Out in the hotel parking lot, Derrick shoved his way through the crowd of transfixed onlookers and headed straight for the armed officers maintaining the perimeter a good distance away from the hotel. The SWAT team was doing d**k all, standing around the command van. A continuous stream of guests flowed out of the hotel’s ground floor exits, people in their sleepwear doubled over coughing, their clothes, and skin tarnished with smoke and soot.
No sign of Sparkle or Josh, and neither of them had responded to the last two texts Derrick had sent. Ignoring the gestures and shouts for him to stay back, Derrick strode right up to the armed guards to find out what the hell was going on. “I’m with a Secret Service Agency, and, my team leader’s inside,” he told the pissed off corporal.
“No one go
