Blaze: A Firefighter Romance

by Lisa Lace

  "Where would you put them?" he said, running his hands through his hair and making it stand on end.

  "Children, even if you're making them quiet, are probably going to be quite noisy."

  "Yeah."

  "How many are being held here?"

  "Fifty or sixty? We're not sure."

  "That many kids would be loud, even if they're scared and being as quiet as possible. And what about when they have to use the bathroom and eat?"

  His eyes darted all the place. "Wait a minute," I said. "Does this place have a basement?"

  Jori's eyes lit up. He pulled up a schematic of the building on his computer. He smiled at me and headed for the corner. I followed, trying to keep up with his pace, but he was moving quickly. When we got there, we found a trap door. Did we have to go into another hole in the ground? He opened it carefully, and we saw a ladder going down. Jori was on it in a moment and disappeared.

  "Come on," I heard him whisper from below me.

  I didn't want to go in, but I knew how to give myself the courage to move. I pulled up a memory of one of our kisses and held it firmly in my mind. Then I climbed down. I was afraid, but I did it. The sense of satisfaction I felt afterward was indescribable. I jumped from the ladder into his arms. He squeezed me tightly, then released me. Maybe I was starting to overcome my fears.

  "There's a light up ahead, so we need to be careful," he said as we moved into the passageway.

  The place seemed abandoned, but some noises told me there were people here. Jori spotted the door first. He checked it and had it open before I reached him.

  As soon as he went through, I knew we had found them because there was a chorus of soft voices asking him a million questions.

  "Be quiet." A little girl, about eight years old, shushed all the children and stepped forward as the spokesperson for the group. "Are you here to rescue us?"

  "Why would you think that?" Jori said. His eyes were lit up with happiness to see the children alive and unhurt.

  "Because you're sneaking in. You wouldn't sneak in if you worked for the bad guys."

  "You're right," I said. "We're here to get you out."

  We heard a new noise in the corridor.

  "Quick," the little girl said, shutting the door. "Come in here and hide."

  We were in yet another storeroom that had large, sturdy shelves on three out of the four walls. Our new friend pushed me down and motioned for me to climb onto the bottom of a shelf. Other children had done the same for Jori.

  "Some of you stand in front of them. If they ask what we're doing, say we're playing a new game."

  The children quietly waited. The door opened again, and a man's voice spoke.

  "What are you doing in there?" he asked.

  "We're playing with each other," said the little girl.

  The man snorted. "Go to sleep," he said.

  "Yes, sir," the little girl answered.

  The guard shut the door again.

  After a minute, the kids moved away from us. We sat up.

  "I'm Sam," I whispered. "And this is Jori. We're going to make sure you get back to your parents."

  "My name's Maria," the little girl said. "What's the plan? I'll tell everyone what we're going to do."

  Chapter Eighteen

  JORI

  It was so easy to get the children out that I almost couldn't believe it. Maria told us that there were only a couple guards. Sam and I took them out, tying them up in one of the rooms. We led the first of the children back to the warehouse and out the passageway to the manhole.

  Police were waiting for us when we arrived. I had contacted my senior the moment we had the guards tied up. They took the kids to the police station. The police would reunite the parents with their children. I knew I was going to get an earful from Mara, my supervisor, about not calling for assistance, but I didn't care. I was glad the kids were all safe and didn't want to make anyone wait longer to see their family.

  "I'll be right back," I told Sam. "I'm going to make sure everyone's out."

  "I'll come with you," Maria piped up. "I know where they would hide if they were afraid."

  "No, sweetie, you have to leave now," I told her.

  "But…"

  "She has a point, Jori," Sam said. "I'll come too."

  I tried not to be irritated. They both wanted to help, after all. It turned out to be an excellent idea to let Maria assist me because she found a small child curled up and sound asleep. He was in a large packing crate stacked in a corner of a room.

