by Jill Shalvis
He was listening to his heart, which had kicked back to life and was screaming, demanding that he pull Kenzie close and tell her he loved her, too. That he was sorry it’d taken him so long, but like Cristina, he’d been afraid, was in fact still afraid but would no longer run from how he felt.
He’d never again run from her.
But that would have to wait. He looked at Blake, who was thinner than ever. And he walked with a cane. “I know, it’s crazy,” his old friend said, his voice low and urgent. “You thought I was dead and I’m not. I…faked my own death.”
“I’m getting that.”
“When I found out who the real arsonist was, I realized no one was safe.” Blake’s face was twisted in tortured misery. “He killed Tracy right after he blew up my boat.”
“I know. I know all of it. I even know who we’re talking about. I just don’t know why.”
“Oh, I can tell you why,” said the man who came through the roof door to stand in front of them. The chief nodded in Aidan’s direction. “If you really want to know.”
Shit. Aidan pulled out his cell, hit Tommy’s number and put the phone to his ear.
“Nearly there,” Tommy said tensely.
“Hurry. Bring backup.”
“Oh, it’ll be too late,” the chief said conversationally.
“Uncle Allan?” Kenzie breathed, staring at the chief. She looked at Aidan. “He’s the fire chief? I thought…” She turned back to her uncle. “I thought you were in Chicago.”
“I was. I came back here a year ago. A shame we lost touch or you’d have known.”
“We lost touch—” Kenzie took a step toward him, or tried to, but Blake grabbed her hand and held her back “—because you didn’t want us.”
“Now, now. That’s not entirely true. I just didn’t want to be responsible for raising kids. I never wanted kids.”
“But it’s okay to be responsible for killing people?”
“One person,” he corrected. “Not people. And that was an accident.”
“You killed Tracy and that was no accident,” Blake ground out. “You murdered her.”
“Ah, now, see murder implies intent, and I don’t have intent. I have an addiction.” He smiled sadly. “It means I can’t help it.”
Kenzie again tried to charge him, but this time it was Aidan who held her back, not trusting that asshole with her.
“If I was an alcoholic,” the chief asked, “would you still be looking at me like that? If I had a drug problem? No, you’d be trying to get me help.”
“I tried to get you help,” Blake told him. “When I figured out you had started that second fire all those months ago, you begged me to understand. You lied and said it was your first time, and that you’d stop, that you’d get help. Instead a child died and when I tried to turn you in you threatened me.”
The chief slowly shook his head. “Tommy was getting close. You wouldn’t leave me alone. I had to do something. I had to keep you quiet.”
Blake gave Aidan an agonized look, as though pleading for forgiveness. “By then he had implicated me. He’d changed the schedules, he’d planted evidence. He discredited me so that even if I did tell, I’d be the first one they’d lock up. And once I was in jail, he threatened to hurt Kenzie.
“Then Zach started asking questions and the chief tried to kill him by burning down his house. I had followed him, Zach saw me, and I didn’t know what to do. I panicked and faked my death. If I was gone, he had no reason to harm Kenzie.”
“And I didn’t.”
“You killed Tracy!”
“But not Kenzie,” the chief said calmly. “Look, Tracy was going to put together a list of people who’d purchased those metal trash cans. I would have been on that list.”
“You didn’t have to kill her,” Blake shouted.
“He had to set more fires,” Aidan said grimly.
“That’s true.” The chief nodded emphatically. “I can’t help myself. I tried like hell. I couldn’t stop, but at least I went for old and dilapidated properties, or overly insured buildings.” He paused. “Like this one.”
Aidan stared at him. “What?”
“Sheila is getting ready to renovate,” the chief said.
“She has to,” Aidan said. “The building has structural problems.”
“Yes, and now she’s over insured to protect it. It’s a situation that cries out to an arsonist. It needs to burn.”
“Ohmigod,” Kenzie breathed, looking horrified. “You’re a very sick man.”
“Agreed.” Her uncle smiled without any mirth. He clapped his hands together. “Well, it’s been nice clearing all this up but I’ve got to end this now.”
