Sliding Home Read online

  I was standing right next to Jake, smiling reassuringly at the boy. I’d already noted that the distance between our two balconies wouldn’t allow for an easy leap between them, but that was okay. “I’ll go around, okay?” I said to the child. “I’ll knock on—”

  Alarm sirens shot through the building, piercing my ears and making me flinch. Damn those were loud. Which is when I realized I hadn’t actually believed the frantic kid when he’d screamed Fire! I just thought maybe he’d been confused or something. It was ridiculous. He looked to be around ten, which was old enough to know the difference. But it wasn’t until the sirens blared that I processed there was a real fire.

  “Hold on!” I bellowed above the screech. And when Jake grabbed my hand, I gestured with the free one. “Keep him calm.” Then I slipped from his grasp and ran to the hotel room door and grabbed the handle.

  Oh shit, that was hot! As in blistering.

  I cried out and stepped back. Even I knew not to open the door…which meant we were on the eighteenth floor of a building on fire.

  I rushed back to Jake, who was still talking to the kid. “My name’s Jake. What’s yours?”

  “The door’s too hot,” I said into his ear. His eyes widened a moment and then he nodded.

  “Okay, buddy. This is Ellie. She’s going to stand right here with you. I’m going to get something to help, okay?”

  The question was both to me and to the kid, but since the boy was terrified, I answered for us both. “Sure, Jake. You do what you need to do. I know we’ll be fine, right, buddy?” Then as he stepped away, I pointed at the couch. “My purse! I can call 911.”

  Jake nodded and grabbed it, tossing it to me. I caught it clumsily, and while grinning at the boy like a lunatic, I fumbled inside it for my cell.

  “Look, we’re going to be fine, but I can’t keep calling you buddy. What’s your name?”

  “B-Ben.” The boy was pressed against his railing, his hands white where they gripped the metal.

  “Hey, Ben. I’m going to call 911, okay? Hang with me. They’re going to help.”

  I dialed with fumbling fingers, but got through immediately. I started talking to the woman who answered, except right at that moment, the kid started screaming. He was pointing inside, which was now glowing red.

  He crammed himself even tighter against the railing while tears flowed from his eyes. Mine, too, I realized, because I didn’t know what to do. And the woman on the other end of the line was talking, but I couldn’t hear her. Not over the siren and the boy’s terror.

  Then suddenly Jake appeared. He was soaking wet and dragging heavy linens behind him. I choked a bit in shock when I saw him, but I didn’t argue. Especially since he tossed a sopping towel at me.

  “Wrap that around you.”

  Um, right. Oh, shit. This was getting real. And I was completely terrified. Fortunately, Jake was totally calm, and his steady presence helped settle me down.

  “Hang on, buddy,” he said as he tied a bedsheet to the railing. He was knotting it twice and yanking hard when I managed to find my voice again.

  “His name is Ben.”

  “Okay, Ben. I can see that you’re scared, so I’m coming over to help you. Okay?”

  “What?” I gasped out.

  He looked back at me, his expression grave. “It’s not a big leap.”

  It sure as hell looked like a big leap to me. Eighteen-stories-high kind of big. And there had to be at least six feet between our balconies. Or was it ten? I sucked at spatial measurements, but it was definitely too big to leap.

  “Can’t we wait for the fire department?” I asked.

  His expression was grim as he looked at the smoke billowing out of Ben’s hotel room. Oh, shit. It was getting thick. Maybe Ben didn’t have a lot of time. But still…

  “I can do it,” he said as he tied the other end of the bedsheet around his waist. I quickly scanned his “rope.” It was two sheets plus a blanket, I now realized, tied together by big knots.

  “Oh God,” I murmured

  “I’m coming over, Ben,” he said as he climbed up onto the top of the railing. “Hang tight, buddy.”

  I wasn’t a very religious person, but I prayed right then, with every cell in my body, not to mention my heart and soul. I prayed that he would make the leap while I watched him balance there on top of our railing. He crouched, poised there for a split second, and then…

  He flew.

  No, he didn’t fly. He leaped, and he didn’t make it.

