Total pages in book: 75
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 376(@200wpm)___ 301(@250wpm)___ 251(@300wpm)
Booth nodded. “There’s an exit in the far back corner.”
Sure enough, I could see the emergency exit sign now, and as long as I climbed over the walls as I went, it wasn’t that far away.
Completely ignoring Jade and her demand to get her loose, I dropped down to my knees in front of Angie and cupped her face in my hands.
“Thank God,” I moaned. “Are you okay?”
“I only heard ‘God’ and ‘you’,” she smiled. “Your mask, baby.”
I ripped my mask off, upsetting my helmet, but I didn’t care.
It fell to the floor somewhere behind me, and I tried again.
“Are you okay?” I repeated.
She grinned.
“I am,” she croaked.
I narrowed my eyes at her and reached forward to untie her hands.
The moment she was free, she threw herself into my arms, and wrapped herself tightly around me.
“I was scared shitless,” she whispered into my ear.
We stayed like that, silent and still, for long moments as we soaked each other in.
For ten seconds, at least, until my PASS device started to go off again.
“Let’s get you checked out,” I ordered.
She coughed when she went to protest, and I moved her so she was cradled in my arms.
“Booth,” I called. “Give me my mask and helmet please.”
Booth stood up from where he was kneeling beside a still unconscious Troy, picked up my mask and helmet, and handed them both gently to Angie.
“Hey!” Jade cried. “What about me?”
Angie took the offerings, and I dropped my eyes to hers.
“Put that mask on, baby,” I ordered her.
There wasn’t much smoke left in the room, but it was enough to be irritating, especially to someone who’d been inhaling it for the last twenty minutes.
She gave me an irritated look, and I had to bite back a stern ‘now.’
She did it for me, though, without complaint, placing it on her face and curling her body deeper into mine.
Her hands clutched my helmet, and her dainty feet dangled listlessly.
“You asleep already?” I asked her.
Her eyes opened slowly, and she shrugged.
“I kept you up too late?”
She grinned.
“Summn like wat,” she replied, which I assumed was short for ‘something like that.’
“All right, baby.” I turned to let my backside push on the bar that would open the door. “Ready for the show?”
She nodded her head.
And I went outside, smoke billowing out around me, and walked straight for the ambulance that’d so conveniently pulled up around the back.
“Perfect,” I grinned.
I’d gotten out alive.
She’d gotten out alive.
And everyone else was okay.
At least everyone we liked was, anyway.
***
“Why didn’t the sprinkler systems come on?” Angie asked.
I sat down on the bed next to her.
“Sprinkler systems are usually on a thermometer of sorts. For it to come on, it has to reach a certain temperature. An active fire has to be in effect and making that sensor hot enough for it to actually turn on before anything happens,” I explained to her.
“That seems stupid,” she muttered.
“Yes and no,” I conceded. “Yes, because it could’ve saved a few rooms today. No, because you don’t want those sprinkler systems to come on unless they absolutely have to. They ruin more than they save sometimes.”
She pursed her lips.
“You’re not going to talk about it?” I asked. “You’d rather talk about the sprinklers?”
She sighed in frustration.
“I don’t know what to think,” she admitted. “He saved me. I feel like my whole freakin’ life was a lie.”
I hesitated to say it, but I knew she’d want to know the truth.
“If you want to be technical,” I paused. “He told us it was Jade in there, not you.”
Her mouth dropped open and then she started to laugh.
The smoke had made her laugh sound so rough and sexy that I had a hard time keeping my hands off of her.
I liked seeing her laughing.
Especially after seeing her tied to a fucking chair today with her fucked up ex seconds away from lighting her on fire.
“That’s the best news I’ve received all day.”
I picked up her hand and kissed her finger where my ring lay against her skin.
Pure possession filled me as I once again met her eyes with my own.
“And what about this news?” I asked her. “I noticed you didn’t tell your family or friends yet.”
She reached for the collar of my shirt, which still smelled like smoke, and didn’t stop pulling until I was sitting on the bed directly next to her. My mouth only inches away from hers.
“I didn’t tell my family or friends because I don’t think I can tell them without screeching it.”
I chuckled and dropped my lips the inch that separated us, tasting her.
“I’ll tell them then.”
She grinned.
“Sounds perfect.”
Yes, it did sound pretty fucking perfect.
Chapter 25
Life is so much more enjoyable since I decided to stop giving a fuck.
-Angie’s secret thoughts
Bowe
“Yo,” I called to PD, who stopped and stared at me expectantly. “Will you grab me a drink from the lounge?”