Chapter Nineteen

When she reached the burning building, Andi grabbed one of her security guards. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” the man shouted over the noise. “I can’t even figure out who set off the alarm.”

Justin couldn’t hear the exchange of words, but when Andi darted off through the men, stopping at each security guard and shooting questions that most answered with a shake of the head or a helpless shrug, he went after her.

Scurrying activity and stretched hoses slowed his progress, and an instant of panic welled within him as he saw Andi move dangerously close to the entrance, peering anxiously inside as if she could stop the flames with sheer will.

“Keep her out of there!” one of the firemen shouted, his hands clamped on a nozzle as Justin pushed past him. “It may not look bad in there, but that roof is about to go any minute!”

Andi moved closer to the building. Still trying to reach her, Justin screamed, “Andi!” But his voice didn’t penetrate the dazed, horrified look on her face. Violent in his efforts to reach her, Justin pushed people out of his way, watching, dismayed, as she shouted something he couldn’t hear, then tore insanely into the building, the gray haze of smoke swallowing her. “ANDI!” His grated voice pierced the night, but it was too late for her to hear.

The men around him seemed to freeze, the flames seemed to stop in their heavenward reaches, the smoke seemed to become a drawn curtain between Andi and him. Fear stampeded through him, and he had but one panic-stricken thought. Andi was going to die in those flames. He shot through the men and into the building, tearing off his shirt as he ran.

The only sounds inside were those of crackling, popping flames overhead and along the walls. The wide open space of the center—waiting to be filled with water before the park’s opening—was without flames, but the smoke was quickly reaching suffocating proportions. The automated figures built on the sides of the room were melting masses of machinery slowly shrinking in flames that pranced regally around them. Were they what Andi had run in here for?

“Andi!” The word choked him, and he coughed the smoke out of his lungs as he went deeper into the building, pressing his shirt against his nose to filter the polluted air.

A muffled sound drew his eyes toward the back of the building where the flames were already the victors. Against the blinding red glow, he saw Andi’s silhouette, staggering as she struggled to drag something behind her.

“Let it go!” he blared as he careened toward her.

She didn’t have to answer, for when he reached her, he saw that she was dragging Madeline, limp and unconscious, behind her.

Squatting down, Justin pulled the woman’s limp weight onto his shoulders and caught Andi, wavering with dizziness before she doubled over in a fit of coughing. “Hold this against your face,” he ordered, thrusting his shirt into her hands. “Now stay low and get out of here!”

Keeping an eye on the unsteady ceiling, he ran behind her. Boards smashed and walls crumbled behind them as they ran through the hell-like chamber, the furnace heat of the blaze pursuing them, until finally they ran into the spraying water and were grabbed by the firemen who had come in after them.

Madeline was loaded into an ambulance that had pulled up while they were inside, and she began to come to as they began to administer oxygen. There were no apparent burns on her body. It was the smoke that had almost killed her.

Andi and Justin, strangled and coughing at the sudden rush of oxygen in polluted lungs, were immediately treated by the paramedics.

Andi’s face was dark with black smoke and water, and her wet hair fell from its pins to tumble wildly around her shoulders. When they could both breathe without the oxygen masks, Justin took her by the arms, shaking her gently as his mist-filled eyes raked over her with furious relief. “You stupid thing,” he raged softly through his teeth, emotion racking his voice. “How could you do that?”

“I’m sorry, Justin,” she said, her voice raw and hoarse. “I saw her moving near the back of the building, just before she collapsed, and there wasn’t any time to waste.”

“You both could have been killed,” he moaned, crushing her against him, his arms trembling with the aftermath of fear.

She leaned into his bare wet chest, closing her arms around his waist, only beginning to feel the terror seep into her now that she knew they were safe. “So could you.”

He rocked back and forth, holding her as if his arms could keep her from being swallowed into the flames again. “What if I had lost you? What if—?”

“I’m okay,” she whispered, tears burning down her cheeks. His heart was slamming against her, and she looked up at him to see painful tears making paths through the soot on his face.

“Don’t ever do that again,” he whispered, still rocking her back and forth. His swallow came with great effort when she moved her hands up to frame his face. Tears still welled in the blue depths of his eyes, and his breathing was deep and labored. Without thinking, she pressed a kiss to his dry lips, and his arms closed tighter around her. “Andi, I love you,” he murmured against her ear.

Although one of the most important buildings in her park was crashing and consuming into glowing embers, with flames threatening to conquer the beloved buildings nearby, and the men were yelling and the machinery screaming and sirens blaring, Andi felt strangely at peace.

Justin’s voice was all she heard.