A Grant County Collection (102 page)

Twenty-four hours ago, she had wanted to kill him, but now all that she could think was that she had never loved him so much as she did right now.

'Can you imagine how you'd feel if something like this happened in Grant County?'

Sara could not imagine such a violation. The first time she had met Jeffrey had been on the Grant County High School football field. She was team doctor, watching the game from the sidelines. Sara had turned around for some reason, looking up into the stands. That was when she'd seen Jeffrey with Clem Waters, the mayor. He loomed over the man, making Clem look like a dwarf. There was something about Jeffrey's presence that made it difficult for Sara to breathe. She had never told him this before, but her heart had stopped at the sight of him. When she saw him walk down onto the field, her knees had actually felt weak. If a player hadn't managed at that very moment to get the crap knocked out of him, she would have made an absolute fool of herself. As it was, she had only been a partial fool.

She wrapped her arms around him. 'You wouldn't let it happen,' she assured him. 'Not in our town. Not ever.'

He pressed his lips to the top of her head, then reached over and turned out the lamp on the bedside table. Sara settled back in, curling her body into his. She felt herself relax just as she felt him tense.

She asked, 'What's wrong?'

'Do you smell something burning?'

'After today, that's all I smell.'

'No.' Jeffrey turned the lamp back on. 'I mean it. Something's burning.'

'I can't smell—'

He got out of bed and slipped on his jeans. Reluctantly, Sara sat up, knowing that he wouldn't go to sleep until he located the source of the smell. Considering the state of the hotel, she wouldn't be surprised if the electrical wiring was smoking.

He pulled back the drapes and checked the parking lot. 'I can't see anything.'

'I don't suppose that means you'll come back to bed?'

Jeffrey slipped on a T-shirt from the suitcase and opened the door. He stood there, letting the cold in, sniffing the air. 'It's coming from outside.'

She stood up. 'I can smell it now.'

They both put on their shoes before walking out into the parking lot. Sara pulled the sleeves of her sweatshirt down over her hands to fight the nighttime chill. Outside, the odor was more intense, like smoke from a roaring campfire. The sound of crackling was obvious, too, and they both followed the noise to a tunnel that ran along the back of the motel's front office.

There was a crowd of guests gathered at the end of the tunnel, all of them looking as if they were embarrassed to be seen here. Their fear of being caught by their neighbors and spouses could not compete with the desire to watch a spectacle. And spectacular the sight was: the building next to the motel was surrounded by flames, smoke wafting into the night sky.

As Jeffrey and Sara reached the front of the crowd, the windows blew out of the building with an earth-shaking explosion. Jeffrey put his arm around Sara, turning her away from the debris. There was another loud boom. The front door blew off and skittered across the parking lot.

Jeffrey had to raise his voice over the roar of the fire to ask, 'Has anyone called nine-one-one?'

Someone from the crowd answered, 'Twice.'

Jeffrey told Sara, 'That's Hank's bar.'

'I hope no one is in there,' she answered, shielding her eyes with her hand to block out the intense light. The flames seemed to be concentrated around the periphery of the building, as if someone had poured gasoline around the outside and lit a match. With the windows gone, the fire was working its way in, following the line of the studs and beams, dancing across the roof. If there were fire sprinklers in the building, they weren't working. Sara guessed the bar would be completely engulfed within the next five minutes.

There was a piercing noise, like a hurt animal or maybe a siren. Sara glanced down the road, expecting a fire truck, but there were only a couple of cars and a motorcycle driving slowly by.

'Lena,' Jeffrey murmured, striding toward the building.

Through one of the broken windows, Sara saw a figure move to the middle of the bar. In the glowing light, she could tell that the person was looking at something in his hands.

'Hey, you!' Jeffrey had obviously realized what Sara had: that the person inside wasn't Lena after all, but a man with broad shoulders and a stocky build. He looked up when Jeffrey called again, but he made no move to leave.

Jeffrey turned back toward Sara. He nodded once, as if to say, 'You know I have to do this,' then ran toward the building.

'Jeffrey!' she called. It was too dangerous. The fire would reach the man in seconds. 'Jeffrey!'

