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Eshe stilled and peered at hiether beyond the teeks she&039;d originally been slated to stay

"What?" he asked, cutting into his cake with his fork "You thought I was letting you get away after this is over?"

"Before Lucian left you were trying to send ," Ar to be selfish as hell and hold on to you now"

Eshe grinned "I think I like you when you&039;re selfish as hell"

"You&039;ll like hly, reaching out to draw her nearer so he could kiss her Before their lips could meet, however, a forkful of cake appeared between them Eshe and Armand turned as one to peer at Bricker

"Food now Crazy monkey sex after," he admonished "I went to a lot of trouble to waro to waste"

Eshe chuckled at his words and turned her attention to the cake and coffee, but her toes were curled inside her boots and she was very aware of Armand beside her She couldn&039;t help but think it would be nice when all this was over and they could just be together without worrying aboutNicholas But they had ti time if they were lucky

Eshe woke to the sound of so for thelared at the clock on the bedside table, her bleary eyes widening with disbelief when she saw that it was only nine AM

"For God&039;s sake," she lare to the door, and then frowned and sniffed as she s It was at about that ti, "Fire! Wake up!"

Before she could react, he gave up pounding and burst into the rooht of Bricker in just a pair of boxers, and then glanced to Ar?" Bricker roared with frustration "The house is on fire Get up!"

Ar awake and alert While she was just starting to look around for so out of bed

"Where&039;s Anders?" he barked, tossing Eshe his shirt and then snatching up his jeans to yank thelanced to Bricker as he whirled and hurried out of the room to wake the other ot out of bed as she did it up The shirt was short, stopping just below her butt cheeks, and Eshe picked up her own jeans then, intending to pull theging her toward the door before she could

Eshe clutched the jeans to her chest and scampered to keep up as they hurried out of the room They met Anders and Bricker in the hall Like Armand, Anders had pulled on jeans, and now led the way toward the stairs, but caot there Ar Eshe with him as he peered down into the inferno that was the first floor

"Christ," heher back toward his rooet thisopen," he ordered, ht to thebeside the bed

"Blood?" Bricker asked blankly, running a hand through his disheveled hair

"In case one of us twists or breaks an ankle ju off the porch," Armand explained patiently as he raised theand set to work on the screen "Houses don&039;t burn this quickly The fire must have been set If the culprit is still out there I don&039;t want anyone injured and unable to defend theht" Bricker turned and hurried into the walk-in closet

Eshe shifted her bare feet on the hardwood floor "The floor is hot"

Arot the screen free and pitched it away from the house He peered out, but then paused and cursed

"What is it?" Eshe asked, squeezing up next to him to peer out She saw at once what the problerowled "We can&039;t go this way"

Eshe glanced over the burning porch roof and sighed, knowing he was right It could collapse beneath them and leave them in an inferno of flames

"The front porch probably will be too," Anders muttered as Armand turned away from the"Thein ht be our best bet"

Armand nodded and ushered Eshe ahead of hi?" Bricker asked Ars of blood to his chest as he came out of the closet, he hurried to oing to try Anders&039;s roos fro, Bricker slid out of the room and led the way up the hall to Anders&039;s door The s, and they were all coughing by the ti to be unbearable as well

"This&039;ll do," Ar the blackout curtain open and peering outside He yanked the curtains right off their rod and tossed them across the room, and then shoved theup, and prettyoutward The lanced her way and said, "Eshe, co her jeans and the blood, but he took theed her to the

"Jump away from the house if you can, and roll when you land The fla the outside of the first floor and your shirt ht catch fire"

Eshe nodded and started to cli over it when he caught her aro first"

Recalling that he&039;d wanted the blood in case the culprit was out there, she knew exactly why he suddenly wanted one of the with exasperation, Eshe reminded hied her ar over the sill, and pushed out with her hands, shoving herself away frorunt, but without twisting or breaking an ankle, and then dropped and rolled just to be sure she hadn&039;t caught fire She heard a thud to her right on her third roll and kneas one of the ot quickly to her feet and then jumped back out of the way as Bricker rolled toward her Eshe then glanced up to thein tiaze slid to Ar her lips when she saw hiathered to his chest

"Bricker, keep an eye out for our firebug," she ordered, then stepped closer to the house and held out her hands "Throw the at once, the others quickly followed, and Eshe ended up letting so them so that she could catch the next She was relieved when he finished tossing the last one, until he suddenly disappeared froether

"Aro?" Anders said, h the floor when I juet out of there"

Eshe just shook her head and watched helplessly She had no idea where the big idiot had gone, but if he didn&039;t return and cli in after hihed with relief when he appeared again and finally climbed onto the sill and pushed hi," Bricker said quietly, s she&039;d let drop

Eshe merely nodded She hadn&039;t expected the coward to stick around For all they knew, he&039;d taken control of someone and had them start the fire while he watched froust as she moved to help Armand to his feet and check to be sure he was okay

He stood up easily, uninjured by the ju to look at his house

Eshe sighed and turned to peer at it too, knowing it oing up in fla the few she had here; her pants, for instance But Ar those portraits and photo albu her hands into his

"It&039;s just a house We can build another," he murmured, but he sounded weary

She squeezed his hand and then said, "We should really get out of the sun You have your choice of the SUV or the woods"

"The SUV," Armand murmured, and then turned away from the house to ith her toward the vehicle

"Proble "It&039;s locked and the keys are-"

"In ers so that the set of keys dangled between his thurabbed them before I climbed out"

That explained his brief disappearance, Eshe realized, and while it had given her a scaryup those keys She suspected it wouldn&039;t have been co in the woods without pants on

Armand handed Anders the keys and he immediately hit the unlock button They piled into the SUV, Eshe and Armand in the back, Anders and Bricker in the front

"It&039;s a good thing you woke up, Bricker," Eshe murmured as they watched the fire devour the house

"I didn&039;t," he adlanced at hi hotels until about an hour ago By the way, they&039;re at the Sofitel," he said, and then continued, "It was of course the last hotel I called I went to bed after I found that out, but couldn&039;t sleep I was just dosing off when I slanced at Armand and murmured, "See what I mean about the fishbowl?" When he peered back blankly, she pointed out, "I was upset that he forgot to get the name of the hotel when I found out, but in the end it saved our lives"

Ar back to the fire

"What do we do now?" Bricker asked

Arlanced out theas the sound of a fire engine suddenly whooped in the distance They couldn&039;t see it through the trees, but he sighed and turned back "I guess I should wait here for them," he said reluctantly "But you three can-"

"I&039; you alone here," Eshe interrupted fir could still be around"

"We&039;ll all stay," Anders decided

Satisfied with that, Eshe sat back to wait for the firemen to arrive