“You’re not walking away,” Aidan said. “Not from this. You have to pay for your crimes.”
“I’m not paying for anything. You didn’t get hurt. None of you died.”
“Are you kidding?” Aidan asked incredulously. “Blake nearly died trying to stop you. You nearly killed Kenzie on Blake’s Girl, and then again when you blew up her car.”
“Nearly won’t hold up in a court of law. I was just trying to scare her out of town, anyway. The car was supposed to blow an hour earlier, but a fuse failed me. And the boat was an accident. I was just trying to get rid of Blake’s laptop. I didn’t know she was there that night.”
“There’s something else you don’t know,” Aidan told him. “Blake e-mailed Kenzie backup files.”
The chief’s mouth tightened. “I’m not going down for this, for any of it. I’m the chief.”
“Not for long you’re not,” Blake said. “You’re going to be stripped of that title and put in jail.”
“Not happening,” the Chief declared. “I won’t go to jail—I’ve made sure of it. I’ve risked my life to save people for almost thirty years. I won’t be remembered as an arsonist.”
Aidan’s gut clenched. There was only one reason the chief would come out in the open like this and confess his crimes. And that was if he didn’t intend for them to live to tell the tale. “Whatever you’ve planned, no.”
“You’re too late.” The chief looked first to Kenzie, then to Blake. “I’m sorry. Truly sorry.”
“What did you do?” Blake demanded. “Oh, Christ, you didn’t—” Without finishing that thought, he whirled and limped to the roof door, yelling as he took the stairs, “Evacuate! Everyone out—”
Which was all he got out before a thundering explosion hit. The entire building shook, throwing Aidan and Kenzie to the ground.
17
AT THE EXPLOSION, the world seemed to stop, or at least go into slow motion. Kenzie managed to lift her head just as Aidan rolled toward her, his face a mask of concern. Her uncle, ten feet away, wasn’t moving at all. Pushing to her knees, she stared at the doorway where her brother had just disappeared. “Blake!” she screamed.
He didn’t reappear, no one did, nothing except a plume of smoke that struck terror in her heart. “Ohmigod. Aidan—”
“Are you okay?” He was on his knees before her, running his hands down her sides, pushing her hair from her face, looking her over, his expression calm, only his eyes showing his fear. “Are you okay?” he demanded again hoarsely.
Shaken, but all in one piece, she nodded and pointed to the doorway. “Blake—”
His eyes and mouth were grim. “I know. He’s down with the others. We’ll get to him.” He glanced at the chief.
“Is he—”
Aidan checked for a pulse. “Just out cold.” He pulled her to her feet, yanking his cell phone out of his pocket. From far below, they could hear screams and yelling over the whooping sound of smoke and car alarms going off.
All of it brought Kenzie back to the night on Blake’s Girl, back to that irrational terror. Then they’d been able to jump into the water. Now there was nothing down there except concrete.
Three floors down.
“Call 9-1-1,” Aidan said to her, shoving the phone into her hands as he ran past the very still chief to th
e edge of the building and looked over the side. “Dammit, I can’t see if people are getting out of here.”
The café hadn’t been full to capacity, but there had been at least twenty people inside when they’d entered, and then there was Sheila and her staff.
And Blake. God, Blake. Could she really have found him only to lose him again, for real this time? “Aidan—”
“Listen to me. There’s no way off of here except for the stairwell. No outside fire escape or ladder.”
They both looked at the dark doorway, emitting smoke now. “Ohmigod.” She felt frozen. Logically she knew she had to go down to get to Blake, not to mention to safety. But there was nothing logical about the fear blocking her windpipe. She’d thought Blake had died in a fire. She’d nearly died in the boat fire. Instead of seeing the roof’s doorway, she kept flashing back to Blake’s Girl, the black night and blacker water. She could feel the heat from that fire prickling her skin even as she could feel the iciness of the water closing around her body—
“Kenzie.”
She blinked Aidan into view. He had his hands on her arms and he was frowning into her face.