  "It's one of the little ones' favorite places to play. We don't have bedtimes here, so sometimes they will fall asleep in the middle of playing if they stayed up late the night before. They lie down and will be out in seconds." She smiled and shrugged. "It's cute."

  I picked up the little boy and carried him with me. When we approached the manhole, we heard scuffling behind us. I glanced at Sam. Had the guards freed themselves already?

  "Here, give him to me," Maria said, holding out her arms. "I know you need to go back and see what that is. I'll make sure he gets out. Don't worry."

  "I'm not worried," I told Maria, handing the little boy to the clever girl. He wrapped his arms and legs around her, laying his head on her shoulder. She held him close, carrying him easily.

  "Just get out safely, okay?" she said. "And thank you. You saved us. You're heroes."

  Maria turned and walked away.

  Samantha and I stared at each other for a moment. Heroes?

  I pulled out my gun again. We moved quickly back down the passageway. I thought about telling her to leave, but she would argue with me. I didn't have time for that. If we could only get something on Harrington, we could stop him permanently. It wasn't enough to save this batch of kids. I wanted to arrest him so he couldn't do this to anyone else ever again.

  When we made our way back through the warehouse and down the stairs, I thought again about making Sam stay behind. Having my gun out made me feel secure but it also made me feel nervous. I knew I wouldn't be able to stand it if anything happened to her. I had a feeling she wouldn't stay, so the next best place to have her was right next to me where I could protect her.

  As we arrived in a corridor, I realized that we were in big trouble.

  I wished with all my heart that I had convinced Sam to stay behind. I knew it was a mistake to let her come with me. Stupid.

  The two guards we had tied up were free and had brought their friends. The hallway was full of intimidating figures with guns. I didn't know where they came from, but it didn't matter.

  I started moving backward. They had not seen us yet. Then I tripped over something and fell on the metal railing of the stairs, which made a loud clang when my gun hit it. Immediately, they all turned their heads to look at us. All I saw were guns trained on Sam and me. There was no chance that we could evade capture, so I put my gun down on the floor and kicked it over to them. Then I put my hands in the air.

  "Don't fire," I said. "We surrender."

  "Ah, Lachlan," Harrington said. "We meet again."

  I didn't say anything. Some guards had escorted us to his luxurious offices and forced us to sit on the couch. Everything appeared civilized and aboveboard. The only unusual thing in sight was three armed guards stationed around the room. Otherwise, we might have been visiting him for tea.

  "You've stolen my children," he said.

  "First of all, they're not yours. And I returned them to their parents," I said, breaking my silence. "You were the one who stole them."

  "Yes, I suppose you could say that. I was just trying to give them a chance at a better life."

  "And yourself a chance at billions of credits," I said, rolling my eyes in disgust.

  "Some people need those children," he said, frowning at me. "Those people will be able to give them lifestyles they would never have known if they had stayed with their parents. Most of these children are refugees. Their parents can barely feed them. Forget about giving them clothes and toys, or providi
ng for their education."

  I scowled at him.

  "Just because they can't provide those sorts of things doesn't mean they deserve to have their children abducted. Those kids have parents who love them. You can't buy love. There is no substitute for a child's mother and father, Harrington."

  The old man waved his hand in a dismissive motion.

  "Your sentiments are childish. They will have had every material thing they can dream of."

  "Except the only things they desire. Their mother and father," I said, remembering my mom. I would have given away every toy I owned, gone around in rags, and slept on the ground every night if it meant I could have my mother with me.

  "You don't know what you're talking about, boy. You will regret having meddled in my business."

  "No, Harrington, you're wrong," I said. "I will never regret having helped reunite families."

  He glared at me and looked at his men. "Lock them up," he said. The guards moved towards us.

  For a prison, this place was pretty nice, even though Sam had to sit on the floor. I knew from experience. We were in one of Harrington's spare rooms. There was no furniture, but there was thick carpet on the floor, and it was clean. There was even an attached bathroom. I imagined we would only be here a little while until he took us somewhere unpleasant.

