by Bryn Donovan
“Andi, you’re a contractor.”
“This would be like a different kind of contractor,” she explained.
“No, come on. You’re a good contractor. You know how rare that is?”
She rolled her eyes. “This other thing I can do? I think it’s rarer.”
His eyes flared with anger. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Obviously my opinion counts for nothing here.”
“That’s not true!” she protested.
“Okay, exactly how does it count, then?”
“All right, maybe it doesn’t,” she admitted. “But I mean, come on…you can’t get that hurt about it. I’m not listening to my family either on this. Why do think you get a say?”
“Because I’m with you—”
“In fact, why do you even care so much?” Bitterness welled up in her as rose to her feet. Here she’d thought she had finally found someone who understood. “You think I’m a freak for doing this? Is that it?”
“No!” he snapped. “Jesus, Andi, I could never think that. I love you! I’m saying this because I’m worried about you. Because I love you!”
All of Andi’s outrage evaporated, leaving her with only amazement.
A trace of worry crossed David’s face. He said in a low tone, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—” at the same time Andi said, “Really?”
He didn’t finish his sentence.
“David, I love you too.” She raised a hand in a gesture of confusion. “I didn’t know you felt the same way.”
He gazed up at her, unguarded. “You don’t have to say it just because I said it.”
“I’m not! Honestly, I kind of figured you already knew.” She gave a half-laugh as she sat down next to him. “I’m not exactly a closed book.”
He shook his head. “I knew you liked…being with me. But no. I really didn’t know.”
“Ah, David.” She reached over and took his hand. “You’re practically all I think about.”
He raised her hand and kissed it in that artless way she loved. “Yeah,” he said. “Same here.”
Andi just sat for a moment, quiet and happy. “This is, like, a really bad time to not be able to have sex,” she ventured.
“What, in the lobby?”
She laughed. “You know what I mean.”
“Yeah, I do. And you’re right. As soon as we get this homicidal demon architect or whatever the hell it is off our back…” he trailed off.
“It’s new to me, but I’m going to do my best to help get rid of it,” she said. He stayed silent. “Look, this is what I was meant to do. I’m going to get better at it, and I’m going to help people.”
David briefly put his head into his hands. When he looked up again he said, “All right. If that’s what you want, then that’s what you want. I know you can do things. It’s a talent I don’t even understand.” Above his sincere green eyes, his forehead furrowed. “I just worry about you.”
“I know.” She felt touched by his concern but immensely relieved that he wasn’t fighting her on this anymore. “Thanks for not thinking I’m a freak.”
“Yeah, well. Likewise,” he said.
“So can we call Morty back?”
“I guess.” He sighed. “I don’t know. I liked your first idea best.”
“What?”
“Burning the damn place down. I’d do it if I could figure out how to make it look like an accident.”
Andi nodded, glum.
Then suddenly it came to her. A simple, sneaky, beautiful solution.
“What?” he asked.
“I know how to do it.”
“How to burn the house down?”
“Yes.” She wanted to bounce on the lobby sofa like a little kid. “They’ll never figure out we did it on purpose. I know exactly what to do.”
* * *
“Hey, Morty. Yeah, it’s me,” David said on the phone. He and Andi had finally escaped from the reception to his condo.
Andi sat on the sofa, blissfully comfortable after getting out of her bridesmaid dress. The other week, David had suggested that she keep some things over at his place, a few clothes, some toiletries. At the end of the late night, it was so nice to go home with him and have everything she needed there. It made her feel loved.
And she was loved. She basked in the afterglow of his declaration.
The last time she’d stayed over she’d gone to bed in a tank top and panties, but this time she wore her flannel pajamas. They had a hard enough time keeping their hands off each other.
“Listen, Morty. Sorry I hung up on you,” David said. “And I really am sorry about your friend.” He paced the big open room as he talked. He had taken off his jacket, tie and shirt but still wore his sleeveless undershirt, tucked into dress pants belted a little low on his hips. He looked out the window at the twinkling skyline, his back to her. God, he was beautiful.
She thought about all of the little moments that evening that had made her think about her future with David…oh, why not admit it? Had made her think about marriage. Maybe that was a long way off, but still…
He loved her. It was possible. It could be amazing.
If they destroyed the house.
And if destroying it really did mean that David wouldn’t have moments of scaring the crap out of her.
Really, what was she thinking? This was a guy who sometimes thought about hurting her. She couldn’t even consider a lasting commitment until she knew for sure that he wouldn’t be a threat.
It wasn’t him, though. It was the mansion. She felt sure of it.
On the phone, David explained their burning-down-the-house plan to Morty. “Apparently the varnish Andi uses is incredibly flammable. And she’s got a tool…what is it?” he turned to her to ask.
“Heat gun,” she called over. “The cord has a short. If you leave it plugged in it’ll start sparking like crazy.”
“Did you hear that?” David asked. “It would be a very plausible accidental fire. I was just looking around online, and there was a house that went up like a match earlier this year, right in Chicago. Same deal. Even the fumes from the varnish are flammable.”
