Up in Flames (Carlisle Fire)

Chapter 18

JERROD REMAINED quiet, not wanting to ask too many questions in front of Peter. Instead, they watched some cartoons for a while until Peter raced upstairs. “How do you think Gizelle is involved? How can she be?”

“I don’t know. Except maybe she, Gary, and the construction company all had the same goal, or at least pieces of it.” Chase grew quiet. “Let’s talk this out. The construction company wanted everyone associated with AR out of the way. They contact someone local, maybe Gary, who likes to build devices and probably has firebug tendencies, to make things difficult. Maybe he sets a few fires, and maybe he meets Gizelle, who he finds out just happens to have a grudge against one of the people he wants to put pressure on. So maybe Gizelle gave him information or even money. You being homeless works into her plan to try to get Peter back.”

“Okay. I can see that, even if it is a stretch.”

“But maybe it isn’t. Gary needs to get on the construction site to set the fire. Maybe Gizelle helps him there too,” Chase offered. “All it would take is some distraction of security. The device gets planted, and up go the supplies. That only puts more pressure on you, which makes Gizelle happy.”

“So the more pressure that gets put on me, the more Gizelle shows up and adds her own level of hell.” It was starting to make sense, even if it was conjecture. “We know it’s likely that Gary and Gizelle knew each other.”

Chase nodded. “And Gizelle is just crazy enough and desperate enough to think that she could use your hardship to her advantage.”

“But how do we prove any of this? It seems farfetched to me, though I know that Gizelle is crazy.”

“I guess it all hinges on finding Gary and being able to place him at the fires.”

Jerrod nodded. “We should tell the police. They should be able to look into things and put the pieces together?”

“I would think so. But maybe we can check in with Red tomorrow, let him know what we have so he has all the information. Then maybe he can find Gary and have more ammunition to use against Gizelle. She may be crazy, but she isn’t insane, just incredibly selfish and off her rocker.”

Peter’s footsteps on the stairs were their cue to change the subject. “Can I eat my lollipop now?” he asked.

“Maybe some of it,” Jerrod agreed. “But you can’t have it all. It will give you a tummy ache, and that much sugar will have you up all night.” Which was the last thing he needed. “I could break a piece off for you.” Peter waited as Jerrod got him a piece, and then he went off to eat it. “Don’t make a sticky mess everywhere.”

“Okay, Daddy,” Peter called, and Jerrod could just imagine cleaning sticky fingerprints off of everything. Still, Peter was happy, and judging by the way Chase was looking at him, Chase was happy too. Come to think of it, Jerrod was probably more content than he had a right to be.

“What do you want to do this evening?” Jerrod asked just as Chase’s phone rang. He answered it, already hurrying toward the door. “A fire?”

“Yeah. I’ve got to go.” Chase kissed him quickly, lingering a moment with a “damn,” and then he was gone.

“Where’d Mr. Chase go?”

“He had to hurry to work,” Jerrod said, hoping he would be okay as he hugged Peter. Chase had quickly become a very important part of his life, and now he couldn’t help worrying that something would happen to him. The one bright spot over these past few weeks, other than that Peter was safe, had been Chase coming into his life. Jerrod took a deep breath, telling himself he was not going to worry. This was Chase’s job, and he was damned good at it. Jerrod needed to remember that Chase could look after himself just like he looked after them. Still, he couldn’t help worrying after all the goings-on over the past few weeks.

Jerrod got out his computer and checked for local news stories about a fire in town, but there was nothing. That didn’t mean there wasn’t a fire, just that it hadn’t been written about yet. Still, he refused to sit here and worry all evening long. In the end, Jerrod ended up cleaning the kitchen and living room to keep himself busy and then tumbled into bed before midnight, exhausted.

JERROD WOKE alone and sighed. He had hoped that Chase might have joined him, but then he realized that he had never given him a key. Even if Chase had wanted to join him, he wouldn’t have been able to do it without waking the entire house, and Chase would never do that. He was too thoughtful. Blinking himself fully awake, Jerrod grabbed his phone, where he found a message from Chase saying that he was okay and that he had gone home to sleep.

“Daddy,” Peter said from the doorway before taking a running leap onto the bed.

“Morning, buddy,” Jerrod said with a smile.

“Are you staying home like yesterday?” He had that cute, hopeful smile.

“I have to go to work, so you’re going to the Y.” He’d made sure that their procedures for picking up kids were tightened severely. At first he hadn’t wanted Peter to go back, but they assured him that only he would be able to pick up Peter and no one else.