  Bars were on the windows. The bars were the only thing destroying the illusion we had moved into our first house together and didn't have any furniture yet. That's what I was pretending in my mind. It was better than facing reality. I had let Sam get captured by one of the biggest criminals on Vandwa. And I felt awful.

  "Jori. We have to get out of here," she said for the third time.

  "I know, Sam. Tell me how we can do it and I'll make it happen."

  "I don't know how. There must be a way out of this room."

  "Yeah, sure. Out the window. Through the bars." I went over to the bars and examined them. There were spaces between them, but a big person like me could never get through them. I reached through them to open the window. At least we could have some fresh air. Sam got up and came over to the window, examining the bars.

  "I think I could wiggle through."

  "That's impossible," I said, coming back. I realized that when I examined the bars, I only looked to see if I could get through. I didn't think about Sam. Was she right? She was much smaller than me. The bars were far apart. They had only expected to imprison burly men here.

  She checked the width of her hips and brought her hands up to the bars. It would be tight, but she should be able to squeeze through.

  "You might have to grease me up," she said, grinning.

  "Don't give me any ideas, Samantha," I said, getting hard at the thought of greasing her up, my hands slipping and sliding over her naked body. I forced myself to stop my imagination from running wild. I didn't know if I would get the chance to touch her again. There was no use tormenting myself.

  I had no idea what Harrington planned to do with us. But I knew he had no qualms about killing us. Since we weren't already dead, I assumed that he had a plan for us. I had no illusions. It was likely that the only way out of this room for me was death. There was no hope. I didn't voice my thoughts to Sam, though. She wanted to try. I wasn't going to stop her.

  "We'll wait until evening," I said. "It will be harder to see you."

  "There's a big ledge that I'll be able to stand on. Then it's just a small step over to that big tree. I've escaped him before. I can do it again."

  I wasn't sure this was a good idea. Too much could go wrong, but we had no other choice. She was the only one who could go through the bars. As long as we were Harrington's prisoners, we wouldn't be able to bring him down. The fact that he was going to kill us eventually was also a strong motivation for us to escape.

  "As long as you're not afraid of heights, we're good to go," I said, joking. She laughed but something seemed wrong.

  Was she afraid of heights?

  SAMANTHA

  I love heights. I love heights. I love heights. I repeated the sentence over and over. Maybe if I recited it enough times, it would come true.

  I stood on the ledge outside our window and looked down at a two-story drop. It was late at night, and the moon lit the grounds. All I had to do was take one step to the tree. It wasn't far. There was less than a foot from the ledge to a large branch.

  The huge branch was nearly vertical. Once I reached it, I only had to step across and grab hold of the big tree trunk. Then I would climb down and somehow escape. The plan was to find Nathaniel and get his help to rescue Jori. On the third Tuesday of the month, he was always at home to resupply.

  He would be easy to find once I got off the ledge.

  It was such a small distance to cross, but it felt like an enormous gap. What was the matter with me? First the claustrophobia and now acrophobia. I wasn't usually afraid of heights. I think the stress of everything that had happened to me was making me nervous. I had climbed down the ladder into darkness, but imminent death had pushed me forward at the time. Right now there was only the promise of future death, which wasn't as motivating.

  I should never have come with Jori. I should have gone home as he told me, like a good little wife.

  No. I was the only one who could move through the bars and get help. I could be useful. I could help him if I could get off this ledge and onto the tree.

  Jori stood silently behind me. I knew what he was thinking.

  "You can come back in, you know."

  Once again, his offer of an out made me reluctant to take it. I wanted to show him I was better than he thought. Braver. Stronger. In a higher class of people. I wasn't just a poor girl from the wrong side of the tracks, with no education, no skills, and no courage.

  If I actually wanted to show him, I needed to step across and climb down the tree. But I couldn't do it.

