Chapter 22
Chapter Twenty-Two
Case
I stare at Tessa’s back heading into the barn, my gut in knots. I want to chase after her, but Reece’s little hand clasps mine.
“Daddy, can I go?”
I look down at my daughter’s face and smile. It’s the best I can muster since my chest feels as if it’s been caught in a bear trap. “Sure, honey. You go ahead. I’ll be there in a minute.” She jumps up and squeals in delight.
“Yay!” She waves as she runs off.
“Be careful,” I shout after her.
I march into the barn as soon as my daughter reaches the porch. “Tessa!”
“Go away. You’re trespassing.”
“Jesus, quit it.” I reach out and grab her arm, spinning her to face me. Her expression is pinched, her eyes hard, but they’re also red-rimmed and glassy. She’s hurt and lashing out.
“Tessa, oh, god, baby, you misunderstood. I’m not married, and I was going to tell you about Reece on our date.”
She tugs her arm back hard, so I let go of her.
“So, you’re not married, who cares? You’re together. You’ve got kids. Same thing.” Her tapping foot tells me she doesn’t believe me.
“No. It’s not?—”
“So, the stork dropped Reece off?”
“Shut up, Tessa, and let me explain.” It’s the wrong thing to say, but before I can tell her that she’s the only woman I’m with, her mouth opens, and her eyes widen.
“Fire!” She points. Her paling face axes my suspiciousness, so I turn to look.
It’s not an escape tactic. And the smoke is coming from my house.
“Reece!”
Reece is coughing when I get to her, but otherwise she’s fine. I scoop her little body up into my arms. The wail of sirens sound from a distance, but the thick smoke makes it impossible to see the house.
“Daddy, it’s smokey.” Waving her little hands in front of her face, Reece coughs again. “It’s stinky and hurts my throat and eyes.”
“Give her to me. You go.” It’s Tessa’s voice behind me. I turn, nodding in relief, and hand Reece over. She takes my daughter, urging me to go. “I’ve got this.”
I hesitate, grabbing her arm. “Keep safe.” I don’t add the her , because I want them both safe. Because they’re both precious to me. Unconditionally precious.
“What’s going on?” It’s Tessa’s friend Paige walking toward us from the cottage.
“Paige? What are you doing here?”
“Fire,” I say, not giving Paige a chance to answer Tessa. “Take my girls somewhere safe, will you? It’s been dry and if the fire catches…” I don’t finish my sentence because Paige nods, grabbing Tessa’s arm.
“Come on, Let’s grab some breakfast in town.”
“Daddy! Don’t go.” My daughter’s face is filled with enough worry for twelve adults, and I touch her cheek. A sob escapes her cherub mouth. “I don’t want you to be with Mommy. I don’t want you to die.” She sucks in a breath, her eyes filling with tears, her bottom lip trembling. “Stay with me.” A shuddering sob escapes. “Uncle Jeff and Auntie Lulah don’t have time for me anymore. They’re always at the hospital with Baby Jamie and when he comes home, he’ll need them. Babies are a lot of work, Daddy.” Her chin wobbles. “Not even Siobhan and Liam want me. I only visited twice, and they canceled all the other times after. They don’t like me, Daddy. I only have you.”
If I thought the smoke made it hard to breathe… Her words make it seem like I’m trying to inhale mud. I can reassure her about her aunt and uncle, but my parents? How dare they make her feel like this. When I glance at Tessa’s face her expression is fiercely protective, but underneath that I see the little girl who relates so well to my daughter’s fears, because she’s lived them. My daughter never has to fear having no one because I will tell her every damn day for the rest of my life how much she’s loved by her family.
Tessa deserves that too.
“I won’t get hurt, gumdrop. I’m not fighting the fire, that’s the firefighters’ job. I love you and so do your aunt and uncle and grandparents. They all want you very much, but they know you belong with me. And I want you with all my heart.” I look up at Tessa again and hope she reads into my words too. “We’ll talk more about that later, Reece. But first Daddy must go see what’s going on, and I want you out of this smokey air. Okay?”
She nods, but tears fall down her cheeks.
“Let’s go, honey. Put your face into my shoulder and close your eyes.” Tessa kisses my daughter’s silky head and eyes me, mouthing the words, ‘be safe’. And then Paige and my girls head toward the cottage. I’m frozen by the sight of it for a moment. That’s my family—those two girls, they’re it for me. They’re the family I never had.
It’s a smoldering mess of wet ash. I’m slumped on the concrete steps of the house, staring at what used to be Reece’s playhouse, my heart still pounding. The house is still standing, although the vinyl soffits, fascia and windows have been melted by the heat, and smoke damage makes the house unlivable. But it’s the little replica house I’d built for Reece that’s my focus. Yesterday she’d asked me if she could sleep inside overnight and I almost said yes. I almost said yes. I would have been with her, but when Tessa screamed I would have left to check on her without waking Reece. She could have been inside when the fire started.
“It was fucking her .”
I’m startled by Mack’s angry voice. He stands with his hands on his hips, the soot on his face accentuates every scowling line around his eyes and mouth.
“ Her ?”
“Fucking Tess Harlow. Spoiled diva?—”
“Mack.” My eyes slice to his, warning him this isn’t a path I want to take. My heart knows she’s not capable of this, but I was a cop, and the evidence points heavily in her direction, so I understand my friend’s suspicion. The fire chief says it was arson, and besides my crew and Tessa, I don’t know anyone else—at least not well enough to earn this type of malevolence.
