Bad Boy: A Stepbrother Romance(46)

Weeoo-weeoo-weeoo!

The alarm continued to screech, and as the fuzziness of my half-asleep mind slipped away, I finally registered what it was.

The fire alarm.

Panicked, I jumped up and slipped into a warm nightgown before racing over to the door, and before I could open it, I heard someone pounding at it.

“Open up, Rory! We need to get out of here!”

I flung the door open to see Elijah standing there. His face fell with relief when he saw me, and he quickly ushered me down the hallway towards a group of other guests from the floor who were congregated by the elevators.

“A fire started in one of the suites on the third floor,” Elijah explained. “Someone left a hair straightener on in the room and left it behind before checking out, it seems. Damn maids must’ve missed it, so someone will be getting fired over this, no doubt. No pun intended.”

“Oh,” I said, rubbing my tired eyes as I hurried after him. I’d barely noticed it earlier, but there was a faint acrid smell hanging in the air. “Is everything going to be okay?”

“I certainly hope so. These things are usually easily contained, but the fire department haven’t shown up yet. We need to evacuate everyone either way. Let’s just hope the firefighters show up soon.”

“Where’s my Mom, James and Grandma?” I asked. “And Finn?”

“Your Mom is already outside, and I think I saw your grandmother with her,” he replied. “And Finn was at work at the club when the fire started, but right now he’s helping evacuate the middle floors with his father. Don’t worry, the fire hasn’t actually spread to any of the other floors yet, and no one is hurt. I’m sure the place will be fine within the next hour or so.”

I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that my loved ones were safe. “Good. I hope the hotel is okay.”

It would be awful if the whole place burned down. James had put so much work into building this place up and running it over the years, and to see it all ruined over one stupid hair straightener being left on overnight would be horrible. For Finn, too. He saw this hotel as his father’s legacy, and I knew how hard he worked at helping James out with the place.

“Okay, everyone, we’re going to need to take the stairs. The elevators can’t be used under these circumstances, and that’s why they aren’t working for you,” Elijah called out to the group of people gathered at the end of the hallway.

I recognized some of them from the pharmaceutical conference earlier, and I dropped my gaze to the floor with an embarrassed smile. Even in this serious situation, I couldn’t forget how much fun I’d had with Finn earlier today. He wasn’t just a decent guy, he was smart and funny as well.

There were a few minor grumbles and groans, but everyone trudged down the stairs without too much of a fuss. I couldn’t blame the people for being annoyed, as selfish as it seemed. I lived here with my family, so it was a different story for me, but the other guests had checked into the Crown expecting a luxurious stay, not a harrowing episode where they would be woken at midnight and forced out of their rooms.#p#分页标题#e#

Once we’d reached the outside of the hotel, I turned back to see black smoke billowing out of several windows on the third floor. Jeez. It was much worse than what Elijah had made it out to be. Either the fire was spreading fast, or he’d simply been trying to keep me and the other guests calm as we made our way out.

Probably the latter.

Wailing sirens and flashing red lights alerted me to the fact that the fire department had arrived, and I frantically looked around the crowds of sleepy people and hotel staff, looking for my family. Finally, I caught a glimpse of my Mom, and my shoulders slumped with relief as I ran over to her.

“There you are!” she said.

“I just got out,” I said. “Did you remember to bring Grandma’s medication with you?”

After my grandmother’s medical checkup a few weeks prior, she’d been diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure. Dr. Cummings had prescribed some medication for her, and he’d said that she’d be fine as long as she took it twice a day, every day. If the whole hotel went up in flames, then she’d lose her meds, and she might not be able to get another script for another day or so depending on how booked out the clinics were. I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted her to stay healthy and take her meds every single day without fail.

Mom’s brows wrinkled. “What?”

“Grandma’s meds,” I replied. “Did you grab them? Where did she go, by the way?”

I’d only just noticed that she wasn’t standing right next to Mom, and I craned my neck and looked around, figuring she couldn’t have wandered off too far.