  "What will Harrington do to us?" I said, not turning or moving on the ledge. It was beginning to feel way too small.

  "Drownings happen all the time to off-worlders," he said, his voice sounding quiet from inside the building. "It's harder to drown a Vandwan, of course, but anybody can arrange an accident."

  "Drowning? He would drown us?"

  "He would try. That's his favorite way to take people out. They disappear, and their bodies wash up on shore days later. There are very few fingerprints in water. It always looks like an accident. It's impossible to prove who did it. Harrington's as slippery as an eel and a hundred times more cruel."

  Being drowned was as terrifying as plummeting to my death. I had to do this. I forced my body to move. I reached out my hand. I couldn't possibly hold on to the side and reach for the other at the same time. There was going to be a moment when I had to let go of the building, but I would not yet have hold of the tree.

  "It's a leap of faith, Sam," Jori said. The voice behind me was full of conviction. "You can do it. I believe in you. I know you'll come back for me. I trust you."

  He said his last sentence in a low voice and I almost didn't hear it. I knew how hard it must be for someone like him to trust me. He had lived in a web of lies for so long it was difficult for him to let go.

  That thought gave me strength.

  I held his trust in my heart like a gift, and I knew I could do it. It was a leap of faith. He was right. But it was one I was willing to make. I would do anything for him.

  I looked at the tree. I imagined myself clinging to it and climbing down easily. Then I let go of the building and stepped out over the void.

  Chapter Nineteen

  SAMANTHA

  I clung to the branch for dear life, my feet scrambling to get a hold. Soon I stood firmly on the huge branch, holding on tightly with my arms. I turned to look at Jori. He had a big smile on his face, though there was worry in the back of his eyes.

  "You did it," he said. "I know you can do the rest, too. When it gets difficult, remember I believe in you."

  I wished I could touch him. Instead, I merely nodded, blinkin
g back my tears.

  "Jori…" I started but he interrupted me.

  "We will see each other again, Sam. I promise."

  "You shouldn't make promises you may not be able to keep," I said, my voice choking up in spite of myself.

  "I'll keep this one," he said. I knew that he believed it. "I'll see you soon enough," he said. "Now go."

  I gazed at his handsome face one last time before I turned and began climbing down the tree. Going down was a nightmare. Every time my foot slipped, I thought I was going to fall to my death. My hands were covered in sweat and I wondered if I would tumble down out of the tree. When my feet finally touched the ground, I gave a huge sigh of relief.

  But it wasn't over yet. I looked up at the window and waved. I thought I saw movement but I wasn't sure. Then I turned resolutely and started running, keeping myself covered by the shadows of the trees as Jori had instructed me. It only took me a few minutes to find the hole we had gone through the last time.

  It was filled in.

  My heart sank. I dropped to my knees and started to dig with my hands.

  I didn't get very far before I saw that someone had half-heartedly tried to cover it. The hole was still there. It only took a few minutes to empty the hole. A new dread began to fill me as I contemplated wriggling through it again and getting stuck.

  My heart pounded. I don't know how long I sat there without moving. The noise of an animal growling got me off my butt. I remembered that Jori thought I could do it. I began to wriggle through the hole lying down on my stomach.

  Just like before, when I got halfway through, my hips became stuck. In the future, I might appreciate them but right now I was cursing their width. I twisted, trying to get free but this time I was tightly wedged between the falls. Last time Jori had given me a push to set me free. He wasn't around to help me now.

  The noises got louder and I worried that a Vandwan land animal would attack my legs. Shit. What could I do? I needed to be thinner, but I wasn't going to lose five pounds in the next two minutes.

  I could lose about a quarter of an inch if I took off my pants. I began wiggling again, but this time I didn't worry if my pants were pulled off my legs. I had to leave my pants behind but it was enough to let me free. I scrambled out the other side, feeling relief flooding me again.