Peter nodded and bounced on the bed. “Can I go to the movies again?”

“No. But we can go to the movies together sometime soon. How would you like that?” He got out of bed and carried Peter toward his room. “We can get popcorn and even soda to drink.”

“But not off the floor?” Peter asked.

Jerrod shivered as he thought of what Gizelle had done. “Right. Definitely not floor popcorn. Yuck.” He made a face, and Peter did as well. After setting him down, Jerrod got Peter in the tub for a quick bath and then left him to dress. Then he made breakfast and managed to get them out of the house on time and dropped off Peter. He texted Chase that he was heading for his first job of the day before putting the truck in gear and heading to Mr. Dunston’s to look into some wiring that seemed to be shorting out in his basement man cave.

“Morning,” Mr. Dunston said as he came out of the house to shake Jerrod’s hand. “Thanks for coming so quickly.”

“No problem.” He followed him inside and down to the basement, where Mr. Dunston showed him the problem.

“I need to go into the office, and Jean is out already, so take care of what you need to and lock the door behind you when you go.” Wow, he hadn’t expected that. “By the way, Jean loved her birthday present, and I even got the right color.” He was all smiles as he practically leapt up the stairs, and Jerrod opened his toolbox and pulled out a power meter so he could begin to trace the source of the problem.

At first he thought it might be one of the outlets, but that wasn’t it. They were all fine. He checked the breakers as well, but there was nothing there. Finally he checked a couple of the junction panels. Sure enough, some of the wiring insulation had been chewed away. Jerrod messaged Mr. Dunston about the issue and got a response that he would have the area treated right away. Mice would chew through anything, and in this case, they’d munched just enough of the wiring to cause an issue. Thankfully it was a run that went between two outlets, so Jerrod turned off the power and set to work running a new piece along through the basement wall.

Footsteps above caught his attention. “Mr. Dunston? Mrs. Dunston?” he called, coming to the bottom of the stairs. There was no further sound, and Jerrod thought he might have imagined it. Houses made sounds all the time. The house was quiet again, so he went back to work, getting the old wiring removed and the new line installed.

He stopped at another creak upstairs but continued with his work until a sound made him turn. “What the fuck are you doing here?” Jerrod asked when Gary reached the last step at the bottom of the stairs.

“I came to see you.” His stare was as dark and black as night.

“Get out of here,” Jerrod said, standing as tall and threatening as he could, though he wasn’t built like Chase.

“Why? The owners aren’t home. We’re the only ones here.” He smiled without a hint of warmth.

“What do you want?” Jerrod asked, fear rising, but he refused to give in to it.

“Your phone for a start,” Gary said, holding out his hand. “And don’t think about trying anything.” He lifted a purple cloth grocery bag. “I brought a little present with me, and I can make it go off any time I want.” He set it on the floor and backed away. “Now, give me your phone.”

Jerrod slowly put his hand in his pocket, trying to think of a way he could signal for help, but he was trapped. As he reached for it, Chase’s ring tone began to chime. Gary grabbed for the phone. “I have to answer it or he’ll know something is wrong, and Chase knows where I am.” God, he hoped Gary bought that lie. Before he could get an answer, Jerrod pressed the green button, watching Gary like a hawk.

“Sorry I missed you last night,” Chase said. “I figured you and Peter were asleep and I didn’t want to wake you.”

Jerrod knew he had just seconds to try to tell Chase that he needed him and where he was. “It’s okay. I had a job at Dunston’s this morning.” Gary tensed, and Jerrod shrugged. “It’s going well. I have some help today, and that’s making the job go much faster.”

“Who?” Chase asked quickly.

Gary looked like he was about ready to explode, and Jerrod didn’t want to push him any further. “I have to go. I’ll talk to you later.” He ended the call, and Gary snatched the phone out of his hand, dropped it to the concrete floor, and smashed it under his heel.

“That wasn’t very smart.”

“He’s aware of my schedule, so he knows where I’m supposed to be,” Jerrod lied. “Now what the heck is going on?”

“Isn’t it obvious? You made a real mistake while making the repairs, and it started a fire that caught you by surprise. Now sit in that chair.” He pulled plastic zip ties from his pocket, and once Jerrod sat down, he bound his wrists to the arms of the chair tightly enough that he couldn’t move them.

“But why are you doing this?” Jerrod asked.

