Until the Stars Fall (Just the Way You Are Book 1)

by Abigail Kade

  Connor saw how distressed I was becoming the longer we watched. He pulled me around, so my back was to the fire when he felt me start to shake. He gripped me tight to let me know he had me and whispered in my ear, “Shhh. It’ll be okay, babe. We’re okay and not hurt, thanks to you. Everything else can be replaced. As long as you’re okay, nothing else is important.”

  His words were like soothing aloe on a burn. The low calming rumble in my ear helped drown out the growing hiss and roar of the devouring flames. I tucked my head close to his chest and tuned out everything but the rise and fall of his chest against my forehead. I concentrated on matching my breathing to his and tried to drown out the shouts, sirens, and noise all around us. When the fire trucks arrived and even when they finally left, I was still held tightly by my Connor, the only place I felt safe tonight.

  Many hours and many tears later, it was all over. The fire inspector was going to have to do a full investigation, but she was sure the fire was arson. They found evidence of an accelerant outside my bedroom window and most of the damage was to the backside of the house. Connor and I had been checked over by the paramedics and cleared, but we were warned that if we developed trouble breathing in the next few days, we would need to head to the hospital. Connor held me through it all.

  The only good news was that the fire had really only damaged my bedroom, bathroom, and the guest room. They had managed to keep most of the water concentrated on the back of the house as well, so my library and living room hadn’t seen much, if any, damage. Small miracles. It might have seemed silly to be so worried about books, but I cried when I found out most of them would be fine with no damage. The night caught up with me at that point, and I clung to Connor, letting my fear and sorrow finally surface now that the threat was gone. As James talked to the fireman in charge, Connor picked me up and carried me to James's guest suite. I felt so cold all of a sudden and knew it was shock setting in. I wasn’t unfamiliar with the feeling. Connor lay us both down on the big poster bed, covered us both with the blanket at the end of the bed and held me close, sharing his warmth. “Try to sleep, babe, I’ve got you.” I didn’t know how long I lay there listening to the faint sounds of activity still going on around my wreck of a house, but eventually, I did finally manage to drift off.

  I woke up feeling dirty, sweaty and my eyes felt like they had actual rocks in them they were so gritty. Connor was just coming out of the shower when I woke up, hair wet and towel slung low on his hips. It said a lot about my mental state that I cataloged how he looked but didn’t really react to it. Must still be in shock.

  “Ladd, you didn’t sleep very long, why don’t you try to get a little more sleep? We still have a little while before the fire inspector gets here.” He ran his hand over my forehead and smoothed my hair back in a universal comforting gesture I loved instantly. I did want to sleep, I wanted to sleep for a month, but I very much wanted a shower first. I felt like the fire was still all around me because everything smelled like smoke.

  “I want to get up and get a shower, Conn. Is there anything I can change into?”

  Connor got up and handed me a bundle of clothes that had been sitting on the bench at the end of the bed. “Remy brought these by this morning. He said you had left them at his house last time you came over to help him with his design painting.”

  I looked down at the bundle of sweats I had indeed left at Remy’s a few weeks ago. Seeing that there was even a pair of my favorite underwear and socks in the bundle, too, I couldn’t help myself. The tears welled up, and the more I tried to hold them back, the more they built up until I was sobbing into the most wonderful clothes I had ever seen.

  “Laddy, don’t cry, everything will be okay. I promise. I’ll do everything in my power to make it okay.” Connor cradled me in his lap and held me while I cried and even when the tears had dried up, he still rocked me and told me everything would be okay. And I believed him.

  “I’m fine, Conn,” I sniffed and wiped my nose with my hand. God, I was a mess. “Thank you so much for being here for me. You don’t know how much it means to me.” I looked him in the eyes, and even though I must look a hot mess, he still looked at me like I was the best thing he’d ever seen—like I was worth all the trouble.

