Against the Fire (11 page)

“It’s all right, come on in.” There were hundreds of fires in Dallas every year. It didn’t mean the police would jump to the conclusion that Angel had been involved in this one.

Angel walked wearily into the living room. “I was hoping you would come with me.”

“Where? The police department?”

“To see Mr. Raines. It was his building that burned down.”

Mattie’s pulse quickened. “What? Are you sure?”

Angel nodded. “Some office he was building. It wasn’t finished yet. On the news they said it was completely destroyed.”

Poor Gabe. Two fires in two weeks. She couldn’t help wondering if the second fire could possibly be a coincidence.

“I have to tell him it wasn’t me,” Angel said.

Mattie gave it some thought. “Maybe that’s a good idea.” She told herself it wasn’t just an excuse to see him. This was about Angel. She didn’t really think Gabe would believe the boy had set the second fire, but she had to be sure.

And the more she thought about it, two fires involving Raines Construction likely meant Gabe was the target. The thought worried her more than she would have liked.

“Do you know where the building was?”

“On McKinney. On the news they said it was near Bryan.”

Mattie set a hand on Angel’s thick shoulder. “If the fire happened last night, there’s a good chance Gabe will be down there this morning. Come on, let’s go find him.”

The wooden floor of the trailer shook a little under Gabe’s weight. The walls were bare except for working plans for some of his projects, and his framed contractor’s license.

His secretary, Becky Marvin, stared at the computer on her desk at the opposite end.

“I guess you heard about the fire.”

She turned and nodded. “I saw it on TV this morning. That’s why I came in. I thought you might need me for something.”

“I’m glad you’re here. It’s looking like the two fires are connected and if they are, that means someone may be targeting me specifically. Have you noticed anyone suspicious hanging around here at Greenwood, or have any of the crew been acting strangely over the past few weeks?”

“Sorry, boss, I haven’t noticed a thing. At least nothing out of the ordinary. Hank Munro was in here a couple of weeks ago grumbling. Said you were working the black guys harder than the white guys. I told him I was the one who did the scheduling and I don’t pay any attention to the color of a man’s skin.”

“You convince him?”

She shrugged. “It was the truth. Up to him whether he believes it or not.”

“Anything else?”

“Benny Jervis was in here bitching. Said you owed him a raise after the job he’s been doing, but he’s always bitching about something. It’s nothing more than the day-to-day crap.”

Gabe made a mental note to talk to the two men, see how deep their animosity ran. As far as he was concerned, Becky was probably right and it was nothing more than the usual bullshit. Still, he couldn’t afford to leave any stone unturned.

Becky went back to work and Gabe sat down to do some digging, try to figure out which security company to hire. He also intended to install security cameras around each job site. He’d just never been much of a high-tech guy and until now hadn’t really seen a need for them, at least until the job was finished.

His cell phone rang. That weird sixth sense he and his brothers seemed to have when one of them was in trouble kicked in and Gabe knew instinctively either Jackson or Devlin was on the line.

He flipped open the phone. The caller ID belonged to his younger brother. “Hey, Dev.”

“Haven’t heard from you in a while,” Dev said. “Thought I’d better call and see if you’re still alive and kicking.”

After Dev left the rangers, he had started working as a private investigator. The stock market was climbing, and with the money he’d saved over the years, Dev invested like crazy. As Gabe and Jackson had done, Dev had also invested in Wildcat Oil.

The stock took off and Dev made enough to start his own private investigation firm in Phoenix, which later became a chain of security companies with branches in L.A. and San Diego. At thirty-two, Dev was “mostly retired,” which meant he still did detective work, but only took the cases that interested him. And was always willing to help his brothers.

“Where are you?” Gabe asked. “I thought you were spending a couple of weeks on your boat in San Diego.” Dev owned a forty-foot sailboat he kept in a slip in Mission Bay. Since he lived in Scottsdale, he didn’t get there all that often, but with a branch in the area, he used it whenever he was in town.

“The lady I took with me kept getting seasick. Not conducive to playing slap and tickle. We decided to come home and lay out by the pool.”

