Chapter 26
Sterling
Holt and I are sitting outside at Meg’s house in the back. Hidden by a holly tree. I am so fucking bored, and all I really want to do is Meg. My phone buzzes in my jacket pocket. I pull it out and see that Carter has sent a message.
Carter: Sorry, she found out about the background check. She doesn’t want to be here so she is having me take her to Piper’s.
Sterling: Shit, WTF? Don’t let her out of your sight.
Carter: I’m on it. You will have some groveling to do.
I don’t bother responding to that. I know he is right. Apparently Holt is reading over my shoulder. He is snickering.
“Man, I told you yesterday to tell her. How did you think she was going to react,’’ he asks me. Knowing I won’t answer.
“This shit is getting old,” I say instead. I hate waiting for a bad guy to come out. I would much rather be tracking his ass down. Holt nods in understanding.
“I know, lets get out of here. We will monitor the cameras from afar, and maybe do some more digging with Carter. Something is bound to turn up,” he states. Clapping me on the shoulder we start heading toward the copse of trees that we pulled our bikes behind.
It isn’t long before we pull into Piper’s shop, Doe’s. Holt and I pull off our helmets and I stride toward the front door. Meg and Carter are in the corner, both quietly tapping away on laptops. She hasn’t seen us enter yet. I’m happy for a moment to study her.
She is concentrating on her work, and you can tell she isn’t happy about something. She is biting on the pink lower lip and has a crease in between her eyes. Almost scowling at the screen. I know that look well. In the last few days it has been directed at me more than once.
As she stands up, to get a refill on coffee I assume, she sees me. I was wrong, the scowl directed at the computer is nothing compared to this one. She heads towards the counter to ask Piper for a refill, pretending to ignore me.
She chats with Piper, who seems to be giving her a bit of a hard time. It is a bit hard to hear what is being said.
“Meg, do you think that’s a good idea? It’s not like my place has the best security,” I hear Piper saying. Meg sighs and nods her head. I head over to the table that Carter is still sitting at.
“She is a wily one. Funny too,” Carter muses. “She wasn’t too happy about the background check. Thinks that it was an invasion of her privacy,” he murmurs.
I knew it would be an issue. I just hoped she would understand why I did it. I guess we will have to hash out a lot tonight. She won’t be staying anywhere that I am not. So we will have the time to do so.
“I’ll have to explain to her my reasoning,” I start to say only to hear Carter and Holt chuckling. These assholes need to keep their noses out of my business.
“Good luck with that, her perspective is interesting,” Carter mysteriously states. Next time he can go on the stakeout with Holt. I don’t know why I didn’t arrange it that way this time.
“Hey Holt,” Meg greets as she comes back with her coffee. I guess she is going to continue to give me the cold shoulder. I’m shocked as hell when she looks at me.
“Sterling,” she states. Its civil and cool, but I’ll take it.
I know it may take a bit for her to thaw out, but at least she isn’t ignoring me completely.
Before I can tell her that we are going back to my place, Carter’s computer speaker emits an alarm.
Quickly he toggles to the screen that houses the cameras.
“Shit, motion detected on camera 3,” he mumbles and looks at it.
There is a figure there dressed the quintessential bad guy uniform.
Meg rounds the table to take a look. It is hard to tell who he is.
Dressed in all black. The way the hood is pulled over his head and his head is tilted down, you can only see a sliver of his chin.
Meg gasps as she sees him open the bottle of lighter fluid in his hand. He begins to splash it all over the deck.
“No, no, no,” she is muttering. Her eyes are wide.
With one hand I reach up to massage the back of her neck, with the other I reach into my pocket to call the fire department.
Knowing that the sooner they get there the better.
Holt is on the phone talking to the local sheriff.
I hear him now. Telling him to meet us there.
Holt and I get off the phone at about the same time.
Just in time to watch him take an old school book of matches out of his pocket.
Has this guy ever heard of a lighter before?
He goes to strike the match and it doesn’t light.
He takes a second one off and does it again.
It still doesn’t work. Every second that goes by is another second that the fire department has to get there— the sheriff too.
The third time is the fucking charm. The match lights. He waits a moment for the flame to get larger on the match and then throws it and runs off the deck. The camera catches a blur of the side of his face before he is out of frame.
The flames are licking their way across the deck, and Meg goes to make a run for the door. I grab her around the waist and pull her to me.
“Holt, you and Carter head over there. Call me when the coast is clear,” I order.
I can’t leave her like this. I sure as hell won’t be bringing her over there yet.
Carter shuts his laptop and heads for the door.
Holt is right there with him. I watch them hop into Carter’s truck and fly out towards Meg’s house.
Piper comes over and brings us into the back. Away from the public. Meg is still kind of stiff in my arms, but I pull her in closer. All of a sudden I hear a sniffle. I realize she is crying.
“My house, my house,” she keeps mumbling over and over. Its like her brain is experiencing some kind of internal skip. Piper looks at her sadly, pats my shoulder and walks out. She quietly closes the door behind her.
“Shhhhh, shhh, it will be alright,” I keep repeating over and over. I’m stroking her hair and her back hoping to get her to relax. I don’t blame her for being worked up. She just watched someone light her house on fire, in real time. That son of a bitch.
She relaxes enough for me to sit on the small loveseat that was crammed back in this office at least 10 years ago. Pulling her on my lap, I am reminded of this morning. Jesus, was that this morning?
Nudging her chin up, I wipe the tears off of her cheeks.
Swooping in, I tangle my mouth with hers.
Her lips are slightly salty and I can taste some kind of caramel coffee on her tongue.
The kiss distracts her a little, which is what she needed.
She brings her small hand up to the side of my head and runs her fingers through my hair.
After a few moments, I break the kiss. Kissing her forehead and rubbing her back. She sighs. She brings her left hand up to her face and takes her glasses off. How they manage to stay on sometimes, I have no clue. She rubs her eyes.
“I don’t understand this, I have no idea what the hell is happening. Who would do this and why,” it is almost like she is speaking to herself.
“We are going to figure this out, the guy has to have left some kind of evidence behind. This could be the break we needed,” I say.
“I know that this isn’t exactly how we wanted things to go, but this guy can’t hide from us forever,” I continue to reassure her.