Chapter Fifteen
Grace screamed as Callum tossed her behind him.
The dogs and cat erupted, barking and growling and hissing as the animals charged into the living room. Alicia called her pets, and none obeyed.
Fire climbed the drapes. Fuel and fire burned. Grace watched in horror. Fire skimmed over the shining accelerant glistening on the hardwood floors with a whoosh, eating into the pink rug where glass and a shattered bottle lay.
“Get the leashes.” Callum remained calm amid the spreading fire. “Where’s the cat carrier?”
Alicia returned with the leashes. “In the shed.”
He snatched a screeching Sherlock and handed him to Grace.
A fire alarm blared.
The drapes fell away and exposed the broken window.
Callum inspected the front yard as best he could, then stalked to the kitchen door that opened to the backyard, scanning for threats as the fire crawled across the pink rug, consuming the beautiful little details Alicia had obsessively pulled together.
Grace couldn’t move. Why would Dominic want to set Alicia’s house on fire?
“You two, get out. Where’s your fire extinguisher?” he demanded, then realized she wasn’t right behind them. “Grace. Now.”
“Dominic’s out there!” she cried, then she saw the gun in Callum’s hand.
“Wish he were,” he growled. “Let’s go.”
But Dominic never did his dirty work. “Callum, it’s a trap.”
The kitchen fire alarm screeched. Alicia struggled to pull Argos and Toto out the back door. Sherlock clawed Grace’s arms and hands. Grace refused to loosen her hold, but she couldn’t move her feet.
Callum registered her panic, that she might rather die in a fire than face him again, and hustled to her. She braced for him to yell.
“I promise you, baby.” He wrapped an arm around her back and half-carried her and Sherlock toward the door. “I won’t let anything happen to you.”
That kickstarted her brain. Her legs moved.
She and Callum moved into the fresh morning air.
Sherlock demanded freedom. Argos and Toto barked and yanked at their leashes.
Grace searched for her ex-husband or his goons.
Callum swept around the house as though he was in the movies, gun sweeping, and then returned to herd her and Alicia from the backyard toward the driveway.
“I don’t understand.” Sherlock tore at Grace’s chest. “He’s not here.”
“Get in the car,” Callum demanded. He lowered his gun and pulled Alicia’s keys from his pocket. How did he have the wherewithal to grab her keys on the way out? Just as calmly, he dialed 911 while ordering, “Get in the car, pull onto the street, and lock the door.”
Alicia forced Argos and Toto in the backseat. Callum succinctly reported the pertinent details to the emergency dispatch. Black smoke poured from the broken window. She was looking for Dominic.
“Grace,” Alicia called. “Get in.”
Sherlock hissed and clawed. Tears pricked her eyes. She had brought this to Alicia’s picture-perfect house. Callum yanked open the passenger door of Alicia’s car. “Trust me.”
Grace toppled inside and released Sherlock, who sprang from her arms into the backseat with the dogs.
“Go over there. Keep the engine running. If anyone that you don’t like shows up, drive away. I’ll find you.” Callum shut the door and turned toward the house.
Alicia backed out of the driveway and parked where he had directed.
Black smoke billowed and wheezed from the broken window. She couldn’t see the fire but imagined the way it would eat through Alicia’s books and belongings. Tears spilled down Grace’s cheeks again. “Alicia, I’m so sorry.”
Unflappable Alicia let her bottom lip tremble. “We’re safe.”
Grace reached over and gripped her hand. After all the times that Alicia had held hers, this didn’t feel like nearly enough. She didn’t know what more to do. “I’m so sorry. I will make this right.”
“We’re safe,” Alicia repeated, voice cracking.
Grace would do anything to rewind time and never cross the doorstep to the beautiful house and break her friend’s heart. They watched Callum retrace their path into the backyard.
“I never should have brought this to your home.”
“You didn’t do this. I know that.” Alicia squeezed Grace’s hand and shook it.
Finally, they heard sirens. An eternity passed before the fire engines roared down the street and people in gear jumped out. Callum exited the front door with a fire extinguisher in his hand.
“Every day, I hate my ex-husband more.”
“What if it wasn’t him?” Alicia muttered.
“Who else could it possibly be?”
Alicia shrugged.
Callum and the newcomers met in the middle of the yard. Grace wished she could read lips. The gestures and head nods were all they had to understand the conversation. The group walked into the house, Callum leading the way, as two additional county vehicles pulled up.
One man inside poked his head out the front door, gave a signal, and returned inside.
“No one’s running around like my house is burning to the ground.”
Grace sniffled. “Maybe he put it out.”
“Maybe. Oh, God. Grace.”