Gabe almost smiled. After Dev’s fiancée had broken his heart, he’d become a specialist in fast women and one-night stands. Apparently that hadn’t changed.

Gabe took a deep breath. He would have called Dev for advice on who to hire in Dallas for security but he hated to involve his brother in his troubles.

He wasn’t willing to lie to him, either.

Better to just get it over with. Besides, he could use the advice. “Listen, I’m glad you called. I need to hire a security company. You know anyone in Dallas worth a damn?”

Dev didn’t hesitate. “Atlas will do a good job for you. Trace Rawlins, the owner’s son, runs the company now. Trace is an ex-ranger. You having a theft problem?”

“I wish. Looks like I’ve got an arson problem. Two of my construction sites have gone up in flames in the last two weeks. The second one just last night. It appears I’ve got an enemy I didn’t know I had.”

Several long seconds passed. “You need me to come down there, see what I can sniff out?”

Gabe hated to ask his brother for help unless he really had to. “How ’bout you do what you can from your end? Fire department still hasn’t confirmed this one’s arson, but it’s only a matter of time. I’m working on a list, anyone I can think of who might have a hard-on for me. So far, it isn’t that long. Maybe you could take a look at it when I’m finished.”

“Think back as far as you can. Just because this is happening now, doesn’t mean it didn’t start a long time ago. You never know what can set off a guy like this.”

“Good point, I’ll look deeper.”

“When you get done, email it to me. I’ll make some calls, dig up whatever info I can on the subjects. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Great, I’d appreciate that.”

“One more thing…”

“Yeah, what’s that?”

“Your condo building. Put a guard there, too. If you pissed someone off enough to burn up two buildings, he might be mad enough to fire one up with you in it.”

Gabe felt a chill at the back of his neck. Obvious as it was, he hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll call Atlas as soon as I get off the phone.”

“I’ll talk to Trace, give him a heads-up. Call if you need me. And be careful, bro. Fire’s a bad way to go.” Dev hung up and Gabe flipped his phone closed.

For a minute, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Things had been good for so long. He hadn’t felt this kick in the gut since the days when his mother got drunk and passed out on the worn-out sofa or the torn shag carpet in their living room. The days when Jackson had to use his after-school work money to buy them something to eat.

“You all right?” Becky asked.

“Just peachy,” he said. “Thanks for asking.”

Becky gave him a worried mother-hen look, which made him sit up straighter. He opened a drawer, pulled out the phone book and began flipping through the Yellow Pages. He was getting ready to dial the number for Atlas Security when the trailer door swung wide and Mattie and Angel stood in the doorway.

“I heard about the fire,” Mattie said. “I’m really sorry, Gabe.”

He rose from behind his desk. “Yeah, so am I.”

“I know you must be busy. Do you have a minute to talk?”

Becky shoved back her chair and stood up. “I’ve got an errand to run, boss.” She cast Mattie an appraising glance and headed for the door. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

Becky brushed past them, giving them some privacy, and clattered down the iron mesh stairs.

“Come on in,” Gabe said to Mattie, thinking how good she looked with her hair pulled into a ponytail and freckles standing out on those high cheekbones. Fresh, somehow, and wholesome. And sexy as hell.

His blood stirred. After her note, he hadn’t expected to see her again.

All it had taken was a four-alarm fire to get her to come back.

Eleven

Mattie stood nervously in the doorway of the trailer. Gabe was bigger and even more powerfully built than she remembered. Heat crept into her face as memories arose of the night she had spent in his bed, and something sensual loosened inside her she recognized as desire.

“We can sit down over here.” Gabe pointed to a small round table in the corner with four plastic chairs.

“Angel came by to see me,” Mattie explained as she sat down next to the teenage boy. “He saw the fire on TV. We looked for you earlier at the fire scene. Your foreman was there. He gave us this address and said we could find you here.” She glanced away from Gabe, wishing she didn’t want to reach out and touch him. When she looked back, she noticed Angel’s hands were shaking.

Mattie’s heart went out to him. She prayed Gabe would say the words the teenager needed to hear.

“So what’s this about?” Gabe asked.

