Page 3 of Shadowed Rubies
4
Max
Ikicked in the door to the apartment and was surprised how easily the flimsy lock gave way. Either the illusion of safety in a small town had reassured the woman who lived here alone, or she was confident that her killer dog would take care of any intruders. I couldn’t help hoping it was the former as I stepped over the apartment’s threshold.
“Bruiser?” I called out to the beast, even though every instinct in my body told me not to.
I’d been bitten on the arm by a large dog when I was eight. The memory of it was never far from my mind, and my forearm still bore the scar that had required ten stitches. Although I knew that dogs could be loyal companions, they weren’t for me. I would never be able to trust one not to attack.
Even though I was braced for the impact of an enormous canine lunging at me teeth-first, it didn’t happen. The apartment wasn’t large, so it didn’t take long to search. The bathroom door was open, so I tentatively peeked in there, but it was empty.
Steeling my nerves, I whipped back the shower curtain, fully expecting an attack. The porcelain tub was empty, except for an extreme abundance of girly shampoos, conditioners, and shower products. I shook my head, realizing that there wouldn’t even be room on the ledge for my 3-in-1 bottle of ‘man goop’ in there.
Knowing that time must be running short before the floor gave way to the flames, I whirled around and headed back to the main room of the apartment.
The only place I hadn’t checked was the closet. I couldn’t imagine that Danica would lock her dog in there while she was gone, but that must be where he was. Squeezing my eyes shut, I flung the door open and braced for the impact of a frightened and angry lunging dog. When that didn’t happen, I tentatively peeked inside. The narrow closet was packed full of clothes and shoes, but no living beings were inside.
I turned slowly around the apartment, realizing that I must be missing something. As much as I didn’t like dogs, I would never forgive myself if one perished in a fire because I didn’t find it.
A quick scan of the open-concept room told me the only place I hadn’t checked was under the bed. I couldn’t imagine a dog big enough to be called Bruiser squeezing himself under there, but perhaps he was frightened enough to somehow burrow in.
After stalking across the room, I lifted the frilly lavender ruffle that skirted the floor around the bed. At first, I didn’t see anything, but when I blinked the smoke out of my eyes, I caught a glimpse of a tiny, shivering rat.
“Bruiser?” I asked, not quite able to believe that this rodent-sized creature might actually be a dog.
If I died in a fire trying to save an actual rat, I would come back and haunt Dani.
The animal stared at me with bulging brown eyes as I reached under the bed and tried to grab it. It made no effort to help as I extended my arm and fingers out as far as I could.
He remained just out of reach, so I sat up and tried to determine if it would be easier to reach him from the other side of the bed. The bed was king-sized, which had my wayward mind wondering why Dean’s sister needed so much mattress room, even though this was no time to be pondering such naughty things.
Quickly bringing my mind to the present dangerous situation, I realized that the animal was just as far to reach from the other side of the bed. Deciding I would try to coax it out one more time before I began flipping mattresses out of the way, I leaned back down, held out my hand and said, “If you’re Bruiser, please come here.”
It did cross my mind as I was stretched on the wood floor making my backside vulnerable that I might have somehow missed seeing the dog. In which case, I was calling out to a possibly-rabid rodent and would get my butt bitten by a snarling canine at any moment.
The animal under the bed took a tentative step toward me before seeming to make a decision and scrabbling forward and hurling itself into my chest. I cradled it to me with one hand as I stood with the intent of hurrying outside, since the room was quickly filling with smoke.
I had barely taken one step when a loud pop startled me into freezing. I had a bad feeling about that noise and sensed it was the beginning of the end for this apartment.
Sure enough, within moments, the building groaned with a cracking sound and the floor gave way. Horrorstruck, I watched as the large bed crashed down to the fire below. I’d saved the rat or dog that was burrowed inside my jacket with only seconds to spare.
Realizing that we didn’t have long before this level of the building was completely engulfed in flames, I edged along the side of the room. When I reached the area with the gaping hole where the bed had been, it was easy to see that the remaining floorboard pieces were dangling precariously. They would not be able to support my weight.
I looked to the windows. Concrete surrounded the building, so I didn’t like my chances of surviving a fall without causing permanent injury. The guys could pull the rig closer and use the ladder to reach me, but this fire was spreading too fast to make that work.
Glaring at the gaping, flaming hole in the middle of the floor, I realized that our best bet of survival would mean jumping over the massive gap. As I backed up to the kitchen counter, I tried not to think about how many feet it was or the likelihood that the floor on the other side would give way with the weight of my landing.
Clutching the animal to my chest with one hand, I said, “Here goes nothing,” before taking off at a sprint and leaping into the air.
5
Dani
The fallen leaves crunched loudly under our feet as Kevin pulled me along behind him, so I had to struggle to keep up. His grasp was surprisingly strong on my arm, so I didn’t think I could get away with yanking my arm free again.
Deciding that I most definitely did not want to go wherever he was taking me, I considered my options. I could yell for help, but I had been lost for quite a while and hadn’t seen anyone else. The chance of someone hearing me and finding us was slim. The risk of Kevin getting annoyed by my yelling and knocking me out was much more likely.
It seemed like my best option would be to let my body fall to the ground. Hopefully, the dead weight would surprise Kevin enough that he would let go of me to keep from falling himself. While he was distracted, I would make a quick break for it.
