XXXVII
Payne
I grab Tori, dragging her back more forcibly than I’d like, but it’s clear she’s ready to take her chances with the fire. “We can’t get in that way. It’s too dangerous.”
“Let me go!” Tori screams at me. “My mom is in there!”
“Look,” I say, physically turning her towards the back of the building, where several people are starting to stumble into the street, all coughing. Their faces and clothes are covered in varying degrees of soot. “Your mom will use the fire escape.”
Almost like she’s in a trance, Tori stares at her neighbors. Then her eyes go wide with panic. “Mom!”
Before I can stop her, she slips free of my hold and takes off in a sprint to the back of the building.
I follow, catching her as she gets close to the ladder. As her hands grab the rung, I pull her back again. “What are you doing?”
“My mom is in there.”
“You can’t go up, Tori. It’s too dangerous. Let her come down.”
Tori shakes her head, trying to push me aside. “Mom’s been drinking. And the fire escape is in my room—there’s a closet blocking it. She’ll never get out.”
The building is old, and looking at the state of the fire escape, I doubt it’s up to code. The windows of the first floor are already glowing orange from the flames as smoke seems to be leaking out of the building like it’s made of sponge.
In the distance, I can hear the sirens of fire trucks. They don’t sound too far away, but it doesn’t seem like the building will last that long… or that Tori’s mother has that long.
“Are you sure she’s in there?” I ask Tori as she continues to try to fight me.
“Yes,” she exclaims, desperately. “She was drunk when I left. She could have fallen asleep, or fallen, or—”
“Stay here. I’ll go.”
“No.” Tori shakes her head. “I should go.”
“And if your mom is unconscious, how are you going to get her out?” I ask her. As Tori hesitates, I push her to the side. “What apartment?”
“4B.” Tori points up. “That one.”
Without wasting another moment, I climb up the ladder. The whole fire escape shakes under my movement as I race across each level and up the next stairway. As I pass the first and second floor windows, I can feel the heat from the fire.
The window on the fourth floor that Tori pointed to is almost entirely covered. Before I waste energy trying to get in that way, I run over to the other window. Inside, it’s completely empty.
I pull my phone out of my pocket, then turn my head away and slam the corner as hard as I can into the glass. The single pane glass shatters easily. With my phone, I spare a few precious seconds to clear as much of the glass away as possible to make it easier to get Tori’s mom out, then I climb in.
Even up here, the smoke is starting to seep through the floorboards and fill the room. I charge through the apartment to the door, setting the cheap lock to stay unlocked before I pull the door open.
A wall of thick black smoke pours in through the door. I stagger back, closing the door, coughing and spluttering. The fire is consuming this building so quickly, there will be nothing left.
I fill my lungs, then, holding my breath this time, head out into the hallway. There’s only one other door, and it’s already becoming difficult to see it. I run straight at it. Without slowing, I lower my shoulder and ram into it. The door barely puts up any resistance, and I go flying into the apartment.
There’s more smoke in here than the other apartment. Much more. I can barely see my hand in front of my face. It’s also a hell of a lot hotter. Before I delve further into the apartment, I grab a dishtowel from the side and douse it in water. After wringing the excess water off, I tie it around my head to cover my mouth and nose.
The mask is far from perfect, but it helps a little. I run into the next room, spotting Tori’s mom. She’s asleep on the couch, completely unaware of the fire burning away below us. As I’m about to lean down and try to wake her, there’s a loud bang that has the building rocking.
Fuck.
Whatever that was, it’s not good.
“Ma’am?” I shake the woman’s shoulders but she doesn’t respond. “Mrs. Reynolds?”
Her chest is rising and falling, so I know she’s still alive, but I need to get us out of here before the whole building starts to collapse. With one quick motion, I manage to lift Tori’s mom over my shoulder.
She’s not too heavy, but the smoke is making everything so much more difficult. I make my way back through the small apartment and into the hallway. The stairway is already glowing from the flames, and the floor creaks under my weight more than it did when I ran over it only a few minutes ago.
Just as I start to make the final dash to the window I entered, torchlight fills the room. The moment I flinch, it’s lowered.
