Defending Harlow (Mountain Mercenaries #4)(87)

It took a few more hits, but finally the window broke. Using the pan to get as many of the shards of glass out of the way as possible, she then turned back to the children. “Come here, Lacie. You first.” Harlow figured she could use Jasper’s help on this side of the window, and putting the next oldest kid out first to help from the other side would make things easier on them all.

Smoke was coming in under the door to the kitchen now, and everyone began to cough. Trying not to panic at how fast it seemed the fire was growing—and because no one had come to check on them—Harlow held out her hand to Lacie. “Come on, sweetie. Out you go.”

“Are you coming too?” Lacie asked, allowing Harlow to lift her up onto the counter. She stood up and bent over, looking out the window.

“We’ll be right behind you. I need you to wait outside and help the others out, okay?”

She saw the women huddled together off to the side, and she called out to them. As they came running toward her, she turned back to Lacie. “Look! Your mom is out there to help you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

Sammie and Jody were sobbing now, but Harlow blocked them out. She climbed into the sink herself, bracing Lacie. She put her hands around her waist and looked out the window. The sidewalk was only about five feet down, but now several women from the shelter were there to help. Thank God. “Okay, you got this, Lacie. Grab hold of their hands, and they’ll help you down.”

Lacie was crying now, but she bravely nodded.

“I know you’re scared, but you can do this. You’ll be outside and safe in just a second. Ready?”

The little girl nodded once more, and Harlow counted down. “Okay. Out you go.”

Within seconds, Lacie was being hugged by her mom and hustled away from the window.

“Where’s Jody?” Bethany asked hysterically.

“Milo!” Melinda yelled. “Mommy’s here!”

“Get the rest of the kids!” Ann called out.

Harlow nodded and turned to look at the other children behind her.

But they weren’t there.

Her heart started racing. Where were they? Holy shit, where’d they go?

“Harlow!”

She spun toward the voice and saw Sammie standing at the bottom of the stairs that led up to the third floor. They weren’t very wide, and had been used in the past as a way for employees of the hotel to get to the quarters on the third floor from the kitchen.

“Where’d they go?” she blurted as she hopped down from the sink and headed for Sammie.

The little girl pointed up the stairs. “Jody got scared and wanted to get her teddy bear. Jasper ran after her, and Milo said he was going too. They told me to stay here, but I’m scared!”

Swearing under her breath and berating herself for not watching the kids more carefully, Harlow coughed. She glanced toward the door and saw not only black smoke rolling under the door, but a flicker of orange flames as well.

She turned back to Sammie, to tow her to the window and pass her to the waiting women—but she was no longer there.

She’d run up the stairs after the others.

“No! Sammie! Come back!” she screamed, but the little girl had already disappeared, scared out of her mind and too young to understand that, even with the smoke filling the kitchen, it was safer than heading up.

Harlow couldn’t even take the time to be glad that at least one of the kids was safe. She yelled toward the window, “Call 911! The kids got scared and ran upstairs! I’m going after them. I’ll be right back!”

Then she immediately turned and headed up the stairs after them. She had no idea if she’d really be right back or not, as the fire seemed about ready to break through the kitchen doors. But she couldn’t crawl out the window herself and leave the kids to fend for themselves.

She was breathing heavily by the time she made it to the third floor. The rooms up here were small. Loretta hadn’t bothered to remodel them, taking one for herself, one as an office, and using the others as rooms for the women with children.

“Jasper! Milo! Jody! Where are you?” she called out as she rushed down the hallway looking for the kids. She had no idea if they’d gone back into their rooms to grab something, or to hide, but she hoped like hell she’d be able to find them all in time.

She glanced down the stairwell that led into the main room, where the women had been having their meeting—and stopped to stare in horror at what she saw.

A wall of flame. The entire bottom floor seemed to be engulfed, and smoke was rolling up the stairs like something out of a scary movie she’d seen once. Except in the movie, it was a freezing-cold mist that could eat people alive instead of extremely hot smoke that threatened to choke her.

“Harlow!”

She startled badly and turned to see Jasper standing there holding Jody. Sammie was on one side of him and Milo on the other. Both girls were holding on to his shirt and crying, as was Jasper.

Looking around, Harlow made a split-second decision. She couldn’t go down the main staircase. Not with the way the fire was eating everything in its path. She ran to the kids and pushed them toward the stairs that led to the kitchen, intending on rushing down the stairs back to the open window, where the other women were waiting for them. But the second she saw the stairs, she knew it was too late. Black smoke was rolling up the kitchen stairway, and the heat wafting from below was super intense.