Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
“Two fires within twenty-four hours.” Campbell shook his head as he came to a stop near Beau. “What are the odds of that?”
“Pretty damn high when you’re being targeted by a freak arsonist,” Beau returned without missing a beat. “Oh, and to save you some time, let me just go ahead and tell you that I was with Avalon when LeBlanc’s was being torched.”
He’d been kissing her. She’d been kissing him. Definitely with her.
“The prick broke into my bar. He would have burned the place to the ground, but my friend stopped him.” Beau motioned toward Lane.
Campbell fired a glance at Lane. “I am well acquainted with your friend.”
Lane raised one brow. “The perp you’re after is approximately six-foot-two. Looked around one hundred eighty pounds. Fit. Strong. Caucasian.” He lifted his hand. Tapped his inner wrist. “He wore gloves and a ski mask but when he was pouring Beau’s very fine whiskey on the countertop, I caught a glimpse of the skin right here.”
“And Beau will have him on video.” A shark’s smile from Ophelia. “He recently added new video surveillance equipment to the outside of the bar. No way we didn’t get our guy on the footage.” She pulled out her phone. “You can’t see the cameras unless you know where to look. They’re too well hidden. But they do the job.” She tapped her phone’s screen. Hummed a little. Then she flipped the phone around.
Avalon leaned forward. She stopped breathing when she saw the figure. He already had on his mask as he approached the rear door. He walked with intent. Never hesitated.
Ophelia kept staring at the screen. “Damn. That is fast work on the lock. This guy is no amateur when it comes to the B&E scene.”
In the video, he’d already gained entrance. Fast was an understatement.
“We’ll need that video,” Lynn announced.
Avalon’s gaze tracked back to the front of the bar. More firefighters had spilled out. She saw Wesley talking to a uniformed cop. Wesley looked back at the bar’s entrance. He stepped toward it.
“Absolutely,” Ophelia’s smooth reply to Lynn. “And we’ll need complete cooperation with the police as we conduct our own investigation and?—”
Fire shot from the windows of LeBlanc’s. A loud blast filled the air. Glass shattered. Voices rose in screams. Heat seemed to lance over Avalon’s skin. Her eyes were on Wesley as he fell to the ground.
And LeBlance’s burned.
A fire that was raging wild and hard. Avalon opened her mouth to scream, and she felt hard arms curl around her stomach. She was yanked back against a powerful body.
“Fuck that!” Beau’s snarl. “We’re out of here, now.”
Wesley was on his feet. Shouting orders. The firefighters leapt into action. One of them grabbed the end of a long hose and began shooting water at the building.
“Rekindling, my ass,” Lane snapped. “What is happening? That felt like a freaking bomb blast!”
A blast—a full-on inferno—that was happening. LeBlanc’s was burning right in front of her horrified eyes.
And Beau was hauling her away from the scene.
“Beau!” Avalon twisted and squirmed in his grasp.
He just tightened his hold. “You heard the lieutenant. People can’t be replaced. You can’t be. Nothing can replace you.”
He was at the limo. Royal had the door open. When in the world had Royal reappeared?
Beau dropped her into the limo. She started to shoot right back out. But Beau caged her with his hands on either side of her body. “He’s here.”
She knew it.
The fire kept raging behind Beau.
“I think he planned for me to see the place go up. The sonofabitch. He wanted me to watch it burn. Maybe he’d even set up explosives somewhere inside. Hell, I don’t know. But I felt that blast. There had to be more than what Lane saw. The place is a fucking trap. He got me here. He got you here.” Beau shook his head. “You’re leaving. Now.”
“I’m in this! Dammit, we talked about a partnership?—”
He kissed her. A furious, hungry, desperate kiss. Then, against her lips, he vowed, “My world will not burn.”
“Beau—”
He backed away. Left her in the limo. “Get her to safety,” he told Royal.
Behind Beau, she could see the thick, gray smoke rising in the air. And the flames. There was no missing them.
More sirens wailed.
His world was burning. Because of her. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He slammed the door. A moment later, the limo pulled forward. She peered through the window and watched as Beau walked toward the blaze. A firefighter appeared to shove him back. The firefighter wore a mask and helmet, so she couldn’t see anything about his features.
Water sprayed at the blaze.
Then the limo turned a corner, and she couldn’t see Beau or his bar any longer. She lurched toward the front of the limo. Her fingers shoved at the small button that would lower the divider that separated her from the driver. With a little whir of sound, the tinted glass slid down.
“Hello, Avalon.” Royal was as cool as you please. As if they weren’t fleeing a fire that had detonated like a bomb.
