Backfire (17 page)

TWENTY

T
racy was on the ride of her life.

Or at least it felt that way as she disembarked from the plane at Seward with only the clothes on her back. And no Solomon. David came up behind her, wrapped his arm around her waist and ushered her forward.

She’d left her bright orange jacket in the forest, and now she shivered. It was colder here.

She’d never felt so lost in her life. “So it’s come to this. I’m literally looking over my shoulder to watch for someone trying to kill me as I run and hide.”

Disquiet surfaced in his gaze. And this man—she swallowed the lump in her throat—this man had chosen to go with her. But she couldn’t let him do that. At least not all the way. She couldn’t allow him to disappear with her for good. That was asking too much. Yet at this moment, she had no choice but to stay close to him. He was the one who knew where they were going for now.

“What next?” she asked.

“I contact my friends. See if there’s someplace we can stay tonight while we figure things out. At least we’re out of Mountain Cove. At least you’re safe. No one knows I have friends here. No one will think to look for you here.”

As if that had mattered before.

“And I need to get us transportation.”

He riffled through a thick wad of bills he’d pulled from his pocket. Nausea roiled in her gut. Did he normally keep such a large amount of cash on him?

“David, I can’t let you pay for all this.” Then again, she was close to running out of money. She couldn’t sustain this kind of life—staying on the move to stay alive—for very long. Not without turning to her family for money they couldn’t easily spare, on top of the medical bills and the cost of beefing up their home security.

Oh, Lord, when will this ever end?

He eyed her then pulled out some twenties. “This is a matter of life and death, Tracy. Let’s find a place to stay. I’ll call Chief Winters to find out more about what is going on. But the important thing is your safety.”

Tracy nodded and let David take the lead. He knew what he was doing in this part of the world. Tracy didn’t have a clue where they were other than a name on a map.

An hour and a half later she was sitting in the kitchen of a cozy log cabin just outside of the small town, getting acquainted with David’s friends—an older couple named John and Kari Nash, who eagerly welcomed them into their home.

Of course they could stay for as long as they needed.

Of course they had plenty of space and Tracy would have her separate room. The couple was old-fashioned that way. Besides, Tracy and David weren’t a couple.

Were they?

David settled into an easy conversation with them about the local wildfire threat. She’d known he was a firefighter in Mountain Cove, but was stunned to hear of his extensive experience fighting wildland fires all over the region. Stunned to realize how much time she’d spent with the man lately and how little she really knew him. But that was just as well. Her life was not her own, she finally realized.

Her head was spinning with all that had happened within a few hours. She’d been all set to tell David goodbye, to say goodbye to everyone including her family, but today she’d said that word to no one. And she’d left Solomon behind, something she would never have willingly done.

John took David outside to show him something and left Tracy alone with Kari. The woman showed her the cozy room upstairs decorated in the same country style as Jewel’s cottage, which made her feel more at home. As though she could breathe for the first time in weeks. Kari found Tracy some extra clothing, including a coat. Tracy hadn’t exactly come prepared. After she took a long, hot bath and changed into comfortable, warm sweats, she sneaked downstairs to see if she could catch David. She needed to know what was going on and hoped he’d talked to Chief Winters again by now. But he wasn’t there. The lights were out in the house except for the fire in the fireplace. Daylight waned outside, but it would be hours before dark.

Tracy crept back to her room and called Jennifer to let her know she needed a new life and fast. The thing was, she’d have to leave Solomon until someone could bring him to her. As usual, she left a voice mail. Through the window she spotted David and John exiting the barn and assumed they were heading back to the house, until John got in his vehicle and drove off.

Tracy went downstairs to wait for David. When he didn’t immediately come inside, she moved to the sofa near the fire, glad for the warmth.

When David finally came inside he made for the stairs and then paused when he spotted her. “I didn’t see you.”

“I’ve been waiting for you.”

He moved to the sofa and sat next to her, but not too close. “Sorry. Had some catching up to do with John. And I had to call Chief Winters.”

“And?”

“I didn’t get through, but left a message. He’ll call me back. Don’t worry.”

“And then what, David?”

He leaned back on the sofa and reached over. Twisted her hair around his finger. “We do whatever we have to do to keep you safe.”

“I appreciate all you’ve done for me. But I can’t let you go any further.”

Sitting here next to him in the soft firelight, she saw in his eyes the hurt she’d wanted to avoid, the same hurt she felt inside. But they were both adults, both knew they shouldn’t get involved. She realized she wanted much more with him, but life had been so unfair.

