Tender Is The Night (28 page)

"I should go home," she muttered.

"The movie isn't over."

"Maybe a little longer then."

"Stay as long as you want, Kate."

As she drifted off to sleep, she had the foolish thought that she might want to stay forever.

* * *

Kate woke up with a cough. Her chest was burning, and the air was thick and heavy—smoky. A steady, sharp, beeping sound relentlessly played through the air.

She blinked her eyes open. She was on the couch with Devin. They must have fallen asleep during the movie. The television was still on, now running some sort of infomercial, but it was difficult to see through the dark haze.

Something was burning. And the alarm going off had to be the smoke alarm.

The smell was worse now. Not just smoke but also gasoline. And there was a heat building around her. She couldn't see flames, but something somewhere was on fire.

"Devin," she said, grabbing his arm. "Wake up."

"What?" he asked sleepily.

"There's a fire," she said, coughing at the end of her sentence.

Devin sat up, then jumped to his feet as his gaze took in the smoke around them. "Shit! Where's it coming from?"

"I don't know."

"We have to get out of here."

"My computer." She got up from the couch, heading toward the kitchen table. She was almost there when the door on the heating vent on the wall suddenly blew off, and flames leapt out of the walls. The door hit her in the arm, and she stumbled backward, landing on her ass.

Devin ran to her side. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay. The fire is in the walls."

"Must have started downstairs. We need to go now."

She got back to her feet, throwing her computer and phone into her bag while Devin did the same. As they started down the hall, the heat intensified, and she was suddenly terrified that they wouldn't be able to get out of the apartment.

Pulling the neck of her shirt up over her mouth and nose, she followed Devin to the front door, keeping a hand on his back so she wouldn't lose him in the smoke.

When they went out the front door, she saw that the entire first floor of the building was ablaze. Sirens filled the air. Someone must have called in the fire.

Devin went down two steps, but as he hit the third step, the wood collapsed, and he would have fallen through if she hadn't grabbed his arm. He pulled out his leg and bypassing that step, they made it down to the sidewalk as a fire truck turned the corner.

The first man off the truck was her brother Hunter. He stopped abruptly when he saw her, then ran over to her. "Kate? What the hell?"

"I was in there," she said, pointing to the house. "We just got out."

"Anyone else inside?"

"No."

"Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. Go. Do your job."

He gave her a hard look, then joined the rest of the crew, while Devin and Kate watched the old Victorian house go up in flames.

"Damn," Devin muttered, staring at the blaze. "I didn't expect this."

"Expect what?"

"That he'd go after us and not the target."

He was right. Devin's building wasn't on the register. And it wasn't in the target zone.

"This isn't the third fire, Kate. This is a warning." He looked back at her, his lips set in a grim line. "We're getting too close."

"Are we close?" she asked in bewilderment. "We have no idea who's warning us."

"They obviously don't know that. Someone we've talked to recently figured out where I live, and he sent us a message. This could be his first mistake."

Seeing Devin's home destroyed didn't seem like much of a mistake to her. "You might lose everything Devin."

"But maybe we just got our first real clue."

There was no denying the excitement in his voice, but she didn't understand where it was coming from. "What clue? We don't know who did this."

"Not yet. But we forced him to break the pattern. The arsonist got nervous enough to act out of order. Who knows what he'll do next? I'd rather deal with someone who's panicking than someone who's acting with cold-blooded precision."

He had a point. "Okay, I guess it's about time you turned into the optimistic one, especially since it's your home that's going up in smoke. Oh, no. I just remembered—we didn't get the map off the wall."

"We have the photo you took earlier. And I have one on my computer."

"Right. Thank goodness. I didn't want to start from scratch again." She paused. "The first floor tenant is going to lose everything. All those beautiful vintage clothes are gone. The fire must have started in there."

"I'm sure it was easier to break into an empty store. There was no one around." He paused, turning to look at her again. "Thanks for waking me up."

"I keep thinking…what if I hadn't?" She was a little shaken by that thought.

"But you did. That's what matters."

"I'm glad we never got undressed and went to bed. At least we're still in our clothes."

"Yeah, we would have made quite a scene running out naked."

His joke lightened her mood a little. "Especially since my brother was the first one here."

"I didn't meet him yesterday, did I?"

"No, Hunter didn't show up. He's the one who's going to climb Mt. Everest."

"I can't imagine that's a bigger adrenaline rush than running into a burning building."

"I can't, either. I never ever wanted to be a firefighter. I forget how dangerous it is because I don't see it, and the firefighters in the family always downplay the risk. But there's risk. They just don't care. They don't get scared."

"They probably do get scared, but they push past it. You do that, too, Kate. You're every bit as brave as your brothers."

"I don't know about that, but thanks." She looked down the block, seeing neighbors coming out of their homes, gathering on the surrounding streets.
Did they all belong here? Or was someone out there—watching them?
A chill ran down her spine. "Do you think he's here?" she asked Devin. "Do you think he's enjoying this?"

"If he's out there, he's going to see that we're fine, and he's going to know that we're coming for him," Devin said with grim determination. "He's not getting away. He didn't scare me. He just motivated me more."

Twenty

After scouring the crowd for any suspects and talking to both the fire investigator at the scene and to Emma on the phone, Devin took Kate to a nearby hotel just before four in the morning. They checked into a room on the tenth floor, and Devin noticed that Kate made sure to double bolt the door. She was definitely rattled, and he couldn't blame her. They were lucky to have gotten out of his apartment alive.

Kate took a quick shower and stripped off her clothes and got into bed. He showered after her to get the smoke off his skin and out of his hair, and by the time he slid under the covers, Kate was asleep.