  His jump was short, but not by a lot. So, instead of landing with his hands and feet, he hit the top of the railing with his ribs, then his upper body dropped forward. He teetered there for a moment with his butt aimed up to the sky and I worried that he was too winded to move.

  “Jake!” I screamed.

  The boy rushed forward, grabbing Jake’s arm. And while I watched, Jake used his hands to grab hold of the kid. It wasn’t pretty, but he managed to drag his lower body over the railing and onto the other balcony. It wasn’t until he sat on the floor there that I saw he was struggling to breathe.

  “Jake!”

  He held up a hand, and I thought I saw him inhale. A wheezing breath? I couldn’t tell over the sirens. But then I saw him roll to his side. He was okay. He was moving, though slowly. And the first thing he did was look into the boy’s hotel room.

  I didn’t like the look on his face. It wasn’t horror, but grim determination. And then he started unknotting the bedsheet from around his waist.

  “What are you doing?” I bellowed, but he didn’t answer. It didn’t matter—I figured it out pretty quickly.

  As soon as he was free from the sheets, he wrapped them around Ben. There was plenty of slack in the makeshift rope, but what the hell was he planning? I saw them talk, Jake being calm and intense. He had his game face on, and I was both reassured and terrified by the sight. And then Ben cautiously nodded before wrapping his arms around Jake.

  And then I got distracted. It was a simple thing. The air around me was blistering hot. I hadn’t even noticed the rise in temperature, but now I did and when I looked behind me, I nearly swallowed my tongue. The hotel door was glowing red. I’d never thought I’d see something like that outside of a movie theater, but there it was.

  I looked back to Jake. I desperately wanted to ask him what to do, but no words came out. He had Ben wrapped up across his chest, the boy’s arms and legs tight around him, with his head tucked against Jake’s neck. And the two of them together were poised on the railing while Jake adjusted the length of tied bedding.

  WTF? He couldn’t jump! He’d barely made it last time. No way could he make it back. Then he looked to me and bellowed.

  “Ellie! … brace … railing?” I couldn’t hear what he said. At least not all of it. But I could see the shape of his lips and understand what he meant. I couldn’t believe it, but what other choice did he have? As bad as my hotel room was, there were flames shooting out of the other one.

  I rushed over to the railing and did what I could to hold it firm against what he meant to do. He was going to jump from his balcony and swing over. Or down. Or I didn’t know where, but the weight of his body and Ben’s would be on the knot and the railing. Which was crazy. But I set my feet, braced my side against the wall, not that it would help much, and gripped the metal to give a counterweight to him and Ben. Then I held on for dear life.

  And it would be dear life, I belatedly realized, because if the railing broke free from the building, then I would go over, too. Eighteen floors of screaming.

  Fortunately, I didn’t have time to think too long about that. I’d barely nodded at Jake when he leaped with Ben in his arms.

  I watched them as long as I could, and held tight as the railing jerked under their weight. But—thank God—it held. Jake and Ben swung down below me. I heard the clang as they hit the balcony one floor down. Or at least I thought I did. I couldn’t really see, because I was still bracing the railing. In my mind’s eye, I saw Ben c
limb to safety on the balcony below. And then, a moment later, Jake would be there, too. But the only way I knew for sure was that the weight on the blanket rope was suddenly gone.

  I leaned over as much as I dared. Were they there? Were they safe? The blanket rope didn’t dangle down all the way. It disappeared onto the balcony.

  “Jake!” I bellowed. “Jake!”

  His head popped out a moment later, a big grin on his face. “Ellie!”

  Alive. Safe.

  I put my hand to my chest as if it would calm my racing heart.

  He held up the untied end of the blanket. Right. He’d have freed Ben from the restraint. I smiled, too relieved that they were safe for me to do anything more than nod. But then Jake shouted something up at me and it took me a few moments before I understood what he was saying.

  “Your turn!”

  He held up the blanket and mimed me pulling up the thing and tying it around my waist.

  I gaped at him. He couldn’t be serious. I was shaking my head, my heart in my throat. But he was smiling at me. Holding out his hands to me.