He jumped back as a wall of flames shot up in front of him, but would not give up. Ignoring Sara's pleas, he circled the building, looking for another way to reach the man.

'No,' Sara whispered, helplessly watching Jeffrey dart into the burning building. Inside, the man's shirt was on fire now, but insanely he turned away from Jeffrey, disappearing farther into the building. Jeffrey chased after him, reaching out, then they both vanished.

'No,' Sara repeated, waiting, watching the open doorway for Jeffrey. She circled, glass crunching under her shoes, scanning the building, looking through the gaping holes where windows used to be. She had gone halfway round the bar and was standing at the edge of the woods when there was a loud explosion, this one so intense that it knocked her to the ground.

Seconds passed. Her ears rang, her brain felt enveloped in static. Sara shook her head, debris falling from her hair. She pressed her hands into the packed dirt and sat up on her side. Flames shot up from the building. Her skin felt singed by the heat. She managed to get to her knees, but could not stand. Her mouth opened, but she could not speak.

'Sara!' Jeffrey came running out of the woods, sliding on the dirt as he dropped to his knees beside her. 'Are you okay?' He put his hands on either side of her face. 'Are you hurt?'

She put her hands over his. 'I thought—'

The distinctive wail of a siren filled the air. This time, there was no mistaking that the noise came from a fire truck. The back wheels screeched as it pulled into the parking lot, an ambulance right behind it. The firemen scrambled like ants as they hooked up hoses and directed people away from the blazing building.

'Sara,' Jeffrey repeated. 'Talk to me. Are you hurt?'

She shook her head, collapsing against him, her arms so tight around his waist that she was surprised he could still breathe.

'You're okay,' he told her, stroking back her hair. 'You're okay.'

Sara couldn't trust herself to open her mouth without sobbing. She felt numb, caught in a vacuum that muffled sound and sensation.

Jeffrey coughed, and she loosened her grip around him but did not let go.

She'd thought he was dead. For that split second, she'd seen her life without him, felt what it would be like to lose him.

'He ran into the woods,' Jeffrey told her, as if she gave a damn about the man who'd lured him into the building. 'He had something in his hands. I couldn't see what it was.'

One of the paramedics knelt beside Sara, put his hand to her back. 'Ma'am, are you okay?'

She managed to nod her head. Shock. She must be in shock.

The other paramedic asked, 'Can you breathe? Do you need some oxygen?'

She had to clear her throat before she could tell him, 'No.' Obviously he did not believe her. He tried to put a mask over her mouth but she pushed him away.

Jeffrey looked worried. 'Maybe you should—'

'I'm okay,' she told them all, feeling foolish having so many people fuss over her. She pulled on Jeffrey's shirt, trying to stand. He practically lifted her off the ground, his arm around her waist. She put her hand over his to keep it there.

She told him, 'I want to go back to the room.' He didn't ask questions. He led her through the crowd, using his hand to push people aside and make a path. They were all staring, and Sara looked down at the ground, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other, holding Jeffrey as closely as she could.

'Hold on, Chief.' It was Jake Valentine.

'Not now,' Jeffrey told him.

He took off his ball cap. 'If you could just—'

'Not now,' Jeffrey repeated, tightening his grip around Sara's waist. The lights from the snack machines were flickering as they walked by, the compressors buzzing like a hive. Sara hadn't closed the door properly when they'd left the room and Jeffrey slowly pushed it open with one hand. She could feel his body tense as he looked around, made sure no one was inside.

He tried not to make a big show of it, but he kept Sara behind him as he checked out the small room that held the toilet and the tub. Once he was certain they were alone, he turned on the faucet and took a rag off the towel rack.

'I want to know why he ran,' Jeffrey said, wetting the cloth, his mind still on the man in the building.

Sara pushed herself up onto the countertop, feet dangling above the floor. Her senses were coming back. She could smell an acidic mix of smoke and sweat coming off Jeffrey's body. His shirt was wet with perspiration and soot.

He said, 'I couldn't get a good look at him. Smoke was everywhere.'

'Can you breathe okay?' she asked, the doctor part of her brain whirring to life. 'Does your chest or throat hurt?'