“I can’t go in there,” she said, unable to catch her breath. “I just can’t.”
“Okay.” They both looked at the chief, who still wasn’t moving. Again Aidan went to the edge of the roof and looked over. Whatever he saw made his jaw go tight and his eyes, grim. Then he backed Kenzie to a corner and gently pushed her down until she was sitting there, her back to the wall, facing the opened door to the only exit. “I’m going—”
“No.” She gripped his arms, digging her fingers into the muscles there.
“Kenzie—”
“No!” Icy, terrifying fear overcame her as she stared at the smoke now pouring out through the opened door. “There’s a fire down there!”
He didn’t say it, he didn’t have to.
“I already hear sirens. They’re coming to put out the fire. It’s going to be okay. But I have to go help. This roof won’t be safe to be on for long.”
“I know.”
With his eyes reflecting the torment he felt at leaving her, he pried her fingers from his arms.
“Come right back,” she ordered.
“Okay.”
“And stay safe, you hear me?”
“I will.”
“And Blake. Bring me Blake.”
“I promise.” He held her gaze for one beat, letting her see into his heart and soul. He never made promises, never, and yet he did now, to her, which meant more than anything he’d ever done. Pretending to be brave, she nodded and then sagged back, covering her face with her hands so she couldn’t see the smoke pouring out of the doorway as he vanished into it.
Dammit, she really needed a new script. Aidan was probably worrying about her instead of completely focusing on the fire—and that was dangerous. She forced her eyes open, glued her gaze to the black doorway. He had saved her life on Blake’s boat, and that had been amazing, but she could have saved herself. She knew how to swim.
And she could save herself this time.
All she had to do was get past her fear. Any second now…
The sirens were louder now, and that reached her somehow. Tommy was probably nearly here, too. She got to her feet, wiped the sweat from her eyes and headed to her uncle. He’d hit his head on the A/C vent. Turning her back on him, she headed toward the door. “You’re a coward,” she told herself. “You’re fine, you’re fine…” She kept up the mantra as she entered the dark doorway. Unable to breathe through the smoke, she pulled her shirt up over her mouth and took another step.
And then it happened. The floor beneath her rumbled, the walls shimmied and shook, and she froze as a second explosion hit, flinging her against a wall. Then the power flickered and went off, leaving her in complete darkness.
Oh, God.
Sitting up, she felt for the railing and pushed herself upright. She was okay. Relatively speaking, anyway.
Just as she began heading down again, the stairs beneath her began rumbling, but not with yet another explosion. This time it was pounding footsteps as someone ran up the stairs, and then reached out toward her. “Kenzie?”
“Blake? Ohmigod, Blake, you’re okay—”
“Where is he? The chief?” he demanded.
“On the roof.”
“Stay here,” he commanded. “Stay right here!” And then he rushed up and out.
Like hell. She was going to be proactive this time, dammit. She was rewriting this script her way. And when it was over, she was going to write scripts all damn day long to her heart’s content. And eat donuts. Yeah, lots of donuts. Heart pounding, she stumbled after her brother. Bursting back out on the roof, she was horrified to see that part of it had begun to cave in, with flames flickering out from underneath. And standing far too close to that area was Blake, facing off with the chief.
“No,” she cried, just as Aidan came out the doorway behind her, looking as if he’d been in a car wreck, all torn and bloody, calling her name hoarsely.
“You’re hurt,” she cried, rushing to his side.
“The explosion kicked me down the stairs.” He hugged her tight, not taking his eyes off the chief and Blake. “I’m okay.”
It was like a bad movie, playing in slow motion as the chief leaped for the edge of the roof, and Blake leaped for him the best he could, wrestling him to the ground.
Flames shot up through the floor at all of them and Kenzie screamed, trying to get close to her brother, but Aidan had a hold of her, even though he was the one with torn clothing and blood seeping from his various injuries, all covered in soot.
On the ground now, Blake rolled with the chief, the two of them still throwing punches.
