Starley was shocked when she saw Raul suddenly there, and what was even more surprising was that the man hugged her. Starley held her breath, not knowing how to react. Raul hugged her so tightly that Starley could feel his rock-hard eight-pack abs like stone, but at the same time, the embrace felt so comforting.
It seemed like Raul hugged Starley instinctively, without thinking, just following his instincts. When he realized what he had done, Raul immediately released his hold on her.
"Why did you come here? Are you crazy?" Starley asked, confused about how to react.
"That should be my question. What the hell was that letter you took that made you risk your life?" Raul asked angrily. But then he remembered that the floor below them was on fire.
"Answer that later; we need to get out of here now," Raul said. Starley nodded in agreement. As they were about to go downstairs, they saw that the fire had already climbed the stairs to the eighth floor. The fire had covered the emergency stairs, even more than when Raul had rushed through it earlier.
Now, Raul and Starley were indeed trapped. It was no longer possible to break through the fire and go down. The emergency stairs had become a sea of flames.
"We'd better go up," Starley shouted. Raul finally agreed. After that, Starley and Raul began climbing the emergency stairs to the upper floors.
"How many floors does this building have?" Raul asked while climbing the emergency stairs.
"Thirty floors, and there's a helipad on the rooftop," Starley replied.
"I need to call José to send a helicopter," Raul said, reaching for his phone.
"No need!" Starley responded. Starley's words made Raul stop taking out his phone. Raul furrowed his brow, confused, then asked, "Why not?"
"It's a long story," Starley said.
"And we still have time until the thirtieth floor," Raul exclaimed. Raul hoped the firefighters would extinguish the fire before it could burn the entire building. Now, they had reached the eleventh floor. Starley began to tell her story.
"Earlier, when I went down the emergency stairs with Lia, I saw a suspicious man." Raul listened to Starley's story without stopping his climb.
"When everyone was going down the stairs, he was going up against the flow. At first, I was going to ignore it, but by the time we reached the third floor, I couldn't stop thinking about that suspicious man. Then I remembered the mysterious letter was still in Lia's office. I decided to go back up because I was curious." Starley told all of this while gasping for breath. So, because of that damn man, Starley had gone back up.
"So you went back up because you were curious about the man?"
"Yes, his behavior was strange. Who goes up to the upper floors during a fire?" Starley asked. Then, there was a moment of silence for a few seconds after Starley said that. What Raul and Starley were doing now was going up to the upper floors. They may be the abnormal ones.
Starley cleared her throat and said, "Of course, I had a reason to go up again."
Raul had his reasons, too, but he agreed with Starley's judgment. The man seemed very suspicious.
"And did you take the mysterious letter?" Now, they were on the nineteenth floor.
"Yes, I did," Starley replied. Raul swore he would find and destroy whoever sent that letter.
"What was the man wearing?" Raul asked.
"A black jacket and a black hat," Starley replied. Raul couldn't remember passing a man in a black jacket and hat when he was going up earlier. This meant the man had gone up to the upper floors.
"I have a strong feeling that he's the one who caused this fire," Starley said confidently. And he must have gone up to the upper floors to escape. Starley told Raul not to call José for a helicopter because the man would find out.
Raul and Starley kept climbing the seemingly endless stairs. Now, they had reached the twenty-seventh floor. The fire was far below, but they kept going to the top floor. Both of them were exhausted. Starley's legs hurt so much from climbing, but she didn't complain.
Starley's appearance was a mess now. Her hair was sticky, her face was flushed, and she felt her body overheating from the heat in the building.
Starley glanced at Raul from the corner of her eye. Raul's body was drenched in sweat. But Starley's appearance was so different from Raul, who looked so damn hot right now.
"Careful, cupcake, watch your step if you don't want to trip," Raul said, holding back a chuckle. His gaze remained straight ahead.
Starley felt her face become even hotter, caught staring at the man. She quickly looked straight ahead again.
"By the way, why are you here?" Starley asked, trying to change the subject. But Starley had asked the wrong question. Why did she choose that one out of a thousand questions she could have asked? The answer was already apparent. Raul was silent for a moment after Starley asked that. Finally, when they reached the twenty-ninth floor, Raul spoke up.
"Isn't it obvious? Of course, it's for you," Raul replied. Reflexively, Starley turned to look at Raul.
Raul glanced at Starley, then said, "I'm your bodyguard, right?"
After hearing that last remark, Starley felt… disappointed. Wait, why did Starley feel disappointed?
"Of course," Starley replied, trying to sound indifferent.
.
.
.
On the rooftop of the Bellamy Corp building
A man stood on the helipad, lighting a cigarette while listening to the chaos below. Firefighters, car horns, and other noises could be heard. He glanced at the watch on his wrist. Suddenly, his phone rang, and he answered the call.
"Hello," the man said.
"Your ride will be here soon, Kade. Remember to signal with three short flashes of light."
"Got it, boss—three short flashes of light. I'm already waiting on the helipad," Kade repeated enthusiastically. There was a brief silence before his boss spoke again.
"You might have burned one floor, but don't get careless," his boss said firmly on the other end of the line. Without waiting for Kade's response, the call ended.
Kade put his phone back in his pocket and resumed smoking. His boss was too paranoid; Kade had ensured the fire reached the emergency stairs, too—he wasn't that foolish. Plus, it seemed unlikely anyone would be crazy enough to walk through the blazing fire on the stairs and make it up to the thirtieth floor.
A moment later, Kade heard the sound of a helicopter in the distance. He could already see the helicopter coming to pick him up. He had to give the signal with the light. But just as he was about to pull his phone from his pocket, he suddenly felt something hard pressed against the back of his head. Kade held his breath.
"Don't move if you don't want your head shot off," Raul said in a dangerously calm tone from behind Kade. Raul had already pressed the barrel of his gun to the back of Kade's head.
Kade cursed. Damn it, there is a crazy person who's willing to go through the fire.
Then he heard another voice. A woman's voice. "So, are you the one who burned my family's building?" Starley asked.
Kade glanced over and saw the woman who had been the hot topic on the news standing beside him. Starley smiled sweetly, yet terrifyingly, with a gun in her hand. She then stood next to the man.
"You've picked a fight with the wrong person. Want to know something? I'm truly insane," Starley shouted, then pressed the gun to Kade's temple.
Kade was cornered. His gun was in the back pocket of his pants. And if he moved, there were two guns pointed at him, both of which could go off at any moment. So all he could do now was...
"Mommy!" Kade screamed as loudly as he could, using every bit of oxygen in his lungs. He had no choice but to surrender.
…