  “I’ll catch… Trust me!”

  He’d catch me? I wasn’t a freaking baseball. And we were eighteen stories up. My gaze went down to the street. I saw fire trucks and spotlights. I could wait—

  The sliding door leading out to the balcony suddenly burst in an explosion of sound that dropped me to my knees. The only reason I survived the blast was because I was tucked to the side against the building. I’d been holding on to the railing, and now. Oh God. There was no more time.

  I was on my knees, sobbing. I don’t know how long I crouched there, but I could hear Jake screaming my name, over and over.

  “Ellie!”

  Then I watched the blanket grow taut again. What the hell was he doing? The thought that he might be climbing up to me was both horrifying and reassuring. I wanted nothing more than to wait for him, but that was stupidly insane. He’d just have to climb down again. And we were eighteen stories up.

  Why the hell did I keep repeating that number in my head?

  Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to grip the railing again. And once I felt the metal—searing hot—against my hand, I cried out and leaned over again.

  Jake was there, looking up as he did something with the blanket. Damn it, he was going to try and climb up.

  I shook my head. “You can’t! It’ll burn!”

  With the railing growing hot, it was only a matter of time before Jake’s makeshift rope caught on fire. Sure it had been wet before, but that was done now. So…what could I do? I had no time left. The hotel room was completely engulfed. I had to go.

  Death by burning alive? Or an eighteen-story plummet?

  I picked the plummet. At least I’d be cool.

  Without second-guessing myself, I grabbed the blanket rope and hauled hard on it. It came up easily, and pretty soon, I had enough to tie around my waist. There was no time for a fancy knot. I had to do this fast.

  So I did.

  My hands were shaking, my feet even more so, but the railing was painful against my skin, which helped force me to move.

  So I did.

  I climbed over the railing and shoved my feet into the space between the metal railing and the concrete balcony floor. I don’t think I would have let go of the metal if it hadn’t been burning my hands. Eventually it just became too hot. So I gripped the blanket instead. And then my feet slipped, and I screamed.

  I was falling. Sliding. The blanket tore through my hands and I couldn’t hold on.

  Falling—

  He caught me. Just like he promised. He caught me—quick, easy—and he hauled me against the railing a floor below. I was shaking and terrified, but he had me. He pulled me over the metal rail and set me on cool concrete. And then he took the blanket from my shaking hand and pushed Ben to me.

  The boy grabbed hold, and I crouched down over him. My legs couldn’t support my weight anyway. But it was cooler here, and I could breathe. And Jake was right there, picking up the metal table that sat out on the balcony.

  What?

  He mimed covering our faces, and I blocked Ben’s eyes. But I didn’t cover mine soon enough. Instead, I watched as Jake lifted the metal table high over his head. I saw the muscles of his arms bunch and the taut clench to his neck and jaw. And then he threw the thing forward, straight into the sliding glass doors.

  They shattered with a crash, and I tucked my face against Ben. When I looked up again, I saw Jake using the protection of the blanket rope to knock away leftover glass shards. When he was done, he held out his hand with a grin.

  “Come on. We can get down now.”

  Right. Because the fire was on the floor above us. I nodded and straightened, bringing Ben with me. Jake grabbed the boy and whispered in his ear. The kid nodded and took off toward the door. He touched it gingerly and looked back with a grin.

  “It’s cool!”

  “Great!” Jake called back.

  Fabulous. But when I took a step forward, Jake was there before me.

  “What?”

  “Hold on.” He didn’t ask permission. He just put one of my arms around his shoulder, then squatted down. A split second later, he was carrying me in his arms.

  I squeaked in alarm as I clutched him tight. “What are you doing?”

  “You’re barefoot. There’s glass.”

  Wow. He didn’t even sound winded. And I felt all those muscles and that masculine power as he strode through the room with me in his arms.

  “Can you open the door, Ben?” Jake asked. “Slowly.”

  “Put me down,” I said. I didn’t want him to. Hell, I wanted to curl into his side and stay in his arms forever. But that wasn’t going to get us out of the fire. And we needed Jake to be strong and capable, without me hindering him.

