Standing on my tippy toes, I peered over Cage's shoulder. "On a scale of one to ten, how useful would a fire extinguisher be right now?"

"Negative five." was his blunt reply. Cage stared at the flickering flames. They were making their way to the ceiling, the blazing wavy effect making my head spin. The sharp stench of burning things made my nose burn. Half of the room had already burned and the fire was reaching its hot fingers right towards us. Cage pulled the door closed.

"Well, fuck." He said. He stared at me for a couple seconds. I stared back, trying to soothe the panic in my chest. I hated fire. I hated it with an absolute passion. I might even hate it more than Romeo. Fire killed my parents. Fern hated fire just as much as I did. We were the female equivalents to Frankenstein when it came to burning, except with the whole, you know...mismatched body parts.

Grrr, fire bad...and whatever.

It took me a moment to realize that Cage was so silent because, for the first time in forever (nice Frozen reference, November), he had no idea what to do. Seeing Cage as the brilliant mastermind behind every plan, the only man in the world who could charm snakes (sorry, snake charmers), did create some irrational expectations of him. I had to remember that Cage was just as human as I was.

''Seriously, there is a fire extinguisher right there." I pointed to the glass shelf holding one by the door.

"That's not gonna help, November."

"You haven't even tried it." I argued uselessly.

"I don't need to to know it's not going to work. The fire's spread too much." Cage growled. As if on cue, a crashing noise came from inside the room. The hospital floors were already breaking. Somewhere in the distance, the wail of fire trucks resonated throughout the night. With the roar of helicopters and the shouts of people from outside along with the crackling of the fire, I could barely think.

I grabbed Cage's shoulder and pulled him down to my height. "There is gunpowder upstairs!"

Cage gently pried my fingers off his shoulder and wrapped his own around them. "Yes, I understand that."

"Really? Because I kinda get the feeling you don't."

"No, I do." He said quietly. "Which is exactly why we need to go back on to the roof."

"What for?"

"Let's go." He didn't bother supplying me with an answer, which I suppose was most often the case. I was more than willing to let Cage drag me along. We went back the way we came, checking each corner for any signs of Romeo's men. I think they had all gone back to the roof. For the life of me, I could only cling on to the barest hope of fighting skill that Nick and Heath were alive. I couldn't care less about anyone else. I already lost Micheal. I couldn't lose anyone else.

"Where's Fern?" I asked as we made our way up the staircase.

"Heath took her to Polly Heights. Diana is with her. Don't worry, I sent some of my men to look after them. Polly Heights is a safehouse, like the one in Delia's. It's underground and on the shores Columbia River." Cage replied. "We're going there as soon as I can get you out of here."

"What about Nick and Heath?" I had to huff and puff and take four strides to every two of his just to keep up. "What happens to them? I mean...they're up there. What if they're already dead?"

"Tough luck."

"Cage!"

"November, my concern is not with them at the moment." Cage suddenly stopped at the top of the landing, turning around to face me. I was on the second to last step, which only added to his height. His fingers touched my chin gently. "In about five minutes, this whole building is going up in flames. Unless you want the same fate as your parents, we need to go."

I stiffened at his words even though he was right. "I understand that, Cage. But don't save me in sacrifice for others. That's not what I want."

His eyes hardened. "Then what do you want?"

"I want Romeo dead."

"And you will get that." Cage said. "Just not now."

We began walking again. I climbed up the last step and paced alongside him. "Hey, you wanna hear a joke?"

"No."

I ignored his answer and went along with it anyways. "What kind of crackers do firefighters like in their soup?

"For fuck's sake!" Cage growled. He sounded tired. I always knew my psychopathic acting was going to make him regret kidnapping me. Accidentally, of course. Cage stopped walking and sighed deeply, knowing I wasn't going to give up. "Fine. What do they like?"

I ran around in front of Cage and gave him a big grin. "Firecrackers!"

"We're about to die and you're standing here making jokes about fire?" He glared at me, not at all amused. However, I was. Annoying Cage kept my mind off our inevitable death. The fire was crawling up the higher floors, closer and closer to the first barrel of gunpowder which was on the fifth floor. I was about to have a full blown panic attack. I could feel my breaths getting more laboured by each ticking second. If stalling with dumb jokes I found on burner sites helped shove the hysterics down, so be it.