  “Okay, Laddy, you go get cleaned up, and I’ll go get you some breakfast. You should eat something and keep your strength up.” He set me on my feet and stood up to get dressed, and I went to the bathroom and got into the hottest shower I could stand. The water felt cathartic, and I felt it wash away all the soot and grime from my skin, but I let it wash away my anxiety, too. I was safe, Connor was safe, and Penny was safe, too. Everything else could be replaced. I needed to keep my perspective, and I’d make it through just fine.

  I stepped out of the shower to find Connor had indeed gotten us breakfast and coffee, thank you, God!

  “Conn, you’re a God among men.” He laughed his deep rumble as I snagged my coffee mug off of the table in the corner of the guest room. After the first sip, I felt everything in me snap into place. A good shower, a fantastic boyfriend and my first cup of coffee were all I needed at this moment. I finally smiled at Connor who was still chuckling, and saw him visibly relax when he took in my expression. Poor Connor had been worrying, but he was terrible at hiding his emotions.

  “I’m fine, Conn, I promise.” I walked over and ran a hand down his face to cup his chin. “I’m so glad you’re okay, and I’m okay, too. Everything else is just things.” Connor smiled and turned his head to kiss my palm quickly.

  “I’m glad we’re all okay, too. We need to go on outside, the inspector must be here by now, and I’d like to see what they have to say about everything.” We walked outside and found everyone on the back porch waiting for the fire inspector to find out what she had found and to share. She was a pretty middle-aged woman, tall with broad shoulders and vibrant green eyes that didn’t seem to miss much. I liked her right away, especially when she got right down to business.

  “Hello, everyone, I’m Miranda Newton with the Fire Department. I wanted to tell you how happy I am that you and your boyfriend were able to get out of the fire without injury. The good thing about this fire was that the accelerant used wasn’t exactly the most effective substance to use, so the fire spread much slower than if the arsonist had used something more effective like gasoline or paint thinner. Plus the fire was set near the brick wall, and that probably helped as well.”

  I couldn’t respond because even though I had known that was really the only explanation, thinking it and having it confirmed were two different things. Someone had actually tried to kill us, well they had tried to harm us at the very least. I had a good idea who, but couldn’t bring myself to ask. Connor stood next to me on the porch and put his arm around my shoulders to give me his strength and support. “So it was really arson?”

  “Yes, it was most definitely arson, and we’re sure we have a viable suspect.” The officer looked into her notebook and asked, “Mr. Eldridge or Mr. McDaniel, do either of you know someone with the initials P.R.?” I stiffened in Connor’s embrace and stood in silence. My suspicions were confirmed. Good God, would he have really done something like this?

  Connor answered because I was unable to speak. “Yes, we know someone named Parker Radcliff that has been harassing Ladd, and we were informed by someone last night that he’d talked about setting a fire. We should have reported it, but we didn’t know if it was a viable threat. If the fire had been any worse…” Connor squeezed me tight and couldn’t continue for a second. He looked down at me, “God, Ladd, if anything had happened to you, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “Well, I can tell you both that I have enough evidence against Mr. Radcliff to charge him with arson. I’ll have to talk to the District Attorney, but there may be enough to charge him with attempted murder. In addition to the lighter found at the scene with the initials engraved on the side, we found a wallet on your pier behind the house. We also found a fuel can with your famil
y’s name on it discarded near the site where the fire originated. We’ve taken all of those pieces of evidence in to be fingerprinted. We’re surmising that Mr. Radcliff drove a boat up to your pier to gain access to the property since Mr. Eldridge told me the gate is always locked at night. He used some diesel fuel from your storage room on the pier as an accelerant. We found the gas can with y’all’s name on it thrown behind the house near the place where the fire began. Y’all are lucky that diesel isn’t a great accelerant. It burns, but slowly. It gave you more time to get to safety.”

