Saved By A Stranger by Andi Madden Read Free Book Online

bed in the process. She’d thought
perhaps a knot had come loose.
    But he’d used brute force.
    She took clean jeans and a shirt from the
dresser, slipped into them. Her gaze hit the book next to the
keyboard, the one she’d taken out from the library.
    “ Rome in Ashes,” she
read.
    Her life, she thought, was in ashes too.
    A ripple went through her and she pulled her
head up. She grabbed the keys from the desk, opened the small door
leading downstairs and headed toward the basement.
    * * * * *
    Where else would she run except home?
    Ben climbed up the building’s wall and
stepped inside her bedroom, taking a deep breath, feeling oddly at
home in her bedroom.
    His gaze fell on the pile of clothes on the
floor, the black notebook peeking out from beneath it. Liz was
nowhere to be seen, but the quiet seemed treacherous.
    She was here somewhere, he was sure of it.
Taking the book into his hands, he was tempted, for half a second,
to leave again.
    Then he placed the book on the desk and
began searching for his girl. The soft snick of a door
reached his ears and he followed the sound. On the balls of his
feet, he snuck down the stairs, her scent leading the way.
    When he found her in a small storage room,
smelling of sugar and cocoa and…gasoline, he tensed, suddenly sick
to his stomach.
    “ Liz, no,” he said quietly,
fearing to startle her, but also fearing if he didn’t speak up,
she’d throw the torch made of what looked like a wooden chair leg
with linen wrapped around it. The torch flickered in the darkness,
throwing shadows against the walls.
    Her shoulders hunched as if someone had
slapped her hard.
    “ This is none of your
business , ” she said, and he was surprised how much insult
she could pack into the word. “Leave.”
    He made a silent step toward her that
nevertheless had her swiveling around so fast her hair whipped
around her face. He neither liked the strange glimmer in her eyes,
nor the way her mouth twisted.
    “ Leave,” she said again,
raising her hand so he had trouble seeing her features through the
flames.
    He shook his head. “I don’t know why you do
this, but I won’t let you. Whatever it is, I’ll fix it.”
    She laughed, a sound that made him ball his
hands when he heard the sadness that lingered in her tone. He
wanted to wrap her into his arms and kiss her until she felt
better. But he realized that her situation might just be too
complicated to be solved by offering a calming kiss on the
forehead.
    She’d lowered her hand again and he found
himself staring into her dark gaze. She looked haunted and hurt,
and he wanted so much to help her so she could be carefree and
happy.
    But he definitely couldn’t let her torch
down the neighborhood, she’d be never able to forgive herself.
    “ Liz, we both know you
don’t want to do this.” Why did she want to do it? Was she trying
to cash in on her insurance policy? Was she broke? He lifted his
hands in a calming gesture and stepped toward her.
    “ Honey,” he said, “let me
help—”
    Fuck, he thought, as he saw her squinting at
him with outrage. He shouldn’t have called her “honey”.
    She flicked the torch over her shoulder.
     
    The heat hit her face like a blazing punch.
The torch had fallen to the ground in the farthest corner of the
small storage room and flames licked at the wooden shelves that
rose from the ground up all the way to the ceiling.
    Frozen, she stared as the flames spread to
the finely woven linen bags emblazed with her shop’s logo. Hundreds
of them lined the shelves, still in their cardboard boxes. she’d
planned to give those bags away to her loyal customers. Now the
flames started licking at them with gentle tongues.
    Her throat went tight and she coughed. The
smoke curling in the air made it harder to breathe. She should get
the fuck out of the house, but somehow her legs wouldn’t move.
    Ben had run off.
    She lifted her shirt away from her skin,
sweat beading down her back. And still, she