Mattie gave a faint nod to Angel and he straightened in his chair.

“I just came to tell you I didn’t set the fire.”

Gabe pinned him with a stare. “What makes you think I would assume you did?”

“I wasn’t home last night. I borrowed my mother’s car and went over to spend the night with Enrique. His mother was visiting her sister in Tyler and I felt sorry for him being home alone.”

“What did the two of you do last night?” Gabe asked.

“We went down to the video parlor for a while and then we went back to his house and watched TV. I don’t have an alibi except for Enrique and I’m not sure the police will believe either of us a second time.”

Angel looked miserable. And scared. Mattie prayed Gabe would believe him, that he would realize Angel hadn’t had anything to do with either of the fires.

“The police know you didn’t set the fire at the Towers, Angel. They traced the accelerant to someone else. Unless you have some kind of a grudge against me personally, I don’t think they’ll assume you’re the person who set the fire last night.”

The tension in Angel’s shoulders seeped away. “You have been a friend to me and Enrique. I only wish there was a way I could help you find the man who burned down your buildings.”

Gabe’s faint smile held a trace of approval. “That’s a job for the police. I wish you could help, but I’m afraid there isn’t anything you can do.”

“Actually, there is,” Mattie said, speaking up for the first time. She turned her attention to Angel. “You can keep your eyes and ears open, listen to the gossip on the street. Maybe someone will know something, say something about the fires.”

Gabe looked impressed. “That’s a good idea. Maybe you’ll hear something that might be useful. But don’t try to play detective. This guy is obviously dangerous. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Gabe’s right,” Mattie added. “Just let us know if you hear anything.”

The boy smiled, a flash of white in his broad, dark-skinned face. “I will, I promise.”

Mattie pushed back her chair, preparing to leave. “Thanks for taking time to listen.”

“I’ll walk you to your car,” Gabe said, and though she could have stopped him, she didn’t.

When they reached her BMW, Angel made a point of climbing into the passenger seat and closing the door, giving them a moment of privacy.

Mattie wasn’t sure whether or not to be grateful.

“So where are you headed from here?” Gabe asked.

“After I take Angel home, I’m going down to the center for a while.”

“Any special reason or just your usual volunteer work?”

“I’m meeting a teenage girl named Lakeisha Brown. Her boyfriend used to beat her. It went on for months before she found the courage to dump him. I’m trying to help her. We sort of bonded, I guess you would say.”

One of Gabe’s dark eyebrows went up. “Why is that?”

Mattie hesitated only a moment. There was no reason not to tell him. At least some of it. “It’s a dependency issue for some young girls. They think they can’t live without these guys. I told her about my mother and how she had counted on my dad to take care of the family, but then he died. I told her how important it was for a woman to be independent, to learn not to count on a man. I told her she needed to learn to take care of herself.”

“I see.”

And from the look in those perceptive blue eyes, Mattie thought that maybe he saw far too much. That maybe he realized the hardship she and her mother had suffered was the reason she refused to get involved with him or any other man. That he represented too much of a threat to her independence.

And of course there was Mark’s betrayal. But she didn’t tell him that.

“There’s a gallery opening in Deep Ellum tonight. The artist is very good, and the owners are among the people I mentioned before.” He flicked a glance to where Angel sat in the car. “It might be a chance to set something up for Enrique.”

Her shoulders tightened. He was asking for more than a date, and as much as she wanted to help Enrique, she wasn’t ready to pursue a physical relationship with Gabe. Not when his lovemaking had such a powerful effect on her.

She started shaking her head. “I don’t—”

“I could meet you there,” he interjected smoothly. “You’d have your own car. You could leave whenever you wanted.”

She bit her lip. She wanted to help Enrique. And she wanted to see Gabe again. Even if it was a dangerous thing to do.

“All right, I’ll meet you there. What time?”

“The opening starts at seven-thirty.”

“I’ll be there at eight.”

For an instant, hunger flared in those blue, blue eyes, then it was gone. “Great,” he said, “I’ll see you tonight.” Gabe opened her car door and she remembered the night in the parking lot when he had kissed her. Not today.