Page 48 of Christmas Homecoming Secrets
After fifteen minutes of no answer, he had to assume Jade was sleeping. Which is what he should be doing. He hung the leash back up. “Sorry, girl, my leg’s not feeling so great. We’ll go first thing in the morning, okay?”
He checked his phone again. Still no answer from Jade.
With impatient hands, he undressed and crawled back into bed, promising himself he would bring up the subject of Mia’s parentage first thing on the way to the hospital to question Swift.
Maybe.
Sasha settled back onto her bed with a disgusted huff.
“Sorry, girl.”
She ignored him. He couldn’t say he blamed her. Five more minutes of tossing and turning and he gave up. He dressed, grabbed the leash, and found Sasha in the hall. “Neither one of us is going to get any sleep until I know Jade is okay, so let’s just go check, make sure she’s okay and then maybe we can both get some sleep. That sounds all right to you?”
Sasha bounded to the door.
* * *
Jade blinked out of sleep. Disoriented, confused—and grumpy. The high-pitched beeping reverberated in her brain and she rolled over, trying to block the sounds of the alarm clock, not ready to get up yet.
A loud boom shook her home and sleep fled. She shot straight up. Mia! She shoved the covers away and stood. Smoke billowed through her open door and she got a face full. Her lungs burning and spots dancing before her eyes, she dropped to the floor to find the smoke hadn’t fallen that far yet. Jade drew in a breath and, on her hands and knees, scrambled down the hall to Mia’s room and found it empty, the bed still made. Terror shot through her for a brief second before she remembered Mia had wanted to stay with Jessica. The kids were at her parents’. But were they safe? Smoke swirled but wasn’t as bad here as it was in the hallway and Jade’s room.
Jade darted into Mia’s bathroom and grabbed a towel. She soaked it with water, then wrapped it around her nose and mouth. A quick look under the cabinet revealed the small fire extinguisher her dad had put there when she’d first moved in.
She snatched it and then headed back into the smoke-filled hall, looking for flames. Nothing yet. She made her way into her small den area. Again, a lot of smoke, but no fire. At the front door, she unlocked the dead bolt and twisted the knob.
Nothing.
With a shaky hand, she pulled harder. Then yanked.
The door refused to budge.
What?She laid her palm flat against it.
Hot—and growing hotter by the second. Her stomach twisted. Sudden flames shot through the bottom and into the room, sending her stumbling backward. With a harsh yell, she pulled the pin on the extinguisher and fired it at the base of the door.
Please, please, please, God, help me.
Another loud boom shook the structure, and she went to her knees, dropping the towel and the extinguisher. In the kitchen, the wall facing the wooded area out behind her home crackled with bright orange-and-blue fire. Fear choked her along with the smoke. She snatched the towel back to her face, but it would only work for so long.
She had to get out—or call for help. And warn her parents. Her phone.
Jade spun, ran back to her bedroom and grabbed her cell phone from the end table. Squinting against the haze, she made her way to the window, threw it open and dialed her parents’ number.
“’Lo?”
“My apartment’s on fire. Get Mom and the kids out.”
“What about you?”
“Going to get the ladder and go out the window. My door’s too hot.”
She hung up and dialed 911. Her room was above the detached garage that jutted out below her. The roof of the garage sloped slightly down, but even walking to the end of that, it was a long drop. “Oh Lord, help me.”
“911. What’s your emergency?”
“Darlene? This is Jade. My house is on fire!”
“Sending units now. Can you get out?”
