Charlie wasn't sure when she'd stopped holding herself so rigidly. At first it had been too much, literally sitting on top of Bass, hyper-aware of all the places they touched. But he hadn't made a move to put his hands on her, and had seemingly been paying more attention to the noises crashing through the house than he had of her.

Now, everything had fallen quiet, and she had nothing to distract her from their close proximity.

"Miles and my mom should be back soon," she said, just to make conversation.

Bass nodded, his lips quirking into a short smile, his blue gaze knowing, as though he was fully aware of what she was doing. He shifted beneath her, bringing her attention right back around to their intimate position.

"How's your arm? Are you feeling okay?" He shouldn't have been hiding out in a closet, putting up with her sitting on him only twenty four hours after nearly dying from bleeding out.

"I'm fine, Charlie. A little tired, but I'm okay."

Like he'd tell her if he wasn't.

"Maybe we could move, change positions or something."

He gave a quiet laugh. "What are we going to do? Have me sit on top of you? I outweigh you by a hundred pounds."

She started to move back. "Seriously, you can't be comfortable—"

His hand landed in the middle of her lower back, stopping her from going anywhere. "It's fine, Charlie, you hardly weigh anything, and if we try rearranging ourselves, all we'll end up doing is jostling my arm, and wearing me out."

She blew out a short breath, noting that Bass hadn't moved his hand from where it had landed just above her butt. "I can't just sit here—"

"So I noticed," he returned dryly. "Just give it a few more minutes, and then we'll climb out."

She nodded, tense all over again, just like she'd been when they'd first shut themselves in.

"Charlie, you're killing me here, just relax. What exactly do you think is going to happen?"

She didn't know. Probably nothing. But there was something almost tangible growing between her and Bass. She couldn't ignore it any longer, couldn't pretend like she didn't know what the heated awareness was. It was wrong. He was wrong for her. It shouldn't, couldn't happen between them. Except her heart pounded whenever he got too close, and her chest ached as she let the forbidden idea of kissing him flood through her mind.

Heat flashed through her in wake of the shocking notion. Never mind trusting Sebastian Monroe, apparently it was her own control she needed to be concerned about. She closed her eyes and took a long, unsteady breath.

"Charlie… Charlotte." Bass' low murmur vibrated all the way down her spine.

She opened her eyes to look at him in the dim light, as his hand smoothed upward along the middle of her back, slowly but surly pressing her closer to his chest.

His hand clamped around the back of her neck, fingers rough against her sensitive skin, and suddenly she couldn't breathe. His mouth was right there, his heated blue gaze burning into her, making her want things she had no words for.

Somehow, her hands landed on his shoulders, and his muscles were hard and warm beneath her palms.

Except then his gaze cut away from her, and she could see his attention shifting.

"Can you smell that?" A distant note of apprehension in his tone cleared her mind better than a bucket of ice dumped over her head.

She inhaled, an acrid scent burning her sinuses.

"Its smoke." Bass set her back from him. "Charlie, we've got to get out of here."

She leaned to the side and shoved at the panel, forcing the door to pop open. A cloud of thick black smoke rolled into the small space, and the next breath she took scraped her throat raw, until she started coughing.

Charlie crawled out of the cupboard, Bass on her heels. Flames flickered up the walls, catching on furniture, while the smoke pressed in lower, leaving no air to breathe.

"Charlie, stay down." Bass yelled, his hand on her back forcing her into a crawl. They made it to the front door, but when she went to push it open, it wouldn't budge. She tried again, throwing her whole body at it in desperation, but got nothing except a sore shoulder.

"Bass, it won't open." Her voice had climbed higher with panic, but who could stay calm at the prospect of getting burned alive?

"They probably blocked it up, come on, let's try the back." Bass coughed and latched a hand onto her arm, dragging her back into the dark hallway.

The inferno blazed higher now, flames licking along the ceiling, while a muted roar harmonized discordantly with the crackle of dry, burning wood. They made it through the kitchen, and Bass practically fell through the backdoor ahead of her.

They stumbled down the steps, gasping at the cool, clean air. Charlie fell to her hands and knees in the middle of the yard, Bass beside her, trying to stem a fit of coughing.

Someone grabbed a handful of her hair and wrenched her backwards. She cried out in anger, looking up to see a Patriot leaning over her.

"Under orders from Commander Allenford, Charlotte Matheson, you are under arrest—"

A figure loomed up beside her, and the Patriot soldier went down, Bass on top of him. But the struggle didn't last long, as two other soldiers came forward and pulled Bass off, forcing him down to his knees, before securing his hands behind his back.

Charlie reached for her knife with a slow movement, hoping no one would pay her any attention while they were all focused on Bass. Except there were seven other patriot soldiers surrounding them, all armed to the teeth, and if she knifed their leader, she wouldn't get to do any more damage before they took her out.

The commanding soldier had pushed himself to his feet. He wiped the back of his hand across the blood dripping from his nose, before walking over and then backhanding Bass into the dust.

"No—" she started toward him, but one of the soldiers grabbed her. She turned on the Patriot, leading with her knife, but he caught her wrist, twisting until pain shot down her arm and she released her grip on the handle.

"Charlie," Bass coughed, and pushed himself up. "Don't fight them, there's too many, you'll only get hurt."

The soldier who'd taken her knife shoved her down next to Bass, before another cuffed her wrists. She met Bass' gaze, and saw the lethal, furious light burning in his eyes. No matter how angry he got, she couldn't see how they were going to get out of this in one piece.