Chapter 4 - The Fire
The smoke grew incredibly thick within seconds, burning Thea's eyes and throat.
"Get down on the floor!" Lachlan ordered, grabbing her waist and pulling her beneath the rising cloud of toxic fumes.
He could not pretend to be blind in this moment without risking both of their lives.
Lachlan moved with calculated precision, crawling toward the heavy mahogany desk.
He pulled a heavy brass bookend from the shelf and smashed it violently against the reinforced glass of the exterior window.
The glass spider-webbed but stubbornly refused to break entirely.
"The frame is wired to a secondary emergency release system," he yelled over the sound of blaring fire alarms.
He used his perfect vision to locate a tiny, concealed switch near the floorboard molding.
He flicked the switch, and the heavy window frame finally swung outward, letting in a massive rush of fresh city air.
They scrambled onto the fire escape just as the wooden doors of the penthouse burst into blistering orange flames.
They climbed down twenty flights of metal stairs in the freezing night air, collapsing onto the pavement of a dark alleyway.
"You saved my life," Thea gasped, looking at the man she was slowly beginning to truly admire.
"We have to check the security feeds at the ground level server room," Lachlan stated, helping her to her feet.
They snuck into the basement of the building before the fire department arrived.
Lachlan bypassed the security mainframe and pulled up the hallway footage from exactly ten minutes before the fire started.
Thea gasped in absolute horror as she watched the grainy black-and-white video.
May you like
Emil, their trusted butler, was caught on camera pouring a highly flammable liquid under their penthouse door.
He struck a single match, dropped it, and walked away without looking back.
