Sacrifice. Brigid Kemmerer
Michael had no answer for that. He ran his hands across his face. “I don’t know. I don’t—it must have burned itself out.”
“That’s not how fire works, and I’m pretty sure you know that as well as I do.”
He did know that. He also knew he didn’t have any answers to give. His thoughts were still trying to make sense of the fires—and who had started them.
There was someone in the woods.
Was it just Chris? Or someone else? Was it a coincidence this happened when he’d been chasing his brother?
Had he been lured away?
He didn’t know. He couldn’t even answer his own questions, much less the fire marshal’s.
Michael rubbed at his eyes and wanted to sit down. “Are you going to arrest me because the fire stopped?”
Marshal Faulkner held his eyes across the haze. “Not yet.”
“He’s not going to arrest you at all,” said Hannah. Her voice was firm.
“Hannah—”
Irish cleared his throat. “I’m going to go help run lines.”
“Take her with you,” said Marshal Faulkner.
Hannah inhaled to object, and her father said, “Don’t think I won’t order you out of here.”
“It’s okay,” Michael said. “He’s doing his job.”
“Come on, Blondie,” said Irish. He gave Hannah a pat on the shoulder and gestured toward the front. “We’re shorthanded anyway.”
Blondie. Michael tucked that away in his head to think about later. Along with the casual way Irish had touched her.
But she gave Michael a last, lingering squeeze of her hand. “Find me before you leave, okay?”
“Okay.”
And then she was gone, following Irish through the door.
Leaving him there with the fire marshal.
Michael wondered if he could make a run for it, or if the guy would take that as guilt and just shoot him.
But then Marshal Faulkner said, “I’m going to let you take your brothers out of here.”
His voice was almost kind, and for an instant, Michael wished he was seventeen again, that the marshal could call DFS and find someone else to make all this go away. He nodded. “Okay.”
“Not far. You understand me?”
“Yeah,” said Michael, making no effort to hide the exhaustion in his voice.
Marshal Faulkner pulled a card from his coat and held it out. “I want you to call me later, after you’ve gotten some sleep. After you talk to the insurance company and get yourself settled.”
Michael reached for the card. He nodded.
The man didn’t let go of it. “I expect to hear from you within twenty-four hours. Clear on that, too?”
“Yes. Clear.” He took the card.
“Good.” The marshal clapped him on the shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go see if you have a working vehicle.”
CHAPTER 6
The truck was undamaged, so Michael had a working vehicle. Three, really, if you counted Hunter’s Jeep and their SUV, but they wouldn’t all fit in the jeep, and the keys to the SUV were upstairs, in a backpack or on top of a dresser. Unreachable, at least for now.
His brothers and Hunter said nothing when he showed up at the ambulance again, the fire marshal at his side. They silently piled into the truck while Michael turned on the heat. His brothers climbed into the back, while Hunter sat up front, Casper curled up between him and Michael.
He wondered how long he could sit here with the car in park before they’d realize he had no idea where to go.
He wondered how long this shocked silence would last.
Did they blame him? Not like it mattered. Michael blamed himself. His fingers felt like icicles, and he flexed them in front of the vent, willing the car to warm up more quickly.
They were waiting for him to say something. To do something. Their expectations sat like a weight against his skin.
He shifted into gear and glanced at the clock on the dash. Four o’clock in the morning. He could check into a hotel at 4 AM, right?
Nick cleared his throat from the back seat. “I texted Adam. He says we can go to his place.”
Adam was Nick’s boyfriend. He was nineteen and he had his own place—but that didn’t mean they’d all fit. Michael glanced at Nick in the rearview mirror and tried to ignore how driving over the fractured driveway pavement felt like driving over downed trees. “You have your phone? Who else has one?”
They all did.
Michael had no idea why it was important, but his worries eased just a notch knowing he could reach them if he had to.
And where would they be going?
He wove between the remaining fire trucks sitting in the cul-de-sac. He hadn’t seen Hannah since she’d walked out of his house, and he hadn’t been able to look for her. Her father had actually walked him and his brothers to the door of the truck.
“Tell Adam thanks, but we’ll go to a hotel.”
“And then what?” said Nick. “Sleep in these clothes? Live on fast food?”
“You think the five of us are going to fit in a one-bedroom apartment for long?”
“You think the Holiday Inn is going to let us check in looking like this? With a dog? At least at Adam’s we can wash our clothes and get something to eat.”
“Nick—” Michael sighed. Those were all good points, and he was too tired to argue. “Fine. Whatever.” He reached out and spun the dial to turn the heat higher. He couldn’t stop shivering.
The roads were deserted at this hour. Rain speckled the windshield, and he clicked on the wipers as he turned onto Ritchie Highway. Beside him, Hunter had his fingers buried in Casper’s fur. His forehead was against the window.
At the first stoplight, Michael glanced in the rearview mirror and took stock of his brothers again. Nick looked weary, his eyes half open. Gabriel looked pissed, his jaw set, his eyes glaring straight ahead. Chris was looking out at the darkness, the streetlights reflecting off the bare spots on his cheeks where the rain had washed the soot away.
“Thanks for stopping the fires,” Michael said. “The rainstorm was smart thinking.”
Chris didn’t look away from the window. “It wasn’t just me.”
“I know. I’m thanking you all.”
Gabriel’s eyes locked on his. “Maybe you could thank us by telling us what the fuck is going on.”
Michael kept his foot on the brake. “What?”
“What do you mean, what? We looked for you, asshole. You weren’t in that house when the fire started. You weren’t in the woods. You weren’t anywhere.” His voice gained volume. “We found Hunter and Chris, but you weren’t—we couldn’t—”
“Easy,” said Nick. “Take it easy.”
“Fuck easy, Nick! Until that earthquake started, we didn’t even know if he was—”
“Wait.” Michael slammed the gearshift back into park and turned in his seat. Gabriel looked primed for a fight, like he was ready for his oldest brother to take a swing at him. He looked like he’d welcome the opportunity.
But