Page 56 of Kingpin

“Bonnie!” I boomed.

I bear-crawled down the hallway as a door burst open. Flames rushed out to lick me as I pressed myself against the opposite wall. My eyes widened as I watched them reach out for me. Only inches away from my stomach, I already felt my skin bubbling from the heat. I cursed beneath my breath as I got to my feet. I crouched down, maneuvering through the hallways that weren’t already blocked by beams that had given way.

I drew in a deep breath to yell for her. But instead, I started coughing.

Why the fuck would she be in here?

I turned down a hallway and heard a beam cracking as my eyes fell on my office door. I threw myself beyond the beam just before it hit the floor, blocking off the rest of the hallway and leaving me almost no way to get out of the damn place.

The two-by-four blocking my office door from opening prompted me to continue onward.

“Bonnie! I’m coming!”

I gripped the piece of wood and pried it away from the wall, nails and all.

“Bonnie! Can you hear me?”

I coughed so hard I gagged as I shoved my shoulder into the locked door.

“Bonnie! Are you in here?”

I stumbled to the floor, and my hand fell out. When my hand brushed against something soft and wet, I knew I had her. I turned over onto my stomach and found her face-first on the carpet. I gripped her ankle and pulled her toward me as I sat up onto my knees. I saw a cell phone on the floor. I saw my desk covered in smoke. I kept pulling her toward me before I flipped her over, and her shallow breathing told me everything I needed.

“Come on. We have to get you out of here,” I grunted.

I stood to my feet and picked her up. I settled her body around my shoulders as my legs grew unsteady. I wobbled my way back out of my office and looked to the left. The trail of fire had already eaten the hallway to bits. So, I started to the right. I stared at the dead end of the hallway, knowing damn good and well there was only one way out of the place.

I stumbled into the last room on the right and settled my wife to the floor.

“Just hang on. I’m going to get us out of here,” I said.

I heard her groan before she started coughing so hard, she threw up.

“That’s okay. Get it up,” I soothed.

I picked up the first chair I found, and I slammed it against the glass. The fucking bulletproof glass I had insisted all the windows be replaced with. I cursed myself as I slammed the chair against it, watching the damn thing bounce off.

“Get. Us. Out!” I bellowed.

I kept beating that glass with the chair. Over and over. I threw all my anger, all my confusion, all my sorrows, and all my frustrations into that fucking window until it cracked. And spiderwebbed. And flaked. And shattered.

The bulletproof glass flew everywhere as oxygen filled the room.

I heard the surge of fire behind me before Bonnie whimpered.

“Israel,” she said softly.

I tossed the chair into the corner. “Come on. I gotcha. Time to get out of here.”

As I picked her up, tossing her over my shoulders once again, fire burst through the door. I rushed backward, keeping my body toward the flames as I backed up toward the open window. I heard my warehouse manager yelling my name. I heard his footsteps as he hurried up to the window. He took Bonnie off my shoulders before helping me through the shattered window before, finally, I heard the fire trucks in the distance.

And damn it, oxygen had never tasted so good in all my fucking life.

24

Bonnie

“Ma’am?”

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