“To make you pay, of course. After you fired me, word got around that I wasn’t very good, and I couldn’t get a job for shit. I spent weeks sitting at home, and then some friends told me that Connor Warfield was looking for some help. They were looking for a way to get their foot in on the deal at the condos, and I was looking for a way to get even with you. It was a twofer. I got you sidelined—or so I thought—then I had to get AR out of the picture. They were paying me a lot.” That much they had figured out, and it felt sort of good that he and Chase had been right, but shit, this was not how he wanted to find out. Jerrod hoped like hell that someone got here soon or there wasn’t going to be much for them to find. “You ruined me. My wife left me after she heard what happened and took my kids. I needed cash, and Connor Warfield was willing to pay plenty to have their way cleared.”

“What about Gizelle?” Jerrod asked.

Gary rolled his eyes as he placed the bag a few feet from where Jerrod sat. “That bitch? She was totally useless. I never told her about shit. She did have keys to your house, though, and apparently you piss off a lot of people, because she just gave them to me. Posing as the gas man was just a way to make sure the neighbors didn’t take notice and made thing even easier. Too bad you weren’t home when the fire started.” The venom in his voice chilled Jerrod even more. “But you will be here.” He turned and headed toward the stairs as sirens sounded in the distance, growing louder by the second. “What did you do?”

Jerrod shrugged as the sirens grew even louder. “I don’t think you’re going anywhere either, so you can either give up or burn down here right along with me. I’d say that’s both the fire department and the police.” He waited as Gary paled and hurried up the stairs, then closed the door at the top.

Jerrod turned to the purple bag, wondering what was going to happen. Multiple footsteps echoed through the house, people spreading out. “I’m down here.” He hoped they found him before that damned thing went off. “Chase!”

“Jerrod?” Chase asked, opening the door at the top of the stairs.

“It’s me. There’s one of those damned devices down here. I don’t know when it’s going to go off.” Chase hurried down and went to the laundry area to run water. Then he hurried in, grabbed the bag, and took it to the other room.

“The damned things short out when you get them wet,” Chase explained as he returned, the water still running as he crouched down next to Jerrod and cut away the plastic straps. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Jerrod said, surrounded by Chase’s big arms just as soon as he was free. “I’m fine, but he scared the shit out of me.” Now that the danger was over, Jerrod clutched Chase hard, shaking like a leaf. He had been fine while it was going on, but now all he wanted to do was fly into a million pieces.

“Good. When you said you had help, I knew there was something wrong. All I could think about the entire way over was what I was going to do to that asshole if he hurt you.” Chase held him tighter as police and other firefighters joined them. Jerrod let them take care of whatever Gary had intended to use to start the fire.

“We have someone in custody,” Red said. “He was trying to get out through the backyard.”

“Thank God,” was all Jerrod could manage to say as he slumped into Chase’s arms, closing his eyes. “At least this is finally over. Gary Lutz was the one who set the fires. He told me so himself. My sister-in-law did give him the keys to my house.” Whatever that made her was up to the police.

“We’ll get to the bottom of this now that he’s in custody.” Red seemed relaxed, but Jerrod was still shaking. He wanted to say that it would have been nice if they had gotten to the bottom of this whole thing a while ago, before some psycho broke into one of his jobs and threatened to burn him alive.

“Hey,” Chase said softly. “It’s over. They have the arsonist.” The light touch on his chin had him lift his gaze to find Chase’s shining back. “I was so scared the entire way over here. But it made me realize something.”

“What?” Jerrod asked.

“How important you are to me. When I got your phone call, I could barely breathe. I knew you were in danger. I told the chief, who scrambled the entire department. We got the police, and the whole time over here, all I could do was pray that you were okay. The thought of anything happening to you scared me to death.”

“That’s because you’re my hero.”

Chase shook his head. “No. I’m not, I’m the guy who’s fallen in love with you.” Jerrod’s breath hitched involuntarily, and he tried to find words. His lips even moved, but nothing came out. “I mean it. I love you, Jerrod, and I love Peter too. I know that it’s a lot to ask to be part of your family, but I hope—”

Jerrod cut Chase off with a kiss right there. To think they were doing this in the Dunstons’ basement was kind of weird, but at that moment, Jerrod didn’t care. He held Chase with everything he had, his heart threatening to burst.

“Are you okay?” Chase asked once Jerrod pulled back. “Did I say something wrong?”