Tracy couldn’t help herself. She tilted forward and gently pressed her lips against his. “You said you’d never kiss me again, I know. But I’m kissing you now.”

She slipped her hands around his neck and pulled him closer. David responded as she knew he would and enclosed her in his arms, deepening his kiss. Their kiss was filled with regret and longing and a forbidden love that neither could afford. Deep down, she knew this fireman hero in a way she’d never known Derrick, a man she’d once hoped to marry.

And here she was, letting Santino destroy her life again. But he’d taken so much more than her existence—he’d killed people, hurt them in devastating ways, all because of his need for retaliation against her testimony that had put him away. The pain and memories jarred into her emotions.

David gently eased from her lips. “What’s wrong?” His voice was husky, filled with the passion of the moment.

She leaned her forehead against him. “It’s not you, David. It’s that in the end I’m letting Santino destroy my life. I’m going to run and hide. I’m going to disappear.”

He tipped her chin up so she’d look at him. “You never told me what happened.”

He definitely deserved to hear the story before she left.

David wrapped his arms around her as they both stared into the fire and she spilled everything she’d kept pent up inside. She’d wanted to forget that night, but apparently she couldn’t leave her past behind her.

“I loved a man I worked with at the newspaper. We had talked of marriage, and I’d hoped he would pop the question soon. But he’d wanted to finish the dangerous project he was working on first.

“Derrick was an investigative reporter digging into Santino’s gang and their crimes, including the recent arsons that had set the city on fire. The people that died. None of it typical of gangs, and Santino wasn’t even a suspect until Derrick dug deeper. He’d received death threats, and then when I started getting them, Derrick was prepared to back out. But I convinced him to keep going. I believe in doing the right thing and not letting criminals win the day. Me... I’m the reason.”

Tracy burst into tears and kept crying until they were spent. David sat next to her. He didn’t say a word, just waited patiently for her to finish. He understood what she needed—not judgment or platitudes, but for him to simply listen.

“Solomon jumped on the bed, barking at me—that’s what woke me. Flames engulfed my house. I was tied up in my bed. Apparently, I’d been drugged. Solomon had been locked away, but he’d clawed his way free. I barely got the two of us out before succumbing to the smoke and flames. But before I passed out, I saw Santino himself and a few others, dousing the house next door with accelerant. He was definitely a pyromaniac. But Derrick? He hadn’t been so fortunate. He didn’t have Solomon to pull him from a drugged stupor. His house—on the other side of town—burned down with him inside...like the other victims.”

David held and comforted her, and Tracy allowed herself to fully release her anguish for the first time since this had all begun. There’d been no one who could comfort her before, not even her family. But this man next to her had already been through much of this with her in recent days, and he understood her as no one else could.

She wiped her eyes. “How many times have I cried on your shoulder?”

“I don’t know. A couple hundred?”

She gently rapped him. “I hope you understand now. I want to care about you, but I can’t afford to. I can’t stand by any longer while people, even animals, I care about get hurt. I wanted to stand strong like my father, but I’m not doing him any favors by hanging on to this life in Mountain Cove. A life I’ve grown to love. People...” She leaned her forehead against his chin. “People I’ve grown to love.”

She wouldn’t say the actual words directed to him. Saying it would mean letting it happen, and she couldn’t do that to either of them—not when she was leaving. “I’ve given myself tonight to say goodbye. I’m leaving as soon as the marshal can get here.”

* * *

Surprise rocked through David.

He shoved up from the couch. “You called her?”

She nodded. “I didn’t reach her. I never do. But I left her all the pertinent information.”

David scraped his hands through his hair and paced in front of the fire. Winters had said not to tell
anyone
. Could he have meant Marshal Hanes, too?

“Why didn’t you wait until I talked to Winters?”

“What’s the point, David? We know I have to leave.”

David sat on the edge of the sofa, next to her again. “The thing is...” This wasn’t exactly how he’d planned to broach the subject. It wasn’t romantic. And the timing was just all wrong.

Goodbye...

He couldn’t let her say that word to him. Yet if he deserved a second chance, how did he convince her to let him disappear with her, too? But his family here needed him, as well. David was more torn than ever.

“Tracy,” he whispered. Overcome with what he felt for her, he kissed her again, pushing that one word—
goodbye
—out of his mind. Yet it hovered at the edge, nonetheless.

In her kisses he understood what she would not say to him. Understood what he couldn’t say to her. He wished this evening wouldn’t end, that tomorrow would never come. At the same time, he knew he couldn’t hide anything from her anymore.

