Page 46 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

Noah grabbed her arms to steady her as he leaned in to be heard over the screeching alarm. “We’re under attack. The ground floor’s on fire.”

“Fire?” The word stuck in her throat as her sleep-addled brain struggled to make sense of it.

“Shoes,” he ordered.

“Shoes?” Another word that seemed alien. “I don’t have any. I have slippers. Somewhere.” She looked around as though they might magically appear.

“Noah,” a man’s voice barked from the hallway. “You got her?”

“We’re heading upstairs now.” Noah took her hand. “We’ll worry about shoes later,” he told her while hauling her out of the room.

Abasi stood in the narrow hallway. His suit jacket was gone, the sleeves of his crisp white shirt were rolled up, and he held a gun in his hand.

“I’ve got your six.” He gestured to the doorway at the end of the hall. The one leading up to the roof. Not the one that opened into the other bedroom. Surely they didn’t mean to go upstairs? To go outside?

Annabelle shook her head. No. They couldn’t mean that.

“How many in the building?” Noah asked as he slid past Abasi, taking her with him.

“No clue. Comms are down, and phones are dead. The arseholes have a signal jammer.”

“Sprinklers?”

“Somebody shut off the mains water supply.”

“Fire extinguishers?”

“We’re doing what we can with them.”

They rushed past the doorway leading into the loft area. Rochelle stood in the darkness, wearing pajama shorts with a T-shirt and her hair tied up in a messy topknot. She had her firearm trained on the living area.

“We need to get away from the building to call the fire brigade,” she said brusquely.

“I’m taking Annabelle to the roof,” Noah answered. “I’ll see if there’s a signal up there.”

Roof?

No. Just no.

She’d already dismissed that option. But only inside her head. She needed to speak it out loud. They’d made a mistake. They knew she couldn’t go to the roof.

“You’re heading the wrong way.” Annabelle dug in her heels. “I can’t go to the roof. I can’t go outside. You know that. This is a mistake.”

Noah spun toward her, invading her space. “Listen to me. This is our only option. We’re going to the roof. And you will be safe because I’ll be there.” His tone was implacable.

“So will I,” Abasi said.

Annabelle shook her head. “You don’t understand. The panic room. We’ll go there. It’s safe now. We don’t need to go to the roof.”

“Not from fire,” Noah said.

He wasn’t listening to her. He didn’t realize how serious this was. Her stomach lurched, and she fought the urge to vomit. The room spun as her hands shook. Inside her head, a voice screamed:Run! Hide! Don’t get taken!

“We’re running out of time here,” Rochelle said.

“We’ll keep you safe, Annabelle,” Noah said. “We won’t let anyone take you from the roof. You’ll still beonthe building. We just need to get somewhere safe where you won’t breathe in smoke. Okay?”

Annabelle pressed a hand to her stomach. It was already hard to breathe, even without the smoke coming their way. She tried to back away from Noah. To go… somewhere. Anywhere that didn’t involve stepping outside her sanctuary.