Chapter 8 #2
Main Street was old and marked as a historic landmark by the State of Pennsylvania.
All of the buildings were brick, and getting any renovations done on them always turned out to be more of a hassle than it was worth, even something as simple as widening some doorways.
A good number of the buildings were not ADA compliant but their historic status protected them.
Shop owners did what they could within the limits of the law.
Normally, a brick building meant that the structure stood a better chance in a fire.
Not in this case. Little Shoes wasn’t just on fire, it had been obliterated.
This wasn’t a typical light-the-gasoline-on-fire type of fire.
This had been by an explosion. A grenade, an IED, a bomb, a missile…
This was force. The roof was gone, the walls demolished, and anything that was left was burning in the rubble.
The face of the store next to the consignment shop was also caved in.
Steel hadn’t seen damage like this since he’d retired. If anyone had been inside when the explosion had occurred, they’d be dead. Either from fire or the building collapsing down on top of them.
Fortunately for Steel, he had years of experience and training in this sort of situation. Shock did not take hold of him, nor was he blinded by grief for a brick and mortar building, even if it was his source of a paycheck. No lives had been lost here. It was just things.
His name might have been on the lease, right alongside Jenna’s, but this place had been hers.
When they’d gotten married, Steel and Jenna had agreed to combine everything.
They didn’t have his-and-her bank accounts with a shared one for expenses or separate credit cards.
There was nothing one of them had that they couldn’t or wouldn’t share with the other, nor did they have any secrets.
If one wanted to purchase something without the other one seeing, they simply asked him or her not to look at the credit card statement that month.
Trust was the foundation of their relationship, and that would never change.
From the first day Steel had met Jenna, her pure heart had attracted him to her. “I like to do one kind thing for a stranger per day,” she’d told him the day they’d met.
Forty years later, Jenna was still keeping to that goal.
She helped out the parents who needed a break on the constantly growing expenses of raising kids by not charging them for certain things; accepted items that were too worn to resell but paid for them regardless; always had a smile on her face and a kind word on her lips; offered diapers, wipes, and formula at no charge; and never turned anyone away.
This hadn’t been destroying something Steel loved. He worked here, sure, but this place wasn’t his. This was about destroying something Jenna loved.
“Give me your phone,” he ordered Carlos.
Carlos pulled his from the inside of his coat pocket without hesitation, knowing Steel would have a good reason for asking for it. “Where’s your phone?”
Steel had known Carlos for years, even before Steel and Bulldog had met.
When he’d still been active duty, Steel and Jenna would visit Mount Grove to see Lucky.
Sometimes they brought their kids and sometimes they didn’t to have some away time just for them.
Carlos had been a young deputy the first time they’d met, and it wasn’t until years later that Steel had sat down next to Bulldog on an airplane headed for Pittsburgh.
It was one of those ‘small world’ meetings when they realized they were both headed to the same town.
“Broke,” he said, his answer clipped. He dialed Darrin’s number, not pausing to see if Carlos had it in his contacts. He was of the generation that memorized phone numbers, and that hadn’t changed with the invention of smart devices.
“Yeah?” Darrin answered. It was possible Darrin didn’t have Carlos’s number in his phone either.
“Is she safe?” Steel demanded.
“Yes, sir. We’re back at your house.”
Relief flooded him. “And Ollie?”
“At Angel and Cage’s. Viktor checked on him, but we didn’t mention what was going on.”
Tires squealed behind Steel, and he turned to see a club SUV coming to a halt by one of the cruisers. Bystanders jumped out of the way as Ghost, Bulldog, Lucky, and Demo exited the cage.
“Good,” Steel answered into the phone. “My threat still stands.”
“Understood,” Darrin said.
Steel hung up and handed the phone back to Carlos without looking at the town’s sheriff. He headed towards his club brothers. He might not have a cut anymore, but that did not change who these men were to him.
“What do you know?” he asked in lieu of a greeting.
“Keys tried to send you this,” Ghost answered as he held out his phone. “But he said your device is unresponsive.”
