Down in Flames (Wildfire Hearts Book 5)

by Savannah Kade

  As he'd suspected, Elliot—or someone associated with him—was checking her email from the inside. It was one thing to use her email to subscribe her to things, but Elliot seemed like the kind who would either be obsessed enough or rich enough to pay someone to be sure he had it right.

  He would have needed to be sure that the email Tierney.Doyle belonged to his Emily Gallagher.

  Finding the password and logging in would certainly help verify he had the right person and as long as his tracks were covered, or if Tierney hadn't set up any alerts for logins from different locations, she would never know.

  Ronan looked around the small room, wondering if she'd gotten some kind of pop up that he had logged in from across town. Everything else he scanned through looked like it was her—checking her email from her phone somewhere in town, from her laptop at home. But ...?

  He scrolled back further and found a login from a city several hours away to the west. Hadn't she rented a cabin with Sean and hiked the waterfalls? So that would have been her, too.

  With the phone still in one hand and the other clacking away at the keyboard, he dialed her. "Tierney."

  "What?"

  It felt far too good to hear her voice, to know she was still safe. But Ronan didn't think she would appreciate him telling her that now.

  "He's been logging into your email."

  "What?" She'd clearly had no idea.

  "That's how he knew it was you. That's how he knew to sign you up. He may have even had to verify the email to sign you up for those things."

  He heard her take a deep breath, and then she talked herself down from what might be absolute terror. "Well, I don't think there's anything damning there."

  "No, but it's definitely interesting. Like you said they have enough money to check places other people wouldn't think to look." Even as he talked, Ronan continued to scroll back, checking the login dates and locations and looking for anything suspicious.

  "Holy shit!" he said as the screen popped up a date from a year earlier.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Tierney woke up with a sick knot in her stomach.

  She had heard nothing about Sean, which meant he was safe. That small comfort was the only thing that let her keep going.

  Ronan had found where her email had been hacked a year earlier. So Elliot had known about her for that long but hadn't swept in and grabbed her. Maybe he hadn't been certain she was Emily. Maybe Elliot just wanted to play a waiting game.

  Whatever Elliot's intentions or whatever game he was playing, he'd known about her long enough that she had to assume that he knew Sean existed. If he did the math, he would know more than that.

  Still, nothing had happened. Nothing except her going to the bar, getting up in the morning, and locking the doors and windows like a madman. She and Ronan had put bars in all the windows and added another bolt at each of the front and back doors near the top where they probably wouldn't be suspected. Of course, not so high that she couldn't reach them.

  She wasn't sleeping well. Mr. Kittens was up every few hours with her kittens. The tiny mews should have been obnoxious, but they were cute. The cats weren’t why she wasn't sleeping, they were simply company when she was awake.

  She'd hauled the whole family into the living room wanting to watch over them. Maybe she was just missing her own child. The kittens were round jellybeans, their legs tiny, skinny sticks with little pink toes on the end. Not even good for walking yet, just for waving around.

  Sometime in the wee hours each night she'd fall asleep on the couch, Mr. Kittens purring contentedly in the box at her fingertips. The gun waited quietly under the throw pillow, the bat near the end of the couch. On this, the third morning, she started to wonder how long it could go on.

  She called Zadie Sosa, the new vet in town, and asked how she should be caring for her newborn kittens. The good news was that she just needed to watch them. Until she saw a problem, she mostly wasn't to interfere.

  "You'll need to bring them in for a wellness check sometime in about five days or so if you can." Zadie gave her the rundown on what she was to look for, in case a kitten needed milk supplement or needed to get in sooner.

  Tierney didn't know how she was going to afford all of this, but it was apparent that was the least of her worries. She wasn't going to let Mr. Kittens or the litter suffer; she needed them to all be here and healthy when Sean returned. Tierney was glad though, that Mr. Kittens wasn’t venturing outside. Whoever had left those rats wasn't trustworthy around animals at all.

  Her phone pinged, startling her.

  She'd managed to get up and head toward her bed for a few hours last night. She’d even managed to sleep three reasonable chunks of time, though she'd woken up in a cold sweat between each of them.

  — Are you up?

  Ronan texted.

  — Yes. All good.

  He didn't ask about Sean. She'd promised to let him know any news and if anyone was monitoring her communication, Tierney didn't want to flag them. There were already enough changes.

  Dad came into the bar more often. He'd set up a knife and shotgun under the bar within easy reach. He'd showed Elliot's picture to all of the employees and though he never told anyone who Emily Gallagher was, he did tell them that Elliot had stalked his daughter and that they were to report if they saw him. But so far no one had.

  Tierney had pulled out her minimal computer skills and tried to see what Elliot would look like with longer hair. She tried him with a better tan, darker hair, glasses, a beard. She needed to recognize him even if he tried to look different. Then again, she was confident if Elliot was within fifty yards of her she would feel his presence.

  Had she? Over the last year, she thought she was feeling more paranoid, more concerned, she looked over her shoulder more often. There was the occasional feeling she was being watched. Maybe she'd been right.

  — On my way, she told Ronan.

