EIGHTEEN

I woke with a start and it took me half a second to figure out why. The smoke alarms blared. I groaned and looked at my bedside clock. It showed 2:57 in the morning. I looked around my bedroom. It was dark. No flickering firelight.

The beeping continued.

I got out of bed and padded through the living room, still half asleep. The standard procedure for times like these involved sticking your head out into the hall and grumbling with the other tenants until the fire department arrived, cleared the building, and the super reset the alarms. Probably, some insomniac had burned a bag of microwave popcorn again. I grabbed my doorknob and yelped, instinctively pulling my hand back against my body. I blinked back a few tears from the sudden pain. Scalding heat radiated from the metal doorknob.

I flicked on my lights and squinted until my eyes adjusted. A smoky haze began to fill my apartment as more smoke crept in from around my door. Not good. On the floor I spotted a piece of paper. It looked like it had been slipped under my door sometime during the night. I picked it up and found one of Cookie and Crumbs' stickers on the back. Underneath it, I found the business card I'd left in Fortecelli's apartment, with my message asking Cookie to call me written in my own hand on the back.

I grabbed Rex's aquarium off the kitchen counter, dropped the paper with the sticker and business card inside it, and walked calmly back to my bedroom. Good thing for fire escapes, I thought. I put Rex's aquarium onto the carpet and unlocked my bedroom window, then used my left hand to push it up. Except it didn't go up. My right hand really stung from touching the molten doorknob, but I ignored the pain, put both hands on the bottom of my window and pushed. Nothing. A tremor of terror crept through me.

Calm, I told myself, I need to stay calm. Problem solve.

The smoke grew thicker, causing my eyes to burn. I doubled checked the locks on the window. They were in the unlocked position. I pushed on the frame again with no success.

I could feel the panic setting in. Break the window, I thought. I ran to my closet and dug through it for the baseball bat that lived in the back. I had it for self-defense, from before Ranger bought me my .45. It was handy to keep around and it didn't require bullets.

My right hand felt like it was on fire, so I gripped the bat in my left hand and swung it at the window. DONG. It bounced off the glass with surprising force, but didn't make even a single crack. I tried again. DONG. I gripped the bat with both hands, tears sliding down my face from the pain, and swung it as hard as I could. DONG.

My bedroom window had been an unsettling point of entry into my apartment for more than one creep. It had also been broken numerous times. More than likely, it had been replaced with impact resistant glass, for my protection. Probably a good decision at the time. Not so good right now.

I coughed. The smoke made it hard to see. I could hear the crackle of flames now as the panic reached critical level. My lights blinked a few times and went out, leaving me in the hazy darkness. A terrifying, flickering glow illuminated the area around my front door. I shut my bedroom door and yanked the comforter off my bed, stuffing it into the crack below the door to try and slow the smoke. Outside, sirens screamed as fire trucks and police cars piled into the building's lot. I banged on the window, but I knew no one could hear me over the sirens, and with no electricity, no one could see me either.

Suddenly, I remembered my cell phone. If I called 9-1-1, they could tell the fire department to rescue me. I grabbed it off my nightstand and pressed the button on the side, waiting for the screen to light up. It stayed stubbornly dark. I tried again, with no success. I held down the power button but the phone didn't boot. I'd forgotten to plug it in before I went to bed. The battery must have died.

Returning to the window, I dropped the useless piece of technology into Rex's cage in the off chance someone rescued me. Then I knelt by the stubborn window, tears falling onto the carpet as I hugged the aquarium to my chest. Smoke continued to fill the room, laboring my breathing. Suddenly, I heard the screech of metal rubbing metal and I looked up in time to see my fire escape shake slightly under the weight of someone climbing it. I started pounding on the window again, screaming for help.

I expected to see a brawny fireman appear on my landing. Instead, Ranger came into view.

"Steph, open your window," he shouted in at me.

"I can't, it's stuck," I shouted back before doubling over in a fit of coughing.

Ranger pulled out a flashlight and pointed it at my window before cursing. The flashlight disappeared and his Glock appeared, pointed at the glass. "Move aside," he yelled.

I scrambled away, pushing Rex's aquarium into the corner and putting my body over the top as I covered my ears.

BANG. My ears rang. The glass in the window spider webbed, but stayed annoyingly intact. BANG. The second shot shattered the glass into a thousand tiny pieces. Ranger vaulted through it before all the shards hit the floor.

His hands were on me before I could even stand. He pulled me to my feet and against him for just a second, before pushing me toward the broken window. "Out," he ordered, stooping to grab Rex's aquarium.

It wasn't until I stepped on the broken glass that I realized I'd never put shoes on. Too late now. I scrambled out the window and onto the freezing fire escape. Ranger passed Rex's aquarium out the window to me before climbing out himself. He took Rex back as I started down the metal ladder, trying to hang on to the rail with just my left hand. My toes finally brushed cold asphalt and I breathed a sigh of relief.

Ranger stepped off the last rung and gently placed Rex's cage on the ground, then he pulled me into an embrace. I gripped his shirt and tried unsuccessfully to bite back the sob that escaped my lungs.

