Janie Crouch - Risk Everything

Evidently motion had been detected.

Bree’s fingers flew across the keyboard so she could bring up the footage on her computer monitor, which provided a much larger and clearer picture of the uninhabited area. Except the picture wasn’t much clearer. It took her a moment to realize it wasn’t because of a problem with her computer, but because the room was full of smoke.

The building was on fire.

Bree grabbed the phone on her desk and dialed 911.

“Grand County emergency services. You’ve reached 911. What’s your emergency?”

“Debbie, it’s Bree Daniels.” Recognizing the 911 operator was definitely one of the perks of living in a small town. “There’s a fire at New Journeys. Not in the main section, thank God, but it might spread. Send the fire trucks around to the back to the section that hasn’t been renovated yet. I’m going to see if I can get it under control with the fire extinguisher.”

“Now wait a minute, Bree. You need to stay on the line with me so we can direct the first responder—”

Bree didn’t wait for Debbie to finish her sentence. The woman had lived in Risk Peak her whole life. She knew exactly where to send the first responders.

Bree grabbed the fire extinguisher in the corner of her office and dashed out into the hall, yanking down the fire alarm. Her office was on the opposite end of the housing area—uniquely situated between the residential space and the area that hadn’t been renovated. Pulling the alarm would be the quickest way to get everyone out without having to run down to the living quarters herself.

Because maybe she could stop this whole thing before it got out of hand.

Once the alarm was blaring, she dashed back into her office and out the door on the other side that took her into the section of the building where the fire was located. She started in a sprint down the hall to the room where the motion had triggered the camera, but soon slowed. Already smoke was starting to fill the hallway.

The farther down the hall Bree went, the thicker the smoke became. Would she be able to put out a blaze making this much smoke with a single fire extinguisher? She had to try.

She heard some sort of screeching noise ahead of her and started to run again, coughing as she took in more smoke. Was somebody trapped back here? Teenagers fooling around again who accidentally started a fire and got trapped?

She turned the corner and dropped low in the thick smoke, crawling forward now. It almost sounded like someone was calling her name, but she couldn’t tell from where. The smoke and her own coughing had her disoriented already, and that screeching noise was growing louder.

Someone had to be trapped in there. She pushed forward faster.

Extinguisher in one hand, she reached for the door handle with the other and let out a shriek when an arm wrapped around her waist and lifted her off her knees, spinning her around.

“Oh, no you don’t,” a voice said in her ear. “You’re not getting out of the tulle that easily.”

“Tanner.” His name came out in a relieved cough. “There’s a fire. I heard a noise and I think someone was calling my name. It’s behind that door.”

“That was me calling your name. We’ve got to go.”

She gestured toward the door. “But what about the noise? There may be someone trapped in there.”

The screeching noise got higher and louder and Tanner muttered a curse under his breath, tucking his arm around her and launching her toward the corner. They just made it around and she was about to argue her case again when a thundering explosion roared from where they’d just been standing. Smoke encased the hall from top to bottom.

“What—” Bree stuttered.

“Too many accelerants in a construction area. It was like a pressure cooker.”

A pressure cooker that would’ve killed her if Tanner hadn’t been there to stop her from opening that door and get her out of the hallway.

Taking the fire extinguisher, he tucked her under his arm again and propelled them both back toward her office. Once there she was at least able to breathe again.

“You’re going to have to let the firefighters go after that blaze, freckles. There’s nothing you can do. Let’s just get everybody out of the front of the building.”

She nodded, sucking in huge gulps of air. “You saved my life. I just called 911 a couple minutes ago. How did you get here so fast?”

“I was already here when you pulled the alarm.”

They rushed together toward the housing units.

“You were? Why?”

He stopped for the briefest of seconds and gave her a hard kiss, before taking her arm and spurring her down the hall once again. “I went by your apartment to tell you I wanted both . We could go before the judge tomorrow and have the church wedding in two weeks. All I knew was I had to have you in bed with me tonight. When you weren’t there, I came over here to plead my case.”

“Holy hell,” she whispered, then coughed again. “If you hadn’t needed a booty call…”

She would’ve been dead.

He gave a short bark of laughter and shook his head grimly at the same time. “Yeah. Thank God I’m addicted to you.”

A few moments later they were in the housing area.

“Bree!” Marilyn said. “What’s going on? Is this some sort of drill?”

Bree was still coughing from the smoke she’d taken in and her run down both hallways.

“No,” Tanner answered for her. “Not a drill. Everybody needs to get out. There’s a fire in the other section of the building.”

The panic was almost instantaneous. Mothers began calling for their children and some of the other women yelled for anyone who might still be asleep. Most of the kids were crying and Eva and Sam were looking up at Bree and Tanner, eyes huge in their pale faces, Tromso’s leash in their hand.

Bree couldn’t stop coughing. It paired horribly with the dog’s whining.

Tanner put both hands on her shoulders. “You need to get outside and stop exerting yourself.” He turned to Marilyn. “Can she take the kids outside and you and I will get everyone else out?”

Marilyn nodded.

Bree started to argue but another coughing fit overtook her. Tanner was right—he and Marilyn would get everyone out. The most she could do to help right now would be to get out of the way. She nodded and offered Eva and Sam her hands. They took them and she led them quickly outside, some of the other residents along with them.

Outside was pure chaos. Lights from fire trucks, police cars and ambulances lit up their block like it was some sort of disco rave party. Half the town was frantically pacing back and forth, and everyone seemed to be talking all at once.

Eva and Sam were looking even more traumatized, so Bree pulled them back toward the outer edge of the action. She wanted to reassure them, but every time she started talking she was besieged by coughs. So she just crouched beside them and put an arm around each small, shivering body.

It wasn’t long before a paramedic came up to her.

“Miss, I think we ought to get your cough checked out. Can you come with me?”

She shook her head. She wasn’t leaving Sam and Eva alone in this craziness. “I’ll stay with them,” she managed to get out.

The paramedic smiled at the kids. “Yeah, this is pretty nuts, isn’t it?”

They both nodded solemnly.

He gave Bree a kind smile. “This sort of situation can be pretty overwhelming for folks their age, especially in the middle of the night. But you really ought to get that cough checked out. How about if I escort you over to the ambulance, and I’ll personally stay with the kiddos to make sure they’re not scared.”

“I don’t know—”

“I can keep them over at the side, out of harm’s way and where it’s not so chaotic. Probably best for everyone that way.” He gave her a smile.