“Beau has been investigating my old arson case. He had those people with him—Lane and Ophelia—they are helping him. They have been working on my case for weeks.”
“That doesn’t sound like a question.”
“It wasn’t. And, for the record, your response didn’t sound like a denial.”
“It wasn’t.”
“So he has been working on my case.”
“The man just can’t give up some things.”
Her breath hitched. “He’s been watching me.”
“I think Beau prefers the term ‘protecting’ you. Less stalkery.”
“Am I supposed to be afraid of him or grateful to him?” How in the world was she supposed to feel about Beau?
Royal turned the vehicle to the right. “I don’t know. Do you see a giant red flag waving in your direction? Or, oh, my bad, could it be giant red flames waving toward you? Have you noticed those?”
She leaned closer to the small window that she’d created between them. “He’s your brother.”
“And my boss. And my friend. And the guy I’d bleed for in an instant.” He pulled the car to a stop and angled back to look at her. “I really don’t fucking like it when people set his bar on fire. Beau cared about that bar. The things that Beau cares about? They matter to me. I don’t like LeBlanc’s burning.”
She wet her lips. “I don’t like it, either. I also don’t like being put on the sidelines. Beau and I literally just made a deal to work together.”
Royal sent her a sad smile. “Oh, Avalon. You have so much to learn about him.” He inclined his head toward her. “First thing, he isn’t putting you on the sidelines. He’s protecting you. He’s lost too much in his life. You are the one thing he can’t afford to have taken away.”
“You…act like he…he has me. We just got in each other’s lives again?—”
He quirked a brow. “Really? That’s what we’re going with? Try that story with someone who doesn’t know what the two of you were busy doing in the back of the limo.”
“His bar is burning because of me.”
“No, the bar is burning because of some twisted prick with an addiction to fire. And the prick is screwing with the wrong man. He’ll learn from his mistake soon enough. As for you, you have a choice, Avalon. And it’s a choice you are going to have to make very, very quickly.”
She swore she could still smell the smoke. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
His fingers tapped against the steering wheel. “Sure, you do. You know what Beau is. You know what he’s been doing.”
Watching. Protecting?
“And you know you can either walk the hell away. Run away.”
She waited. Only there was nothing else. “Uh, you get when you say that there is a choice, you actually have to give the second option.”
“Why? You know it. You knew the first option before I voiced it.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Run,” he repeated. “That’s option one. As for option two…Well, you can run or?—”
“Or stay with Beau,” she finished.
He sent her a tight smile. “Not about staying. It’s about what happens if you stay. Just what do you think will happen if you stay with Beau? You think he’s gonna remain in the shadows of your life now? Gonna keep his hands off the way he’s done for so long? Gonna be content just knowing you’re safe?”
She didn’t think she wanted his hands off her. They felt far too good on her body. And maybe that was part of the problem.
She also didn’t think that was something Royal needed to know. “Beau wants me to trust him.”
“Um.” His fingers tapped against the wheel in a faster rhythm. “Tell me your choice. You staying? Am I taking you back to the hotel? Or you want me to drop you off at the airport so you can run like hell?”
“I’m not running.” Not from Beau.
“Thought that would be the choice. Call me psychic.” He checked the road and drove forward. “By the way, for what it’s worth, I trust Beau with my life. Figure I should, since if it wasn’t for him, I’d be dead.”
Her arms curled around her stomach. “I know exactly what that’s like.” Without Beau, I’d be dead, too.
As if he would have left without accomplishing his goal. Oh, hell, no.
The firefighters battled the blaze. There had been so much chaos at the scene. They hadn’t even noticed when he’d slipped back inside.
Beau was watching his precious bar burn.
Sure, the firefighters were working hard, but they weren’t gonna stop this fire anytime soon. The point had been proven.
I can destroy what you value. And all you can do is stand there and watch the flames.
It was hard not to let his grin spread. Beau had fisted his hands at his sides. His buddy—the dark-haired prick to Beau’s right—kept trying to pull him from the scene.
But Beau was watching the fire. He seemed locked in place.
It was a beautiful show. Some people didn’t get that. They didn’t understand just how spellbinding the flames could be. They twisted and they danced, and they consumed.
And if you don’t stay out of my way, then next time, it will consume you. But Beau wasn’t the one he wanted. The man should consider himself lucky to get this warning.
Avalon Trahan was the target. The flames had been hungry for her—they’d wanted her for years. Beau should have let her burn the first time.
Or the second.
The third time will be the charm. Wasn’t that the old saying? The third time would definitely be his lucky charm.
The flames danced, and they burned, and they destroyed.