Page 3 of Angel of Light (Lords of The Commission: New York #5)

The idea of my angel trapped in such hell was all the fuel I needed to amp up my pace and climb faster.

My muscles burned, and as my focus slipped for a second, so did my fingers, precisely when another tremor shook the building.

The balustrade lurched while bolts screeched against metal in an echo that promised death in this never-ending case.

If I felt it here, how much more violent had it been where Alison was?

Smoke poured down from the upper floors, the air already thick and unbreathable, but I wasn’t feeling the full intensity of the fire. Not yet, at least.

By the time I reached the 50th floor, my legs were shaking. My lungs were raw from the carbon dioxide and smoke that thickened with every floor I passed. But there was nothing that was able to stop me.

52.

Finally.

I forced the metal door open, shoving myself through them and into the burning chaos.

It was hell.

Fire crawled up the far walls, thick black smoke rolling across the ceiling like storm clouds brewing the worst thunder the world has ever witnessed.

The floor was a complete war zone. A couple of bodies lay lifeless, desks overturned, glass and debris everywhere.

The acrid stench of burning plastic and flesh filled my nose while panic filled my lungs.

“ALISON!” I screamed, my throat protesting from the exertion.

I stood in my spot, trying to listen beyond the rattling of fire and the loudness of destruction.

“ALISON!” I screamed again, “Come on, Baby. Tell me where you are,” I whispered to myself before shouting again, my voice cracking in its panic, “ALISON!”

My eyes swept over the space frantically as I tried to find her.

Until I heard it.

A faint cough, coming from the left. I ran as fast as I could towards it, hoping to God it was her. The high pitch of metal banging against something directed me straight towards her.

Alison lay motionless beneath a fallen steel beam, half-buried under rubble. Blood streaked her face and matted in her hair. I ran my hands over her beautiful face before feeling her pulse to make sure I hadn’t fucked up and taken too damn long to get to her.

She wasn’t moving.

For a second, I couldn’t breathe, waiting to feel her blood pumping against the two fingers I held to her throat. My heart rate spiked when I couldn’t catch a pulse. Tears running down my cheeks as I waited while kneeling in a puddle of her blood.

I’m too late. I’m too fucking late.

I closed my eyes and imagined her smile while blocking everything around me out of my mind.

I needed to see that smile again, even if that meant following her into the afterlife. There was no way I’d leave this place without her. We’d either go together, or I’d lay here, hold her hand, and perish right alongside her, making sure I wouldn’t lose her in the crowd of souls in the next life.

And then, I finally felt it. The proof of life I had been praying for with each damn step I climbed.

How many hail Mary’s I prayed was beyond me. How the words slowly came to me in the voice of my own mother was pure divine intervention, and I was about to ask for another miracle.

“You’re alive, Baby. Hold on. I’m going to take you out of here.”

I gripped the steel beam with both of my hands, not even registering the heat, trying to pull it off of her. My muscles screamed in protest, and yet the fucker didn’t budge a single inch.

“Come on,” I growled, planting my feet firmer on the ground, jaw clenched.

A roar of frustration, panic, fear, and love tore from my chest. I was running on adrenaline, on devotion, on the fucking certainty that if I didn’t get her out of here, then I would crawl around her and die shielding her from the fire that threatened to swallow us.

I adjusted my grip and pulled harder, my shoulders shaking in pain, but I kept going until the fucking thing moved and I set her free. As soon as the beam was off of her, a rush of blood erupted from her leg, but the fire was too close.

“Alison, open your eyes. Hold on to me as tight as you can,” I tried, but she was too weak.

I picked her up and made my way to the stairs. My shirt was soaked in her blood, but I was damned if we stopped and damned if we didn’t.

I flew down the stairs until the air was slightly less hot and I could try to stop the bleeding in her leg. As gently as my tense state allowed me to, I placed Alison’s limp body on the floor before tying my necktie around her thigh in a makeshift tourniquet. She didn’t even react.

“Just please hold on, you’re going to be fine. We’re almost at the bottom,” I tried to reach her, convince her mind to keep fighting, but even I didn’t believe myself. My voice was uncertain, shaking with the terror running through me.

Alison tried to open her eyes, and my chest filled with renewed hope, only for her to lose consciousness again before she could say a single word. Her head lolled to the side, lifeless.

Fuck, no.

No. No. No. No.

“ALISON,” I called out, shaking her face gently, coaching her to open her eyes again. “I am not going to lose you like this. Do you hear me? Not before I tell you how much I love you!”

I did.

I fucking loved her.

There was nothing left for me in this world if she died. Nothing. No one.

“Max?” Her voice was weak. Almost a whisper. But fuck was it a new adrenaline injection right into the base of both my spine and determination.

“Yes, Baby. It’s me. Live for me, please, live for me,” I begged, a rush of tears running down my face as I picked her back up again and made my way down this tower of death.

Smoke clung to my lungs, burning with every breath, but I didn’t give a damn. My arms tightened around Alison’s limp body as if my grip would keep her in the land of the living. Not even God could pry my angel from my fingers now.

Love was light.

Love was life, right? At least, that’s what they say. So I was hoping with every ounce of faith I never knew I had that my love for her could breathe life into her failing body.

I couldn’t lose her. I couldn’t.

No.

I fucking wouldn’t!

The fire was catching up, the heat growing unbearable. I needed to stop.

But she couldn’t afford for me to stop.

Halfway down, I collapsed against the railing. Her blood wasn’t just soaking into my shirt, it was now dripping from it. My eyes darted to her leg. The gash was too deep. She was losing too much blood. I placed her legs onto my thigh and pulled on my necktie, trying to tighten it and stop the flow.

Alison didn’t even flinch.

My heart dropped to my stomach right there.

A sound clawed its way up my throat, something between a curse and a plea. I placed my forehead against hers, my voice barely a whisper, “Fight, Angelo .”

No response, but I wouldn’t give up on her, no matter how destroyed I was. I gritted my teeth, lifted her into my arms again, and kept going.

I focused on her beautiful face. Her fun smile and sassy mouth. The heart of gold that had landed her in this fucking situation. It was my fault, too, but I couldn’t allow the guilt to shred me now. It would have to wait for later. For when she’s safe.

I stumbled out of the building and onto the rooftop, lifting my eyes to see Jeremy had done exactly as I told him to.

He held the door open as we passed, hitting the button to the ground floor repeatedly, understanding the urgency.

He looked at Alison and then back at me, his eyebrows pinched together in a look that was drained of hope for the woman lying in my arms.

The second I stumbled outside, paramedics swarmed around us, hands grabbing and ready to take her from me.

“Sir, we need to take her–”

“No,” My voice was hoarse, dangerous, “She stays with me. Tell me where to take her.”

Without further protest, they directed me to the ambulance waiting on the street. They strapped her to the gurney and shoved an oxygen mask over her face before handing one to me.

“Focus on her,” I growled, pushing the mask out of the way.

I always thought I was ruthless. A cold, calculating bastard who didn’t let anything shake him. But this? This was breaking me. Shattering something deep inside me that I didn’t know how to fix.

My senses were trained on Alison as if we were connected from within. The rush around me, the flashing sirens, the mouths that seemed to be shouting were all muted.

That was until the ambulance door slammed shut behind me, and Alison started to crash.