Page 32 of Rox

Flames lick the curtains and spread to the carpet, closing in on the couch. I curse under my breath and quickly tear into the kitchen to see if she has an extinguisher. There’s nothing. When I turn back down the hall to warn Rox, I glance into the living room, and the couch is now engulfed in flames.

The smoke detectors finally come alive. I run back to Rox, yelling as loudly as I can over the piercing noise of the alarms.

“Rox!” I yell as I throw open her door, slamming it behind me. “Get something on. We need to leave.” I scramble to put on my jeans and boots.

She’s already dressed, which I assume is because she heard the fire alarms going off. She’s throwing her shoes on at the same time, and smoke is coming in from under the door.

My mind is spinning from how fast this fire is spreading. I know fire can go from under control to deadly in an instant, but I don’t understand how this one started in the first fucking place. I touch the door handle, but it’s hot to the touch.

I grab her comforter off her bed and put it at the bottom of the door to hold off the smoke that continues to enter her room.

Rox stands there, frozen in fear. It’s as if she knew she needed to put on clothes, but her mind turned off the second her shoes were on.

“Rox!” I snap at her. This, thankfully, gets her ass in gear. She jumps up on her bed so she can gain access to the window it sits under. She tries to open it, but it won’t budge.

“I don’t understand! I always have this window open in for airflow.” Rox shouts.

I don’t answer as I jump from the bed and go over to the smaller window at the other end of the room. I try to push it open, but there is little give to it. That’s when I saw the nails outside the window. Someone wanted to seal us in.

Someone is trying to kill Rox.

I can’t let the panic that’s starting to build take over. I need to figure out how to get us out of here safely and in one piece. Looking around the room, I take stock of anything that can help us. The chair in the corner is too big to pick up and toss out the window, but the end table between the chair and her bed isn’t. I shove everything off it and start hitting the glass with it. I smash out as much as possible, but the little jagged pieces along the bottom remain.

Grabbing her pillows, I cover the ledge in an attempt to save her from being cut up.

Her home is slightly elevated, so I hold on to her arms until she’s stretched as far as possible before I let her go. She lands on her feet and immediately moves out of the way. Even with the pillows, I still feel the glass slice into my arms.

I’m out of the house a second later, grabbing Rox and running toward the front of the house.

Our saving grace is I have our phones and my bike keys. We can get help. Thank fuck I didn’t empty my pockets because I was too consumed with getting her naked after we got home from our ride this morning.

“Max, look!” Rox grips my arm, pulling my attention to a cargo van pulling away from the scene. “I’m positive that’s the same one that’s been following me.”

I make a move to rush to my bike to follow, but Rox is attached to me. That’s when clarity sets in.

Her house is burning down.

Even with sirens in the distance, I can’t leave her here, not like this. I turn and wrap her up in my arms. As I pull her tight to me, it seems like all her adrenaline fades as she breaks down into a sobbing mess.

I hold her together as the fire department and police start pulling up—rushing to put out the lost cause of a fire.

I don’t know what they used to make sure the fire as fast as it did. Who knows how much longer we had in the bedroom if we hadn’t broken the window open.

A paramedic tries to pry my arms away from Rox, causing me to snap at her. I instantly feel regret over it and apologize. I work with the paramedic to get Rox to start moving, but notice she’s limping. Not wanting her to hurt any more than she already is, I bridal carry her to the back of the ambulance. I ignore the pain from the cuts on my arms, my focus solely on Rox.

“Does it hurt when you move it?”

“Only a little bit. I think I landed wrong, but didn’t feel it at the time. I was too concerned with getting out.”

“I don’t think it’s sprained. I think you just rolled it. We can take you in, or you can stay off it for 24 hours.”

“That one. I’ll go in if it gets worse.”

I’m happy to hear she’s okay, but I can’t help but feel an immense amount of guilt for not going after the person who elevated from stalking to attempted murder. I have no idea if I was a part of their target, but I know for a fact that Rox is, and it’s killing me that I did nothing.

“Sir, can you tell me what happened here?” A cop asks me, snapping me from the mild panic of guilt I have surging through my body.

“We don’t know what happened. We were in bed, heard a crash, and the place was on fire.” Rox calls over from the ambulance.

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