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Delilah waved a hand, her expression irritated. “Probably someone smoking out on the deck.”
Harper wrinkled her nose as she looked around the crowded room, but everyone seemed to be carrying on like no big deal. She knew she smelled smoke. Or was she imagining it? “It doesn’t smell like cigarettes to me.”
“Then it’s probably something else. Don’t worry about it, let’s get out of here,” Delilah grumbled as she started to go down the stairs. Harper glanced over her shoulder toward the bar area and found Wren watching her, her expression somber. She wanted to go back to her. Wanted to ask her to forgive, to understand, to say she was sorry, but she couldn’t do it. Not now. Not yet.
Harper knew Wren wasn’t ready to listen.
A continuous beeping sound started, sharp and piercing, making Harper immediately cover her ears. The music abruptly shut off and everyone seemed to stop talking all at once, looking at each other in confusion. That’s when Harper saw it. A cloud of smoke filling the room, dark gray and thick. Someone began yelling at the top of the person’s lungs.
“Fire! Run!”
“Wren!” Harper yelled, squealing when she felt someone grab hold of her arm and start to pull her down the stairs. “No, Delilah, we can’t leave her!”
“We have to go!” Delilah screamed.
It was a crush of people, everyone rushing for the stairs all at once as the smoke grew thicker, making Harper cough. She took a deep breath, gasping when she felt the sharp burn fill her lungs. Someone stepped on her toes and she yelped, her left sandal slipping off her foot as she tripped down the stairs.
Delilah let go of her hand amid the people shoving and pushing around them in their haste to get down the stairs and out of the building. Harper looked behind her, hoping to spot Wren, but she couldn’t find her in the crowd. And she couldn’t see Delilah anymore either.
Surrounded by so many strangers as she stumbled down the stairs, her friends nowhere in sight, she’d never felt so alone.
Chapter Fourteen
“I’VE NEVER HEARD of this restaurant before,” West said as he drove the engine down the twisty
road that ran along the east side of Wildwood Lake. The sun was setting, casting a strange orange glow across the calm lake. There weren’t any people hanging out along the shore, and no boats speeding across the water. The lake was almost eerily calm.
“It used to be called something else. Duke’s maybe? Or Luke’s?” Tori told him from the passenger seat. The rest of the firefighters were in the back cab. The coveted passenger seat was on a rotating schedule, Tori being the lucky one up tonight. Everyone fought over that damn passenger seat, which West found amusing. He’d done the same thing himself at the other stations he’d worked at.
“Ah, Duke’s. I remember that place.” It had always been too fancy for his family’s blood. It was more of a tourist location, or where the kids would take their prom dates for dinner, though he’d never taken his there. Couldn’t afford it. And after a while, he hadn’t really cared.
“Yeah, well the building was sold and the new owners renovated the place over the winter,” Tori yelled over the siren, which he’d just flicked on. They were driving through a more populated area and he wanted to offer up a warning that they were coming through. Sometimes the flashing lights weren’t enough.
Not that they encountered much traffic. He could see the flume of smoke in the air up ahead, thick and black, indicating that a structure was burning, though it didn’t look as intense as it had only a few minutes ago. He knew there was another engine already on scene and a couple of sheriff’s deputies were there as well for crowd control.
He pressed the accelerator a little more firmly with his booted foot, eager to arrive. He didn’t know much beyond that the top floor of the building, where the bar was, was on fire. He hoped like hell there weren’t too many people inside and that they’d all gotten out safely, but it was high tourist season. Meaning big crowds flocked to the lakeside, renting cabins, camping, or holing up in the more expensive boutique hotels.
The town was overrun with tourists all summer long, right through the fall and until the first snow fell. Hell, even then businesses tried to appeal to visitors by turning Wildwood into a Christmas village. Wildwood lived and died by the tourist industry. If a brand-new restaurant burnt to the ground, that could hurt the town in the long run, though really the tourists would just find somewhere else to hang out.
West pulled the engine into the large parking lot of the restaurant—now called Wildwood BBQ & Bar, so original—shutting off the siren as he pulled up to the front, as close to the building as he could get, squeezing the engine in between an ambulance and a deputy car already parked there. His crew jumped out and started pulling off the hose while West went over to the other captain. He knew the guy’s last name was Jefferson because that’s all anyone ever called him.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“We have most of it under control,” Jefferson said, his voice grim as he stared up at the building. “Your brother’s here. Said there might be a few people still unaccounted for. He’s checking right now.”
“Shit.” West rubbed his hand along his jaw, checking out the building as well. The restaurant was large, one of the closest to the lake, and currently the grassy area that surrounded the building was filled with people, the evacuated restaurant patrons most likely. The fire had been put out, but thin dark smoke still billowed out from the top floor’s broken windows, the wood siding was black in spots, and the roof had mostly caved in. The bottom story appeared in relatively good shape, but water and smoke damage could make those extensive renovations pretty much obsolete.
“We need rescue. Stat. People are still inside.” A familiar voice came from behind West and he whirled around to find Lane striding toward him, looking so upset West knew that whatever he was about to tell him was bad.
Real bad.
But he didn’t give his brother a chance to explain. “We’re going inside,” he called to his crew as he started toward the front door without hesitation. Lane jogged along beside him, and West’s crew fell into step behind them. His radio crackled at his hip but he ignored it, determination and fear making his heart race.
“Listen to me.” Lane grabbed his arm, halting him at the top of the steps leading to the restaurant entry. His crew stopped just behind him, confusion on their faces as they waited. “They can’t find Harper. They’ve looked everywhere, but she’s nowhere to be found.” Lane’s words almost slurred he said them so fast.
West’s heart felt like it shattered into a thousand tiny little pieces. “What do you mean they can’t find Harper? Why was she here?” His heartbeat roared in his ears as he tried to focus on what Lane was saying. Something about Lane coming upon Wren outside and her panicking, crying that she hadn’t seen Harper and she could still be in there. She hadn’t seen Delilah either. He was thankful that Wren was okay. But . . .
“Wait a minute, Delilah and Harper could still be inside?” West didn’t even hesitate. He barged through the front doors, Lane yelling at him to stop, commanding West’s crew not to go inside.
