Chapter Four
Draven
It’s been a little over an hour since I pulled Harmony from the building and the fire has finally been put out. The paramedic, who I now know is Simon, has seen her and assured me that aside from a sore throat she is perfectly fine. I was lucky too. No more than some singed hair along my arms and the back of my neck. It could have been so much worse for both of us.
My heart rate still hasn’t gone down and every time I look at Harmony, I want to pull her tightly against my chest just to make sure she is real. She stands beside me wrapped in a blue tartan picnic blanket I had behind the seat in my truck. Luckily, it’s summer and she isn’t freezing.
The fact that she was soaking wet and her pretty blue sundress was clinging to each and every one of her curves was driving me insane, so I had to cover her. Not only were my thoughts drifting away from what needed to be done but the thought of anyone seeing her peaked nipples beneath the wet fabric was enough to have me wanting to kill someone.
“Draven,” Dexter Banks, the other fire chief for our house greets me.
“Chief,” I say in reply.
The man is older than I am and has held his post longer. I have respect for him and all he has accomplished.
“Can we talk privately?”
I stare at him trying to figure out what he might want to say to me. “If it’s about the fire, I think Harmony deserves to know.”
He nods before speaking. “In that case, I am sorry to say this fire was set on purpose.”
Harmony gasps beside me before I feel her lean into me even more. Using me as support. In any other situation, I would have been thrilled but this is so fucked up, I can’t even enjoy this little moment.
“Are you sure?” I ask, wrapping an arm around her.
“Positive,” he states emphatically. “The accelerant was poured from the center of the kitchen, all the way through to the outside alley. The lock on the door has also been broken.”
“Oh my God,” Harmony gasps. “Who would do something like this?”
“No idea, ma’am, but the police are on their way to assist us in a formal investigation,” he answers with a nod. “We also need to talk about your actions.”
“What actions?” Harmony asks but he doesn’t answer her, instead facing me.
“There will be an inquiry, and you’ll probably end up suspended, Draven.” He shakes his head in disappointment. “You would have any of your team members asses if they went into a burning building without any gear or backup. You could both be dead if you weren’t so damn lucky.”
For a moment I am transported back to my days in the academy, being reamed out by one of the instructors. Shaking my head, I drag myself back to the present.
“If you can honestly tell me you wouldn’t have done the same for one of your loved ones, I will stand here and let you give me hell,” I say keeping eye contact with him. “I respect the hell out of you, Dexter. But we both know, had you been in my position, you would have done the exact same thing.”
He shakes his head but doesn’t confirm or deny what I have said as he turns and walks away. Turning toward Harmony, I take her in my arms and hold her tight while she sobs quietly into my chest. I let her cry until she stops. I take this time to work through my own thoughts. I can honestly say I have never felt fear like I did tonight when I thought I might be too late to save her.
Harmony has always had a special place in my heart and has been part of my life for a long time. Yes, I love her, but I always thought it was just a familial type of love. And I have always been aware of the crush she had on me. Her sister used to tease her about it incessantly. But maybe it’s more than that.
Tonight has proven just how fleeting life can be. I’m not going to let a chance at happiness slip through my fingers without even trying. I want Harmony and I am going to do whatever it takes to make sure she is mine.
Tilting her chin up I stare into her teary eyes. “Let’s get you somewhere you can grab a hot shower, some dry clothes, and some hot cocoa.”
She nods and lets me take her hand as I lead her to my truck. Opening the door, I help her get in before rounding the front.
“You can drop me off with Aurora,” she says when I get into the truck beside her.
My eyebrows shoot up at her words. “Babe, I’m not just going to drop you off somewhere. And I am not leaving you with Aurora.”
“She’s my sister,” Harmony says sadly looking out the window. “And the only person I have left.”
Taking her hand, I squeeze gently. “Harmony, look at me.” It takes a moment but when she finally does, the look on her face about damn near breaks my heart.
“It’s all gone. My business. My home. I have nothing left.”
“You have me,” I say while kissing her forehead. “We will work this all out. Don’t you worry about a thing.”
“I can’t expect you to simply take care of me.”
“I know you don’t expect me to take care of you. But I will.”
****
Harmony
Draven is beyond infuriating. He won’t take no for an answer no matter how many times I try to talk to him about it. By the time we reached his house last night, I was all but passed out in the front seat of his truck. He carried me to the guest bedroom before supplying me with some dry clothes that are miles too big for me and telling me to get some rest.
I didn’t have it in me to argue with him anymore. Everything that had happened was starting to take a toll on me and I just wanted to sleep for a week. So, I stopped arguing, grabbed the world’s fastest shower, got dressed in what I assumed was one of his t-shirts, and fell into bed. I was so damn tired I didn’t even have any nightmares about the fire, even though I was sure I would.
I know Draven has a shift today, even though he is in trouble, so I lay in bed and listen to him move around the house, waiting for him to finally leave. I don’t know if I can face him right now.
I hear someone banging on the front door and then loud voices. I am on the other end of the house so I can’t exactly make out what they are saying but I do hear my name. Hopefully, it’s the police with some news on the fire. I jump out of bed only to realize I don’t have any dry clothes to wear. I do slip on my damp panties underneath the shirt for some form of modesty. Not that it matters, the damn t-shirt hangs down on my knees.
I leave the room and walk down the hallway to see what the hell is going on.
