Chapter 7 - Through the Flames
The night sky over 8th and Elm was choked with thick, black smoke. Flames licked at the roof of the old hardware store next to Arthur's diner, the fire spreading rapidly toward the small community kitchen.
When Sam's SUV screamed to a halt, the fire department hadn't arrived yet. The street was chaotic. Neighbors stood on the sidewalks, watching in horror as the flames consumed the block.
Sam burst out of the car, his eyes scanning the chaos. He didn't see Arthur.
"Arthur!" Sam screamed, running toward the diner. The front window had been smashed in. Smoke poured out of the door.
Two of Sam's security contractors tried to grab him. "Sir, you can't go in there! The roof is going to collapse!"
"Let go of me!" Sam shoved them off, pulling his coat over his mouth, and dove through the shattered front window of the diner.
The heat was suffocating, burning his eyes and searing his throat. The interior was a nightmare of thick, blinding smoke and crackling flames crawling up the back wall.
"Arthur!" Sam coughed, crawling on his hands and knees beneath the smoke layer.
He found the old man behind the counter, unconscious, bleeding from a gash on his forehead. Thorne’s men hadn't just set the fire; they had beaten Arthur and left him to burn.
The absolute rage that filled Sam at that moment eclipsed the heat of the fire. He grabbed Arthur by the shoulders, hauling the dead weight of the old man onto his back. Sam's lungs screamed for oxygen, his eyes watering so badly he was virtually blind. He navigated purely by memory, stumbling toward the shattered window.
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A burning beam crashed down from the ceiling, blocking his path. Sam didn't stop. He kicked the burning wood aside with a savage roar, ignoring the pain searing through his leg, and lunged out of the window, collapsing onto the wet, freezing pavement just as the diner's roof caved in behind them.
Paramedics swarmed them instantly, pulling Arthur onto a stretcher. Sam lay on the ground, gasping for the cold, pure air, watching the diner burn. Thorne had destroyed the building. But he had failed to destroy the man. And for that, Sam would destroy Thorne.