"It's okay. You're safe," he mumbled into my hair, holding me tighter.

"I couldn't get the stupid window open," I sobbed, feeling like an idiot. Who can't open a window?

Ranger took a step back so he could lock his eyes with mine. "Someone nailed it shut." Even in the darkness, I could see the dangerous glint in his eyes. When Ranger found out who had done it, it would not end well. I felt we both considered the same suspect: George Fortecelli.

"How'd you know I was still inside?"

"Hal heard the call go out on the scanner for a fire at your building. When I got here and I didn't see you with the other tenants out front, I started asking if anyone had seen you. One of them told me the fire was in front of your apartment door. I got a bad feeling when I saw your window still closed and your phone went straight to voicemail."

"Thank you," I muttered, leaning against him again as I shivered. Ranger felt nice and warm. And I was freezing. In addition to shoes, it never occurred to me to put on any additional clothes than what I'd been sleeping in. Stretchy cotton shorts and a threadbare t-shirt were not the best attire for January in Jersey.

Ranger pulled off his black jacket and slung it over my shoulders. "Let's get you somewhere warm."

I nodded in agreement. Ranger tucked Rex under his left arm and guided me into the sea of emergency vehicles.

"What's wrong with your hand?" he asked as we walked, noticing that I held it cradled against my body.

"I didn't know the fire was right outside my door. I touched the doorknob to get out and burned my hand."

Ranger furrowed his brow and stopped. "Let me see." He pulled out his flashlight again and clicked it on. I opened my right palm and swayed where I stood. The palm and fingers of my hand were covered in blistering burns.

Ranger steadied me. "Babe, the EMT's need to look at that."

He steered me toward the flashing lights of a line of ambulances. The EMT's all stood next to open cargo doors, looking bored. A building full of elderly, yet no one required their assistance. That might be in part because three quarters of the residents came with their own oxygen supply.

We reached the first ambulance and I groaned internally. I recognized one of the EMT's. Bonnie had gone to school with my older sister, Valerie. She'd attended more than one sleep over at my house.

"Stephanie Plum, is that you?" she asked as I stepped into view of the bright LED lights emanating from inside the ambulance.

"Hi Bonnie," I replied. "I burned my hand. Can you bandage it?"

"Sure, come in and sit down on the gurney and let me have a look."

I climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat on the edge of the gurney. Ranger followed, settling onto the bench and putting Rex's aquarium next to him. I suppressed a shudder as I flashbacked to the last time I was in an ambulance, watching Ranger fight for his life.

"I'm sorry," Bonnie said. "I guess you're not a Plum anymore, are you?"

I snapped back to reality. "What?"

Bonnie motioned to my wedding rings.

"No, I'm still a Plum," I started to explain, but Bonnie cut me off.

"Ahh, keeping your maiden name? That's getting really popular, isn't it?" Her voice lowered, "Is that your hubby?" She nodded toward Ranger and I saw her eyes flit over his body in an admiring way.

I had the word 'no' on the tip of my tongue, but hesitated. Valerie had always been the perfect daughter. And Bonnie didn't fall too far behind Valerie in the perfect category when I was growing up. I, on the other hand, always stood just a bit slightly off center from "normal." Valerie and Bonnie had once offered to help "fix" me.

"Got myself a good one, didn't I?" I replied instead.

"You're telling me," Bonnie whispered as she examined my burnt hand. "Is he as good in bed as I imagine he would be?"

"Better." At least that wasn't a lie.

I heard Ranger shift his position behind me and knew he'd heard every word.

Bonnie smeared my palm with a mixture of aloe-vera gel and a topical pain reliever, then she wrapped my entire hand in several layers of gauze and secured it with three pieces of medical tape.

"All fixed up," Bonnie announced. "You're lucky it was your right hand. I might have had to cut off your pretty wedding rings if you'd burned your left hand."

"Yeah, lucky me," I agreed dryly. From behind me, I heard a strangled cough that seemed suspiciously like a stifled laugh.

Bonnie looked at Ranger. "You'll need to help her change the bandage a couple times a day and apply more aloe and Lidocaine as needed."

"Can do," he responded.

Bonnie helped me to my feet. "It looks like the Red Cross is here. They can probably hook you up with a blanket and some shoes."

The Red Cross doled out stuff from a large white van with, no surprise, a big red cross on the side. I got some socks and shoes, along with a scratchy blue blanket to wrap around my shoulders. A fireman asked for my name and apartment number. He sighed as he checked my name off a list.

"Did everyone get out?" I asked, trying to peek at his list.

"You were the last person unaccounted for, so yes."

I breathed a sigh of relief. I'd grown used to people trying to kill me. But I didn't want my screwed up life to hurt anyone else.

The Red Cross had set up a bunch of plastic folding chairs underneath a tent with a couple patio heaters running to try and keep the displaced tenants warm. Pushing a flap aside, I entered the tent and looked down at my bare feet, then at the shoes and socks I cradled in my left hand. There was no way I was going to be able to put them on myself.

