Page 6 of Blaze

BLAZE

My eyes scanned the building as I ran toward the front entrance. The flames were growing, which shouldn’t have been happening because the suppression system should have kicked on already. But I hadn’t received that alert, meaning there was probably a malfunction.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

Since the fire still seemed to be contained in that section of the building, I tied a bandanna around my face and one around my hand before I unlocked the heavy metal door and yanked it open.

I’d run a system check two days before, so it made no sense that it wasn’t working.

As I ran inside, I frowned when the motion lights didn’t activate. The door slammed shut, leaving me in mostly darkness, causing me to pause—not that I had time to spare—so my eyes could adjust. I flipped the nearest switch and nothing happened. What the hell was going on? Was the electricity out?

The electrical panel was in a maintenance closet on the left side of the building. The same side as the growing flames, but there was no time to waste, so I took off in that direction.

When I reached the room, I didn’t bother turning the knob. I just kicked the door open and rushed over to see that the panel door was open and the main switch had been flipped.Motherfucker!

If the power was off, it might have explained the system failure. The fire pump could have failed to engage. Except, by law, fire pumps had to be hooked up to an emergency generator, so it should have been working. Unless there was a hiccup in the fucking generator.

The exit to the loading dock was near the back of the building, so I cursed a blue streak as I raced to the door. I heard the sudden shattering of glass—probably the windows exploding from the heat.

Outside, the generator was hooked up next to the concrete pad, and I hurried over to it. I turned it off and held down the reset button, wincing when I heard another window blow. It took a few seconds, but the error messages on the control panel disappeared. It restarted as soon as I turned it on, thank fuck.

Seconds later, I got the alert that the fire suppression system went online. I exhaled a harsh breath in relief and turned to walk away from the burning building when I heard a crash and a scream.

I whipped back around and ran for the door, wondering who the fuck was inside. It had come from the direction of the flames, and though I probably should have thought twice before running into a fire, I had to find the person trapped inside.

The fire seemed to be contained to two rooms, and the flames had eaten away the wall between them. A tall file cabinet was on the ground, most likely because it had crashed through the weakening wall. Thankfully, the powder sprayed from the localized sprinklers had already lessened the intensity of the flames.

I made a beeline for the room that seemed to have the most damage, assuming that whoever was trapped had been the cause of the fire. Just as I reached the door, a body came flying out, ramming into me and nearly knocking us both to the floor.

Even with the inferno easing, I didn’t waste time scooping the person into my arms and racing to the closest exit.

After bursting out of the back door into the moonlight, I kept running until we were far enough away that any structural damage or falling debris wouldn’t reach us.

My adrenaline was high as fuck, my heart thumping, and my rage was burning as hot as the fire we’d just escaped.

I dropped the person onto their feet and grabbed their shoulders, barely seeing them in front of me through my red haze of fury. “The fuck did you do? Were you trying to kill yourself?” I shouted.

“It was an accident, I swear!”

The feminine voice sent a shock wave through my body that had nothing to do with the anger or the residual effects from running in and out of a burning building.

I shook my head, trying to clear away the confusing reaction.

“You broke in to my warehouse and set a fucking fire on accident?” I growled.

She blinked at me, and despite the soot darkening her pale skin, pink bloomed on her cheeks. “Well, um, the fire was an accident.”

Her hazel orbs were filled with apprehension, but I still had to fight not to get lost in the beautiful mixture of green and blue. They were rimmed with black lashes that matched her midnight-black hair. It was pulled back in a ponytail, but it was long and thick. The moonlight made it look like silk, making my hands itch to yank it down and shove my fingers into the strands.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

I silently scolded myself to stop ogling my little arsonist and get my head back in the game.

“Then what were you doing?”

She glanced away and shuffled her feet, telling me that whatever answer she gave me would most likely be a lie.

“You got any idea who you were robbing, baby?” I seethed. For some reason, the idea of her getting tangled up with the wrong MC pissed me off as much as the fire she set.

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