  “We think Mr. Radcliff, in the process of pulling in or leaving, also somehow dropped his wallet, including his ID, and an empty bottle of vodka on the pier along the way. His parents called the police this morning to report their twenty-two-foot bay boat stolen from their home a few miles down the coast. We have the Coast Guard on the lookout for him now, but he hasn’t shown up back home yet, and the boat hasn’t been spotted yet either. We don’t have everything nailed down yet, but just having his wallet is enough to bring him in for questioning. Any charges we’ll have to wait and see what the evidence tells us.”

  We were all quiet as we thought about the implications of the evidence found. Just as we were about to say goodbye, we heard a boat motor on the water, and all turned toward the bay. Checking my phone for the time, I saw that it was only six thirty in the morning and the water was calm as glass, except for a bay boat quickly making its way toward our pier. It was coming in way too fast and slammed into the pilings, banging hard against the side to bounce off and careen toward the shore, finally running aground. As we watched in shocked silence, none other than the man in question made his way off the boat, staggering and falling multiple times. He wove his way toward the pier and got down on all fours on the planks. I could only presume he had come back to look for his wallet. The inspector called it in and requested police assistance immediately as we noticed Aunt Helen’s car pulling up. She, Aunt Lillian, and Gwen hurried over to us, each enveloping me and then Connor into hugs, asking if we were really okay.

  We walked around to the bottom of the stairs so we could all watch what was happening at the water’s edge. Parker seemed to have collapsed at some point and now lay unmoving, spread out on his front with one hand hanging off the side, skimming the water below. It wasn’t long before the cops showed, followed closely by Remy and Rhett who joined us to watch the cops head down to the water to gather their suspect.

  I recognized one of the officers as a man I had gone to school with when he walked over, so I said, “Hey, Dalton, haven’t seen you in a while. How’s your mama?” Wasn’t it odd how ingrained manners became, that even in this epic clusterfuck of a situation, my automatic reaction was to make small talk? I would have laughed at the ridiculousness if I thought I wouldn’t dissolve into hysterics if I let myself go.

  Dalton smiled his bright smile and gave me a head nod, causing a piece of his dark hair to break free from his swept back style and fall onto his forehead. His amber eyes were kind when he shook my hand. “Hey there, Ladd, it’s been a while. Mama’s fine thanks for asking. I heard you had a bit of trouble last night. I’m real sorry about your house.” He made a cursory glance at all of the other people surrounding us saying his hellos and shaking hands. I noticed he didn’t shake hands with Remy though and Remy all but ignored him. His only acknowledgment of the officer was a slight chin lift as he thrust his hands in his pockets and told all assembled he was going to go make coffee, then ran up the steps and disappeared. I would think about that later, but at the moment, our attention turned to Dalton’s partner who was pulling and dragging a very combative Parker up the lawn toward us. His hands were cuffed in the front, and every once in a while he would gesture wildly and try to get away from the man holding him by the upper arm and forcing him toward the patrol car.

  As they approached the police car, Aunt Helen walked over to them and said a few quiet words to the officer. He shook his head and went to go around her, but she stepped in front of him again. He tried to say something, but then Parker looked down at her and began ranting, throwing his hands wildly as he yelled at the cop and Aunt Helen.

  “It’s all you freaks’ fault!” He swung around wildly nearly falling if not for the cop holding him steady. “Everything would have been fine if you hadn’t humiliated me, you fucking trailer park twink. Who the fuck did you think you were, turning me down and embarrassing me in front of the whole town? I was always too good for you. How dare you! Then you had to go out with that Neanderthal and make me the laughing stock of the entire county. My parents were livid when they heard what happened at the restaurant. They told me I was an embarrassment to the Radcliff name. They took away my trust and told me to never ask them for another thing. I was disowned because of you. My parents told me I deserved every bruise for not handling you properly and showing you where your proper place was. They called me weak for not showing you how we treat uppity low-class trash who forget their place.” He lunged at me with every vicious sentence he uttered. “So I decided to finally teach you a lesson you’d never forget. You burned my reputation to the ground, so you deserved to burn, too!”

