Hearts on Fire 1: Serefina (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Dixie Lynn Dwyer

  Ice came first, shooting his seed down her throat before pulling from her mouth and kissing her.

  Ace followed next, shoving upward three more times as he chanted her to come with them.

  “Come with us baby. Come with me,” he stated aloud as he closed his eyes and stroked deeply into her pussy. Serefina felt her entire body tighten and send her over the edge crying out her release as Ace gripped her hips, exploding inside of her cunt.

  Then Bull wrapped an arm around her waist and stroked into her ass three more times. “I’m there, baby. Holy God, I’m there with you,” he said before he finally came. He remained deep in her ass causing her to lose her breath and fall against Ace’s chest. Ace’s strong arms wrapped around her as they all panted for breath. When they were recovering, Bull pulled gently from her body, lifted her up, turned her around, and kissed her as she tried to straddle his waist. He used his hand to cup her ass stroking her pussy in the process. She was amazed that she felt ready to do it all again, but then she closed her eyes and lay her head on Bull’s chest before they lay back on the bed and fell asleep again.

  Chapter 12

  “You’re telling us that this arsonist, the one you think is the same who killed Marco, is after my daughter, Serefina?” Chief Marty Martelli asked Trent Landers.

  “It’s looking that way, Chief. I’ve been wracking my brain, so has Buddy, for months trying to find the asshole who killed our cousin. The evidence collected shows that this guy is the same one who set that fire out in North Carolina.”

  “Yeah, and the Feds are onto to him, too. His identity isn’t known or his whereabouts, but they’ve linked these fires to the same arsonist for the same reasons and evidence we have,” Detective Buddy Landers told him.

  Marty looked at his sons, and they were furious.

  “Well how come the Feds won’t track this guy down and arrest him then?” Eddie asked.

  “They gave us some bullshit excuse about international business crimes and some things they have linked to someone connected to the arsonist. We don’t know, but we don’t care. We’re continuing to investigate to try and identify this guy. We want a name, a face, and we want to stop him before he hurts any more innocent people,” Trent explained.

  “So he wants Serefina just because she’s a survivor of that fire?” Tyler asked, not quite understanding.

  “I think so, Tyler. There were five survivors, and only two are left. The other three died in suspicious fires that eventually proved to be arson. Those three fires have our arsonist’s MO written all over them.”

  “Shit, she needs protection,” Lance stated as he stood up.

  “What are you going to do?” Marty asked them.

  “First, put everyone on alert about this guy and his typical approach to setting a fire. We need to protect our own, and not just sit around and wait for this guy to come here and cause more pain and damage,” Buddy stated.

  “We should tell Serefina. We need to make her aware of everything, and get her on board with taking precautions,” Marty said.

  “I’ll call her now and ask her to come over here. I think she got in late last night. I never heard Tasha drop her off,” Tyler said as he texted her. When he didn’t get an answer, Eddie ran next door to see if she was asleep in bed. He came back shortly after, and in a panic just as their mom got home from the gym.

  The men greeted her and then they asked about Serefina.

  “Why, what’s wrong?” she asked, looking concerned.

  Marty explained as he placed an arm over her shoulder. She gasped, covering her mouth, obviously hit with surprise and concern.

  “She never came home last night?” Tyler asked, now sounding furious, too.

  “Where the hell is she? What if this guy has her or is watching her?” Eddie asked.

  “All right, let’s calm down and figure out where she was seen last and start calling her friends,” Buddy began to say.

  “No. You don’t have to. I know where she is,” Angelina stated. They all looked at her as she pulled her bottom lip into her mouth and then looked at her husband.

  “Well, where is she?” Marty asked.

  “She’s safe. She’s with Ice, Bull, and Ace Sullivan.”

  A loud series of “whats” went through the room.

  Trent stood up and paced. “She’s seeing my cousins? Since when?” he asked.

  “Not very long,” Marty stated through clenched teeth.

  Angelina placed her hand over his arm. “She’s a grown woman and they are good men. She’s safe. That’s what we need to focus on.”

  “We need to contact them and let them know about the situation. They can bring her back here and we can protect her best,” Eddie said, sounding angry.

  “This is not going to go over well, and I can tell you that if my cousins are involved with her, then they won’t leave her side,” Trent stated with confidence.

  “They might not get that choice. She’s our sister and right now her safety is important,” Lance said.

