Chapter 1The building was on fire. The smell of smoke and the loud cries of distant sirens woke Oliver. What didn’t wake him was any of the fire detectors throughout his apartment and outside in the hallway.
“Goddamned landlord.”
He jumped out of bed and, breaking every rule, took time to pull on jeans, slip a hoodie over his T-shirt, and shove his bare feet into a pair of sneakers. Or maybe it didn’t break any rules at all. Oliver had never been in a fire. He’d never been nearly naked outside in early January either.
On his way out the door, he grabbed his keys and the laptop bag he’d dropped on the entry table in his hurry to climb into bed the night before, and took the steep flight of stairs down to the first floor.
Whatever the hour, Oliver was fully awake by the time he was pound