She followed Alicia’s gaze. Blood trickled over her knuckles.
“You’re bleeding.”
She rolled up the sleeves of her flannel pajama shirt.
Alicia’s jaw hinged. “Sherlock destroyed you.”
Now that Alicia mentioned it, Grace’s arms and chest burned. She opened the visor and inspected her neck and chest. Dozens of claw marks crisscrossed her skin. “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine. I’m worried about you—”
“Callum’s coming out,” Alicia said.
She glanced up as Callum and a fireman headed toward the car. He gestured to them.
“Guess he’ll let us out of the car now.” Alicia glanced at Grace’s hands. “We need to clean you up first.” She held up a finger. “There are tissues in the glove box.”
The two men waited. Argos and Toto pressed their faces against the window. Sherlock jumped onto the center console.
“No tissues.” Grace shut the compartment. “Callum doesn’t look happy.”
Alicia let out an exhausted breath. “I’m not happy.”
Guilt rolled over her again. “I’m so sorry.”
“You didn’t break my window and burn my house. I’m sending Dominic the bill, and that asshole, with all of his money, can pay to redecorate my entire place.”
“You have a more positive attitude than I would have.” Grace mopped the back of her wrists on her pajama pants.
“I haven’t seen the inside. Maybe with everything charred and covered in fire retardant foam, I’m going to sing a new tune. But for now, your ex-husband will redecorate my house with all of his fuck-you money. The bastard.”
Grace didn’t know how, but she laughed. “A fuck-you redo.”
“More like a fuck-him, but yeah. Oh, boy. That man of yours wants us to get out of the car.”
“He’s not my man.”
“Whatever he is, he has a glower that’s hard to ignore.”
All of him was hard to ignore.
They left the car running for the pets to stay in the air conditioning and joined them. Grace didn’t know what to do with her arms and neck. Now that her adrenaline had slowed, the cat scratches burned and stung. Trickles and dribbles of blood smeared over her skin.
Callum made introductions, and both men noted her scratches. The fireman whistled. “There must be an unhappy cat in the car.”
“Unhappy would be an understatement,” Alicia said. “The fire is out?”
“Believe so. My people are inspecting, but it seems like your friend contained the situation.”
Two police cruisers pulled up behind the county vehicles. Neighbors poked heads out of doors. A few stood outside watching in various shades of dress for the day. Pajamas. Casual summer clothes. Business suits. This would be the talk around the water cooler.
The fireman tilted his head to the police officers ambling toward them. “We should go speak with them.”
Alicia nodded.
An ambulance parked behind the line of emergency vehicles. He eyed Grace’s injuries and then Callum. “Perhaps you want to take her to be cleaned up.”
She agreed and went in one direction with Callum, while Alicia met the police officers as they walked into her house.
“Sherlock tried to kill you,” he said.
“Apparently, he’s not the only one who tried this morning.” She fell into step with him. “Why would Dominic do that? Smoke us out and just disappear.”
Callum’s silence didn’t sit well.
“Really. I don’t get it. If he wanted to send another message, he could have used FedEx again. Maybe spice things up with UPS or DHL or go all-American with USPS.”
His silence unnerved her.
The EMTs took one look at Grace and set to work.
Twenty minutes later, the cat scratches stung worse than before, but she’d been swabbed and smeared with antibiotic cream, covered in bandages, and ordered to see a doctor if signs of infection surfaced.
Callum had been on the phone, pacing as he kept an eye on her. He was more agitated than when the front window had shattered.
The fire trucks left. More police cars arrived, with men and women who had a decidedly more detective feel than those who initially arrived.
Callum ended his phone call and returned to her side. He took her hand, inspected one arm, then the next, gently placed her hand by her side, and then tipped her chin up to inspect her neck and chest. “Sherlock beat the hell out of you.”
“All for saving his little furry life.” She fell into step alongside him as they walked into the backyard. “What’s going to happen?”
“If it’s Dominic’s people, a police investigation that will probably turn up a whole lot of nothing.” He shrugged.
She faltered. “If? Who else would it be?”
They settled onto the chairs on the patio outside the kitchen. “No idea. This feels messy.”
“Alicia and I already decided that Dominic can pay to redecorate her entire house.”
Callum’s lips twitched. “Did you?”
She nodded. “I don’t know how we’ll ask him to do that, but I never doubt Alicia.”
“After what I’ve seen, I wouldn’t either.” He leaned back and stretched. “What a way to start the day.”
Grace stared at him. Other than demanding she get in the car, he was the epitome of calmness.
His head tilted. “What’s that look for?”
“You’re incredibly cool under pressure.”