David listened to the psychic then acknowledged, “Well, yeah, it’s dangerous.” Another pause. “I don’t care about the money. So what do you think, Morty? You want to come over and help us?”
Another pause. Andi and David had both just assumed that Morty would help them with this venture, although now that she considered it, Andi supposed it went a little beyond even Morty’s wide-ranging, self-styled job description.
David talked with him quite a while longer, asking Morty questions. She couldn’t figure out what they were discussing. When he got off the phone with the psychic he told Andi, “Well, Morty’s not going to help.”
Her shoulders drooped. “Why? He helped us with illegal stuff before.” She was aware of the outrageousness of her own complaint.
“This is little too illegal. Apparently Morty already has one arson conviction.”
Andi gaped. “What?”
“Yeah. I guess it was pretty serious, since the owner didn’t want his place burned down. He did a year at the Cook County Jail.”
“Holy crap,” Andi said.
David looked ill. “It’s a tough place.”
Andi recalled that David had once been a public prosecutor. He would know. “God, poor Morty!”
Panic seized her. What if her plan got them arrested, after all? Would David wind up in the same place?
No, she couldn’t think about that. It would work. It had to.
She took a deep breath, then let it out. “Was Morty getting rid of a demon?”
“Something similar. Something pretty bad, anyway. He didn’t think he had a choice.” David sat down on the couch, his brow furrowed. “You remember how he wouldn’t go to the hospital? I get the feeling Morty’s been in a lot of trouble.”
Andi contemplated the prospect of doing this job by themselves. “Did he say anything about whether that demon
will attack us?”
“Yeah, he brought that up,” David said dryly. “He thinks it probably won’t be a direct confrontation, like last time, because we won’t be calling him out. At least, that’s been his experience. He thinks until the fire actually ignites, the thing might not even be aware.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Andi said. “I mean, he didn’t hurt Mr. Willingham until the chainsaw actually touched the tree.”
“Right. Anyway…he just told me to be careful. Of course.” He looked down at his cell phone, fiddling with it. “He’s going to email me some kind of…prayer in Latin or something that I should say before we go in there.”
“Oh. That’s good. You should do it.”
David set the phone down and took her hand in both of hers. “You know what? I think I ought to do this by myself.”
“It’s a two-person job,” she said. “We’re going to have to move fast to get that varnish spread over all those rooms in the first floor.”
“I can handle it. This never should have been your problem. I can’t let you get hurt.” He grimaced. “Hurt any more than you already have been.”
“I won’t,” she said. “We’ll do it right.” When David didn’t respond, she said, “You can’t do it without me, anyway. I won’t give you my heat gun.”
He gave her a look of despair.
“Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll help you with the varnish, and then I’ll get out of the house before you plug in the tool. That way I won’t even be in danger of the fire.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Okay.”
“As long as you promise to run like hell as soon as you plug it in.”
“You got it.” He shifted on the sofa. “But if that asshole architect shows up, I’m getting you out of there right away.”
“Fair enough. As long as I do this with you.”
“I still don’t see why you want to,” he grumbled.
“It’s your problem, so it’s my problem too,” Andi said. “That’s how it works.” Defiance flared in her. “This demon’s messed with you for too long. Let’s get him.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
David sat on the big rocking chair on the porch while Andi perched across from him on the railing, looking comfortable in a white tee and shorts in the warm twilight. She plucked another strawberry out of the green plastic basket next to her and took a taste. “Mmm. Seriously, these are so good. Sure you don’t want one?”
He shook his head, just enjoying the sight of her enjoying them.
She finished it, tossed the stem behind her into the front yard and picked out another berry. “Come on,” she said, getting off the railing and coming to stand next to him. “Just one bite.”
Leaning forward in the rocking chair, he said, “Okay, just one.” He lifted her tee shirt and nipped at her warm, lovely belly.
She squealed, jumping back and pulling her shirt back down. “You’re bad,” she teased him. “You’re a very bad man.”
He set his hands on her hips and hoisted her easily to sit on his lap, her mostly bare legs straddling him.
“It’s not fair that you’re so strong.” She laughed, but that husky undertone had already crept into her voice, that tone he loved, a clear indication of her willingness.
The breeze picked up, blowing a few stray strands of her golden-brown hair across her face, and he smoothed them back again. He kissed her and tasted the strawberries on her lips, the best way he ever could have experienced them.
“I hope nobody’s watching us,” she murmured, looking over her shoulder. “Oh my gosh. Look at all those fireflies.”
Across the darkening yard, they blinked and sparkled, thicker than he had ever seen them before, a vision of enchantment.
Fireflies. Strawberries. Andi in shorts. But it wasn’t summer. None of this was right.
And what the hell were they doing, hanging out at the house after dark?
“We shouldn’t be here,” he told Andi.
She gave him a look of tender exasperation. “It’s not that house. Look.”
He craned his neck around to see that the house was painted white, not gray. It had wider windows and a fat, round turret. He had never seen this place before in his life.