Before he lost complete control he pulled back and then kissed her on the forehead. He needed to tell her everything.

“My wife died in a fire, Tracy. So I understand how you feel. You blame yourself, when you couldn’t have done anything to stop it. But in my case, I’m a fireman. There’s no reason that my wife should have died in our house. It shouldn’t have burned down. I shouldn’t have left her. I promised her I’d be back.

“But back then I traveled all over Alaska or the Pacific Northwest, wherever wildland firefighters were needed. I was gone for long stretches at a time. She begged me to stay, but I was too pigheaded to listen. I did what I wanted to do. Every time I left, she was afraid I wouldn’t come back. I was off saving someone else and while the most important person in my life needed me at home. The night the fire burned down our house, I’d come here, to the Kenai Peninsula to fight a wildfire.”

David squeezed his eyes shut. He couldn’t bear to think that she had suffered or called for him, but the way he understood it, she’d died in her sleep from smoke inhalation. “I didn’t know it, but she had a prescription for sleeping pills. She couldn’t sleep for worry when I was gone and that’s why she hadn’t responded to the smoke alarm in the house. So at the end of the day, I’m to blame for her death.”

“You can’t blame yourself for that. That was her decision.”

“How can I not? Everyone has regrets in life and that’s mine. I wish I could go back and change what happened. Second chances don’t always come in this life. I didn’t feel I deserved a second chance, but God gave me the start of one with you anyway. And even if it all ends tonight, I’ll always be grateful for that—grateful that through this hard time, I got to be the one who was there for you, who helped you through it all.”

With his words he kissed Tracy again. Eventually, Tracy ended their kiss. Her frown deepening, he saw jumbled emotions spill from her eyes. She scraped her hands through her luscious red hair and David was glad he’d at least had the privilege to run his fingers through it, and to kiss her, though he wasn’t sure that had been fair to either of their hearts.

“If there was a way for me to stay, I would. You know that.”

“I do.” And then what? It wouldn’t be safe for her. And he couldn’t ask her to put herself at risk for his sake. “I think I’ve known from the beginning, when you first told me the truth, it would end this way.”

Unless Santino died. Or Tracy did.

TWENTY-ONE

T
racy pressed her back against the bedroom door. David had left. Walked out of the house when they’d heard John’s vehicle return. Somehow she’d thought their conversation would go much differently. It hadn’t gone the way she’d wanted but her life wasn’t going the way she wanted.

David Warren.

Just a few short weeks ago that name had conjured much different thoughts of the man.

But now? She’d loved his tender kisses and everything about him. And nothing could ever come of it.

She made a phone call to Jennifer again, this time finally getting the marshal instead of voice mail. Carlos Santino was being moved, Jennifer assured Tracy, and she should be relatively safe. But there was no assurance there would not be future incidents. The only guarantee would come when Tracy Murray disappeared and became someone else in a new life and a new place. Tracy was instructed to stay where she was until the marshals came for her.

This time, Tracy would take the deal.

She bit back tears and managed to work her way through the rest of the conversation. Time was running out. Tracy Murray would have to die.

This was the first night she’d spent alone since she’d first gotten the puppy she’d named Solomon, after King Solomon. The way his golden fur had crowned his head, she’d thought the name fitting. And since that night he’d saved her, she could sleep easier knowing he was with her. But tonight, she felt numb all over and didn’t think she could sleep for thinking about her nebulous future that would include none of the people she loved. At least Solomon would go with her.

Her heart twisted and nausea roiled in her stomach at the thought of leaving everyone behind. According to Jennifer, she would at least have the opportunity to say one last goodbye.

She stared at the ceiling for hours until she fell into a fitful sleep.

Coughing...

Tracy woke to incessant coughing. Smoke alarms screamed. Where was she? Where was Solomon? Why wasn’t he barking, waking her up as the room filled with smoke and the smell of fire?

No. This was definitely not a dream. And she didn’t think her faked death would come like this.

She made for the door as smoke and heat wrapped around her, sending her into a panic.

Oh, God, no. Not again!

Her eyes burned; she couldn’t see. She squeezed them shut, mind racing with thoughts of how to get out of here, get free of the flames. Strong arms wrapped around her and she knew right away that they weren’t David’s. There was cruelty and hatred in the tight, bruising grip.

She opened her eyes and Santino stared at her, an evil grin on his tattoo-riddled face.

