Page 58 of Romancing the Rumrunner
“Are you okay?”
Jessie nodded. Her arm was singed and cut from the glass, and she was bruised and battered, but she didn’t think it was too bad.
Flames were everywhere, smoke filling the shop and flowing beneath the door into the back room. Tony grabbed Jessie and pulled her with him as he ran. They burst out of the back door and gunshots rang out. Tony yanked Jessie down into a squat and shoved her back through the door. Tires squealed as the car peeled off down the street. Tony slammed it shut and ran his hands over her.
“Are you hit? Are you okay?”
Jessie shook her head. “I don’t know. I think I’m fine.” She coughed. The smoke was growing so thick she couldn’t see the ceiling anymore. Fire licked at the door, closing them off from the front of the shop.
“We’re trapped,” Tony said, pulling her into his arms. His eyes searched around the room. She could feel his heart pounding against her back.
“No, we aren’t.” She lunged away from him.
“Jessie!”
“Follow me!” She crawled to the trapdoor and levered it up.
Tony followed her without further questions. Jessie ran down the steps into the blessed coolness of the cellar. Tony pulled the door shut behind him and they were sealed in the darkness.
“Jessie?”
“I’m here,” she called. She reached for him, her fingers closing on his outstretched hand as he slowly made his way down the stairs.
“We can’t go to your storeroom. The stone might prevent the fire from spreading down here, but just in case, a room full of liquor really wouldn’t be the best place to wait.”
“No kidding.”
“Then where are we going?”
Jessie didn’t answer, just pulled him along the path she knew so well. She didn’t need a light to tell her where she was. When they reached the end of the tunnel, she ran her fingers along the wall until she found the latch that would open the door into her office. Once inside, she felt her way to her desk and yanked open the bottom drawer where she always kept a spare flashlight.
She flicked it on and held it up high enough that she could see Tony’s face, being careful not to shine it right in his eyes. He stared at her, his face expressionless. “Where the hell are we?”
“The Red Phoenix.”
He quickly glanced around the office, then back at her. She couldn’t read his expression and was glad of it. She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what was going on behind those deep, dark eyes of his.
She turned her back on him and yanked open another desk drawer. She tossed everything out of it, then reached in the back to unlatch the secret drawer beneath the false bottom. Tony watched in silence. She ignored him, but her heart ached at the thought of what he might be thinking of her.
Once she accessed the secret compartment, she grabbed a small stack of cash and the little revolver she’d purchased when she’d opened the speakeasy. She’d wanted to be able to defend herself if the need ever arose. No time like the present, that was for sure.
She risked another glance at Tony.
He arched an eyebrow. “We need to talk.”
Jessie snorted. Understatement of the year.
Tony grabbed her uninjured arm and took the gun from her hand. “Give that to me.”
She glared at him and opened her mouth to argue but he stopped her. “You can’t go out there armed. If the Feds catch you and you’ve got a gun on you…”
Jessie seethed, but knew he had a point.
“Besides, I’m probably a better shot than you. If Willie is still out there, we need every bullet to count.”
“Fine. Let’s go,” she said, leading the way into the main club. The rooms were built of thick stone, so she was relatively sure they were safe from the fire above, but she didn’t want to test her theory. And she didn’t want to be trapped in the chambers if Willie’s men decided to come looking for them.
Tony followed her through the pitch-dark tunnel, the beam of her flashlight flickering eerily off the walls and furniture. Keeping the club in complete darkness when it wasn’t open was one of her safety precautions. If anyone ever managed to get inside, she didn’t want to leave the lights on to show them the way. The hope was that any intruders would just get lost in the other passages without ever stumbling into The Red Phoenix.
