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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

David

Maybe the Japan Festival wasn't the best idea. It featured food, vendors, games, and traditional Japanese activities including local performers, but there were too many damn people around and keeping my hands off Kassandra was proving harder by the minute. I had plenty of excuses to touch her back when guiding her through the crowd but no reason to keep my hand there permanently or to hold her hand. It was frustrating as hell.

I wanted to scream from the rooftops that she was mine. I wanted to tattoo it on my body but I understood her need to wait. We needed to bring Mikey and Nate around to the idea, not throw it at them so soon after their father died. Even if he was an asshole.

"I don't remember the festival being this busy in years past." Brittany was as sweet as Kassandra said she was. I had the pleasure of briefly meeting her when she would come to the house to hang out with Mikey but tonight was the first time I spent any quality time with her.

She was a mini version of Kassandra. No wonder Mikey adored her.

"Even though I'm from here,” I responded, “I can honestly say I've never been to this particular festival."

"No?" Brittany sounded shocked. "I swear my parents insist on visiting festivals like this in every town we've ever visited. I think I have the same obsession," she added sheepishly.

"I think it's cool." Mikey was quick to defend her.

"I agree. Unfortunately, my parents weren't nearly as cool as yours and I forgot all about these kinds of things after I left the Marines. I was busy starting my company and didn't have anyone to go with."

"Well, now you do." Kassandra hooked her arm through mine and that was how we walked for the next thirty minutes until my ringing phone forced me to pull away.

"Sorry, I need to take this." My teams knew I was taking the night “off.” I told them to only call if it was an emergency, so the fact that they were reaching out meant something happened.

"Jacob, what happened?"

Jacob was a member of one of my Boston teams, not Cobra since they were still in Pennsylvania helping Gage.

He was assigned to monitoring the house while we were out.

"The house is gone."

I stopped a few feet away from where our group was looking at one of the local vendors. I kept my eyes on Kassandra and hers were on mine, so I knew the moment she sensed something was up.

"What do you mean the house is gone? How could it be gone? It was standing just fine a couple of hours ago."

"One minute everything was fine, and the next, it exploded. I'm talking a huge -ball-of-fire kind of explosion. There's nothing left but the foundation."

My brain was having trouble comprehending what Jacob was saying. It made no sense.

Well, logistically it made sense. I knew better than anyone how to level a house. I just wasn't understanding how it happened to Kassandra's.

"When?"

"About ten minutes ago. I called 911 and waited for the fire department to show up before I called you. I wanted to make sure no one tried to get close."

"Did you see anything out of the ordinary before that?"

"Nope, and I've been here since you left," Jacob was quick to add.

"Okay, stay close until I give you further instructions. We'll probably go back to the house I have in that neighborhood, but I'll let you know for sure. I need to call John and see if anything popped on the cameras."

"Copy that."

Kassandra walked over with concern in her eyes. "Everything okay?"

"No, but I need to make one more call and then I'll explain."

She nodded but didn't move away. I hit John's number and waited for my technical analyst to pick up.

"Hey, David. I thought you were taking the night off?" John was one of the few people at Boston that didn't call me Black.

"I was. I need you to check the cameras for me."

I didn't have to tell him which cameras I was referring to. There was only one thing on my mind these days.

"Sure thing. What exactly am I looking for?"

"Anything suspicious. I would focus on today. Call Jacob and he’ll give you the details."

"You got it. I'll hit you back soon."

Something was definitely wrong with the system. I should've been alerted when the house blew up. At the very least I would've received a warning that some of the cameras were no longer connected.

"David, you're freaking me out. What happened? And what cameras are you talking about?"

I forgot that I never told her about the system I had installed. We discussed doing it but I never confirmed when it was done. So much was going on it slipped my mind.

"The cameras I had installed around your house." When it looked like she was about to argue, I rushed on. "They were only on the outside and it was just so I could see if anyone was coming or going while we were away. I needed to know if anyone besides my team was watching your house."

"Okay, so why would there be anything suspicious going on?"