Tracy tried to scream but he covered her mouth with tape. She couldn’t cough, couldn’t breathe. Darkness edged her vision. With what little strength she had left, she fought for freedom but his grip only tightened. He whisked her down a ladder at the back of the house and then, at the bottom, threw her over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.

Then everything went black.

Tracy woke coughing again. The tape had been removed from her mouth so she could breathe in the fresh air; only the scent of smoke still hung in the air, in her nostrils. She was bound to a tree, the setup sending her back to that night in her house. Solomon had saved her.

He hadn’t been there to save her tonight, and in an odd twist, Santino had been the one to carry her out of the house. Why had he done that? Where was David? “Where am I?”

Santino might have carried her out of the house, but he’d started the fire. There could be no doubt there. And he hadn’t saved her. He was the one bent on killing her. But what of the others in the house?

God, please keep David and his friends safe.

Footfalls crunched on spruce needles behind her. She stiffened. Santino walked around to stand in front of her, that sinister grin leering at her. “This time your dog won’t save you. But I’m hoping your new boyfriend will come for you. That is, if he survives the fire.”

“No! You’re crazy, the worst kind of evil. David!” She tried to break free as she called his name.

God, please let him live.

She wanted to pray that David would find and save her, but she couldn’t pray that. She couldn’t be that selfish. It was enough for David to survive. She didn’t want him to risk his life for her. She couldn’t be the reason he died.

“What are you going to do to me?”

Santino gestured to the lights coming off Seward in the distance. “Let’s see what happens when the forest that surrounds the town where you thought you could hide this time goes up in flames. Your boyfriend thought he was so smart, taking you away, but it didn’t work. You can never escape.” He stuck his face in hers. “I’m going to enjoy watching the look on your face when I set your world on fire.”

Santino walked away from her until she could see only his silhouette. What was he doing? Looked as though, sounded as though he was pouring something from a canister.

Accelerant.

She closed her eyes. This was what she’d seen that night. This was her nightmare all over again.

God, how could this happen?
How can You let this happen?

But she understood too well that giving people free will meant allowing evil in the world. That was what the criminal-justice system was for. How had Santino escaped? How had he found her so quickly? The obvious answer snaked around her neck and choked her. She jerked against the rope as though she could free herself. No, no, no, no. She didn’t want to die this way.

To die the way Derrick had.

Even in the darkness, she thought she could see Santino’s evil grin as he dropped a match. Flames erupted behind him. He strode toward her, a wall of fire quickly spreading behind him, cutting her off from the town and any possible rescue.

“See you on the other side of this life,” he said as he walked past her.

If only Tracy had gone into WITSEC from the beginning, then none of this would be happening. David would be safe at home. John and Kari’s home wouldn’t be burning, and the forest wouldn’t be ablaze.

How could she have made such a colossal mistake? Cost more lives?

Tracy prayed for her life and for the lives of others. The fire spread out hard and fast against the dry foliage of summer. Flames inched toward her, as well. Thankfully the wind was blowing away from her. Maybe Santino had planned it that way so she could suffer longer. She didn’t know. But the wind could shift at any moment and then she would be consumed.

Now she understood why she hadn’t been killed before now. He’d wanted to kill her himself. He’d wanted the chance to set her on fire.

The bright orange and yellow flames licked the sky, illuminating the area near Tracy. Behind the blaze, the sky was black with smoke in the thick of night. Surely firefighters would see and respond. If they weren’t already busy putting out the fire at the house.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Tracy hung her head, the last of her prayers slipping from her heart. Nobody could save her this time.

* * *

Adrenaline coursing through his veins, David raced toward the wall of fire, his lungs burning from smoke and exertion.

He’d seen a man carry Tracy away from the house and into the woods, but he’d been trapped and couldn’t get out in time to stop him. John had been the one to free David. He and Kari were safely out of the house.

He’d told John. He’d told him everything about the danger he and his wife would be facing if they allowed him and Tracy to stay with them, but the man had still wanted them to stay.

Fire trucks were on their way. The firefighters would save as much of the house as they could. He didn’t have time to explain to anyone that he had to get to Tracy before someone killed her.

And when he’d looked into the darkness of a short Alaskan night, he’d seen the very instant the ground had been torched. Tracy had to be there. She had to be on the other side of the growing wall of fire. And David had to save her—he
had
to succeed in saving the woman he loved this time. He couldn’t live with any other outcome.

But to see those flames licking this part of the world again—he’d been here nearly ten years before and the memory crushed the breath from him.