The cameras were smashed, and the playhouse was doused in accelerant. The fuel cans they found in the nearby bushes were Tessa’s—the ones she’d used previously to siphon the diesel from our equipment. Those cans had been sitting at the side of her cottage for weeks, and when I walked by her place earlier, there was nothing but a bare patch of dead grass.
And then there’s motive. Tessa thought I was married with a kid. Hell, she still thinks that. And for someone like Tessa, who grew up as a cast-aside, that would be the ultimate betrayal. And yet, with all that mounting evidence, I still know she didn’t do it.
Tessa acts spoiled and entitled, but it’s to keep people at a distance. She pushes everyone away before they can reject her. It’s how she protects herself. Tessa Harlow isn’t cruel. She’s broken.
“Tessa was trapped at the barn, and I was with her when the fire started.”
“No, she said she was trapped at the barn.” Mack crosses his tatted arms. “And you were only with her when the fire became noticeable. Come on, Case, she’s the one that pointed it out.” Mack shoots an egregious look across the field. “Besides, what about that friend of hers? She wasn’t at the barn.”
“Paige?” I look down at the steps between my thighs. “Paige isn’t the arson type, neither is Tessa. A disgruntled employee?”
Mack laughs humorlessly. “If it were an employee, Tess’s place would be in ashes, not yours. They respect the hell out of you, even if they think your dick is in charge when it comes to your neighbor.” Mack plops down next to me on the steps. “How about the private investigator?”
“Nah, they’ve got their damning proof. There’s no reason for more.”
When I look up, Mack’s shaking his head.
“Fuck this. We shouldn’t be trying to find a suspect when everything points to her.” He rises, pushes up his sleeves and starts walking away.
“Where are you going?”
“To interrogate them. I’m damn good at getting confessions. Remember who the Ransom’s enforcer was before you.”
“Mack,” I call to his back. “It wasn’t them.”
“Bullshit, Case. She’s been fucking around for too long, it’s time she found out. And her little friend too.”
Running my hands through my hair, I gather a breath and rise, suddenly feeling old. His long legs eat up the field between our houses. Reece is still over there. And even if she wasn’t, I need to protect Tessa.
“Mack, hang on, I’m coming.”
But just as I start to jog to catch up, I hear my name. Turning, I see a black car and two guys in suits. Detectives.
“Goddammit, Mack. Stop,” I growl, knowing I can’t follow him now and he’s clearly not waiting.
“Mr. Callen?”
I nod as the plain-clothed men walk up. They introduce themselves and then get straight to the point.
“Do you recognize this phone?” Detective Holden holds up a black phone in a baggie and I nod.
“It’s mine. Where was it?”
“The firefighters were moving some of the lumber back to prevent it from catching, and they found the phone under it. We thought it might be the arsonist’s.” His eyes are shrewd and intensely focused on mine, letting me know I’m on the suspect list myself.
Shoving the cell into my pocket as soon as he hands it over, I nod. “Unfortunately not. I lost it last week.” I glance over my shoulder to see Mack at Tessa’s door, and curse under my breath.
“Can you tell us what happened?” Detective Wright says, empathy on his features. If there were a good cop, bad cop situation going on, this guy would be the good cop.
I nod again and go through the same story I told the fire chief.
“We had a chat with your friend earlier. He seems to think it was your neighbor,” bad cop says.
I roll my eyes. “No, it’s definitely not her.”
“She’s sabotaged your worksite before. Many times, I’ve heard.”
My jaw ticks. Fuck’s sake, Mack.
“Yes, and there’s no denying how it looks, guys, but I know Ms. Harlow, and it wasn’t her. The back and forth between us is complicated but consensual.”
They glance at each other. “You let women mess with your business as foreplay?”
“It’s not like that.” I growl, rubbing the back of my neck.
“Explain it then.”
“For fuck’s sake, just investigate someone else. It wasn’t her or me.”
“Why would you think we’d suspect you?”
Another trick question to slip me up.
“I’m a cop. I know how you think.”
“Why don’t you let us decide who’s a suspect and who isn’t. Your friend seems to think you’re…” They look at each other again. “Too close to the situation.”
I scrub a hand over my face. I haven’t slept much in the last week, one because of Lulah, Jeff and their preemie son, Jamie, and two because of Tessa not calling me or texting me back, and three, how that might mean I’ll lose my daughter. Although at least it doesn’t look like my parents are in the running either now.
The phone in my pocket, the one I’d lost, chirps, yanking me from my thoughts. It’s a distinctive chime. The sound my camera app makes when it’s alerting me of movement. My eyes widen.
Not all the cameras were destroyed. I’d moved one—to keep an eye on Tessa’s place when I was worried someone was stalking her. And it has a clear view to my place, although, it would need enhancing to see well enough to ID the perp.
“Do you want to get that?” good cop asks, pointing to my chirping pocket.
I do. I definitely do. Pulling out the phone, I open the app, ignoring the current notification, and instead scroll to the ones from earlier in the morning. It only takes a glance to see it’s not Tessa at the side of the house collecting the cans. The cottage is dark, and the person at the side of her house is short—too short, too thin and too flat-chested to be my neighbor. No, it isn’t Tessa that set the fire, but I know exactly who did.