Finding Their Way Back
Chapter One
It had been a long day of meetings for Kate and back at the mansion-she couldn't concentrate. Ever since a few nights ago when Roman showed up to talk to Stephanie she had been thinking of him often, too often. But why? They had only exchanged a few words, well hardly any words. Kate's mind drifted back to when she offered to walk him out and he put his hand on the small of her back. "That's why," she muttered. Even though in her mind she knew they were divorced and not together anymore, there would be those close moments every now and then where she felt that if they worked at it, they could get back together because even though Kate had been with other people since Roman, no one else knew her quite like he did and accepted her for who she really was. "No, that's nonsense," she muttered again. "Even if we did work at it, I would do something to mess it up."
Stepping out of her little daze, Kate saw the butler and asked, "Henderson, does Victor still have those files?"
"Yes, they're in the back shed."
"Thanks." With that Kate walked out to the shed, trying to clear her head and not noticing anything else.
The shed was quite large to be called a "shed". It had two floors with many old files from Titan, along with spare cans of fuel, gardening supplies, etc. It wasn't the most appealing place to be with the dry, dusty atmosphere and not a lot of light and Kate rarely went in there. She wasn't even sure if there were windows and doors besides the ones at the entrance.
Kate was gathering up the files she needed when she thought she saw a shadow. As she turned around, the gas cans in front of the door exploded into a sea of flames. She realized soon all the files and the whole shed would be engulfed. "Why didn't I ever pay attention to where the entrances and exits in this building were?" she thought and then began searching for a way out.
Roman pulled up to the Kiriakus mansion. He also kept thinking of the other night and wasn't going to let it slide like the other "moments" they would have. "I know those glances between us meant something and I'm gonna find out what," he said.
Henderson answered the door. "Mr. Brady? I'm sorry but if you're looking for Miss Johnson, she and Mr. Kiriakus are out of town."
Roman stepped inside and started walking toward the sitting room. "No, I'm looking for Kate. Is she here?"
"Oh yes. She just went out to the back shed to look-mmm…do you smell that? Smoke…"
"It's coming from outside!"
Inside the shed, the confined space was quickly filling with smoke. It was getting harder and harder to breathe and the fire was spreading. Kate had been running throughout the shed looking for a way out but knew it was hopeless. She then heard faint voices but before she could yell out for help, she collapsed.