  A little while later, when she'd gotten her teeth brushed and her clothing on and her hair pulled up, she headed out the door. They'd agreed to meet for breakfast today. He was in her life constantly now. Though she insisted on staying at her own home and maintaining some level of normal, he insisted on horning in. Tierney both loved and hated it.

  It was wonderful that he felt so protective of her. It was awful that she was falling harder for him than she ever had before.

  It sucked even more that it was happening right when she needed to be getting over him. It was wonderful to be near him and sometimes have him hold her, and it was petrifying to know that she'd made him a target. She couldn't just ask an old friend to take him away out of town for a month. Ronan wouldn't stand for it either. It didn't help that he didn't even have a job to go to.

  The poor guy was bored out of his gourd without work. That was probably the main reason he was watching her so closely. She turned the key in the car, braced for an explosion that didn't come and told herself that Ronan couldn't really feel anything more than familial protection for her. She was a project, nothing more.

  Her hand dipped to her side to check the holster clipped to the waistband of her jeans. The weight of it now felt normal as did the way her eyes scanned the street behind her as she pulled out. She looked for anything out of the ordinary but didn't see it. With nothing pinging her senses except that it was too easy, she headed into town to a local diner.

  Sliding into one of the red vinyl booths, she waited for Ronan to show up.

  He was there in a few minutes, and less than twenty seconds after that, Diana, the waitress, sidled up to the table with coffee. "Well, don't you two look cute?"

  Ronan only grinned at Tierney and then up at Diana as if he had a secret. He did, but it wasn't that!

  Jesus, the things he was going to let people think. But she tried to let it pass as they both flipped their mugs upright. Ronan outright flirted with Diana, while Tierney searched the tabletop for the right kinds of sugars and the little creamer pot.

  It was only Wednesday,
and it was going to be rough. Lack of sleep could only be replaced by caffeine for so long.

  As Diana headed away with their orders, Ronan turned back to her, now solemn. "I pulled another email this morning."

  "I didn't see anything," she paused as she'd been starting to take a sip of her coffee.

  "I archived it as soon as I saw it."

  Trying to protect her again. "What was it?"

  "Another subscription for Emmie Baby."

  She tried to fight the shudder but couldn't. "What was it for? Socks? Leftover vegetables from the harvest?"

  "It was for a relatively pornographic calendar."

  She leaned back in the booth, trying to absorb news that she did not like. Elliot was stepping up.

  "Are you sure you want to go through with this?" Ronan asked.

  "I think I have to," she said. "Because I don't think tonight's going to be safe."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  Ronan walked through the large, open bay doors at the Redemption fire station. It felt bizarre to be coming in this way, not dressed for work, not at the right time for shift change.

  His fellow A-shift firefighters walked forward, hugging him tightly and clapping him on the back.

  Jordan hugged him. "How much longer, man?"

  "Just under two weeks."

  Jordan looked at him sideways, squinting at him. "Is that best case scenario or worst?"

  "Best," Ronan admitted. But he was the guy who always aimed for best case scenario, so he tried to ignore the worst case option.

  Two long tables had been set up along the front of the empty bay for the Crawl tonight. This was one of the earlier stations for those who started on this side of town, which most people did, especially this early in the day. While it was still daylight, the station would have an engine out for the kids to play on, provided the crew wasn’t called to a scene.

  Aidan was setting out Fire station cookies. "Come help me, bro."

  He was trying to make neat lines of little cellophane-wrapped goodies that Talia's bakery had provided them.

  Ronan shook his head. "I've got to go see the chief."

  "Whatever." Aidan waved him away and went back to making a remarkably crooked display.

  Taggart must have heard Ronan coming because he was already hopping up from his chair as Ronan pushed the door open. He stepped through and tried to be cordial. "Hi, Chief!"

  "How are you doing? I heard two weeks."

  It wasn’t a surprise that he'd already heard. "That's my goal."

  "We'll be glad to have you back. Been hard pressed to fill an empty space this long." The chief held up his hand though as if to ward him off. "But it's not a problem. You take what time you need. We've got the manpower to do it and the guys do like the overtime."

  Ronan grinned. He would like anything, even just regular time. Medical leave sucked on many fronts but, instead of continuing the banter, he pulled out a chair. "I need to catch you up on something, Chief."

  "Oh?" Sure enough, the older man looked plenty worried and honestly with what Ronan was about to say, it made sense.

  "I've been helping Tierney Doyle."

  The chief tipped his head. "Your wife's sister, right?"

  Ronan nodded, though he hadn't really thought of Siorse as "his wife" in a while and he sure didn't think of Tierney that way anymore.

  He explained to the chief what he'd been doing, and that he'd been handing over files to Detective Gomez at the police department.

  "Gomez has been keeping it pretty hush," Taggart mused.

  "I don't know what he's planning to do, but he's monitoring the case. He did say with stalker cases there wasn't much you could do until after a crime was committed. Tierney doesn't even have enough evidence now for a restraining order."

  "That's how these things often go." The chief looked disheartened. The fire department saw more domestic disputes than people realized, not just with fires but with medical calls and more.

  "I'm trying not to be public about it," Ronan started, "But the more people who know what they're looking for the better we can keep Tierney safe."

