32. Dane

Dane

I slide under the roller door just in time. I can hear Gideon on the other side, but he didn't make it. There's nothing I can do but help her.

Find her.

Save her.

The front door opens at my touch, allowing me entrance. I can hear the sounds of a man shouting.

But then I catch the scent of smoke in the air.

I hesitate, absolutely gut-wrenchingly torn. I could go straight to her, risk death, or I could get those doors open and get everyone out.

It kills me to make the decision, but I leave her. I'm gambling on Louis being so obsessed with her that he won't kill her. Not yet.

I push open a door, and my mind blanks.

I walk in, helplessly drawn to the photos. It's an entire room full of photos of Terrance's last moments. My eyes widen and breathing gets hard. Louis really hated Terrance. Image after image burns its way into my brain, seared in my memory forever.

A hand wraps around my mouth.

"Quiet now, you have dead hands, too. She needs you. The fire is eating, eating, eating. The water needs to run, to pour."

I turn slowly and find the homeless bum Jax spoke to. She called him Joe ?

"We're going to remove our hands now. We need the waters, running. Doors opened or we'll cook like turkey." He glances up at the wall of photos and flinches.

I nod, and he steps back, gesturing to me to follow him back into the hallway.

"Come, dead one, come. We can't help what already happened, and he's got a new skin."

Joe's words make me shiver. He knows. Somehow, in his craziness, he knows.

He leads me down to a set of stairs and points down.

"Boxes that spark, buttons to push, switches to switch."

I stare down and then abruptly making a decision; I jog down. As soon as I reach the bottom, I pause. There's a massive bed. A cage. A table with a drain. I hear screaming, but I know it's just my imagination.

It takes me a moment, but I find the mains box. I rush to it and check. I see security and hesitate. What should I do? Fuck it.

I flip the switch. Nothing happens, but then a light flashes. I remember seeing a box up on the wall at the back of the house. I growl and jog up the stairs, carefully slipping into the house. It's filling with smoke. I was so focused on what I'm doing I almost missed it.

Panic seers me almost as fast as the wall of hot air does. I scramble through the house, and find the box. I flip it open, gasping for air, peering with difficulty, trying to read the tiny writing in the smoke-filled house.

I hear someone up the other end of the house, banging on the door.

Sweat runs down the side of my face. Jax, shit, please, oh, please. I flick the switch and then press two buttons.

The roller doors start moving.

Yes !

But there's no water.

I lean closer, trying to see, and then I spot a reset button. I hesitate and then depress the button.

A panel of options comes up on the screen. I see fire protection and press it. It gives me an option of threat assessment and response. I press that.

Alarms scream into the house, deafening, but water suddenly pours from sprinklers in the ceiling. I cough and stumble to my knees, then push myself up.

"You need to help her."

I look up into the shadow and see the dead face of Terrance. "No," I moan.

"Get up, brother. She needs you."

"Terry, what have you done?"

"It doesn't matter. I don't regret it."

He vanishes, and I stumble towards the front of the house. It takes forever. I bump into walls and burn my hand on hot surfaces. I take wrong turns. Tears stream from my half-blinded eyes. I'm coughing and choking so hard I'm vomiting, and my head is light.

But an inner voice forces me on. Jax needs me. She's in here. I can't leave her alone.