for a few more minutes but no more.”
Mike didn’t argue. He turned back and looked closer to the fire. He felt the heat blistering his skin. It instantly dried out his rag over his mouth and he started coughing. Mike dropped to his hands and knees and felt around. God bless firefighters who did this for a living. He would take war zones any day. The air might not smell as clean, but at least he could breathe.
Mike was almost to the nightstand next to the bed and was about to give up when he bumped into something. He felt around. It was a piece of furniture – one that didn’t feel like it belonged there. He felt around more. It was a chair. Pushing the chair out of the way Mike connected with a leg. Using his hands to guide him, he felt along her body. Pulling her arms toward him, Mike started dragging her to the foot of the bed and toward the living room. He didn’t know if she was alive or dead, all he knew was he had to get them both out of there.
“I got her,” he said in the doorway lifting her into his arms. She was red hot against his skin. The bastard started the fire right next to her.
“Good, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Ben said happily and led the way out. Mike concurred. He couldn’t wait to breathe fresh air.
He moved down the stairs as quickly as he could, hearing the sirens in the distance. Destiny needed medical attention. She would have smoke inhalation.
Mike was almost to the bottom of the stairs when he heard a bang right before a searing pain tore through his left leg. It buckled under the pain and sent him and Destiny sailing down the last four stairs. He tried to tuck her into his chest and cradle her fall, but it had happened so fast she flew out of his reach as he bounced off the stairs, probably bruising a few ribs.
“You couldn’t leave well enough alone, could you?” a male voice called behind him.
Mike flipped over, pulling his knife out of his back pocket at the same time to defend himself, when the gun fired again, hitting him in the shoulder. He kept his grip on the knife, barely, but his arm was screaming in agony. Ron stepped out from behind the stairs with a gun aimed at him. “Ron,” Mike gritted out between clenched teeth.
“Shut up. You keep fucking everything up.” Ron had a crazy look in his eyes that Mike had only seen on druggies. “She was supposed to die by accident but no, once again, you fuck everything up.” His hand shook holding the gun. Mike tightened his grip on the knife even as his shoulder protested. He could feel the oozing of blood. If he didn’t end this soon, he could end up bleeding out from the two wounds. If he could distract Ron, he could end this.
“Why have you been trying to kill her?”
“Because I need money.”
“Carol would have just given it Patty who could have given it to you. You could have even ransomed Destiny or Patty. There was no need to resort to murder.”
Ron smiled coldly at him. “I don’t need that bitch’s handouts. A few scraps here and there. No, I’m a king. I should have it all.” Ron’s face turned hard and angry. The gun was now steady in his hand, but it wasn’t aimed at Mike any more. It was pointed above him toward Destiny. “I’m done waiting for my money. I’m going to get paid one way or another. I’m going to kill her then you and anyone else who gets in my way.”
Mike rolled toward Destiny to shield her with his body. He felt the bullet hit his shoulder. Grimacing in pain as both his leg and shoulder screamed in agony, Mike covered Destiny’s body. The team would have heard the shots and would take care of Ron. His only goal was to protect Destiny with his body.
