Page 30 of SapphicLover69
“Look, y’all,” I started.
“No, it’s settled.” Elaine’s stern declaration was accompanied by her resolute expression. “If you go anywhere, we’re going with you.”
“Besides, if anything happens or if she says something incriminating, you’ll need witnesses,” Winter added sensibly. “Aspen.” She secured a surprisingly forceful grip around my upper arm, drawing my gaze to hers. “I won’t let her hurt you.”
“Iwon’t let her hurtyou.” I didn’t like this at all. They shouldn’t be so stubborn.
Tammy and Beth crooned, “Don’t go breakin’ my, don’t go breakin’ my …”
“And I won’t let her hurt either of you,” Elaine proclaimed. “So, are we going to stand here all night?”
Together, three unlikely musketeers marched down the hall from the lounge, taking the same route I had when I fled the room on Thursday night. A glass door opened from the hall into a small room with vending machines, an icemaker, and recycling bins. It also held a cushioned bench, while drapes dangled to the floor, framing windows overlooking the patio. Even this service corridor was decorated with an illustrious French painting in an elaborate white and gold frame.
The entry door closed behind us as we strode through to the metal door with a long handle leading outside. However, when I yanked to pull it open, my arm almost jarred out of its socket. Winter and Elaine bumped into me from behind. I scowled at the door and tried pushing, pulling, and rattling it.
“Stupid door’s locked! It was open Thursday night. Didn’t my idiot stalker even check to see if the door was unlocked before telling me to meet her out there?”
Winter stepped to the side and peered out the window onto the picturesque terrace. “There’s nobody out there.”
“Figures,” I muttered in disgust. “She’s just messing with me. Come on; let’s go.”
I led my protectors back past the machines and the comfy bench that lay under the watchful gaze of an eighteenth-century courtly gala. But when I pressed the handle, nothing happened. I pulled, pushed, twisted, and still the door wouldn’t budge. I was getting a bad feeling about this.
“Does anyone else smell something off?” Elaine asked as she took a step back and sniffed the air. “I have a very discerning nose, and—” She stopped talking to gasp.
In an instant, the draperies burst into flame, followed in quick succession by the carpet and the cushioned bench. Small space, fire, and no way out. This was an intentionally set deathtrap!
Chapter 16
Between a Locked Door and a Hot Place
Panic swept through me as swiftly as flames consumed the corridor. This was impossible! How did the fire start? Too many thoughts ricocheted through my brain at once, threatening to short-circuit it. Purposefully taking a grip on my consciousness, I forced myself to focus. Nothing mattered but getting Winter and Elaine to safety.
Elaine started coughing and crumpled to a heap by the glass doors. She gasped again. “I don’t have my inhaler with me.”
Asthma? On top of everything else, she has asthma?
“Pull your shirt up over your mouth and nose,” I directed as my old teacher instincts kicked into gear. If Tammy had been here, she could have kicked the door down. How long before anyone came looking for us? Too long.
Winter sped to a vending machine and tried to push it toward the window. It might reach and break the glass, but she’d never get it over by herself. I rushed to her side, and we strained atthe heavy drink dispenser, heaving, lifting, and thrusting with all our might until at last it tipped and crashed against the panes. Nothing. Not even a crack in the obviously bulletproof glass. It made sense. New Orleans was a high-crime city, and this was a fancy, high-priced hotel. I groaned and Winter whimpered.
Her anxious gaze fell on the ice maker next. “Maybe I can get ice out of here and put the fire out with that.” As she poked and prodded the dispenser, I figured it couldn’t hurt, even though I estimated it would take too long.
The seconds we’d wasted with the machine had allowed the burning fabrics to flare. I grabbed the hem of my new blouse and yanked it over my head. Moving first to the cushioned bench along a wall in the middle, I used it as a fire blanket to beat down the combustion. Too bad if Winter and Elaine got an eyeful of my sexy lingerie, even if it wasn’t the way I’d envisioned Winter seeing it.
My blouse was too small and not made of fire-retardant fabric, hindering my efforts. While I mitigated any further spread toward the corridor door where Elaine wheezed and struggled to breathe, by the time the bench blaze was out, nothing but ashes remained of my shirt.
“Why aren’t the sprinklers coming on?” Winter yelled in frustration. I glanced at the ceiling, and, sure enough, one was mounted there. Still, in this little, seldom occupied space, there was no fire alarm to pull. She threw a handful of ice cubes at a spot of burning carpet in a desperate ploy that only made them sizzle.
“Winter, do you have your phone?” It had been less than a minute since the tinder ignited and already the charring fumes encompassed my senses.
Her red, irritated eyes lit, and she jerked it out of a pocket. I tried to think of something else to try while she punched in911 and reported the situation to the operator. “They said five minutes,” she conveyed in a worried tone. “Help is coming.”
“I don’t think we have five minutes.”
Although the smoke accumulated at the ceiling first, it was settling farther down by the second. Taking two long strides, I sidestepped Elaine on the floor and slammed my foot into the glass door, kicking it again and again with all the strength I could muster. It rattled and shook but didn’t break.
I clenched my jaw in raw determination, cocked my right arm, and punched it, throwing my hip and all my weight into the assault. Pain shot through my knuckles but not a crack in the reinforced glass. Rage warded off fear and, in that instant, I hated SapphicLover69 more than I had ever hated anyone. Fury burned in my core, hotter than the inferno that had leaped up the curtains to the ceiling. With a glance upward, I witnessed tongues of flame lick the white panels over Winter’s head and I called out with a shriek such as I ‘d never uttered.
