Page 77 of Sizzle
“Lucy!” he called out, clicking on the flashlight he’d brought with him to guide his way down the hall and further into the warehouse. “Lucy, where are you?”
“Right on time,” Malachi’s voice echoed off the walls, making Sam’s breath slap to a halt even as his legs moved faster. “Come on in, Sam. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“Where are you, asshole?” Sam snapped, and Malachi laughed, the sound eerie in the silence.
“Keep moving. You’re getting warmer.”
Sam growled in frustration as he continued to search. Every door was open, and—oh, fuck—the storage rooms were all heavily littered with tinder, the fumes from the gasoline soaking the concrete floor beneath making Sam’s eyes water and burn.
“This whole place is rigged to go up in a fireball,” he breathed. His heart jackhammered against his ribs, his ears, his throat, but he had to find Lucy. Finally, he turned a corner, his feet coming to a graceless halt at the sight of Lucy sitting in the center of the room. There was enough natural light for Sam to see that her hands were still bound, and anger ripped through him as he took in the blood that had dripped down from beneath her curls to stain the neck of her sweater. She was conscious, though, and no longer gagged, and she was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life.
She was also standing in a circle of tinder, with Malachi less than a foot from the perimeter, and just one spark from the flare gun in his hand would trap her in a ring of fire with no hope of escape.
“Sam!” Lucy screamed, taking a step toward him before Malachi lifted the flare gun, shaking his head.
“Lucy,” he said, trying to keep his voice steady but failing spectacularly. “I’m here.”
“Ugh, I might puke,” Malachi said, rolling his eyes. “Jacket off, loverboy. Nice and slow.”
Sam slid out of his jacket with deliberate movements, then lifted the hem of his Henley to show Malachi he hadn’t brought a weapon. Malachi tossed a pair of handcuffs at Sam’s feet, waiting for him to put them on annoyingly tight before jerking his chin at the center of the room.
“Into the circle you go.”
Surprise pulled Sam up short. He turned toward Malachi, barely containing the impulse to tackle the guy to the ground. “I did what you said. I’m here. I won’t fight, but before I do anything else, you need to let Lucy go.”
“Yeah, change of plans,” Malachi said. “You’re going to join Lucy, and I’m going to kill you both.”
Every cell in Sam’s brain screamed in protest, his calm slipping. “No,” he pleaded. “Look, do whatever you want to me, but you have to let her go.”
“No!” Malachi yelled, making both Sam and Lucy flinch. “No. I planned this fire, and you fucked it up. I came back, and you made it worse. All I wanted was completion, to give the fire what it wanted. To feed it. To let itburn.And now I’m going to do that. This warehousewillburn, and you and Lucy are going to burn with it. Move!”
He aimed the flare gun at the tinder, and Sam took a step forward without realizing it. “Okay! Okay. I’m going into the circle.”
“Sam, no,” Lucy said, her eyes filling with tears. “No. Please, don’t.Please.I love you.” Her words sliced into him, stunning him into place. “I love you, and you can’t die. Please. You need to run.”
But Sam knew he couldn’t. “Sorry, baby,” he said, stepping over the tinder and into the circle. “I love you, too, but I need you to trust me.”
Malachi took a step back, aiming the flare gun at the tinder. Sam’s entire body tightened, and Lucy let out a sob. But before Malachi could fire, the room exploded into noise and movement. Xander, Hollister, and Hale burst into the room in body armor, guns drawn, all three of them yelling for Malachi to drop his weapon. Running on nothing more than instinct, Sam lifted his cuffed hands, wrapping his fingers around the front of Lucy’s sweater to yank her out of the circle of tinder and into the corner of the room.
“No!No!”Malachi screamed, his eyes wild.
“Malachi Yearwood, drop your weapon and get on your knees! Now!”
“There must be completion,” Malachi said, aiming the flare gun at the tinder and running toward the circle, and Sam realized with sickening clarity what he meant to do.
A shot rang out, and then the room went silent.
31
Lucy was glad she and Sam were in the back of an ambulance, because the chances were high she was going to kill him.
But first, she needed an update. “Is Malachi alive?”
“Yes,” Sam said. He must have talked to Sergeant Sinclair while she’d gotten checked out by the paramedic who was now in the front of the rig, filling out paperwork. “He’s already at Remington Memorial. He’ll probably need surgery to repair the bullet wound, but he should make a full recovery. In fact, Xander probably saved Malachi’s life.”
“By shooting him in the shoulder?” Lucy asked.
“By stopping him from shooting the flare gun. If that tinder had gone up, Malachi would’ve been burned alive. I’m sure that was his goal, but at least now he’ll stand trial and pay for setting those fires.Andfor trying to hurt you.”