Chapter Twenty-Seven

Alex was having a hard time keeping his eyes open as he stared at his computer screen. He’d worked cases before when he was on the force that caused him to miss sleep but he was younger then. And sported one less hole in his chest.

Peter Dennis and his crew hadn’t been able to glean any information from the videos. If anyone could, it would be Pete and Tyler Redmond. More fan sites were popping up, almost hourly. Copycats were causing havoc in other states as well.

His eyes drifted back to Olivia, as they did often. Sawyer caught him staring and made a kissy face. He took satisfaction at Sawyer’s grunt of pain when he chucked him in the shin.

Olivia stood and he tracked her movements as she rounded her desk. She was headed to the vending machines for a drink. When she returned and proposed the silly game, he played along, but he hoped he got the dropped bottle so she didn’t get wet.

“On three,” she said. “One. Two. Three.”

He started to unscrew his lid when a loud noise boomed, the floor shook and then the entire room blew the hell up. He managed to launch himself at Olivia right before they were hurled into the air. He twisted his body so that when they slammed into the wall with a jarring thud, he took the brunt of the hit. They plummeted to the ground with Olivia landing on top of him. He groaned, disoriented. He closed his eyes and took stock of his body. He ached all over, but he didn’t think anything was broken. His arm burned so he probably ripped the stitches. He blinked his eyes open. The room was dark, smoky. Dust and debris floated in the air. Walls had crumbled and desks were overturned.

Olivia moaned and that effectively obliterated the cobwebs from his brain. “Olivia, baby? Are you okay?” He realized he’d been practically crushing her in his grip so he loosened his hold and ran his hands over her back. “Are you hurt?” She didn’t answer right away and panic filled him. “Open those gorgeous blue eyes for me, sweetheart.” She had to be okay. He couldn’t lose her. His eyes filled and it wasn’t from the smoke in the air. He inhaled harder. Lots of smoke. Shit, the building was on fire. “Olivia, honey, I have to get you out of here. I don’t want to hurt you. Please open your eyes.” His voice cracked on the last word.

Her hand stroked his face and brushed against his cheek. “You’re crying. Are you hurt?”

His laugh was a choked sob and he shook his head. “I was so damn worried about you.”

She rolled her head and blinked, moved her arms and legs. “I’m okay. Just shaken up a bit. You saved me…again.”

Alex crushed her against him again. “I love you, Olivia. I know this is a shitty time to say it, but when I thought I’d lost you, I was devastated.”

Sawyer stopped any response she might have given him. “Alex? Olivia? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, you?”

“Think so. But we need to get out of here now. The building is burning.”

Sawyer appeared in his line of sight. He helped him to his feet with Olivia still in his arms.

“I can walk,” she protested weakly.

“Too bad. I’m not letting you go.”

Sawyer led the way through the debris. It was mayhem. People were screaming in pain and crying. Flames were licking up walls that hadn’t yet crumbled. The power was off so it was dark and dangerous. Alex pulled out his cell and activated the flashlight.

“If you’re okay getting out of here by yourself,” Sawyer said, “I’m going to assist the others.”

“I’ll get Olivia to safety and I’ll be back to help.”

“I want to help, too,” Olivia cried.

“No, baby, I need you out of here.” The path was precarious and perilous but he finally made his way outside to the fresh air. He strode straight to the SUV and opened the back door. “Please wait in here with the doors locked,” Alex pleaded. “I need to give Sawyer a hand but I have to know you’re safe.” Olivia nodded in agreement and he brushed a quick kiss across her lips before he disappeared into the bowels of hell.

#

Olivia watched as Alex ran back into the burning building with a sense of dread. He was risking his life to save others and she hadn’t had the chance to tell him that she loved him, too. Alex loved her. She should have felt on top of the world but her body hurt and her heart ached.

A bright light caught her eye and she saw Roddy capturing the scene. It seemed harsh that he was filming instead of helping, but Roddy smoked three packs of cigarettes a day, was fifty pounds’ overweight and totally out of shape. It was probably for the best that he stayed outside, otherwise she had a feeling Alex would be hefting him to safety, too.

Sawyer burst through the door carrying a body and Alex was on his heels with another. These people needed help and that was something she could do. She opened the door and ran to where the injured were being placed on the ground. Alex brought another person out and gave her a look.

“I have to help.”

He nodded reluctantly and placed the body on the ground. Jonah! She hurried to his side. “Jonah, are you okay?” Her producer didn’t answer. Blood covered the side of his head, but she could feel a pulse.

Sirens wailed in the distance and a fire truck screeched to a stop a few feet away, followed by two cop cars. Firemen poured out of the truck and filed inside. One of them stopped Alex as he was toting another person out. It looked like they tried to stop him from going back in but he didn’t listen.

“Jonah, can you hear me?” He still didn’t respond and her worry skyrocketed. She moved to others, trying to do what she could to help. Several ambulances arrived to tend to the victims. A few were beyond help and Olivia felt a sob building in her throat as blankets were placed over their bodies.

Jonah was lifted on a stretcher and placed in an ambulance. She wanted to go with him but she couldn’t leave the others who might need assistance. She applied pressure to bleeding wounds and offered words of comfort to the injured. Several emergency vehicles piled into the parking lot until it was packed full. People were running back and forth, orders were being shouted and radios squawked. Controlled chaos. Alex came out carrying another body but after he placed the woman on the ground, a cop physically restrained him from going back in. Good. He was covered in soot and debris and he looked like hell. She rushed over and threw herself at him. He staggered back a step when he caught her and buried his face in her hair. “Are you sure you’re okay?” His voice was a rasp.

She nodded. “Now that you’re safe, I am.”

Alex leaned down and kissed her. He tasted of smoke and his kiss was desperate. She whimpered when it ended. Raised voices had them turning their heads to the confrontation. The cops were stopping Sawyer from reentering the building, too.

“Oldham,” Alex called out. “You don’t need to be going back in there. They have the equipment. You aren’t that far removed from a gunshot.”

“You, either,” Sawyer gritted as he limped over. He ran his hands down his sooty face. “The screams…they’re going to haunt me.”

Olivia knew the screams would haunt her, too.

A few employees huddled together looking shaken but uninjured. There was no way to get a count of who was in the building because people came and went all the time.

Water was being pumped on the fire from several sources on the ground and from a fireman in a ladder truck. It looked like most of the flames had been extinguished.

A fireman came over and handed them bottles of water. Both Alex and Sawyer poured some over their heads before drinking. A uniformed cop asked them questions but all they could tell him was that one minute everything was fine, the next, the world exploded. Ambulances were being filled and pulling out at an alarming rate.

Detectives Benson and Kramer arrived and Benson went in search of the fire chief.

“Are you guys okay?” Kramer asked. At their nods of confirmation, she said, “It looks like our unsubs have upped their game.”

Benson walked over to them. “Definitely a bomb. It’s too hot so they can’t investigate yet, but based on what some of them saw when they were rescuing victims, they think it might’ve been some kind of flower vase.

Olivia cried out and all eyes snapped to her. “I saw it. It was a huge vase of roses. Mindy, the receptionist, brought it to the break room. She said her boyfriend gave them to her but they made her eyes water.”

“Can you point Mindy out so we can question her?”

Tears filled her eyes. Mindy was one of the ones covered with a blanket. “Sh-she didn’t make it.” Alex pulled her close to his side, his hand rubbing her shoulder. She gasped again. “I just thought of something else. I’d never met Mindy before but she said she didn’t like me because her boyfriend seemed obsessed with me. He asked her about me all the time.”

“I’d say her boyfriend is a prime candidate to be our perp.”