19. Chapter 19 #3
“Fuck!” I jolted to the door, swinging it open to run down the hall.
The alarm penetrated my eardrums, shrieking throughout the building.
My breath was still in my chest as I ran down the narrow passageway into the dining room.
There was nobody left in the restaurant now beside Bianca and Ricky.
They were hunched together near the bar, surprise drawn on their faces.
To my immediate, temporary relief, the open space looked like it was in good shape aside from a few chairs and tables strewn about.
A couple of glasses had shattered on the floor.
“Is everyone alright?” I shouted across the space as Lucy and I made our way toward them.
Ricky was holding a broken bottle of expensive tequila.
“I think so,” he shouted back at me. “I haven’t felt an earthquake like that in years.
Be careful, there could still be aftershocks.
” He was right, but something about it felt off to me.
The air was too still, the howl of the alarm blaring from the kitchen.
A sense of doom settled like a thick coat over my skin and a layer of sweat started forming on my back. I smelled the smoke.
It was too late.
My eyes shot to the large windows and glass doors toward the front of the restaurant as they cracked and shattered. Fuck! It took me a second to realize what was happening.
“Everyone run!” I bellowed as I yanked Lucy’s arm and dragged her back toward the hallway.
“To the back, the kitchen!” I yelled as Bianca and Ricky started sprinting around the bar and toward where I stood.
I glanced back to see Lucy standing behind me, still as a rock with panic shrouding her features.
“Now, Lucy!” She glanced between me and the others as they bolted toward us and I pushed her forward.
Bianca came barreling down the hall, herding Lucy forward and into the kitchen.
“Ricky, come o—”
A bright flash of light splintered across the restaurant.
An earth-shattering BOOM rocked the dining room, sending Ricky flying up in the air.
Chairs and tables went skidding across the floor, glasses broke in every direction, and Ricky landed with a thud I could see but not hear over the ringing in my ears at the center of the floor.
I tumbled to my knees with the strength of the explosion, and I rocked myself up to stand on my feet as the floor shook.
A sharp rattling jingle sounded and I glanced up.
Oh fuck.
I catapulted myself toward Ricky, barely reaching him in time to haul him over my shoulder before the large crystal chandelier swung down from the ceiling and shattered in every direction, shards of glass flying everywhere.
“Dax!” Lucy screamed, and I turned back around toward the hallway, heaving Ricky’s unconscious body.
“Lucy, I told you to get out, we have to—”
“We can’t go out that way! It’s all on fire!”
Fuck, the first explosion. Everything sounded like it was underwater. Bianca came into view behind her, panting with her hair stuck to her forehead.
“We have to get out another way!” she cried. Even though it sounded muffled in my ears, and I could tell her usual arrogant tone was replaced with raw fear.
I glanced around the space, urgency sluicing through my veins. “We’re gonna have to go through the front!” It was the last route I wanted to take. Whoever just launched that bomb through the front window of my restaurant was right outside, but it was the only option we had besides burning alive.
“Come on!” I shouted toward Lucy and Bianca. Let’s go!”
We bolted toward the front of the restaurant where the large, beautiful windows stood only moments ago.
I pushed Lucy in front of me, balancing Ricky on my shoulder with my other arm.
Good thing Ricky was a skinny guy, otherwise this would have been trickier.
We dodged the fire crawling up the pillars inside the building, skirting around the rubble falling in every direction.
“Stop!” I yelled, jerking my arm out to halt them in front of me. Lucy smashed against it, Bianca stumbling into her. Another chandelier came crashing to the floor feet away. I shielded my eyes from the shards flying up at us. “Okay, go, go, go!”
We made it to the space where the front door was now a frame of sharp, jagged edges.
The heat of the flames rising inside clashed against the cool San Franciscan night air.
The noise of alarms shrilling from parked cars along the street started to creep into my eardrums through the ringing.
The glass crunched beneath our shoes as the heat of the restaurant in flames burned at my skin behind me.
“Go straight into the alley, toward the back!” I choked on the smoke as the girls crouched through the empty doorframe. I crouched down so the glass wouldn’t scrape Ricky’s back and followed them.
They did as I said, scurrying right out of the building and down the dark alleyway on the side of the building.
I didn’t take the time to try and see if our attackers could still be there.
I raced behind them, hoping nobody saw us as we sloshed through puddles of water and God knows what else, snaking our way to the back parking lot.
I reached into my pocket, retrieving the key Clay’s guy dropped off to me earlier.
I pressed the button on it, and I saw the lights flash across the parking lot.
“This has got to be a fucking joke,” I hissed through my teeth.