“Broke it,” Steel answered. He was going to have to have that tattooed on his forehead until he got a new one.
Believe it or not, he’d lived a long life before having his first cellphone.
He was not heartbroken to see it destroyed.
Too many people cared more about what was on the screen in front of their nose than the world surrounding them.
Steel would never understand how people could become so reliant on their phones.
He took Ghost’s and looked at a night-vision surveillance of Little Shoes.
A few seconds after the video started, something flew through the air and crashed into the display window at the front of the store.
The following explosion rocked the camera, and a second later, the image turned to static.
A glance up and to his right showed the light pole had been damaged in the explosion and the camera destroyed. It likely got hit with flying debris.
“RPG,” Steel confirmed his suspicion. He handed Ghost’s phone back to him. “No sign of him?”
“Scar, Starbucks, and Ranger are on the hunt.”
It had nearly been fifteen minutes since the explosion. If this was a trap, Steel couldn’t figure out the trick. It was more than likely that Shaw was long gone.
“Fucking coward,” Steel breathed out.
Ghost grunted in agreement. “No one was hurt?”
Steel shook his head. “No one would have been inside.”
“Property’s on lock down. It took us a minute to round everyone up, which is why you beat us here.” Steel would expect nothing less. Ghost was practical enough to understand life over possessions. “What do you need from us?” Ghost asked.
Steel needed to talk to Captain Hunter to see what the true extent of the damage was.
There was going to be a shit ton to do in the coming days, including dealing with insurance and the town to figure out who was liable.
Jenna did not need this sort of stress right now.
Her relapses so far had all been pseudo-exacerbations, but that could change very, very quickly.
And once that domino fell? There would be no stopping the disease’s advanced progression.
Fear was not an emotion Steel was used to feeling. Not in a long time. But Christ, he’d been in a constant state of fear since they’d learned her diagnosis. For the past year, all Steel had been begging for was an enemy to fight, some way to destroy this disease and cure Jenna from its affliction.
The universe had answered his prayer all right. He had his enemy, but destroying Shaw would in no way cure Jenna.
“I need Shaw’s head on a silver platter,” Steel growled out. “He did this to hurt Jenna, not me.”
Ghost nodded, his face hard. “We’ll get him. We have his name now.”
“We’ve had his name for nearly a month,” Steel snapped, “and it has gotten us nowhere. We are no closer to finding him today than we were yesterday or months ago when he had me fucking arrested.”
Ghost didn’t argue, but he also didn’t back down. “Our enemy has nothing to lose, Steel. He’s patient, he’s strategic, and he’s trained. That’s a very dangerous combination. But make no mistake, we will get him. And when we do, I’ll buy you the biggest silver platter I can find.”
Jenna had built Little Shoes Consignments from the ground up.
With Jack retiring and their move to Mount Grove, Jenna finally had the opportunity to start the business she’d always dreamed of owning.
In the military, where they were stationed was too unknown to create a business that catered to the kids of low-income families.
Plus, she was raising three kids of her own while her husband was deployed.
But her kids were teenagers by the time they moved, and Carter was already off to college.
The timing had been perfect; Jack was starting the club, and Jenna could finally start her business.
And now it was gone.
Jack wouldn’t let her anywhere near the disaster until days after Valentine’s when Captain Hunter from the fire department had assured them that it was safe.
Seeing her beloved store as just a pile of rubble was…
awful, and the smell was even worse. Like the time they’d come home to find Carter had put fish sticks in the oven and then forgot about them.
For hours. That crisp, burnt smell would be in her nose for a while now.
She tried to keep her stress and emotions down, but there was no stopping the tears when she saw what little remained.
Brick, glass, and plastic shards and chunks were everywhere.
The fire department had cleared the road to make it usable again, but that just pushed all the debris under the police tape. It didn’t take it away.
The store next to Jenna’s was also destroyed. Mr. Gaunt’s upholstery repair business had been there longer than the consignment store. Mrs. Gaunt refused Jenna’s apology, saying that this was the push Mr. Gaunt needed to retire, but Jenna could not stop the guilt.