He shook his head. 'Come here.' Carefully, he washed her face with the rag, saying, 'There's a stream that runs behind the building, some kind of shack beside it. The guy tripped down the bank and fell into the water. I thought I'd catch him then, but he just disappeared.' Jeffrey picked something out of Sara's hair and threw it into the trashcan. 'I couldn't tell if he dropped what he was carrying. Whatever he had, he thought it was worth running into a burning building for.' He rinsed out the rag. She could see that it was spotted with dirt and wondered what her face looked like. He finished, 'Then the building blew, and I saw you go down.'

She felt something cool on her cheeks and realized that she was crying.

'Hey, now,' Jeffrey said, wiping her tears. 'You're okay.'

Emotions came rushing in. Sara didn't give a damn about herself. 'I just ... you went into that building, and then the next thing I saw ... I thought you were ...'

He gave her a curious smile, as if she was overreacting. 'Come on, babe. I'm fine.'

She touched his face, tried to keep her hands from shaking. Sara knew that Jeffrey was attracted to her toughness, her independence. She couldn't be that person right now, couldn't let him think for a moment that she could survive without him. 'I don't know what I would do if something happened to you.'

'Come on.' He tried to make a joke of it. 'You'd have a line of guys waiting to take my place.'

Sara shook her head, unable to play along. 'Don't say that.'

'Maybe Nick Shelton would finally get his shot. Y'all could get matching necklaces.'

She kissed him, feeling grit on his lips. Sara didn't care. She opened her mouth to him, wrapped her arms around his shoulders, her legs around his hips, pulling him as close as possible. She wanted to feel every part of his body, to know that he still belonged to her. Something frantic took hold, and she tore the neck of his shirt trying to take it off.

'Hey—' He pulled back, that same curious smile on his face. 'We're okay, all right? We're fine.'

We,
he had said, but that had never been her concern. She could see right through him – that his smile didn't really reach his eyes, that he was talking too fast, that he was worried about something – too worried to tell her about it. She touched the tips of her fingers to his lips, let them travel down his neck, his chest. When she scratched her fingernails down the front of his jeans, he finally stopped smiling.

'Don't ever leave me,' she told him, unbuttoning his jeans, opening the fly. It sounded like a threat, but she was speaking out of sheer terror at the thought of her life without him. 'Don't ever leave.'

He was ready even before she wrapped her hand around him. His tongue went deep into her mouth as he kissed her, long, firm strokes that matched her own. Sara kissed back harder, used both hands to tease him until he jerked down her pants and spread her legs apart. She slid to the edge of the counter, putting her full weight onto him as he pushed inside of her. Again he tried to slow her down, but she gripped the counter with one hand and thrust against him, quickening his pace.

'Fuck ...' he breathed, slamming her back against the mirror, kissing and biting her neck. She felt his teeth graze her breast, his hands gripping her ass as he pushed harder, deeper. Sara dug her fingernails into his back, knowing how close he was, wanting nothing more than for him to let go.

'You feel so good,' she whispered putting her lips to his ear, letting him feel her breath. 'So good ...' She kept talking, coaxing him along with the words she knew would push him over the edge.

He gasped, the muscles along his back tensing like wire. Sara squeezed her eyes closed, focusing everything on the warm flowering at her center as his body shook with release. He slowed his pace and this time she let him, relishing each stroke, wishing she could hold him in forever.

He shuddered again as he finished, falling against her, his hands gripping the counter as if he needed help standing. She traced her fingernails lightly up and down his back. His skin was hot and sticky but still she wanted to feel every part of it. Sara kissed his shoulder, his neck, his face.

'Jesus,' he panted. 'I'm sorry I couldn't ...' He shook his head. 'Jesus.'

Sara put her mouth to his, gave him a soft kiss. She could count on one hand the number of times Jeffrey had let himself finish before she did. She could also honestly say she had never felt closer to him in her life.

He was smiling again, that half-smile that could infuriate her and make her love him at the same time. 'I bet you Nick couldn't do that.'

She leaned her head back against the mirror, still not ready to make a game of this.

'You know what they say about short guys overcompensating.'