Page 118 of Serial Burn

The smoke started to build. Soon, they’d notice it and hopefully rush out. Then she would too.

“Stupid boy. He saw me at one of the fires and had to ask why I was there.”

“You didn’t have to kill him.”

“He tried to blackmail me! So, yes, you idiot, I did have to kill—What’s that?”

“What?”

“The smoke! What did you do?”

“Nothing!”

“Find the source before we go up with this place. This is taking too long. I’ve already set up the chemicals upstairs and time is ticking down. Soon they’ll combine and ignite.”

“You what? Upstairs?”

“Yes!”

“But why this place?”

“Becauseherfather built it. Everything he touched has to go.”

“He was in real estate! Are you going to burn down every building he had a hand in building?”

“Every single one. Now find her!”

The smoke was thick and provided ample covering.

Jesslyn darted for the stairs.

“THERE!” NATHAN SHOUTED,and Andrew spun the wheel into the parking lot of the small warehouse tucked behind a row of shopsand up against the side of a mountain. Just as he put the vehicle in park, an explosion rocked the front of the building.

Nathan threw himself out of the vehicle and watched a ball of yellow and orange fire roll heavenward. “Jesslyn!” His heart pounded and a sick feeling churned within him. “No, please,” he whispered.

Fire trucks and other officers were minutes out. Minutes Jess might not have. But to find her, he had to go inside that raging inferno.

And everything in him was screeching to get away from it, flashes from the past nearly paralyzing him. He raced around the side, looking for an entrance.

The ground sloped down to a basement.

He bolted to the door.

Locked. Reinforced steel. No windows on the wall but steps led up. He took them and came to a door with a window at the top. Cupping his hands, he placed them against the glass to get a look inside, and his heart stuttered at the flames licking along the wall next to him.

“Carlisle, where are you?” Andrew’s voice came over the comms he’d shoved in his ear without even thinking about it.

“Around the side,” Nathan said. “I think I found a way in.”

The flames licked closer, and he gasped and stepped back. No, he couldn’t go in there, but he tried the door anyway.

“Nathan!”

He spun. “Eli?” His brother stood at the base of the steps, eyes wide, hand outstretched. “Get out of here!”

“You can’t go in there!”

“Eli, I can’t deal with you and this at the same time. Get away!”

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