“Where the hell is my sister?” Aurora yells in Draven’s face while Derick tries to hold her back.
“Jesus, Aurora. I’m right here,” I mumble.
This is the last thing I wanted to deal with this morning, especially before I’ve even had a single sip of coffee. Yes, I am thankful that my sister cares enough to come and find me in my darkest hour, but couldn’t life have given me five minutes to prepare before throwing her at me? I sigh, making my way across the hardwood floor.
“Oh, sweetie, I heard about the fire,” she says as she turns to face me, shrugging off her husband’s hands. “What the hell are you wearing?” Her tone jumps from sympathy to accusatory in a heartbeat. Aurora glares, throwing knives in my direction. If looks could kill, I would have been flayed to the bone.
I look down at the yellow t-shirt and see on the front it reads, I Heart Firemen, in big, black letters. It’s one of those designs with the big old red heart right in the middle of the lettering and I can’t help but chuckle.
“Seems appropriate to me. I’m alive because of a firefighter, you know?” I say while walking past her. I’m being a little bitchier than normal but that’s because I am not a morning person. I need at least one cup of java before I can face people and be the friendly person most people know.
“Coffee,” I grumble when I reach Draven’s side. He chuckles before handing me his mug and slinging his arm across my shoulder.
“Morning.” Draven smiles as he caresses my cheek, and I get lost in his dark gaze.
Maybe I’m still asleep? This entire interaction is at around a ten on my weirdness meter. Why is Draven staring at me like he wants to take a bite? And he keeps touching me like it’s the most normal, innocent thing in the world. Can smoke inhalation cause hallucinations?
“So, you are really fucking her?” Aurora demands, bringing me back to the present with a thud.
“Jesus Christ,” Derick whispers, running his hands through his hair. “How is that any of your business, Aurora?”
“Harmony is my business,” she hisses at her husband before returning her glare to us.
Draven’s grip on my shoulder tightens at her words, clearly already irritated by my sister. Shaking my head, I look around the kitchen taking everything in, trying to orient myself and figure out if I am actually awake. The kitchen is on the smaller side with dark wooden cabinets, white countertops, yellow curtains, and a little table with two chairs in front of the bay window. I can’t hallucinate something I’ve never seen before, can I? So, I must be awake, and this must be real.
“Not that it’s any of your business,” I say calmly, facing my sister once more. “But Draven has been the perfect gentleman.”
“I can’t believe you would do this to me,” she says in a melodramatic whisper. “You’re my sister,” she hisses as she leans forward across the countertop.
“I haven’t done anything.”
I lean forward too, resting my elbows on the white surface. The shirt I am wearing rides up the back of my thighs. I feel Draven’s finger graze the exposed skin and I nearly swallow my tongue. What the fuck ?
“You need to come with me,” Aurora demands.
“Why?” My voice is hoarse and I pray to God that everyone assumes it’s because of the smoke and not because of what the man behind me is doing.
“Because I said so!” She stomps her foot like a two-year-old in mid-tantrum.
“I don’t think so,” I say taking another sip of Draven’s coffee before handing it back.
“Babe,” Derick says taking my sister’s hand. “Harmony is fine. Draven would never let anything happen to her and you know that. Let’s head out.”
She rips her hand from his. “Are you insane? Can’t you see he is trying to seduce her to get back at me?”
“Don’t be silly,” Derick replies. “Draven has moved on with his life, as have you. No one is out to get you. Besides, Aurora isn’t a toy, and he would never treat her that way.”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“But I do,” he says. “He was my best friend for most of my life.”
I can hear the sadness in his tone. And my heart breaks just a little. Then it hits me. The divorce, why Draven and Derick aren’t friends anymore. It takes everything in me not to reach over the counter and smack my sister. Fuck. She really did a number on both of them.
“Will you just all shut up!” she shouts. “Harmony, you need to come with us. Draven is using you.”
“I think I’ll stay. If Draven will let me.”
She doesn’t even turn to look at her husband as she continues to spew her insane theories. Aurora glares at myself and Draven. She looks at both of us in turn and I see the moment she thinks she has the situation figured out.
“Aren’t you just the perfect scene of domesticated bliss?” Her voice lowers, and I know she is about to say something that will either hurt me or piss me off. “I remember when I used to sleep in his t-shirts and share his coffee. It wasn’t that long ago actually.”
Draven bursts out laughing behind me and I feel the vibrations all the way to my toes. He wraps an arm around my waist before resting his chin on my shoulder.
“You hate the way I drink my coffee, and you have never slept in one of my t-shirts. If I remember correctly, you said they weren’t sexy.”
I burst out laughing at his words while Aurora turns a molten shade of red as her temper spikes.
“I think you should take your wife home now, Derick, before she has an aneurysm. Harmony is perfectly safe,” Draven addresses his former best friend.
The way he said Derick, the disdain in his voice, has something becoming clearer to me. I never knew whom exactly my sister cheated with, but now it makes sense that Draven would suddenly hate his best friend. I didn’t see it at the time, now I do.
“Buh-bye.” I give a little wave as my brother-in-law escorts my sister out of Draven’s house while she continues to scream hateful things at us.
But I can’t hear a damn word she is saying because Draven is holding me, his erection pressed against my ass and his breathing in my ear.
“Never seen anything as sexy as you in just my t-shirt.”