Page 72 of Grant’s Heat

“I’m going to burn this fucking place to the ground, Grant. Then I won’t have to be trapped here. No one will. I hear people screaming and crying in the other rooms. I hear them in my head even when they stop. Now they’re in my head.”

She thrashed her head back and forth, as if doing so would get the sound to fall out one side or the other.

“I don’t want to hear that, you know?” She looked at me with curious eyes, wondering if I could relate to the misery. I nodded along in sympathy, not having a clue what the right response was.

“I have enough pain and sorrow in there already. I can’t take other people’s too.” She knocked herself on the side of her head with the heel of her hand. She did it so hard, the thump echoed through the room. Then she did it again. And again. Each time, I felt more bile rising in my throat. The woman I was in love with was unraveling before my eyes, and I felt like my fucking feet were riveted to the floor—helpless to do anything but watch it happen.

“No! Stop it, Rio! Stop hurting yourself!” I shouted, and she finally looked up to me. I fell to my knees, mirroring her position on the floor. The only thing separating us was the pile of combustibles she had gathered from around the room.

Rio looked from me to the kindling and then back to me. “Save yourself, Grant. You’re too good of a man to go down with a crazy woman like me.”

I held her gaze while I promised, “I’m not leaving here without you, Blaze. I’ll carry you out kicking and screaming if I have to.”

In rapid succession, she lit match after match after match and tossed them onto the pile of bedding, paper, and other incendiary things. The fire flared up so fast and so hot, it was almost blinding between us.

“Rio! Rio, no!” I sprang to my feet and charged right across the pile of combustible debris that separated us. My girl was frozen in place, watching the blaze spike up higher and higher. A wild look in her eyes told me she had checked out completely. If she was getting out of the place alive, it was going to be in my arms.

I scooped her up easily, and she immediately nestled her face into my neck. I threw the door open to her room and hurried down the hall with her in my arms. Just before reaching the lobby, I spotted a fire alarm on the wall so I threw open the cover and pulled the lever down, immediately sending a blaring signal throughout the building.

Elijah saw me stalking across the common area with Rio cradled against my chest. He immediately started toward the door, and I wordlessly followed. We were securely in his car and driving out of the parking lot before either one of us spoke.

“Dude. What the hell happened?”

“Don’t ask, man. Just, yeah…drive.”

“Where to now, my brother?”

“Can you take us down to the marina?”

“As in Marina del Rey?”

“Yeah.” I nodded as well and then turned to check Rio in the back seat. She already had her eyes closed. Whether she was sleeping or unconscious, I had no idea.

“Sure, but—”

“Elijah, I said don’t ask.”

“All right. All right,” my friend acquiesced.

“And once you drop us off, I need you to do me one last favor.”

“I don’t think I like the sound of that, but okay…”

“Forget you ever saw either one of us today.”