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She glanced from him to the road. “The gate? How will they get in?” She pushed at her hair. “We can’t stand by now. We have to help the firemen.”
“I know the code,” Connor replied, already running toward the house. “You stay here and update them. I’ll be back soon.”
“Okay.” She seemed to move closer to the fire as he ran away.
“Don’t do anything crazy!” he called over his shoulder.
But his plea got lost in the wind and now the rain.
* * *
Josie squinted into the white-hot flames, the smell of electrical wires and burning wood and plastic making her cough. She’d have to get away before this place blew up.
The raindrops hit her with a wet frenzy, and she thanked God for them. “Yes. Stop the fire. Please, stop this fire.”
Who had done this and why? Did someone hate Armond so much that they wanted to destroy him completely? Or was someone trying to destroy important documents? More invoices with even more damaging information? Or a whole cache of illegal goods? Maybe even the coveted will?
Or was someone after Connor? Maybe only Connor? He had fooled and betrayed a lot of people before he turned FBI asset. Maybe she should consider that angle, too.
She heard a crackle and then another part of the roof fell in. She turned to run but a scream turned her back toward the fire.
Somebody was in there.
* * *
Connor let in the lone fire truck and told the volunteer fire chief where the fire was located. “You should see a dark-headed female back there,” he shouted. Then he hopped up onto the big truck’s bumper and rode with them. “I’ll show you.”
But when the truck got closer, the rain hit, washing him with a cold, fresh rinse. He wiped at his eyes as the sharp drops hit him in the face. He didn’t see Josie anywhere.
She’d disappeared on him again, and once again his heart did that tightening thing that made him want to scream. He wasn’t sure he was ready to care about a woman who was so fearless, but his heart wasn’t listening to his head.
“Where’s the woman?” one of the volunteers shouted.
“I left her here,” Connor shouted back. He hopped off the truck and ran toward the growing flames. “Josie?”
Lightning flared across the sky, beaming across the burning garage. Connor squinted into the bright light while the firemen went to work with the pumper truck. He hurried closer to the big building but the extreme heat burned at his skin. A roaring, raging sound filled the night. The fire taking over, moving rapidly across the entire building.
“Josie?”
Had she gone in there?
* * *
Josie held her arm across her mouth and nose and searched the yellow-hot building, her eyes burning from the heat. “Hello? Anyone in here?”
She heard a muffled call. “Over here. Help me, please.”
Josie followed the sound, smoke clouding her in a scorching blanket of choking heat. “Keep calling,” she shouted. “I’m coming.”
She heard a woman’s whimpering plea. “Hurry.”
Josie was almost to the back of the garage but the flames were licking hungrily all around her. Taking off her jacket, she pushed it against her nose. “Where are you?”
“Here, here.” A tiny dark-haired woman appeared out of the smoke. “Help me.”
Josie rushed toward the woman, but when she heard timber cracking behind her, she turned and looked up toward the stairs leading to the apartments. The fire was headed that way. In a brief flash, she thought she saw a man standing at the top of the stairs. She blinked to clear her eyes, but no one was there. Then the woman screamed, closer this time, and Josie turned back toward her.
“Hurry,” she called. “Follow me out.”
The woman looked terrified. “I won’t make it.”
“Yes, you will.”
All around them, wood was splitting and popping, while ribbons of smoke poured over them like liquid silver. Josie turned to grab the woman but then she heard the high beams of the big building buckling into the flames like matchsticks.
She looked up and instinctively held her hand over her head and watched in horror as one of the beams creaked and moaned. Without thinking, she lunged toward the woman and threw her body over her.