“This isn’t real,” he said.
“That’s why we don’t have to worry.”
He should worry, though he couldn’t remember why. Something about dreams…defenses…
But it felt very real. And his body ached for her. He pulled her closer to him. The rocking chair pitched backward, eliciting another squeak from her and bringing her right up against him, her soft breasts against his chest, her thighs hugging his hips.
“Careful,” she breathed. “You’re dangerous.”
He stripped off her tee, removed her bra. Even in the failing light, he could see her nipples had tightened into hard peaks, begging for his mouth, and he obliged.
She arched her back, offering him the glorious expanse of her torso, and he trailed hungry kisses down it. “Oh God,” she said, squirming a little at the onslaught, but he held on firmly to her hips and luscious derrière.
As his mouth traveled lower, her hands rushed to undo her shorts and pull them down as far as they would go in her position. A growl of pleasure rumbled in the back of his throat as he discovered she wore nothing under the shorts. His erection rose harder against her as he caught the feminine scent of her arousal.
Easily, he pulled her up so she stood on the seat of the chair.
“Be careful,” she said. “Don’t drop me.”
Although his feet were planted to keep the chair from moving, and he still had hold of her, he could imagine how unsteady she might feel in that position.
“Shh, I’ve got you,” he murmured, and leaned forward to taste her creamy wetness.
She whimpered.
He felt her hands grip his shoulders, her cries escalating as he pleasured her. His name sounded desperate on her lips. He brought her to trembling, helpless satisfaction.
Her shaking legs gave way under her and she kneeled on the seat of the chair over him, resting her cheek momentarily against his chest.
By then he could no longer deny his own need, denied for so long already. He undid his own jeans, skimming them down. She stroked his length with a gentle hand before he took hold of her and lowered her onto him.
He shouldn’t be doing this. Something bad would happen. But he couldn’t do anything but fall into perfect, ardent rhythm with Andi—
A loud thunderclap made them jump.
It startled David right out of the dream. He lay in his bed, rock hard, blinking up at the ceiling.
An hour later, he sat at the granite kitchen table sipping a Coke. Ordinarily when he woke up in the middle of the night, he preferred a Scotch, in hopes it would help him back to sleep. He didn’t want to go back to sleep. For once, he’d had a dream he wanted to remember.
The last one with Andi had been so horrible. But in this one, nothing had gone wrong. It had been perfect.
Okay, it was a little weird to imagine himself in a rocking chair, but other than that…
Was the demon that had plagued him gone from his psyche? It seemed like it. Maybe his concentration, his fighting it, had shaken the terrible spirit off for good.
He feared nothing about tomorrow night now. They would burn down the house, and he would be free. Possibly he was free already.
* * *
When they drove up to the mansion, the sky loomed deep purple behind the bare branches of the trees. David pulled the car around to the back. The black car would be impossible to see all the way from the street at night, Andi thought. He turned off the engine.
They both stared up at the house, a giant darker silhouette against the darkness, like a place where the night had ripped open and you could fall through to somewhere infinitely worse.
The house didn’t belong. Andi couldn’t wait to light it up.
“This is going to be my first felony,” she mused.
&nbs
p; David gave her a sideways look. “Probably your last, right?”
“Hopefully. Your first, too, right?”
“I told you about that biker bar. The charges were dropped.”
Her lips twisted. “You seem like you’re in a good mood.”
“I guess I am,” he agreed. “You okay?”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she said. “But yeah, I’m good. I’m awesome. Let’s go.”
He smiled at her enthusiasm and they got out of the car. They opened the trunk and took out flashlights along with cans of varnish, brushes, rags and the faulty heat gun. Andi thought about how many times she’d used these things to help restore a house. Now she would use them to destroy one. And she had never felt more excited about a job.
But fear mingled with her excitement as they stalked down the walkway toward the back entrance. “I’ll get the back parlor and the dining room,” she said. “You get the front parlor and the staircase and meet me back there.”
Of course, they had already discussed this before. Andi felt that above all, they needed to soak the back parlor with varnish. Because it lacked the needed support beam, the ceiling should collapse quickly. With any luck, sagging joist in the dining room wouldn’t hold long either.
If they even partially destroyed the place, the city would probably condemn and raze it. But they hoped to burn it to the ground.
They stood outside the back door now, just on the threshold.
“Hey, we forgot something,” David whispered.
“What?”
“Marshmallows.”
Andi giggled, but this reminded her. “Did you bring that prayer Morty sent you? You should say it before we go in.”
“I forgot it.”
“Oh no! Are you sure? Do you think we should go back and get it?”
“No. It’ll take half the night.”
“You’re right,” Andi agreed. Adrenaline circulated through her system, and she couldn’t stand the idea of postponing this a couple of hours. “Let’s just do it.”
They opened the door and walked into the silent room. No specters greeted her, and no light bulbs flew at their heads.
“I’ll go do the stairwell,” he said.
“Just go as fast as you can and pour out the varnish as evenly as possible.”
