What is happening? Someone jostled into Ivy, hitting her hard, and she spun around.
“I’ve got you.” Warm, strong hands closed around her shoulders and pulled her up against a body. Not just any body—Bennett. His arms wrapped around her as he held her close. “Officer Abrams, get the others to help this crowd! We need to find out what’s happening.”
“Fire alarm,” Ivy said. That was what it sounded like to her. And everyone was seriously panicking as they fought for freedom.
Bennett swore. “Come on, let’s get you out of here.”
“I’m okay.” She was. But she could hear people crying out in pain and fear as they trampled each other in their fear. “Go, do your job. Help them.”
His hold tightened on her.
“I can get out.” She knew this place. “Go.”
She didn’t even know where the councilman had fled to—the guy had vanished in that darkness. A big crowd was near the doors, people shoving and bottling up there as they fought to get out of the main ballroom.
She could see the outline of those bodies in the sputtering candlelight. The alarm kept shrieking from overhead.
“Go,” Ivy told Bennett again. He didn’t need to worry about her, but—
He started half-dragging, half-carrying her to the right. Away from the doors and toward the stage.
“Bennett? Stop!” Ivy ordered him. “You—”
He pushed her toward the stage. “Take the door behind it. There’s a flight of stairs to the right. Those stairs will take you down to the parking garage.”
So he knew the building well, too.
“Get outside and get to safety,” Bennett said. Then he—
He kissed her.
She didn’t expect the kiss, and she wasn’t sure he’d even planned that move. His mouth just locked down on hers, hard and fast and devastating. With the alarm shrieking around them. With people screaming.
He kissed her.
And the years fell away. She remembered what it was like to get lost in him. To feel the touch of his mouth on hers and to ignite. She’d always wanted him so wildly, so fiercely, and the years hadn’t changed that desire. If anything, now she seemed to want him more.
But he pulled back. “When you’re clear, wait for me in front of the convention center. I’ll find you there.”
Then he was gone. For an instant, Ivy just stood there.
She didn’t smell smoke. Didn’t hear the crackle of any flames. All she heard was the shriek of the alarm.
The door he’d pointed out waited just a few feet away. But was she really supposed to just take that exit and run? What about Cameron? What about her brother? What about Shelly? They were trapped in the crowd.
I can’t leave them.
She wouldn’t do it.
***
Chaos. It was all such beautiful, lovely chaos. Women were screaming. Drunk men were fighting each other as they tried to rush out of the building.
There was no fire. There was no danger. Well, none except for the danger that the fools were causing to each other.
He’d set off the alarm. He’d shut down the lights. He’d done it all—in just mere moments.
“Ivy!” Cameron was yelling her name. Cameron and another man—Hugh—were searching for her.
He’d seen Ivy go into the main ballroom. She hadn’t come out. Not yet.
Cameron and Hugh would never get to her, not in that mad crush. At least, they wouldn’t get to her—not if they kept trying to fight through the crowd. They need to go another way.
A way that he knew…
He opened a door, one that had been carefully hidden behind a black curtain. The door took him into a narrow corridor. A service area. The corridor would lead him right to the main ballroom. Right to Ivy.
But he had to hurry. The beautiful chaos would only last so long…
I want to see her. I want to touch her.
He closed the door behind him. The corridor was pitch black, but he had a light. He was prepared.
Always.
He took a few steps. And then he heard someone running toward him. Someone running too fast. His light hit on the man just as the guy barreled toward him.
Chapter Three
She didn’t run for the exit that Bennett had showed her. Ivy just couldn’t leave her brother and her friends. Instead, she raced for the service corridor. She knew exactly where that corridor was—after all, she’d come to enough parties at that convention center to more than know her way around the place. Besides, her friend Sarah was a caterer who often had her staff working in the service corridor, and Ivy had seen them in action plenty of times. Other people might not know about that secret hallway, but Ivy was just grateful right then that she knew of its location.
A long, black curtain hid the entrance to the service corridor. She shoved the curtain aside and yanked open the door. Darkness waited inside, but Ivy knew that narrow hallway would take her past the thick throng and allow her to exit near the escalators.