"This is mortifying, but I think you're going to have to help me put on my socks and shoes," I said to Ranger.

"Have a seat, Cinderella," he replied, his lips curling into a smile. "Good thing you got yourself a good one."

I felt myself flush as I sat down. "I couldn't help myself. The EMT was Bonnie Kline. She and Valerie were good friends growing up, and they were constantly trying to show me how I should act so I could grow up to be a good Burg wife. I guess I just wanted to show her up."

"Show her up?"

"She married Steven Kline, who's five foot six in shoes, a bit pudgy, and prematurely balding. And she undressed you with her eyes."

"She did not."

"She did. Granted, every woman who meets you imagines you naked, so I really shouldn't hold it against her."

My feet were now shod, thanks to Ranger. His cell phone rang as he stood.

He looked at the number for a few beats before deciding to answer. He gave no greeting, just held the phone to his ear.

"Yes." He responded to an unheard question. "We're in the Red Cross warming tent." He ended the call and put the phone back in his pocket.

I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Morelli," Ranger replied.

"Why'd he call you?"

"Because your building is on fire and you weren't answering your phone."

"I forgot to plug it in and the battery died," I explained, feeling like a total idiot.

Morelli arrived in the tent a few minutes later. He had dark circles under his eyes, his hair appeared tousled from sleep, and he wore creased jeans and a wrinkled hoodie that had probably been on his bedroom floor not too long ago. He made disheveled look sexy.

"What happened?" he demanded as soon as he saw me.

I shrugged. "There was a fire."

Morelli shot me a disbelieving look. "Just a regular, ordinary, run of the mill fire?"

"No one shot a rocket into my apartment, if that's what you are asking. The fire started outside my apartment."

"By accident?"

I glanced at Ranger and saw him fighting back a smile. "Just tell him," Ranger advised.

"Tell me what?" Morelli asked uneasily. "It's going to give me heartburn, isn't it?"

"The fire started right outside my apartment door," I confessed. "And when I tried to leave by the fire escape, my window had been nailed shut from the outside."

"Christ! How did you get out?"

I nodded toward Ranger.

"I climbed her fire escape and shot out her window."

Morelli said nothing, but he and Ranger exchanged a look. Morelli offered Ranger the tiniest nod of gratitude.

"Why didn't you just call 9-1-1?" Morelli asked me.

"It's dead," I pointed at the phone that still sat in Rex's cage. "I forgot to plug it in."

"And your hand?" Morelli asked.

"I didn't know the fire was in my hall, so when I tried to open the door I burned my hand on the door knob."

"Do you know who started the fire."

I paused for a second before responding. "I have a pretty good guess. George Fortecelli skipped bail just after Christmas on an arson charge. And I may have stumbled upon something he doesn't want public."

Morelli pressed the heel of his palm into his chest. "I have heartburn already. What did you stumble on?"

"He's got thirty acres of woods in the Poconos hiding a massive marijuana growing rig. Three giant greenhouses."

Morelli shook his head in disbelief. "Have you told this to the police?"

"Aren't you the police?"

Morelli pinched the bridge of his nose. "Stay here. I imagine the fire marshal's already been called. I'll go find him."

Morelli disappeared and Ranger took a seat next to me. "Giving Fortecelli over to the cops?"

I nodded. "I don't care if Vinnie loses the bond money. Fortecelli put a whole building full of people in danger to just try to get to me. I wasn't going to say anything about the pot, but now I hope he gets nailed by the DEA."

"Me too. I'd hate to run into him first."

"You're supposed to be resting," I reminded him.

"I know. Which is why I'll give the cops two weeks to find him first." Ranger's eyes grew dangerously dark.

If I were George Fortecelli, I'd gladly hand myself over to the justice system.

Morelli returned with the fire marshal and two on-duty cops so I could tell them what I knew. It wasn't much. I gave them the slip of paper with the sticker on it that had been slid under my door. I hoped they had a better time finding Fortecelli than I'd had.

The fire marshal left and Morelli gave me a soft look. "I have to go," he said. "There was another shooting on Stark Street and one of my informants might have been involved."

"Go," I said. "I'm fine. Really."

A little after four-thirty, Dillon Ruddick, our building super, appeared in the warming tent followed by several Red Cross workers. He looked grim.

"I'm afraid there's been considerable damage, especially to the second floor. No one is going to be able to move back in for at least a week, maybe longer. The Red Cross can assist with finding you alternative living arrangements for the time being."

All the tenants began speaking at once, some demanding to be let back in for medications or valuables, others listing everything they'd lost and demanded replaced. It was chaos. Dillon slunk away, leaving the Red Cross workers to sort out the mess.

Ranger picked up Rex's aquarium. "You're staying with me," he said decisively.

I shook my head. "I can stay with my parents."

"Fortecelli is still out there."

I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was get my parents' house burned down. I felt bad enough knowing it was partially my fault the rest of my building's residents were temporarily homeless. "It's probably safer staying with you," I agreed. Safer from lunatic fire bugs, at least.