  I was in complete shock at the accusations and horrible words that were spewing from this hateful asshole’s mouth. I had seen levels of depravity in my life I never thought I could forget, but I had never met someone as truly evil as Parker Radcliff. He was so wild now that the cop was having a hard time holding him still, even with Dalton stepping in to help. When he reached for Parker’s flailing arm to keep him from reaching for me again, they both lost their grip, and without that steadying force, Parker’s wild gesturing sent him careening into the side of the police car face first. We all heard the crunch as his nose hit the window. He fell to the ground wailing to the heavens while rolling around and holding his once again broken nose.

  Aunt Helen ran over to him presumably to help, “Oh, you poor dear, that had to hurt like a bitch.” But in her hurry to help she seemed to take a misstep and wound up kicking him in the balls as he flailed on the ground.

  “Oh no, sister, let me help.” Not to be left out, Aunt Lillian made her way over, but she was equally unsuccessful in her bid to help, accidentally kicking Parker in the stomach as he rolled onto his side to curl up and cup his bruised balls.

  “Good gracious, son, you’re the most unlucky person I’ve ever seen.” Aunt Helen observed.

  “Your aunts seem unusually uncoordinated this morning, Ladd,” Dalton said with a small smirk on his face. “I’ll be sure to state that they were just trying to help the suspect who was injured, but his flailing just caused himself more injury.” I couldn’t hold it in any longer, so I snorted out a laugh. Then I was laughing so hard I couldn’t stop. I laughed while they got Parker picked up and while they put him in the patrol car. Even when they were long gone, I couldn’t stop laughing, tears pouring down my cheeks. Then there was no more laughter, only tears and I finally gave in to the overwhelming emotions once again. Through it all, Connor held me tight and never let me go.

  Chapter Seventeen

  We had survived the fire. I had to keep reminding myself of that fact to keep my head straight in the days afterward, to keep myself from going down to the jail and killing Parker Radcliff with my bare hands. Ladd had been a wreck that first day, and I had been there for him as much as I could. He held me tight, never letting me out of his sight. And I held onto him as much for his comfort as my own piece of mind. After all of the action and craziness had settled down, the reality of how close we’d come to succumbing to the smoke and never waking up had hit me. So, I had clung to Ladd as tightly as I had on the day I kept him from falling. Yet again, I had the feeling that if I let him go, he’d be gone for good. It was an overwhelming feeling and a vivid realization of how strong my feelings had become.

  The next day, James had taken it upon himself to research just what the hell Parker had been up to before he finally went over the edge into insanity. He called the building inspector, Jeff,
and confronted him with the information we had gotten from Troy. Jeff had heard about the fire and Parker’s arrest, so he’d come clean with little persuasion. He was deeply sorry he had been any part of Parker’s plans. He swore he hadn’t known anything about a fire, just that Parker wanted to mess with Ladd and Connor a little bit and get a little of his own back after his humiliation at the restaurant. Jeff said he would have never done it if Parker hadn’t threatened him. Parker had found out Jeff was having an affair and warned him if he didn’t go along, he’d tell Jeff’s wife. James had called Dalton to give him the information he had and gave him Jeff’s contact information so he could get the evidence on record. With this information and evidence from the scene, let alone the statements Parker had made even after he’d been read his rights, it looked like Parker was going to be going away for quite a while. As far as I was concerned, it couldn’t be soon enough.

  The weather in the days after the fire had been clear, cool and beautiful, so the whole family had gathered to go through the carriage house and pull out everything that could be salvaged and move out everything in the library so renovations could begin as soon as possible. The books and furniture that survived were stored in one of the apartments at the Mason building.

  We had the local fire and smoke remediation guys come by to look at the damage, and the findings had been better than we thought. Since the accelerant Parker had used was slow burning, the fire damage and especially the smoke had been kept toward the back of the house. The smoke damage toward the front of the house had been minimal. The carriage house repairs would take a month or two depending on the weather. We were lucky, or as lucky as we could be in this type of situation.