"Yup."

Cage stepped closer, his eyes dark. Void of any emotions, wiped clean of any remote human feeling. Over and over again, I tried to figure Cage Vickers out, and over and over again I failed. I simply could not fathom his psychology. It was driving me insane. I would never know what Cage was thinking unless he verbally voiced them. It irked me to no end.

My doubts were still here. Still lingering, a quiet voice in the back of my head where subconscious lived that kept on saying that Cage was just putting up an act. That maybe he was only going to such great lengths to insure my safety because I had a bigger part to play in his story. Perhaps Cage didn't care for me at all...just for what I could do. Of what use I could be to him. What was I, exactly, to Cage Vickers? Insurance? A girl? An actual human being...or the complete opposite of that?

I looked at Cage. And I mean I really looked at him. Not just with his pretty physical features but as a person. He was cold, cruel, and empty...and yet I fell for him. Despite every screaming voice in my head, every protest, ever sliver of common sense saying no...I fell for Cage Vickers. Oh boy, did I fall. Right into the chasm of dangerous love that gave him the power to destroy me.

He was irresistible.

"I'll ruin you, November. But I'd be damned-" Cage said softly. His fingers wrapped around the back of my neck, pulling me in close until I couldn't breathe. A strand of dark hair fell across his forehead. I pushed it back in place with one finger, and then that finger slowly made its way to his lips. I remember what happened last time I did that. I still had the bite mark to prove it. "-if I didn't do this one last time."

I stood on my tiptoes to reach his lips. Before I could kiss Cage, his hand slipped to my stomach and pushed me back.

"No." The word was concise, clear coming from his reddened lips. A soft growl, a warning that I took notice of when I had ignored so many others. Cage pulled me closer even though he was the one to push me back. He didn't let go but he wasn't going to let me stay. I couldn't understand it. "You don't run the show here anymore. I'll kiss you when you deserve it."

"When I deserve it." A statement, not a question. The words tasted bitter in my mouth. Pulling myself out of Cage's hands, I stepped back. Of course, he didn't like that one bit. It was never fun when the prey got away, was it? Maybe that's what Cage thought of me as. A prey, and he was the big bad predator.

Cage stepped forward, his lips pressed together. Oh, that temper of his. How I loved flirting with it. The consequences were never good, but that's what made it better. Each retreat I took, he equalized.

"Do you realize-" Each word was like a whip. Cage kept his voice controlled, never wavering, never cracking. He always sounded so sure of himself, it would intimidate even the cruellest of men. "-how badly you fucked everything up? I was going to kill Romeo myself and dump his body on your damn doorstep. But that wasn't enough for you, was it November? You had to do it yourself. Why is that, huh?"

Cage made a move to grab me and I swiftly moved out of the way. We were making our way to the rooftop. I could see nowhere else to go that didn't require going past him, so I continued stumbling backwards and he just kept on walking towards me. "Why do you always manage to land yourself in such trouble? Why do you trust me? What makes you think I wouldn't just kill you in the end?" He said softly. His teeth bared at me in a grin. "What makes you think I'm a good person, princess?"

Wasn't that the question I had been asking myself since the day we met?

My back bumped into a door. I searched wildly for the doorknob. When my fingers found it, I pushed open the door and stumbled back. Wind sent strands of hair into my face. We were outside.

Not just outside, though.

We were back on the roof.

And boy, was it a sight to behold. Taking up most of the large rooftop surface were domino chips. They were small and white with black dots, lining up one after the other in an intricate display. There were too many for me to make out what the dominoes spelled out from where I stood. Cage had a similar look of shock on his face.

Other than that, the roof was empty. Every trace of fighting had been gone. No bodies laid around. There was no evidence that anything had happened except the empty bullet shells and blood splatters on cement, dotting in between the dominoes. The hospital building was as empty as an empty room. Some of the dominoes had bloody fingerprints upon them.

Silence. How satisfying it was to hear nothing when you know you're going to die.

