Page 42 of Ruining Hattie

BASTION

A ll last night, after my conversation with my dad, all I thought of was Hattie.

I can’t continue to lie to myself that she means nothing to me.

How much I missed her. That’s when it occurred to me that she’s no longer a pawn in this game.

She’s embedded herself in me, and I want her to be mine.

Shit, it’s going to be tricky, and I’m not sure she’s even going to want me if she ever finds out about the scheming I did.

“What is taking so long?” I ask, wanting to see her, to touch her, to hold her.

“Don’t think I can get much closer. Something must be going on up there.”

I look up from my phone to see where we are. We’re just down the street from the club. Smoke is rising into the air from the side of the street the club is on.

“What the fuck?”

I’m out of the car in seconds and running down the street toward the commotion. My panic rises as I get closer and see that my fucking club is on fire. A bunch of the staff are standing on the other side of the street in shock, looking at the building.

By the looks of it, the fire department has just arrived. They’re hooking up their hoses to the fire hydrants.

I quickly survey the crowd and don’t spot Hattie. Fear grips me so tight you’d think I have a noose around my neck.

Maybe she’s already at the condo. It’s a little later than she normally stays. I was going to call her to see where she is, but I had to stop by the club first to check on things. I figured if she were here, I’d see her, and if not, I’d see her when I got home.

“Bastion!” Renee shouts when she sees me.

I run over to her. “Where’s Hattie?”

Her eyes are filled with tears. “I don’t know. I think she might still be inside. I heard someone say the back door wouldn’t open, so they had to go out the front.”

Not wasting time, I pull my phone from my pocket and pull up Hattie’s contact. It rings once, and there’s no answer.

“C’mon, answer.” My hand fists my hair.

It rings again, and again there’s no answer.

A sensation I’ve never felt, not even growing up with Carla, fills me—absolute dread. What if she’s…

“Hello?”

Her small, scared voice comes on the line, and I momentarily breathe with relief.

“Hattie! Where are you?”

She sobs and sniffles. “I’m in the office. There’s nowhere to go. The front is all flames, and the back door won’t open.”

Her tears turn into a cough that seems more like choking, and the sound absolutely guts me.

“I’m coming for you.” I race to the corner so I can go down the alley that runs along the back of the buildings on this block.

“No! Bast, you’ll?—”

I hang up before she can say anything else. She needs to preserve her strength, and like hell am I going to leave her in there to burn to death.

Running as fast as I can, I rush down the alley until I reach the club’s back entrance, and it becomes obvious why Hattie couldn’t open the door.

A bunch of large, and I assume heavy, crates are stacked in front of the door.

It looks innocent enough, as though a delivery guy set them there by accident and walked away.

But they’re not from any supplier we use.

This fire… this back door being blocked… it’s intentional.

I set my rage aside for the time being as I move the crates away from the door. Another set of hands helps me, and I turn to see Ray picking up the boxes and tossing them aside, letting them crash behind us. He must have followed me when I ran from the group.

I’m the only person who has a key to the back door from the outside, so I fish my keys out of my pocket and unlock it before whipping it open. I immediately choke on the smoke.

I turn to face Ray as I pull my T-shirt up over my face. It’s not much, but it’s something. “You stay out here and tell the fire department that I’m going to my office to get Hattie out. If I don’t come back, send them in to find us.”

“You got it,” Ray says, though he looks as if he wants to say more.

I rush into the darkness of the smoke to save the woman I love.

My eyes immediately sting. It’s impossible to see, and the smoke is disorienting as fuck, so I push aside the need to rush in and scramble to find Hattie. I need to be smart about this or we’re both going to die.

I rest my hand on the hallway wall as I take measured steps forward, feeling a small amount of relief when my hand crests over a doorjamb. That has to be the office. I keep going and feel that the door is closed, so I lower my hand and search around for the handle.

The metal is warm to the touch but not hot since the fire is still farther up the hall. Twisting it, I call Hattie’s name as I enter and close the door behind me.

“Hattie, are you in here?”

“Bast?”

A rush of relief floods me, but her voice sounds so small and meek that it’s almost my undoing.

“I’m here, babe. I’m here.” I head in the direction of her voice.

It’s a little easier to see in here than it was in the hallway, and when I get a couple of feet away from her, I can make out her figure rocking in the corner. I swear I almost burst into tears—whether in relief or sorrow, I don’t even know.

“Hattie, can you stand?”

She looks up, slowly blinking as if maybe I’m not really here.

I pull off the T-shirt covering my face and pull it down over her head, then I bend and pick her up. Her hands wrap around my neck. I say a silent thank you that I found her and she’s safe.

When I spin around, I can still make out the door, and I head that way.

“I’m gonna open this door in a second, but I want you to take a deep breath and try to hold it until we’re out of the building, okay?”

She tucks her face into my neck.

“All right, one, two, three.” I suck in as much air as I can, then whip open the door.

The fire on the right side is only a few feet away from the door now, and when I step out into the hallway, we’re met with a wall of heat. Hattie jolts in my arms. I squeeze her tighter, hoping it conveys that everything is okay and I’m going to get her the hell out of here.

We don’t have time for me to be careful about our exit, so I turn left and barrel down the hallway even though I can’t see shit.

When we’re a couple of feet away from the exit, the outline of the door and the light in the doorway come into view.

I burst outside, letting fresh air fill my lungs, and slam the door shut with my foot.

I cough, tears streaking down my cheeks from the smoke, but I don’t let Hattie go.

I’m never letting her go. That’s what I figured out at my dad’s.

This woman in my arms wasn’t supposed to come to mean so much to me, but she does.

If there was any doubt left in me about whether or not I love Hattie, thinking I may have lost her has shredded it to pieces.

I love this woman, and I’m going to have her as mine.

Once, I couldn’t wait to reveal the truth of who and what I was to her. And now I have to make sure she never finds out.