Page 23

TWENTY-THREE

J ulio pushed the outer layers of the onion off the cutting board and got to work chopping the middle. It would take some prep work, but he needed to get this Mexican chicken soup in the Instant Pot in time. If he did, the firefighters working overtime could come into the firehouse and find a flavorful meal waiting for them. After all those hours doing cleanup, and coordinating with other agencies, they would be more than ready for a meal by the time they returned.

He glanced over at Samantha, who sat on one side of the long dining table in the firehouse kitchen. Poring over files Captain Tennet had dropped off earlier that day. The original arson case against Richard Sylvana.

But all Julio could think about was the fire at the school just now—or more accurately, the lack of fire. As far as he could tell, the incident had been caused by a few smoke bombs strategically placed by the HVAC intakes so that the ashy-colored smoke filtered through the whole building.

Anyone would have believed it was on fire, especially with the heating turned up so high.

Warm air had been pumping through the air vents for hours before the first alarm sounded. Kids trapped inside, unable to get out through doors that had been secured shut. It would take days to figure out precisely what had happened. By then, he hoped they’d have found the identity of the arsonist and arrested him. But all he could do right now was pray, make soup, and let Samantha see what she could find in those files.

Julio stirred onion and peppers in the skillet, browning them so he could put them in the soup.

Samantha made a noise low in her throat, and he glanced over. “Find something?”

“Unfortunately, nothing about locking doors so people can’t get out. That seems to be something this arsonist likes to do but not the original. Maybe he has different resources, or he likes feeling like he outsmarted us. It’s probably so the victims suffer maximum panic when they realize they can get out.” She shuddered. “But get this. With the first two fires set by Richard Sylvana, one was a residence, and a woman died like recently in the other. Later, the original arsonist set fire to a warehouse, with no one inside…unlike our fire where the lawyer perished.”

“So he’s following the same pattern? That was our theory. Until the manifesto.”

Samantha tipped her head to the side. “Not entirely the same pattern, but it’s close enough Tennet wanted to announce he’d figured out it was a copycat. But the original arsonist did set a fire at a prom, trapping a bunch of kids in the gym of their school.”

“Not exactly like what happened today,” Julio said. “But he’s re-creating it close enough that we might be able to figure out where he will hit next.”

“Could just be that school isn’t in this week.” She glanced over. “He doesn’t want to wait for prom season.”

Julio wondered if she was remembering their prom.

She continued, “According to this, with one of his next fires he tried to burn down a firehouse.”

Julio looked around. Okay, so not thinking about their prom.

There was no one else here but them, making the firehouse quiet in a way it rarely was. After hours, the civilian staff, who worked regular office shifts, headed out for the day. The firefighters who worked around the clock were all on a callout, including the EMTs who bunked in the building next door.

He flipped off the burner, which sputtered for a second and then went out. Then dumped the onion and peppers in the Instant Pot and pulled the package of chicken out, slicing it while he thought about the case. A firehouse?

If the arsonist was going to choose one, no doubt it would be Julio’s.

Once the chicken was in the Instant Pot, he washed up. “I’ll do a walkthrough when I’m done here, see if I can find any evidence something is going to happen.”

Samantha flipped over a page.

Julio took a file from beside her, but when he stared at it, all he saw was a blur of text. His mind didn’t want to let go of what the arsonist could possibly have achieved by trapping those kids in a building. It wasn’t like there had actually been a fire. More like someone had wanted it to look like there was.

Maybe a kid causing trouble? Not their arsonist at all.

Someone trying to get back at them, the way Walter Barnes had with Samantha. She’d told him all about that on their drive from the scene back to the firehouse. Her whole case with the guy and his wife, now missing. The second he had suggested they make dinner for the rest the crew, she jumped at the chance to leave and get to safety.

Regroup.

He couldn’t help but think she had been nervous about being out in the open. As far as he was concerned, keeping her safe was his number one job right now. She didn’t need to be worried.

Walter Barnes was on the street, though, and clearly had it in for Samantha. Julio wasn’t sure he was entirely convinced by Mitchell and his story about him and Terri being in danger because of the baby.

Not that he thought the man was lying, but that it was far too easy to label the arsonist religious nut job. All that rambling? It spoke more of pathology.

Had Mitchell been lying? He could be working with the guy and later tried to back out or crossed him somehow so the person—some kind of partner—retaliated.

No one became something horrible in a vacuum. People just didn’t live that disconnected from others these days. So if this guy was a true believer and an arsonist, then someone along the line had to have noticed there was something wrong with him.

Or that was simply wishful thinking.

If Julio’s theory was true, there would be someone to blame for the arsonist’s actions.

Maybe it was better to put all the responsibility on the man who committed the crimes—after they identified him, and he was brought to justice.

Samantha leaned over, her vanilla scent teasing his senses. “Is there anything in that file about doors being secured shut and trapping people inside?”

