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“I can’t just stand here and do nothing,” Kyle shot back. He gave me a full-on tormented look, taking in my injuries, which were apparently quite bad, because he raked a hand through his hair and added, “But damn it, I can’t leave you.”
“Then don’t,” I urged. Regardless of my foggy brain, I knew exactly what my best friend had in mind. “Just stay here. Help the people who are out here.”
He gave me a long look, our eyes locked. I saw his internal tug-of-war. He hated to leave me. Was torn by it. But Kyle was the stuff of which heroes were made. He’d proven it to me more than once.
Before I could get another word of protest out, he whirled around and ran toward the roaring inferno.
I screamed, yelling out for him. More pain sliced through my heart. My dad held me even tighter.
Chef also called out for Kyle to come back. But he didn’t return.
Chef’s attention zeroed in on me again, though it barely registered. In a tight voice, he said, “I’m so sorry. Dane and Amano wouldn’t leave until everyone was safe.”
The throbbing and the haze in my head intensified. A raging pulse beat in my ears. Fury and heartbreak ripped through me, as hot and bright as the mammoth flames engulfing the night.
It couldn’t be true.
It was impossible.
There was no way Dane and Amano could have been trapped inside, couldn’t have made it out in time.
No. Way.
And now Kyle was chasing after them to do what? Charge into a burning building and try to rescue them?
I could hardly fathom the nightmare suddenly seizing me. My legs shook and my heart felt as though it were being beaten to a bloody pulp with a bat.
Someone—Chef or my dad—dabbed at the crimson river mixed with tears covering my face. I couldn’t make out who, because the sticky mess was blinding, along with the pounding in my head.
I struggled again. My dad gently held me. “Ari, just stop.”
“Don’t let Kyle go in there.”
I felt my body slip from my dad’s grip. Slowly crinkling. Everything was slipping away.
“Dane!” I cried once more, weakly.
“Ari. Stay with me, sweets. Come on now.” My dad’s tone was frantic as he eased to the ground with me.
He started talking, but I couldn’t latch on to his words. All I heard were the shocked cries, the snapping and crackling of mile-high flames, the popping of whatever continued to explode inside what was left of 10,000 Lux, and the sirens in the distance. So very, very far away. Nowhere near close enough to save the hotel or anything—anyone—inside it.
And what about Kyle, so determined to risk life and limb for … Dane and Amano?
Oh, God.
He really was a hero.
All three of them were.
I cried harder. I tried to lurch forward once more in my dazed state. But I was weightless and floating.
Then there was nothing but darkness.
* * *
I woke to more voices. Not necessarily calm ones. More like insistent and under-the-breath ones. As though they didn’t want me to hear.
“Completely incinerated … Acres scorched…”
