Page 137 of Ruthless Prince
Holy shit. Afire?
Clearly, my NSA contact didn’t messaround.
“Fuck! Stay here and take care of Willow.” Logan dashed down the hall. Mal followed him, and Adam stayed behind withme.
“We should get you downstairs just in case, ma’am,” he said, putting a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll need to put on some warm clothes andshoes.”
I nodded and got dressed, surreptitiously sneaking the iPhone into my jacket pocket before Adam escorted me out of the room. Acrid smoke was already filling the main second floor hall, forcing us to take a different route to getdownstairs.
When we finally made it outside, I stared up at the mansion, eyes widening as I took in the ‘distraction’. The western side of the house had gone up in flames, and the fire was rapidly spreading outward, chewing through the ivy in its path. I assumed the thick stone on the exterior walls would provide some protection from fire damage, but I could see through the windows that the blaze had already reached theinterior.
The smell of smoke and burning shingles dominated every breath as the inferno cast its orange glow into the night, roaring like a beast as it consumed the gorgeous home. In the distance, sirenswailed.
With a deafening crunch, part of the gabled roof buckled and caved inward, spreading the fire to the garden below as flaming shingles fell to the ground. I was fairly certain the part that had collapsed was right above Chloe’sroom.
There was a scream, followed by several hoarse masculine voices as they yelled from the thirdfloor.
“Adam! Get the fuck up here!” I heard Mal call down from a nearby window. “We need yourhelp!”
Adam’s brows furrowed as he looked over atme.
I shrugged nonchalantly. “Don’t worry. I’m not goinganywhere.”
He still looked unsure about leaving me alone outside. I rolled my eyes. “I don’t have any car keys, so even if I leave, how far do you think I’m going to make it on foot before someone comes afterme?”
“Right. Don’t you dare move from this spot.” He narrowed his eyes at me, and then he took off running toward the mainentrance.
I dashed around the side of the house that wasn’t on fire. When I reached the back, I turned and made a beeline for the huge wrought iron gate. It was wide open and emitting a high-pitched wail in response to the mansion’s smoke detection system, ready for the fire department trucks to comethrough.
About twenty yards away, I saw a silver car idling on the edge of the road. Before I headed toward it, I checked the iPhone. There was a new message fromFreeQuinn.
Sorry about the fire. There wasn’t any other way to keep them distracted for long enough. Your Uber driver should be there by now. Silver car, license plate FN4616. See yousoon.
I pulled my jacket hood over my head and dashed over to the car. My driver was a skinny blond guy namedAaron.
“Hey, how are you doing tonight?” heasked.
I kept my head down so he wouldn’t see my face. “I’m okay.You?”
“Can’t complain. You see that fire backthere?”
“Yeah.”
“Crazy, huh? Anyway, are you from aroundhere?”
“Just visiting,” I mumbled. The more I spoke, the more I ran the risk of him recognizing me. The last thing I needed right now was attention for being Willow Rhoades. “Can we please listen to somemusic?”
“Sure.”
Aaron switched on some pop music and stopped talking so we could enjoy it. The ride to the old port near Wembley Bay took around thirty minutes at this time of night, but it felt a lotlonger.
“Here we are,” Aaron said as we slowly pulled up to the edge of the port. “Hey, uh… are you sure this is the right place? Looks kindacreepy.”
“It’s fine. Could you wait forme?”
He nodded, but when I got out, he sped off, leaving me with my hands waving incredulously as he made his way down the dusty road. “Hey! Did you not hearme?”
He didn’t turn around, and his taillights quickly disappeared into thenight.
