Chapter Seventeen Ryan
My tedious conversation with the CEO of a cleaning supply company gets cut off by the sound of the blaring fire alarm, and it feels like a blessing.
“Nice to meet you,” I tell him before turning away and scanning the crowd for my friends and Emma. I haven’t seen any of them in a few minutes.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please exit through the doors immediately. This is a real fire emergency,” someone shouts.
Gasps and urgent voices surround me as people start to rush for the doors, panic setting in. I try to peer over people’s heads as a wave of them hurtles toward me, my adrenaline rushing. Where the hell is Emma?
“I heard there’s a fire in the kitchen!”
“We need to get out of here!”
“The hallway is full of smoke!”
I look toward the doors to the ballroom as people hurry out of them, my heart dropping at the sight of all the smoke in the hallway. Something really is on fire.
“Ryan!”
I whirl around and see Josh and Max slipping through the crowd toward me, their bodies getting jostled as people push and shove their way toward the exit.
“Where’s Emma? Have you seen her?” My chest tightens like a vice.
I’ve felt fear before—facing bad investments, tight deadlines, even relationship fallout—but nothing compares to the idea of losing her. Not Emma. Not like this.
Josh’s eyes widen, and my heart immediately stops because I already know the answer. “She’s not with you?”
I shake my head and look at Max, desperation starting to dig deep within me. “When was the last time you saw her?”
“Maybe like ten minutes ago. I don’t know. She said that she had to go to the restroom, but I thought she would be back in the ballroom by now,” Max explains, his head turning left and right to search for her through the panicking crowd.
“Damn it,” I murmur, cold fear seeping into my chest. What if someone knocks her over and she gets trampled? What if she gets trapped in the hallway and inhales all the smoke?
We need to find her. Now.
“We need to split up. Call her phone. Call out her name. Just find her,” I tell them before turning around and pushing my way through the crowd toward the doors. “Emma!”
I hear the guys calling out her name behind me, but their voices quickly get lost in the sea of voices. How are we supposed to find her like this?
It takes me forever to get through the doors, and the hallway is even worse to deal with. Smoke hangs in the air as people hurry toward the doors of the building, coughing, and struggling.
My eyes sting and water, my lungs becoming irritated and heavy. The smoke makes the hallway darker, giving me an even harder time trying to find Emma in the crowd. “Emma!”
“Ryan!”
I stop moving, feeling some people knock into me as they try to get around me. Her voice was faint, but I swear that I heard it. “Emma! Where are you?”
“Ryan!”
I turn. A flash of red hair through the smoke.
Emma. I shove through the crowd, fighting the tide, heart hammering.
I don’t care that people step on me, shove me, and knock into me.
I’m getting to her no matter what. If I have to burn my way through this place to get her out, I will. No one else matters.
Emma lunges at me the moment that I’m close enough. She wraps her arms around my neck, coughing into my chest as I shield her from the chaotic crowd. “I don’t know what happened! I came out and there was smoke!”
“Fire in the kitchen!” I tell her, raising my voice over all the others. “I’m getting you out of here!”
“Where are the guys?” Emma asks as she hangs onto me for dear life, matching my every step as I guide her through the crowd toward the exit.
“They’ll find their way out. We were looking for you!” I reply as I glance around, not seeing Max or Josh. We’ll find our way to each other eventually, but I know that they would want me to get her out first. She doesn’t need to be breathing in all this smoke. “Try to cover your face!”
Emma takes my suit jacket and presses it against her nose and mouth, her other arm still holding me. She stays as close as possible, her eyes watering from the smoke.
I cough hard, my lungs aching. I surge forward one last time, dragging her through the doors and out onto the sidewalk where other people are recovering. “This way.”
Emma stumbles after me as I lead her down the sidewalk away from the building, the sound of sirens echoing down the street as the firefighters rush toward us. She sucks in a deep breath of fresh air, her makeup streaking and smudging around her teary eyes.
I guide her toward a wall, encouraging her to lean against it and catch her breath. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Emma shakes her head as she wipes her eyes. “When I couldn’t find you guys, I got scared. My mind blanked. I didn’t know what to do.”
Making sure that she was okay was the only thing on my mind when the alarm went off. I can’t lose her. I won’t lose her.
I gently cup her face and inspect her, making sure that she’s truly okay. “Maybe we should go to the hospital. Just in case.”
Emma grabs my wrists and shakes her head. “I’m okay, Ryan. You got me out fast.”
Her words bring me a little comfort, but what if I didn’t get her out quickly enough? What if she’s actually hurting and not telling me?
Emma reaches out and hugs me. “I’m okay. I promise.”
I hug her back, cradling the back of her head. She smells like smoke now, but a hint of her perfume breaks through. It’s enough to comfort me some more.
“There they are. Emma! Ryan!”
I release Emma, but I don’t step away from her more than a few feet when Josh and Max run over to us. I don’t even want to take my eyes off her right now.
Emma hugs them and reassures them that she’s okay.
It doesn’t take long for the fire department to arrive and start tackling the fire, sirens and lights filling the street as people watch with shocked looks on their faces.
“I think we should leave,” Emma says as she presses herself against my side. “Just in case they can’t get the fire under control.”
I nod in agreement, not wanting to take any risks. Not when it comes to her safety and wellbeing. “We can call for a car around the corner. Let’s get away from the crowd.”
Together, the four of us head down the sidewalk and to another street, coughing and rubbing our eyes every so often from the after effects of the smoke. Things could’ve been so much worse. We could’ve gotten trapped or trampled because people don’t know how to react in an emergency.
Just the thought of Emma getting hurt by reckless people makes me clench my teeth. I can’t let anything bad happen to her. It’ll break me.
And that tells me all that I need to know.
I don’t just want her.I’d risk anything to keep her safe.