Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27107 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 136(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Echo shrugged. “Pretty sure King scared the fuck outta him the other day, but who the hell knows? Jackass might have blown the whistle on those fuckers, but if he ends up sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic for running his mouth, it wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Nah,” I disagreed with a shake of my head. “They’re more of the bury the body in concrete type.”
Echo chuckled and mounted his motorcycle, then we rode back toward the clubhouse. About ten minutes from the compound, I turned onto a different road to the south side of town, where the warehouse was located.
A minute before the building came into view, I received an alert on my watch that a fire detector was going off.
What the fuck?
I briefly wondered if it was a false alarm due to a battery malfunction, then tossed that theory because that wasn’t how they worked.
However, false alarms due to other factors had been a problem from time to time, just like any fire system, which was why the warnings came to me before the fire department. We preferred that no one except Hounds, patches, or prospects set foot on our property. If the issue could be handled without the fire department's help, we didn’t involve them.
I pulled up to the guard shack, which was empty as I expected. We didn’t man it unless there was a meeting or something happening. As I glanced up at the large structure, I let out a string of curses when I saw smoke billowing out of a back window. One that shouldn't have been open.
By the time I rolled through the gate, the smoke coming out of the window had been replaced by flames.
Fuck.
4
BLAZE
My eyes scanned the building as I ran toward the front entrance. The flames were growing, which shouldn’t have been happening because the suppression system should have kicked on already. But I hadn’t received that alert, meaning there was probably a malfunction.
Shit! Shit! Shit!
Since the fire still seemed to be contained in that section of the building, I tied a bandanna around my face and one around my hand before I unlocked the heavy metal door and yanked it open.
I’d run a system check two days before, so it made no sense that it wasn’t working.
As I ran inside, I frowned when the motion lights didn’t activate. The door slammed shut, leaving me in mostly darkness, causing me to pause—not that I had time to spare—so my eyes could adjust. I flipped the nearest switch and nothing happened. What the hell was going on? Was the electricity out?
The electrical panel was in a maintenance closet on the left side of the building. The same side as the growing flames, but there was no time to waste, so I took off in that direction.
When I reached the room, I didn’t bother turning the knob. I just kicked the door open and rushed over to see that the panel door was open and the main switch had been flipped. Motherfucker!
If the power was off, it might have explained the system failure. The fire pump could have failed to engage. Except, by law, fire pumps had to be hooked up to an emergency generator, so it should have been working. Unless there was a hiccup in the fucking generator.
The exit to the loading dock was near the back of the building, so I cursed a blue streak as I raced to the door. I heard the sudden shattering of glass—probably the windows exploding from the heat.
Outside, the generator was hooked up next to the concrete pad, and I hurried over to it. I turned it off and held down the reset button, wincing when I heard another window blow. It took a few seconds, but the error messages on the control panel disappeared. It restarted as soon as I turned it on, thank fuck.
Seconds later, I got the alert that the fire suppression system went online. I exhaled a harsh breath in relief and turned to walk away from the burning building when I heard a crash and a scream.
I whipped back around and ran for the door, wondering who the fuck was inside. It had come from the direction of the flames, and though I probably should have thought twice before running into a fire, I had to find the person trapped inside.
The fire seemed to be contained to two rooms, and the flames had eaten away the wall between them. A tall file cabinet was on the ground, most likely because it had crashed through the weakening wall. Thankfully, the powder sprayed from the localized sprinklers had already lessened the intensity of the flames.
I made a beeline for the room that seemed to have the most damage, assuming that whoever was trapped had been the cause of the fire. Just as I reached the door, a body came flying out, ramming into me and nearly knocking us both to the floor.