  The chief only raised one eyebrow, as if to question Ronan's dedication to the cause, but he wasn't going to be swayed.

  Ronan went on to explain about the emails and the dead rats, watching his chief’s face contort with disgust. Then he showed the photos he had.

  "This is the guy you're certain is responsible?"

  "We don't have hard evidence and that's the problem. But it really couldn't be anybody else. He's the one who called her by the nicknames used on the emails. Apparently, he's sick enough to leave dead rats on her doorstep." Ronan held his phone up to show off the man's picture and watched the Chief’s eyes scan the small screen. He saw the moment the older man read the name.

  "Are you fucking serious?"

  "Unfortunately, yes." Ronan hated this—that Vander clef’s money bought him a measure of protection even from this far away. At least, Ronan hoped he was far away.

  "Hell," the chief looked away. "I'm out here in the middle of Nebraska and I've heard of the Vander clefs."

  Ronan could only nod.

  Then the chief warned him. "If you misstep on this, the Vander clef family is going to bury your butt so deep you'll never find it again."

  "I know." There was nothing else he could say. But he wouldn't back off when Tierney needed him.

  The conversation stalled. He didn't quite know how to tell the chief that he'd thought it all through and he still believed it was worth it. He couldn't fathom walking away from Tierney and he tried not to imagine why he couldn't fathom it.

  With nothing more he could add, he tried another angle. "I want to show this around to the guys. I want more eyes on The Crawl tonight."

  "Shit," Taggart said, tapping his pen sideways on the desk. "Yeah, there are going to be a lot of people in town. I don't know how we’d keep track of them or even find him if we knew he was here."

  "That's exactly the problem. Look," Ronan pulled up more pictures. "Tierney also gave me these."

  He held up the altered photographs of Vander clef and the Chief nodded. "Do it. Show the guys. We'll be on this. I just don't know how to make any guarantees."

  That was the best they could do, Ronan knew.

  Fifteen minutes later, he'd gone to the guys one by one, interrupting their tasks and explaining the story. He didn't want to make a big announcement in case anyone was listening in. Some of the local families were starting to trickle in, the earlybirds on the Crawl. They'd go hit the bakery next, probably skip the bar, and check out the new animal shelter that was opening where Zadie was hoping to adopt out a handful of dogs and cats tonight. The diner was serving ice cream and more.

  Avoiding local ears, he made the circuit. Leslie was the last one he got to and he pulled her aside, telling he the same story.

  "Oh shit," she said. "I had a stalker a long time ago and I thought he was bad. Looks like he was just a regular hometown variety though." She looked at the pictures again and checked out the name. "I have to admit Tierney went for it! How did she even meet him?"

  Ronan could only shrug in response. Tierney Doyle would never have had the opportunity to cross paths with Elliot Vander clef. For Emily Gallagher though, it had been a different story.

  "I've got my eyes out." Leslie never questioned that the wealthy, good-looking charmer could be a stalker. "Should I call you if I see anything?"

  Ronan nodded as he sent her copies of the photos. He'd sent photos then to each of them as soon as they agreed. The whole shift was on the lookout now. "Thanks, Leslie."

  "Heads up!" she told him as he turned around to see Tierney walking through the open bay doors, her long coat on, but open.

  Ronan looked her up and down, glad she seemed safe. She walked with confidence. The cold weather had forced her into a fluffy, fuzzy, fitted coat that he wanted to get his hands into. It didn't quite conceal the bump of a gun at her hip. He wondered if it was as noticeable as he t
hought it was.

  Heading toward her, he passed a few odd looks from the guys as he made his way. She didn't see him yet, and he liked checking her out. Were the guys thinking he was a lovesick fool? Was he?

  As he sidled around the table, he took her hand in his, tugging her away from prying eyes. "Shall we start at the next place?"

  "No," she replied, tugging her hand back with a sly grin. "I have Fire station dogs to pet and a cookie to pick up!"

  "You sure you don't need a fire safety pamphlet, too?" Aidan held it out to her, silently razzing his brother with his interruption.

  "That is an excellent idea!" She grinned again and took the pamphlet even as she made sure to grab one of the cookies.

  She was chatting with the guys like the old friend she was. So he stepped back and let her hang out for a few more minutes. Even in that timeframe the crowds began to pick up. His eyes scanned everyone and he hoped he didn't look like he was doing it. He'd never been as subtle as he wanted to think he was.

  The sun would go down early, so the families were all coming out now while they could. They crowded the table and the kids' questions stole the firefighters' time and attention away from Tierney. Ronan tried not to be happy about it.

  With her hand finally tucked in his again, he walked down the block while she ate the cookie. Red frosting dusted the edges of her lips and for a moment he had thoughts he shouldn't have about his late wife's sister.

  He asked one more time. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

  Tierney just looked at him like he was crazy. "I think I have to. We don't know where he is. I can't let him control my life if he's not even here!"

  "And if he is?" Ronan pushed.

  "Well, I've been his bait before. I can handle it again."

  He didn't like the idea of Tierney as bait or the determination in her voice.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Tierney and Ronan stepped into the diner and looked around. The place was already filling up with people enjoying the Crawl.