Somehow Jerrod found his voice. “Of course not,” he croaked out. “I think I’ve been in love with you almost from the moment you rescued Peter. I have no idea why, but you’ve been there for us all through this. Most people would have run for the hills, but you were always there, even when I was a complete wreck.” Maybe that was the very definition of love—seeing people at their worst and caring about them anyway. Jerrod looked around. “Do you think that maybe we can get out of this basement? Half the fire department is watching us.”

Chase turned around to take in the six huge guys all staring at them. “What? Have you never seen two people say they love each other?”

One of the guys rolled his eyes. “Oh please. We’ve been waiting for you to say something for a week now. You’ve been completely twitterpated the entire time. Maybe now you won’t spend your entire days with stars in your eyes.”

“Look who’s talking,” Chase retorted.

“Yeah. I think Hayden was worse when he met Kyle,” one of the guys said.

“All right, get back to work.” That must have been Hayden. “We need to get the device secured.”

“And I need to get back to the station. Technically I’m still on duty.” Chase pulled away. “And I don’t think the department is going to be particularly happy about me kissing you while I’m on the clock.” His arms slipped away, and Jerrod missed them immediately. “Are you going to be okay to get home?”

“Yes. I’ll be fine.” And he knew he would be. “You be careful, and I’ll see you back at the house.” Jerrod still had work to finish, and he was going to have one hell of a time explaining to Mr. and Mrs. Dunston everything that had happened in their basement.

“Are you sure? I can follow you home.”

Jerrod nodded. “I’m fine. I can breathe again, and I have work to do the same as you.”

“All right. The guys have the shorted-out device, and we’re all going to head out. I’m sure the police will have questions for you.” He smiled, and all the firefighters left the basement.

Red came down the stairs, and all Jerrod could do was wait nervously for answers.

“You have Gary, right?”

“Yes,” Red answered. “He’s in a car on his way to the county jail.”

“Look, I need to get this work done, and Mr. and Mrs. Dunston are going to flip when they find out that half the police and fire departments have been through their house.”

“Don’t worry. Mrs. Dunston is upstairs. She got home ten minutes ago, and everything has been explained. There’s nothing for you to worry about. She’s even made some coffee and offered her kitchen table as a place for us to talk.”

Jerrod supposed that it was inevitable that he would need to relive what happened multiple times, so he might as well get this over with. He put his tools in the box and followed Red up the stairs. “Let the questioning begin.”

IT HAD been one hell of a day by the time he got Peter from the Y and returned home. Chase met them both at the door, and Peter ran up to him for a hug.

“Are you going to live here with us?” Peter asked.

Chase seemed surprised. “Well….”

“Why do you ask?” Jerrod spoke up to rescue Chase, whose cheeks were turning redder by the second.

“Mr. Chase is here all the time, and he sleeps with you in your bed. So I thought that he was going to live here too.” Peter went inside, leaving Chase blinking at him.

“Sometimes that kid sees way too much,” Chase said with a smile forming at the edges of his lips.

“Yeah, he does, although….”

“Hey. Things between us are new,” Chase said. “You and I don’t need to make a bunch of rush decisions all of a sudden.”

Jerrod nodded. “Do you not want to live here with us?” He had no idea why he asked. They had known each other only a few weeks, and it was too soon for that.

“Of course I want to. But maybe you and I can date like normal people for a while, go to dinner, the movies—you know, normal things, rather than chasing arsonists and dealing with crazy sisters-in-law.”

“Maybe hiking in the woods?” Jerrod asked. “I really want Peter to experience things outside of town.”

Chase chuckled. “We could go camping, if you like. I used to do things like that when I was a teenager with the Boy Scouts.”

Jerrod chuckled. “I should have known.”

“That I was a Boy Scout? I’ll have you know that I was an Eagle Scout by the time I was seventeen.” He puffed his chest out.

“Of course you were. You’re still a Boy Scout now. My Boy Scout,” Jerrod whispered before kissing Chase gently. “And yes, I’d love to go camping, roast marshmallows, and sit around the campfire singing songs and stuff. Johnny loved the outdoors.”

“Then we’ll do things like that. I have sleeping bags somewhere that will zip together, so we can keep each other warm on cold nights.”

“Are we going camping?” Peter asked.

“Do you want to go?” Chase asked. “Your daddy and I could take you camping some weekend yet this summer if you want to go.”

Peter ran around the room and then did this butt-wiggling dance that clearly showed he was happy. “I’m going to go pack.” He ran up the stairs, and Jerrod pulled away from Chase, chuckling.

“I think that’s a yes.” Damn, did he dare hope there would be many more yeses in their future?