“Stay back,” Aidan told her, holding onto her. “The flames—”
They were licking at them from all angles now, but suddenly, from below, they were hit with water. Streams of it, coming up from the street.
The fire trucks had arrived, and none too soon as the flames forced Kenzie and Aidan back from yet another cave-in.
“Hold still, you son of a bitch,” Blake growled out to the chief, who was trying to crawl free and get to the edge of the roof.
Aidan tried to move around the flames to help Blake with the chief, but suddenly he wavered, then sank to his knees.
“Aidan!”
“Yeah. Think maybe I hit my head before.” He blinked at her face as she dropped to her knees in front of him. “There’s three of you.”
“Oh, God.” She touched the gash along his temple, which was bleeding freely. “Hold still!”
“Not a problem.”
A ladder and bucket came into view over the roofline, lifted by a crane from below. It held two firefighters, who took one look at Blake and staggered to a shocked halt.
“Later,” Blake yelled at them. “I’ll explain later! Aidan’s down and we need Tommy and some cuffs. Tell me someone has some cuffs!”
IT ACTUALLY WASN’T THAT EASY, nothing ever was, Kenzie thought. Hours later, they were all sitting around Aidan’s hospital bed, where he was being held overnight, thanks to a concussion.
The chief had been taken to jail, which was such a huge town scandal that Tommy had left to prepare for a press conference. Sheila was sitting in a chair, her wrist in a sling. It was her only injury, but the café was a complete loss. Dustin was next to her, his arm around her shoulders. Cristina was there, too, holding a bucket full of money from emergency personnel on the scene who’d already poured some of their support into it for Sheila.
“I could go to Hawaii with all that.” Tears were thick in Sheila’s voice.
“Or you could rebuild,” Aidan said from flat on his back.
At the sound of his voice, Kenzie’s heart squeezed. He’d been so damn quiet, and she’d been so damn worried.
On the other side of Aidan’s bed, Blake stirred. “The chief’s in custody,” he told Aidan. “And he’s not going to get off easy.”
&n
bsp; Aidan’s gaze tracked to Kenzie. “I don’t want to get off easy, either.” He reached for her hand. “Not tonight, or any night.”
She gripped his fingers tightly and pressed them to her aching heart. He was talking, but not making any sense. She hadn’t taken a full breath since they’d taken him for X-rays and she didn’t take one now. “I’ll go get your nurse—”
“No.” His grip was like iron. “I’m not crazy.”
“I know—”
“Listen to me. You pulled it off, you broke my damn heart. We’re even.”
Oh, God, and now he was delirious. “Aidan—”
“Maybe we should give them a moment,” Dustin said, guiding Sheila out of the room. Cristina followed.
Blake did not leave. “What’s going on?”
“I love you back, Kenzie.” Aidan managed a smile, although it was crooked. “But I think you already knew that.”
“No.” She shook her head, finding herself both laughing and crying. “I didn’t. I hoped…”
Blake was staring at the two of them, mouth grim. “Wait. Love?”
Aidan, who still hadn’t stopped looking into Kenzie’s eyes, nodded. “Definitely love.”
And just like that, Kenzie took a full breath. God, it felt good to breathe. Breathe and live and love.
“Okay, somebody talk to me,” Blake said.
“Well you’ve been dead, or I’d have told you before now,” Kenzie reminded him. “I’ve been busy trying to make Aidan pay for breaking my heart all those years ago.”
At this, Blake blinked, then sent a glacial stare at Aidan. “You broke my sister’s heart?”
Aidan winced. “Yeah, but if it helps, I was an idiot.”
“He really was,” Kenzie agreed.
“And trust me, she got me back,” Aidan said. “Her evil plan worked. I fell hard. I love her, Blake.” He broke eye contact with Kenzie and looked right at Blake, his smile gone, eyes dead serious. “I love her with everything I’ve got.”
Blake looked as if a good wind could knock him over. “You put your heart out there? You?”
Bringing his and Kenzie’s still joined hands to his chest, Aidan nodded. “Yeah.”