“This way,” a fireman calls, reaching out his arms. He helps me get her through a window and passes her to someone else before he turns to help me through. “Is there anyone else in there?”
“No,” I tell him.
Even though I’m outside, it’s still hot as hell. I glance down and see the flames spilling out from the apartment below, blocking off the fire escape.
“There.” The fireman points to the far side of the platform, where there’s a ladder from the fire truck propped against the side. Another fireman is already halfway down, with Tori’s mom safely over his shoulder.
Not needing to be told twice, I run across and climb over the railings onto the ladder. The ladder wobbles under my added weight, and for the first time, I’m suddenly conscious of how far the ground is below me. I’m not scared of heights, but the drop has me gripping the ladder rung tightly.
“You okay?” the fireman asks.
Pushing down the fear that’s trying to creep up through me, I climb down. Finally, I’m on the ground amongst the chaos. Before I can look for Tori or her mom, a paramedic is at my side.
“This way, sir. Let’s get you looked at.”
I shake my head, glancing around. “The woman who came down before me. Where is she?”
“She’s being seen to, don’t worry. You need to let us look after you now.”
There’s barely enough room in this alley for the fire engine, and I spot an ambulance on the street where the paramedic is trying to lead me. In front of it, I can see Tori.
Pulling the towel off my face, I run towards her.
“But she’s my mom.”
“What’s the matter?” I ask as I join her side, quickly surveying the scene.
Her mom is on a stretcher in the back of an ambulance, and another elderly man is seated beside her with an oxygen mask on, like her. In front of the door are two paramedics. One who’s trying to shut the door, and another who’s trying to get Tori to move.
The paramedic who’s trying to shut the door looks at me. “I’m sorry, but we need to get both of these people to hospital. I don’t have room for a passenger.”
“Is she okay?” I ask before Tori can speak.
“We need to go, now.” The medic glances at Tori before turning her attention to me. “We’re going to Mercy.”
I turn to Tori, gently pulling her away. “We need to let them go, Tori. We can follow in my car, don’t worry.”
The second paramedic steps forward. “Before you do, you really need to let me look at that cut.”
“I’m not bleeding.” Confused, I look down at my body, wondering if I caught myself on the broken glass from the window and didn’t notice, but then I realize the paramedic is trying to look at Tori’s hand.
Even though tears are pouring from her eyes, leaving wet trails down her cheeks, Tori seems completely unaware as she watches the ambulance with her mom in it disappear around the corner.
Gently, I touch Tori’s face. She jumps, blinking rapidly at me. “Your hand, Tori? What happened?”
Almost in a daze, she raises her hand and looks down. There’s a cut the length of her palm. “I fell,” she says, slowly. “The building exploded.”
“Let me see to that,” the paramedic offers.
Tori shakes her head. “We need to go to the hospital.”
“It will take ten minutes to clean and dress it here. It will be much easier for this nice paramedic to treat you than to wait in an ER,” I tell her. “Plus, you don’t want your mom to see that and start worrying about you.”
Now that the adrenaline is no longer flooding my body, my thoughts are starting to become a little clearer, and I can focus on other things. And for some reason, a little voice in the back of my mind is telling me something’s not right.
Even though I can see Tori wants to leave, she allows the paramedic to lead her to the curb and sit her down. While she works on cleaning and dressing the wound, I stay close by, trying not to look as concerned as I feel.
Call me a paranoid conspiracy theorist, but it feels a lot more than coincidental that the day after Tori finds out what really happened with JP and Lucy, the apartment she lives in suddenly burns down.
This is after someone has already tried to kill her once.
And there’s not a single scrap of news about the arrest of Preston du Pont.
Once Tori’s completely occupied, I take a few steps away from her, making sure to stay out of earshot, but where I can still see her. Then I pull my phone out of my pocket. The screen is now cracked, but it doesn’t stop me from scrolling through the phonebook until I find the number of Penny Bergmann.
Tori used my phone once to contact her, and I saved her number. Now, I’m glad I did.
Whether Penny saved the number or not, she answers quickly. “Hello?”
“Penny? It’s Dr. Wright. I need your help.”