I didn't know how else to tell her other than to rip the Band-Aid off. "Because your house blew up about fifteen minutes ago."

She looked like a fish out of water. Her lips were opening and closing but nothing was coming out. She was in shock. There was no other explanation for it and who could blame her? Her entire life just exploded.

Literally.

"I'm sorry. You're going to have to repeat that. Maybe a little slower this time because there's no way I heard you correctly."

I grabbed her arms and leaned down so that her sole focus was on me. "There's no easy way for me to say this. Your house is gone. Leveled. There's absolutely nothing left." There was probably a million other ways I could've given her the news, but I needed her to understand the severity of what was happening.

"We need to go. Now. I'm sorry. I know this was supposed to be a night out for everyone, but I need to make sure you're safe."

Kassandra nodded her head in agreement but she was back to being in shock. Once again her mouth was open but no words were coming out.

I grabbed the boys and Brittany, using the excuse that something came up and we needed to go. Thankfully no one questioned me until we were back in my SUV.

"What's going on?" Like usual, it was Mikey who took the lead. I was starting to notice that he easily fell into the “man of the house” role. Whether he was like that before his father died or because of the death was still a mystery.

When it was obvious Kassandra wasn't going to answer, I made the decision to be as honest as possible.

"I had one of the guys on my team watching the house tonight, like I've done every night since you got the note. That was who called before. Your house blew up a little bit ago."

"Blew up as in, it's on fire?"

"No, blew up as in, it's gone. There's nothing left."

The ride back was silent and the longest fifteen minutes of my life. I bounced between watching the road and checking on everyone else in the vehicle. Brittany looked equally concerned and held Mikey the entire time.

The block around where the house used to sit was cordoned off by police cars and fire trucks. We couldn't see the house, not that I expected to considering what Jacob said.

Heavy smoke filled the air as I pulled into the driveway of my house.

"Who lives here?" It was the first time Kassandra spoke since we left the festival.

"I do." I could see the confusion but now wasn't the time to explain. Not out here in the driveway where we were sitting ducks.

I opened the garage door and pulled the SUV inside. No one argued as I ushered them inside.

The place didn't look lived in because it wasn't. I rarely stayed here anymore. My life was in New Mexico these days. I had a cleaning crew come in weekly and I’d stopped in twice this past week to pick up clothes, but that was it.

I could tell the moment Kassandra recognized where she was.

"When did you buy this house?"

I wasn't ready to spill all my secrets, but unfortunately, I no longer had a choice. Whoever blew up her house took it away from me.

"Ten years ago." I scratched the back of my neck as I waited for her to put it together.

"It's you," she said in disbelief. "It's been you this whole time."

I nodded my head. This was the first property I purchased under an LLC that couldn't be traced back to my security company. Over the years, I’d bought dozens of places, including the house in Pennsylvania that Gage was using. And all of them were designed by her.

"How did you know?" she gasped.

I guess now was as good of a time as any to tell her everything. "I've always kept tabs on you. When I found out you were opening your own design company, I wanted to help. I wanted to be your first client, so I bought this place."

For the first time, I couldn't get a read on what she was thinking. Was she pissed, happy, confused? Did she want to kick my ass that I was closer than she realized this whole time? I didn't have the first clue what to think about her silence.

"It all makes so much sense now."

I looked around the house like it had the answer to what she meant. "What does?"

"Why you never gave input. Why I was given full rein to do what I wanted. Why I dealt with some random secretary and never the owner. Amanda and I came up with a million different scenarios of who the owner was, but never did I think it was you."

I wasn't sure if that was a compliment or not. I had a feeling it wasn't, but right now wasn't the time to go into it. I needed to get them settled so I could find out what happened.

"You already know the place, so make yourself comfortable. I'll have groceries delivered in the morning and I’ll send one of my men to get the necessities. We'll have to figure out a time to get your stuff replaced. I promise it will be sooner rather than later."

"I didn't even think about all the stuff we lost . . ."

Oh, shit. I could see where this was headed. Kassandra was one step away from a panic attack.