“Bastion!” Renee shouts when she sees me.
I run over to her. “Where’s Hattie?”
Her eyes are filled with tears. “I don’t know. I think she might still be inside. I heard someone say the back door wouldn’t open, so they had to go out the front.”
Not wasting time, I pull my phone from my pocket and pull up Hattie’s contact. It rings once, and there’s no answer.
“C’mon, answer.” My hand fists my hair.
It rings again, and again there’s no answer.
A sensation I’ve never felt, not even growing up with Carla, fills me—absolute dread. What if she’s…
“Hello?”
Her small, scared voice comes on the line, and I momentarily breathe with relief.
“Hattie! Where are you?”
She sobs and sniffles. “I’m in the office. There’s nowhere to go. The front is all flames, and the back door won’t open.”
Her tears turn into a cough that seems more like choking, and the sound absolutely guts me.
“I’m coming for you.” I race to the corner so I can go down the alley that runs along the back of the buildings on this block.
“No! Bast, you’ll?—”
I hang up before she can say anything else. She needs to preserve her strength, and like hell am I going to leave her in there to burn to death.
Running as fast as I can, I rush down the alley until I reach the club’s back entrance, and it becomes obvious why Hattie couldn’t open the door. A bunch of large, and I assume heavy, crates are stacked in front of the door. It looks innocent enough, as though a delivery guy set them there by accident and walked away. But they’re not from any supplier we use. This fire… this back door being blocked… it’s intentional.
I set my rage aside for the time being as I move the crates away from the door. Another set of hands helps me, and I turn to see Ray picking up the boxes and tossing them aside, letting them crash behind us. He must have followed me when I ran from the group.
I’m the only person who has a key to the back door from the outside, so I fish my keys out of my pocket and unlock it before whipping it open. I immediately choke on the smoke.
I turn to face Ray as I pull my T-shirt up over my face. It’s not much, but it’s something. “You stay out here and tell the firedepartment that I’m going to my office to get Hattie out. If I don’t come back, send them in to find us.”
“You got it,” Ray says, though he looks as if he wants to say more.
I rush into the darkness of the smoke to save the woman I love.
My eyes immediately sting. It’s impossible to see, and the smoke is disorienting as fuck, so I push aside the need to rush in and scramble to find Hattie. I need to be smart about this or we’re both going to die.
I rest my hand on the hallway wall as I take measured steps forward, feeling a small amount of relief when my hand crests over a doorjamb. That has to be the office. I keep going and feel that the door is closed, so I lower my hand and search around for the handle.
The metal is warm to the touch but not hot since the fire is still farther up the hall. Twisting it, I call Hattie’s name as I enter and close the door behind me.
“Hattie, are you in here?”
“Bast?”
A rush of relief floods me, but her voice sounds so small and meek that it’s almost my undoing.
“I’m here, babe. I’m here.” I head in the direction of her voice.
It’s a little easier to see in here than it was in the hallway, and when I get a couple of feet away from her, I can make out her figure rocking in the corner. I swear I almost burst into tears—whether in relief or sorrow, I don’t even know.
“Hattie, can you stand?”