He raced toward the fire and fought his way through the thick, dry underbrush, racing the flames that blazed up the trees and into the crowns. He had to beat the fire, get to the other side before it spread and blocked his path to Tracy. Firefighters had to have seen the fire by now, but he wasn’t sure they had the resources to battle it without calling in help. He’d been part of that help years ago. This wildland fire could blaze out of control before the required resources could be brought in.

What he wouldn’t give to be wearing his firefighting gear at this moment.

God, please let me find her. She has to be here.

This was Santino’s plan.

“Tracy! Where are you?”

“Here, I’m over here.” Tracy’s voice barely rose above the crackling roar of a growing wildfire.

David couldn’t believe he’d heard her. The flames illuminated the woods, and in the distance, he spotted her tied to a tree. Anger burned in his gut. But he’d found her in time—hope burst through, infusing him with energy. He would beat the flames and save her.

The fire was growing dangerously close and heat licked his limbs. When he made it to Tracy, he slid to his knees, took out his pocketknife and cut the rope. He couldn’t catch his breath enough to talk, but he doubted she could talk, either, if not from the stifling heat and choking smoke then from the shock evident on her face. Reflecting in her grateful eyes.

“It’s Carlos Santino. He escaped. He’s here.” Her eyes grew wide. “David, behind you! It’s Santino!”

David jerked around and jumped to his feet, prepared to fight.

A sneering man with a face covered in tattoos laughed in reply. “You came for her, like I knew you would.”

Why did the man care if David had come for her? But David didn’t need to know the answer to that.

“Tracy, get out of here.” Anger boiling over, he lunged at the man.

They fought, and as the blows came, David knew he was no match for the man in terms of muscle and sheer strength. A man who’d been training for this moment in prison. But David had something Santino didn’t have—the gut-wrenching determination to free the women he loved once and for all.

David had him in a headlock, but Santino escaped his grip and David saw the fear in his eyes—a haunting look David would never forget.

To his surprise, Santino turned and fled, running toward the flames. With Tracy’s cries in his ears, he ran after him. He couldn’t let him get away. Tracy would never be free if Santino escaped.

Unfortunately, even when he went back to prison, Tracy would never be free of Santino’s grasp.

* * *

Tracy screamed, calling after David.

She couldn’t believe it. Had she just seen David and Santino disappear through the fire? There must be someplace to run between the flames. Surely he’d found a way through to the other side... But Tracy was alone. How did she escape? The heat felt as if it would melt her even standing a few hundred yards away.

David had told her to run and get to safety, but safety was something she had felt only when she was at David’s side. She couldn’t run away and leave him behind. She bent over as racking coughs took control of her body.

Someone approached from behind. Tracy turned. Fearing it was Santino. Hoping it was David. But, no, it was a firefighter in full gear. He reached for Tracy, but she pulled away.

“David went that way. You have to save him.”

The firefighter looked in the distance and shook his head, as if there was no hope of David surviving. He reached for Tracy again. She didn’t want to go, but he tugged her with him, intent on getting her to safety.

“No!” Tracy yelled, reaching in the direction she’d seen David and Santino go.

But it was no use. The fireman carried her to safety.

* * *

At the Incident Command Center, Tracy stood in the parking lot, emergency vehicle lights blinking all around her. She tugged a blanket someone had thrown over her shoulders closer and stared at the fire blazing in the distance. It was consuming the side of the mountain and heading for the town, which could be yet another casualty of Santino’s retaliation against Tracy.

The firefighters were creating a firebreak to save the town.

A backfire.

A fireman had saved her life, carried her to safety down a path she could never have found on her own to escape the flames. But David hadn’t emerged, and she feared he’d perished in the flames trying to keep Santino away from her. And that was why she hadn’t wanted to love. She couldn’t stand to go through it all over again.

And yet here she was, reliving the nightmare.

How could Tracy live with this? Even if free will was to blame for Santino’s actions, rather than God, how could she hold on to faith in a life where everything she loved was taken away from her?

Admittedly, she’d lost touch with God. Stopped praying as much as she should, when her reaction should have been the exact opposite. Seeing David’s faith, and hearing the way he prayed, and his grandmother, too, had taught her that much. Reignited her own faith. But now it was faltering again.

She pulled the blanket around her tighter. When the smoke settled, literally, maybe things would look differently. And she knew in the end, God took bad things and turned them to good.

Tracy was still waiting to see good come of this.

That scripture from Isaiah 61 came to mind. Maybe because she’d recently seen it in a framed cross-stitch at Katy’s house.

The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.