Chapter 5
Chapter Five
The Hair of the Dog
(One week after the fire)
Kymberlie checked her watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. Her wolf prickled beneath her skin, anxious and agitated.
“He’ll be here soon,” Fred Barker murmured reassuringly. “These guys are always late. They’ve got a big area to cover.”
He and his daughters had finished rewiring the club and installing the new panel and breakers yesterday. By some miracle, or maybe a discreet phone call made by one of her pack mates, the building inspector had had an appointment available today to inspect the rough-in electrical work.
Please, God, let it pass the inspection, she prayed.
She tried to tell herself not to worry. The Barkers were skilled electricians. They had helped most of the businesses in the area.
“Thank you, Jesus,” she murmured as she spotted the building inspector’s truck turning off the highway and entering her lot.
She straightened her shoulders and stepped forward to meet him, plastering on what she hoped was a confident smile.
The inspector was a balding man with round spectacles and a clipboard (of course!). Kymberlie decided she hated clipboards.
After they exchanged curt greetings, she anxiously followed Fred and the inspector inside.
After a week of cleanup and demolition work, the inside of her place looked distressingly skeletal. All her interior walls were stripped down to their framing, and a brand-new subfloor covered the deep pit of her basement. She could still smell smoke, but it was much fainter now.
The inspector made a beeline for the new electrical panel. The next half-hour felt like an eternity as he and Fred did a walk-through to check the open wiring runs, boxes, grounding, and breaker labeling.
Kymberlie hovered nearby, trying not to crowd them. Her anxiety ramped up each time the inspector made a note on his damned clipboard, but Fred seemed to take it all in stride.
It helped her nerves that Fred was still smiling and trading amiable comments with the inspector as they proceeded through the building.
Finally, the inspector looked up and nodded curtly. “Electrical’s up to code. Congratulations, Ms. Tringstad. Your contractors can start installing drywall and flooring.”
He filled out some paperwork for Fred, signed the electrical permit card stapled to the club’s front window, and left.
“See?” Fred Barker asked. “Told you there was nothing to worry about.” He gave her a hug before driving away.
The relief that washed through her was short-lived.
No sooner had Fred departed than Gabriel Egan’s truck pulled up outside for the fire suppression inspection.
The prospect of dealing with his clipboard-carrying ass—even if was a really nice ass—sent a fresh wave of anxiety washing through her.
Her stupid wolf was weirdly happy to see him, though.
“Hi, Kymberlie.” Gabriel’s deep voice carried across the space as he stepped through the doorway, his tall frame filling it completely. Today he wore a navy-blue jacket with the fire department insignia, his tawny-blond hair rumpled from the wind. “How’d the electrical inspection go?”
“I passed!” she said, grinning, pointing at the signed permit.
“Congratulations! That’s great news.” He returned her smile, his green-gold eyes warm, and her breath caught.
It should be illegal for the guy who had shut down her club to be so… so damned sexy.
He seemed almost human today, instead of last Friday’s Grim Reaper.
Her wolf wriggled with happiness at his presence. Stop that, she ordered sternly.
Then Gabriel ruined her moment of triumph. “Now that the electrical is fixed, I need to check your sprinkler system before Tyler’s subcontractors put in your new ceilings.”
“Of course you do,” she said, trying to keep the edge from her voice.
It’s not his fault, she reminded herself. He’s just doing his job.
Gabriel reached up to examine the nearest sprinkler head, frowning deeply as he did so. Then, he used a small tool to remove the head.
“This isn’t good,” he said, more to himself than to her.
“What?” Kymberlie asked, her stomach already knotting.
Gabriel turned to her, his expression grim. “I need to check a few more, but from what I’m seeing, your sprinkler system is compromised. See?”
He pointed, and she craned her neck up to look. The pipe opening was clogged with rust and sediment. Shit.
The now-familiar sick feeling roiled through her as he inspected the sprinkler system’s pipes, pressure valves, and the remaining sprinkler heads. With each new point, his frown deepened, and Kymberlie’s hope of passing the inspection dwindled further.
“Most of the pipes are severely corroded,” he explained, showing her a section of rusted iron pipe in the back hallway. “Decades of water sitting in them has caused significant damage. In some spots, they’re likely to burst under pressure the next time you need them.”
“Can’t I just replace the damaged sections?” Kymberlie asked, desperately hoping for a solution that wouldn’t involve lots more money.
