Page 55 of Savage Spades

If the liquor caught fire, she would be done in minutes. Her body weakened, but she used the last of her strength to walk over to the window and hit it as hard as she could. Her arms felt like jelly as she slammed her fist against the glass. And then everything went black.

Chapter Twenty -One

Kit

The smell of smoke filled the cab, and his heart hammered in his chest. Something was wrong. He came to the bar to help Cam finish up any last-minute packing, but his stomach twisted into knots as he turned the corner and saw the smoke coming from the bar. Shit!.

He threw the truck in park and sprinted toward the building. The black and gray smoke billowed out of the roof. Sirens sounded in the distance like alarm bells. He didn’t give himself time to think as he slammed his body against the wooden door. It didn’t move an inch. He looked down to see a metal chain wrapped around the door handle and secured to a hook placed in the concrete. There’s no way she could have gotten out.

“Watch out, the firemen are coming,” someone yelled to him, but he didn’t care to see who it was. Cam was in there, and he wasn’t going to wait around.

He looked through the window. It was so dark he could barely see anything. A loose brick lay on the sidewalk, and he picked it up before slamming it against the glass. The window shattered, falling into pieces all around him.

A cloud of smoke hit him in the face. The smoke was getting worse in the small amount of time since he’d gotten there. Once the flames hit the alcohol, it would be a done deal. He pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth, getting ready to step through the window when a thought occurred to him: What if Cam wasn’t in there? What if Venom already took her…or worse?

He couldn’t think like that. He took a deep breath of clean air before stepping through the window. His eyes burned from the smoke, but he forced himself to keep them open. She was on the ground, not far from the window. Her hair spread out over the wooden floor that looked more like char than wood at this point. Her face held a softness to it, as if she was just taking a quick nap. Fuck. She was limp and hot against his skin as he picked her up. Damn, he should have taken the chain off the door first so he could go that way. The only option now was the window.

“Hold on, baby,” he told her. He stepped one leg through the window. The shards of glass rubbed against his jeans.

“Hold on; hold on,” a voice said.

Kit looked up to see two firefighters rushing towards him. “Take her,” he said, turning his body so they could grab Cam out his arms. He watched one of them run with Cam in his arms back to the waiting ambulance.

“Is there anyone else inside?” the other firefighter asked Kit as he helped him out of the window.

Kit shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He stumbled on his feet, but the firefighter grabbed his arm to keep him steady.

Everything that came next was a blur. Kit rode to the hospital with Cam in the back of the ambulance. The EMTs assured him that she would be fine, but she was still unconscious when they got to the hospital. It wasn’t until she was in a room, hooked up to oxygen, and a bunch of other machines, did her eyes finally crack open. He let out a breath he’d been holding ever since he smelled the smoke. Thank god she was okay. If he hadn't gotten there in time…

She opened her mouth to talk, but her face twisted in pain. The doctor said her throat would hurt for a while.

“Shh, don’t say anything. Do you want water?” he asked her.

She nodded, and he grabbed the water off the bedside table. She removed her oxygen mask and took a sip from the straw. She scrunched her nose as the cold water must have hit her raw throat. The door opened, and Jen barged into the room, Hugo not far behind her. Jen’s eyes were wide and panicked. He had texted Zeke in the ambulance, so he must have told everyone.

“Oh my god, you’re okay,” she said to Cam, coming to her bedside. Cam nodded, and Jen looked over at him. “What happened? Why can’t she talk?”

“The bar was set on fire,” Kit said through clenched teeth, allowing himself to finally feel the anger that had been buried underneath his concern for Cam. This was no accident. Venom wanted to kill his girl. “She was unconscious when I got there. She inhaled a lot of smoke, so her throat is pretty raw.”

A tear slid down Cam’s cheek as she listened to him talk. He used his thumb to wipe it away. She opened her mouth to say something but then stopped, as if remembering she can’t talk. Jen noticed and searched the bedside table until she found a notebook and pen. She handed it to Cam.

She wrote: The front door was locked.

“Someone wrapped a metal chain around it,” he told Jen.

“Oh my god, who…” Jen trailed off as she realized who would do something like this.

The same person they should have killed when Venom pretty much injected his sister with heroin.

“Kit…” Hugo warned, getting a look at the rage on his face.

“I gotta go,” he said, and started to walk away, but Cam wrapped her fingers around his arm. He can’t stay here and do nothing, so he prayed she wasn’t going to ask him too. Venom needed to pay for everything he’d done. He tried to ruin his life twice now. Cam used her other hand to write on the notepad:

You better come back home.

He leaned down and kissed her on the forehead. “I promise.”

*****

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