Page 113 of Reckless Princess (Knight's Ridge Empire 8)

The orange glow from the window is only getting brighter the longer I stand here, and I’m afraid that we’re too late and the shop beneath us is already ablaze.

There are more building-trembling bangs along with loud pops that I swear are gunshots, but I try to push that thought aside. If I allow myself to believe there are men out there shooting, then I’ll never convince myself to leave. And that might just be a worse idea than getting shot at, if what I fear is happening beneath our feet is reality.

“Come on,” I say, grabbing Sara’s hand and dragging her from where she’s frozen on the spot.

The fact that the door handle is warm when I wrap my hand around it doesn’t register with me. But it sure as fuck does the second I open the door and a surge of heat hot enough to singe my skin barrels into us, followed by angry, hungry flames that are already engulfing the entire hallway and stairs down to the exit.In a rush, I swing the door closed. But deep down, I know it’s pointless.

“Holy shit. Fire escape. We need to use the fire escape,” I shout, desperately trying to keep my cool. Sara lost her grip on reality a long time ago. One of us needs to keep a clear head.

“I-it doesn’t work,” she cries behind me as I drag her across the flat to the door at the other side of the living room.

“What?” I roar, not wanting to believe her words.

“It’s stuck closed. Has been for months. The landlord was meant t-to—”

There’s a loud crash behind us, but I’m too terrified to turn around and see what it is as I continue toward the door despite Sara’s words.

Even if it is stuck, we need to try. We have to try. I refuse to die up here with her tonight.

“If we throw all our weight into it, we might get it open,” I say, sounding way more confident than I feel.

“O-okay,” Sara whimpers, not looking like she’s got a whole lot of strength to give.

“Think of Jesse, Sar. He’s out there now, fighting to get back to you. You have to do the same to get to him, okay? There just so happens to be a door standing in our way.”

As we stand there, the scent of burning gets stronger and stronger, and when I risk a quick glance back, I see the smoke beginning to spill under the front door.

We really need to get out of here now.

“Okay, after three we’ll throw all our weight at it.”

Sara nods.

“We’ve got this, okay?”

“Yeah,” she agrees, but I don’t believe a second of it.

“Three, two—” Another crash rattles through the building before a loud bang comes from outside. Another car, maybe. Who knows. “One.”

Together, we slam our bodies into the unlocked door, but just as Sara feared, the thing doesn’t so much as budge.

“Fuck. Let’s go again,” I demand.

“It’s not going to work,” Sara whispers, turning around and looking over my shoulder. Her eyes widen in shock, and the fear I’m trying to stave off so that I can think rationally threatens to consume me.

“Jodie, I-I—”

Unable to stay still, I turn toward what Sara’s staring at, and the second I do, all the blood drains from my face.

“Holy fuck,” I breathe as I take in the sight of the flames practically melting through the front door and quickly engulfing the flat.

“Can we get out of any of the windows?”

“Only the bedroom ones,” she admits, and my eyes fly toward the bedroom doors that I can barely see for the smoke. “But we’d jump out to the main street where the cars are blazing and the men are shooting.”

“Jesus. Fuck.” My entire body trembles with fear and my breathing starts to get more laboured as the oxygen in the room begins to be replaced by smoke. “We’ve got to try the door again. It has to open.” Sara nods, and we spend the next few minutes throwing everything we have at it. Despite it creaking and groaning against our weight, it never opens more than a few millimetres, just teasing us with the breathable air outside.

One glance back over my shoulder tells me that time is running out.