Cage's fists were clenched. He glanced at me when he thought I was looking at the dominoes but I could see the tight look on his face out of my peripheral vision. Suddenly, his fingers wrapped around my broken wrist. Upon instinct, I gasped and tried to pull out of his grip but he wouldn't let me. "Don't touch the dominoes." He growled.

"I wasn't going to!" I snapped, still struggling pathetically to remove his fingers off my wrist. Peals of pain emanated from the snapped bone, making my arm feel as though it was burning, just like the hospital building. "But why?"

"It's a trap. They'll touch the trigger point-" Cage pointed to an almost invisible string that glinted near the ledge. "-and set off something. Romeo wouldn't do this without leaving us a little gift in the end. He wants to kill us off quicker. A bit presumptuous in my opinion, but that's just who he is. It's an obstacle course."

"That's one hell of an obstacle course." I commented unnecessarily.

"Come on." Cage began dragging me towards where the domino chips lay. I didn't protest, knowing we didn't have that much time before the hospital lit up like a christmas tree. At first, I had no idea why Cage was pulling me towards the ledge. As we stepped carefully over the dominoes, making sure every movement was calculated as to not set the trigger point off, his grip on me didn't loosen.

"Wait, what are we doing?" I questioned, a bite of dread clenching my stomach as Cage carefully stepped over the string. I followed suite, uncomfortable. The dominoes were now behind us, but the wind whipping around was enough to make me panic. We were at the ledge of the roof.

"Not we." Cage said softly. "You."

I glanced down. Fifty stories down, on the grassy patch of the hospital garden, was a glory of activity. Bright, flashing police cruisers and cars took up most of the space. People were in a panic below. Stretchers laid around. The white top of an EMT truck looked back at me. Firetrucks with flashing lights and wailing sirens were making their way up the roads. It was a flurry of panic. I could see the flames licking their way up the second floor.

Suddenly, something cold and metal touched the back of my neck.

Shocked, I tried to turn around. Before I knew what was happening, Cage gripped my arm and in a flash, had me standing on the foot wide cement ledge. Without thinking, I gasped and tried to scramble back down, but Cage was in the way. He had a death hold on my elbow and the barrel of his gun pressed against my back.

"What? What are you doing?" I freaked, as any normal person would have done when a billionaire criminal forces them up on the ledge of the rooftop of a burning hospital building filled with gunpowder while pointing a gun at you.

I mean, I always knew Cage was going to kill me. I just never expected it to be something like this. I thought that, when I was gonna go, it would be because Cage and I were making crafts and he tried to hand me scissors but accidentally on purpose stabs me when I reached for it. Because let's be real for a second, scissors were the second most dangerous objects on the planet. The first one was Cage Vickers.

His eyes were as dark as the empty Chicago night sky. Cage didn't loosen his grip and he didn't allow me to get back down. As I stood panicking on the ledge, the tip of his gun pressed harder in a warning.

I looked at Cage, searching desperately for an explanation in his icy green eyes. My heart pounded faster than I could count. Not that I would be counting my heartbeats in a time like this. I held onto his wrist without thinking. It was the only other rational action besides climbing back down. Below, the fire crept closer to the fifth floor. We were running out of time, and he decides to kill me right here right now? Of all the places and times, dammit.

I couldn't cry even if I wanted to. Cage licked his lips, not bothering to supply me an explanation. His hair moved gently with the wind. So did the dominoes behind us. I remembered perfectly how good his lips felt against mine. How his wandering hands teased. And now those same hands would kill me. I suppose the ending was fitting for my story. After all, Cage Vickers was a murderer.

His skin was as cold as his heart was. He looked so beautiful in the moonlight. But deadly. Oh, so deadly. I gripped his hand holding the gun up to my abdomen with a desperate resilience. "Please." The whispered words cracked as they left my mouth. "Cage, what are you doing? Let me go, please! I'm not- why am I up here? Is this-"

Cage said something. He said it so softly that I didn't hear it the first time. When he saw that I didn't catch what he said, Cage raised his voice. This time, I heard the word perfectly.

"Jump."