Page 72 of Hard Ride

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Ollie had only gotten a mile or two away from the arena before he realized he couldn’t do it.No matter how pitiful or likely to end up crushed it made him, he simply refused to go.Because doing so would destroy him just as surely.

After a few minutes sitting on the side of the road, he calmed down enough to actually think things through.He needed to find Van and figure out what they were going to do.If there wasn’t something real between them, something more than the physical, it wouldn’t work long term because Ollie knew for sure he already had feelings for Van that were growing stronger by the day.If that was the case, one of them would have to step down so Kyra at least could have a lasting relationship with the other.

If they both truly loved her, then that’s all that should matter to them.

Ollie glanced over at Mr.Prickles in his cage.“I have to turn around, right?”

The hedgehog bounced up and down in the closest signal to a yes he could have made.

That cinched it.

Ollie would find Van, man up, tell him how he felt and then see where that left them.

He glanced in the rearview mirror, hoping to catch a glimpse of Kyra’s gorgeous face on the electronic billboard outside of the arena as he waited for traffic to clear so he could merge into it and find somewhere to turn around.Instead, what he saw zapped his heart with terror.Horror unsurpassed even by the thought of his imploding love life and losing Kyra to another man.

Inky black smoke rose from the arena.At first it was a trickle so faint he thought his subconscious was conjuring it.But as he stared, unable to so much as blink, it grew and thickened like an evil black rope about to choke the life out of the people he loved most.

Why hadn’t he heard any sirens?Why weren’t fire trucks blazing down the street toward the venue?What the fuck was happening?

Ollie picked up his cell.First he texted Van.FIRE!Get everyone out.Now!

Then he dialed 911.He put his phone on speaker, tossed it onto the dash, then grabbed the steering wheel in hands that shook even worse than before.“Hold on, Mr.Prickles!”

He whipped the campervan around in a very illegal U-turn that nearly got him broadsided.Horns blared as vehicles swerved around him.Miraculously unscathed, he floored the campervan toward the arena.It was the longest drive of his life.

By the time he sped into the lot he’d recently left, practically on two wheels, smoke poured from the center of the arena.It was bad.Real bad.

Ollie flung open his door and dropped to the ground, pausing only to grip the door handle until the world stopped spinning and he could draw a full breath into his chest.The acrid air stung his lungs from the inside out as it damaged his tissue.

He’d never forget that feeling as long as he lived.

“No.No.Why this?Why now?No!”Ollie shoved the specter of his mami from his memory and focused on things he might still be able to change.

He couldn’t live with more ghosts haunting him.

Ollie sprinted toward the building as first a smattering, and then a deluge, of people nearly mowed him down, fleeing in the opposite direction.

Someone snagged his arm.“Buddy, you can’t go in there.The whole place is going up.The sprinkler system is malfunctioning and no one can figure out why.They’re evacuating the entire place.”

“Where is the band?”he asked.“Are they already out?”

“I don’t know.I’m just a sound tech.I think they were in their dressing rooms or something.I heard there was a big fight.They sent the rest of us away.”He shook his head.“The fire started on the stage.Hopefully they saw and left.”

“You mean they were closest to it.”Ollie shook free and started running again.Because he knew Van and the rest of the guys.They weren’t going to simply walk away from an emergency.They were going to try to be fucking heroes against a monster they couldn’t fight.Well, they could fight, but they couldn’t win.

And all his friends, Van and Kyra included, were right at the heart of it.

Ollie gripped the backstage door, closed his eyes, and stomped on the panic attack bubbling up within him.He was going to run in, grab them, and get the fuck out.That’s all.It was a big building.It would probably be fine.

He took his shirt off and tied it around the lower half of his face.

Then he plunged into his own personal hell, complete with heat and roaring flames.

Instantly, his eyes began to water.He felt like a salmon fighting his way upstream against the people gushing from the arena now.Even scarier was when he pushed past them all and was the only one left.It took him a minute or two longer than he hoped to find the stage in the growing confusion, and when he did, the door to it wouldn’t budge.

He kicked, he threw his shoulder into it so hard he nearly dislocated it, and then he gave up.Searching for another way in, he slammed into a wall of flesh.

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