  He nodded and gently set me on my feet. “Watch where you step,” he ordered softly. “And both of you, keep low to the ground.”

  Right. Against the smoke. Except compared to what had been billowing out of the room a floor above, this place was crystal clear. Meanwhile, Ben pulled the door open.

  “Let’s go,” Jake said. “Low and fast.”

  I nodded and grabbed Ben’s hand, and the three of us dashed for the Exit sign, Jake in the lead.

  Then it was down the stairs as fast as we could go. All seventeen floors, though we were met halfway by firefighters. One of them pressed an oxygen mask to my face and I looked at him in confusion. And then I coughed, long and hard. Hell. I just then realized that I had been coughing on and off this whole time and hadn’t even noticed.

  We made it outside, all three of us holding hands, and stepped into chaos. Lights, people, officials, everyone trying to talk to us at once. I didn’t hear a woman scream Ben’s name, but he certainly did. He croaked, “Mom!” then tore out of my grip. Mother and son reunited with tears and words that I couldn’t hear. Though I did see her look up at me and Jake, then mouth the words, “Thank you.”

  I couldn’t help grinning. But when I turned to share the moment with Jake, he was being pulled aside by an EMT while journalists bellowed questions at him. Well, he probably knew it was only a matter of time before he was recognized. I released my grip on him as another EMT came to my side. Jake needed to face the cameras, and I had no desire to go anywhere near those flashing lights.

  He didn’t want to let my hand go, but then I started coughing again and he had to. I was rushed over to an ambulance, and from there, the night blended into one long blur of No-Jake-in-Sight. I lost him in the crowd, then couldn’t find him at the hospital where they patched up the rope burns on my hands. And he certainly wasn’t anywhere when my sister came rushing into the ER, carrying a pair of old sweats and a makeup kit. She shoved them in my arms, then engulfed me in a hug.

  “Umph,” I said. Then I repeated it with more clarity. “I’m fine. Rachel, I’m fine.”

  “Mom and Dad are on their way here.”

  I shook my head. “Call them. Tell t
hem I’m fine.”

  “I’ve been trying your phone—”

  “It’s gone. Along with my purse, keys, and credit cards.”

  Her eyes opened wide as she gaped at me. “Oh—”

  “But I’m alive. That’s a win in my book.”

  She visibly swallowed. “Yeah. Yeah. But when I saw you climbing down that balcony, I thought I was going to die. What the hell were you thinking? You were eighteen floors up!”

  “That I was going to burn to death.” Then I realized what she was saying. “What are you talking about, when you saw? How did you see?”

  She stared at me, her eyes suddenly wide. “Um, you don’t know. Right. Because you probably had bigger things on your mind.”

  “Like not burning to death. What don’t I know?”

  “Um, well, we don’t have to—”

  “Rachel!”

  She held up her phone. “It’s on the news. And social media.” Right there, full screen on her phone, was me climbing down the balcony I was on, and Jake practically falling out of his as he caught me.

  Wow. That was an awesome picture. I couldn’t help staring at it, wondering about the identity of the woman being so heroically rescued by Jake. It didn’t compute that it was me. That—

  “Look, I know this is a lot,” Rachel said, “but there are journalists out in the hallway. So, um, before we leave, do you want to use some makeup? Or just keep with the smoky look?”

  Chapter Nine

  Jake

  Sweat beaded between my shoulder blades, but my focus was crystal clear. Ellie was above me, her pert behind flexed as she climbed down the outside of the balcony railing. I stretched up, blinking as sweat burned in my eyes. I fought a cough, the smoke like acid in my lungs, but my whole attention was on her.

  “Come on, Ellie! I’ve got you!”

  And I did. My hands were stretched upward. Just a few more inches and I’d get her. Ben clung to my side, and I didn’t dislodge him. He was terrified. Besides, I had this. I could snatch Ellie out of the air, even though I was leaning dangerously far over the edge of our balcony. The railing would hold. I would catch her. Everything would be fine.