He left the light on for a minute, taking a moment to just look at her, to reassure himself that she was all right. The paramedics had offered them oxygen and a ride to the hospital, but while they'd taken the air, they'd declined the hospital trip, and he hoped that was the right decision.

Kate looked fine. Her cheeks were rosy from her shower, her hair still damp from the quick blow-dry she'd done, and her skin was its usual creamy texture. She was a beautiful woman. Sometimes when they were in the middle of things, he forgot that. When he was with her—her fire, her determination, her optimism—were so forceful and bright that all he could see was her personality—all he could see was
her
.

She was one-of-a-kind—the full package. The kind of woman who could kick down a door one second and nurture a baby the next.

The kind of woman he could love
.

That thought shook him more than any other, and he rolled over onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.

Seeing Kate with her family had shown him her softer side. He'd watched her try to patiently connect with the autistic Brandon, and hold a sobbing baby while her mother went to get her a bottle. He'd seen her joke with her brother and sister and share confidences with her cousins. It was clear how well loved and liked she was, and he'd been more than proud to be her fake boyfriend.

He just kept fighting the urge to make it real.

But how could he make it real?

There was no way. Their paths were going to split and go in completely opposite directions in just a few days. There would be no more trips to the batting cages, no more dance lessons, no more watching a movie together, no more sex…

Glancing over at her, he didn't know if he could stand the thought of never kissing her, touching her, being with her again. He'd never had such a feeling of panic run through him. But that had to be what was making his heart thud against his chest.

How could he have let this happen?

He knew better than to let himself care too much about anyone, especially someone who had one foot out the door.

But here he was—in the exact place he didn't want to be.

Except that he did want to be here, in this bed with her. He just knew it couldn't last.

Taking a deep breath, he rolled over onto his side and put his arm around her, burying his face in the silky strands of her hair. She would be gone soon, but for now…

She moved in closer to him, sliding her arm around his waist. He liked how she knew him, wanted him, even in sleep.

So he held her close until the night turned to dawn. The minutes passed both far too slowly and far too quickly. Finally, he couldn't fight the exhaustion, and he fell asleep, hoping she'd still be there in his arms when he woke up.

* * *

Devin was just waking up when Kate walked out of the bathroom, fully dressed.

"Hey sleepyhead," she teased. "It's almost noon."

He sat up and ran a hand through his hair. "I feel like I just fell asleep. When did you get up?"

"About ten minutes ago."

"I'm glad you got some rest. You fell asleep fast last night."

"I don't even remember coming into this room." She sat down on the bed next to him. "My clothes still smell of smoke."

"I'm sure mine do, too."

"I'm sorry about your home, Devin."

"It was just an apartment. Nothing in there was too important. I'm glad you weren't hurt."

"Right back at you," she said, knowing he was making light of his loss. Even if the apartment hadn't held anything of great sentiment, it was still his personal space, and now it was gone. "So what do we do next?"

"Well, I don’t believe last night's fire is going to stop the real one that's coming. That pattern is begging to be completed, and, if anything, I think the arsonist is getting impatient. He's going to want it to be done, before he's stopped."

"I agree. I think it will happen within the next two days. He might go into hiding tonight, make sure we haven't found him, and then come back out."

"Or he might be making plans to strike tonight," he said. "Let's talk to Gerilyn Connors. At the very least, we can find out where Brad was last night."

"That's a good idea. I just ordered some room service."

He smiled. "You always know what I need."

"It wasn't a big guess to think you'd be hungry now."

"I'll grab a shower."

As Devin got out of bed wearing nothing but a pair of boxers, she couldn't help but look at him. His chiseled male body was pretty spectacular, and she was more than a little tempted to join him in the shower, especially when he threw her a teasing look and said, "See anything you like?"

"Go," she said, waving him into the bathroom.

"There's room for two."

"But no time," she said firmly. "We have a lot to do today."

She let out a breath when he closed the door, putting temptation farther out of reach.

She pulled her phone out of her bag and saw a dozen messages from numerous members of her family. Hunter had obviously told everyone about the fire at Devin's house. She was just about to call her mom back when her phone rang. It was Mia.

"Don't tell me the news already made it to Angel's Bay," she said.

"If you mean the fact that you were almost killed in a fire last night—yes," Mia said, worry in her voice. "And I've texted you six times. What the hell are you doing?"

"I was sleeping. I was just about to check my messages. I'm fine. Totally one-hundred percent fine. Hunter should have told everyone that. He saw me."

"What happened? Why are you in San Francisco so early? And who is this new boyfriend you're bringing to the wedding who I've never heard anything about?"

She sighed, waiting for Mia to run out of steam on her questions. "Okay, he's not a real boyfriend; I just told Mom he was so she wouldn't ask any more questions. I came to the city early to help a former agent on an arson case. I didn't want Mom to know, but I ran into her, so I let her think we were dating."

"This is the guy you were waiting for in the car when I spoke to you the other night?"

"That's the one. We were at his place last night when the arsonist decided to send us a warning, but we got out in time."

"My dream," Mia said. "I dreamt you were surrounded by bright light. Remember? I told you that."

Her nerves tingled at the reminder. As twins, they'd always been very in tune with each other. "There wasn't actually a lot of fire near me, just smoke."

"To think you could have died last night—"

"Mia, stop. I didn't come close to dying, honestly. I smelled the smoke. We left the apartment. And we came to a hotel. That's the whole story."

"Somehow I doubt that is even close to the whole story. And what were you doing in this guy's house in the middle of the night? Are you sure he's really a fake boyfriend?"

Her sister's question drew her gaze to the bathroom door. "Actually, I'm not totally sure about that. He's an amazing man. But I'm going back to work after your wedding, and my work is in DC. I don't know what Devin is going to be doing after this case is solved. So I really need to not like him so much."

"Oh, Kate, that's not going to happen."

"It could happen," she protested.