Julio hadn’t even started reading it. He glanced at her, giving himself a moment to simply absorb the fact she was close to him. He had her back in his life when she hadn’t been for two years. They had a fresh start, a second chance to begin new and hopefully do things better this time. Like get it right and make this thing between them last the rest of their lives.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” she asked.

“Because I missed you.” Julio leaned close and kissed her, expressing all the longing from the last two years in the way his lips moved over hers. Kind of like how she had, in the truck.

All her frustration and fear poured into a kiss.

Now, he was giving her the depth of how he felt. The way they connected in such a simple way, but with so much profound meaning. All the spark and chemistry whipped up at first like a frenzy, like the heat of the blaze. And then when it settled, they were left with the comfort of warmth. The kind of connection that would last the rest of their lives.

When he leaned back, she smiled slightly, her cheeks pink. “I missed you, as well.”

“I’m glad we got that straight between us.”

“Me, too, because we’re supposed be working right now.”

He flashed back to high school when they should have been studying for algebra. Instead, they had spent half an hour making out, using up all their time before he had to go home. So many times, they’d been distracted by each other enough they never got any work done. He wondered why he’d tried to study with her around at all.

“Why are you smiling?” she said.

He felt his lips widen in an all-out grin. “Just remembering algebra.”

She rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. “This isn’t high school.”

“I’d say that’s a shame, but I’m not sure those were the best years of our lives.”

She laughed. “I’ve never agreed with that. I much prefer being responsible for my own life and not having to ask for money every time I need some.”

“Right.” He leaned back in his chair, turned slightly toward her. “There’s something I should probably tell you.”

She looked at him, a frown crinkling her brow. “What do you need to tell me?”

“Remember after…” He wasn’t sure he was going to say that out loud. “We knew what we did could result in you being pregnant.”

And it had.

He didn’t want her to get swallowed up in grief again, so he said, “Remember how I brought you the listing for that house? I had just been promoted to lieutenant, and the pay raise was enough to swing the mortgage.”

“We were both saving just in case. Figuring we would need a down payment for something at some point—together. And the money to pay for a wedding.”

He nodded, not quite sure how to explain it without just being straightforward. “You seemed like you loved that house so much.”

“Of course, I did. We did that tour, remember? It was gorgeous. Why are you talking about the house?”

“I bought it,” Julio said. “I was going to tell you, but the explosion happened. I’d put down the earnest money a couple of days before. Then you were in hospital, and we didn’t seem to be able to have a conversation without yelling at each other, so I just let it go.”

“You didn’t.” She shook her head. “I pushed you away. I told you never to come back.”

“Maybe I thought at some point you would. That we would be us again.”

“So you went through with it?”

Julio winced. “I kind of waited too long and then couldn’t back out of it. But I didn’t really want to, so it isn’t as if I actually tried. I wanted to give you what you wanted when you came back.” As crazy as it was, maybe he’d been waiting for her this whole time.

“You live there?”

“Two years now.” He nodded. “I’ve repainted every room, made some upgrades in my spare time. I put a deck on the back. Remember when we said that?”

It had taken some time to start fixing it up. All the grief over the baby and their breakup had soured him on the house at first. But after a while with nothing to do on his time off but sit around an empty house, he’d realized that he could channel his frustration and energy into making the house his. Even if it would never be…theirs.

“I can’t believe you live in that house.” Samantha blinked, an astonished look on her face.

“You should come and see it, maybe later. Or the first chance we get. I think you’ll like what I did with it.”

She sniffed back the tears rolling down her face.

Julio reached into the basket in the center of the table and snagged a napkin. “It’s okay to be sad. We lost a lot, but we also found something that’s worth holding onto.”

“Now that we have it back, I don’t want to lose it again.” She dabbed her eyes with the napkin he handed to her. “But it’s hard when I can’t help thinking that every time I have something good, I never get to keep it. What’s the point in enjoying it right now and trying to soak up the moments when I know there’s no hope that it will be forever?”

She really thought that?

Samantha cleared her throat. “Aside from my sister, I’ve never had anything good that lasted. And even that was soured by my parents forcing me to always be the one to take care of her while she did whatever she wanted.”

Bristol had been wild, and every time she got in trouble for pushing boundaries, Samantha had been blamed for the fallout. As if she was responsible for everything her sister did.

Julio touched her shoulder, trying to impart some comfort. “Maybe we should make a promise right here and now. You stick with me, and I stick with you. No matter what.”

She studied him, biting the edge of her lip. “I want to, but it’s still scary.”

“Scarier than the idea of being without each other the rest of our lives?” The last two years were already bad enough. He gave her a second, then said, “What do you say?”

“I stick with you, and you stick with me?”

Julio nodded.

“Okay, you’ve got a deal.”

“You’re promising?”

“I promise,” Samantha said.

He leaned in, intending to seal the pact with another kiss.

Before he got that far, thunder rumbled through the building. A wall of flames rushed at them, flinging them out of their seats against the wall.

Samantha cried out.

Julio collided with something. He felt a wrenching pain in his shoulder, and everything washed in the wave of heat.

Fire.