Gabriel shook his head. “It’s not just the pipes.
Most of the sprinkler heads are also clogged with sediment and mineral buildup.
It’s a common problem with the well water in this area.
And several of the heads are damaged or missing entirely.
” He pointed to a spot in the exposed ceiling where a sprinkler head had been painted over so many times it was just a featureless bump. “You need a completely new system.”
The words hit Kymberlie like a physical blow. “Fuck,” she breathed.
Gabriel winced in sympathy.
Then she straightened up. “I’ll need to get a quote before I can move forward,” she said, fighting to keep her voice steady.
Gabriel nodded. “Tyler’s fire suppression specialist said he could come by this afternoon to give you a quote.
I, uh, contacted him this morning. Just in case.
” His expression softened slightly. “I’m sorry, Kymberlie.
I know this is the last thing you wanted to hear, but your place has failed the fire safety inspection.
I’m going to have to file the report. Hold off on putting in drywall until the new sprinkler system is installed and inspected. ”
∞∞∞
Five hours later, Kymberlie stared down at a printed quote on her desk, her vision blurring around the edges. The bottom-line figure made her physically ill. Twenty-seven thousand dollars?
But there was no arguing with cold, hard numbers. Or with the fire safety code.
“If we can get the parts quickly, we might still finish this job before Christmas,” Tyler said when she called him in a panic after receiving the quote.
She hadn’t said anything to him about the money. Instead, she focused on what impact adding a new sprinkler system would have on his project schedule.
The bear shifter contractor who’d married into the pack had been nothing but kind to her throughout this entire ordeal, even offering her a significant discount on labor costs.
Kymberlie seized on the glimmer of hope. “The Christmas Eve wedding reception is my priority,” she said. “If I can salvage that booking, I might survive this.”
Tyler nodded, but his expression remained guarded. “I’ll do my best, but there’s a major snowstorm happening in the Midwest right now. It’s gonna delay shipments.”
As if on cue, her phone buzzed with a weather alert. Winter storm warning. Eight to twelve inches expected.
Kymberlie thanked Tyler and let her forehead thump down on the desk in her makeshift office in a corner of her bedroom.
Every day The Hair of the Dog remained closed was another day without income. Her accounts were dwindling rapidly, and this latest blow threatened to send her deep into debt, since she now knew her insurance policy wouldn’t cover either the parts or the work.
Her phone rang. Caller ID showed it was the bride calling to confirm details for the Christmas Eve reception. Kymberlie swallowed hard before answering.
“Kymberlie, is it true that your place burned down?” Melissa Hartmann demanded.
“Hi, Melissa. My place is still standing. It was, um, a minor fire in the storeroom. Don’t worry, we’re on track to reopen before your reception,” she said, forcing brightness into her voice.
“Oh, good.” The relief in Melissa’s voice made Kymberlie feel nauseous.
What if Tyler was wrong, and she couldn’t reopen before Christmas? What if her stubbornness ruined Melissa’s wedding?
After ending the call, Kymberlie dropped her head into her hands. Her wolf paced and whined within her, sensing her distress, wanting to run, to escape the walls closing in around them.
I could ask the pack for a loan.
But doing that meant that Kymberlie would have to admit that Dad and the senior pack members had been right when they cautioned her against buying “that dump on the side of the highway” five years ago.
Tyler promised we could reopen my club before Christmas. I just need to hold him to that promise. Everything will be fine as long as Gabriel finds nothing else I need to fix.
∞∞∞
Earlier today, Gabriel had watched Kymberlie’s facade crumble as she stared at the quote for the new sprinkler system.
And something twisted painfully in his chest. He’d delivered bad news to business owners countless times throughout his career as a fire marshal, but this felt different. Personal.
His sabertooth cat, usually so controlled, stirred uneasily beneath his skin. Protect her, it snarled. Fix this. Show her you can provide for her.
Before he could talk himself out of it, he pulled out his phone and called her.
“Hello… Gabriel?” She sounded wary, and he didn’t blame her. “Did something else go wrong at the club?”
“No, no, nothing like that,” he assured her. “Just, uh, checking in with you. I was thinking about the whole sprinkler replacement issue and wondering how you were doing.”
There was a long silence on her end of the line. Gabriel wondered if he’d made a mistake contacting her outside of business hours.