  “This guy, if it is the same arsonist, he killed Marco. Ace, Ice, and Bull haven’t gotten over losing him. Do you think they’re going to leave their woman’s side when she is in possible danger from the same man?” Trent asked.

  “Fuck!” Eddie yelled out.

  “Calm down. Let’s just get them here as soon as possible,” the chief said and then pulled out his phone. They watched him, wondering what he was doing until he spoke.

  “You need to bring my daughter home now. I expect the four of you within the hour.” He disconnected the call and then looked at his wife. “You and I are going to talk later.”

  Angelina smiled and then hugged his arm. “Okay, Chief. We’ll talk later.”

  * * * *

  Serefina threw on her dress from last night after they all took showers. She was in a panic. Her father knew they were all together and she spent the night with three men. She couldn’t help but feel like she’d committed a terrible sin, not only for having sex with three men but also for having anal sex. She basically went all out with these guys in the heat of passion. Truth was, she didn’t regret one second of it. In fact, she was so disappointed when the phone rang because Bull was just unzipping her dress again and trying to get her back into bed.

  Now her mind was on the problem at home. What could it be? Was someone hurt? Was Mom okay? Was her dad just pissed about the sex with three men, firefighters in his engine company?

  Ace squeezed her hand as he drove the truck, and Ice held her other hand.

  “I’m sure everything is okay. Stop freaking out. We were going to have to face your dad eventually, so why not now?” Ace asked.

  “For one, we’re not exactly dating, Ace. We jumped into bed, did some wild stuff, and all within twenty hours,” she replied.

  “You regret what we did?” Bull asked from behind her.

  “No, of course I don’t.”

  “Then what does it matter? Twenty hours, two hours, two months, two years, it doesn’t matter. We want to be together and we have something special,” Ice said and lifted her knuckles to his lips and kissed them. She smiled as she leaned against his shoulder.

  As they pulled up the long driveway, Ace noticed the arson investigator truck and the unmarked police car.

  “What are Buddy and Trent doing here?” Ice asked.

  “Shit,” Ace added, and they got out of the truck.

  “Who are they?” Serefina asked.

  “Our cousins. Trent is the arson investigator for the county and Buddy is a detective in the sheriff’s department,” Ace told her. Before they even reached the front door, it opened. Her father was there and he looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek.

  Serefina was going to release Ice’s hand, but he squeezed tighter.

  “What’s going on, Chief?” Ace asked, leading the way.

  “Come inside,” he told them, opening the door wider. When he looked past them and around the yard, Serefina had a terrible feeling in her gut.
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br />   * * * *

  “Are you kidding me? This can’t be happening,” Ice stated first while Serefina sat there looking white as a ghost and numb.

  “It’s true, Ice. It’s got to be the same guy. The evidence is piling up, and it seems like his next move might be Serefina or the last survivor. There are detectives protecting that guy as precaution,” Trent stated.

  Serefina stood up and walked across the room. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest. “If this guy finds out that they’re Marco’s brothers and that I’m involved with them, he could go after them, too, couldn’t he?” she asked. They were all quiet.

  “If he sees that you’re romantically involved, but we still don’t know if he is watching you or if he’s trying to track you down. The fact that you left North Carolina threw him for a loop maybe. We don’t know,” Buddy told her.

  “We can’t take that chance. I’m not willing to take that chance,” she said.

  “What are you saying?” her father asked her.

  She looked at Ace, Ice, and Bull.

  “I lost Matt, I’m not going to lose the three of you, or anyone else I care about.”

  They didn’t seem to understand what she was saying, except for Ace. He walked closer.

  “We lost Marco because of this psycho. We are not going to let this monster get to you, or anyone else. That’s the whole point of this. Thanks to Trent and Buddy, we can provide the protection you need.”

  “What if he comes after you?” she asked.

  He pulled her into his arms. “I failed my brother. I’m not going to fail you or my other brothers, and I mean all of you.”

  * * * *

  Bull stood on the deck outside of the chief’s house and stared out toward the yard. Ace, Ice, Eddie, and Trent were there, too.

  “Twelve firefighters and a hundred and thirteen people? My God,” Bull stated aloud, still not really comprehending the casualties. He remembered it had almost been a year ago when Eddie, his brothers, and the chief said they needed to head out for a week to North Carolina, and that their sister and daughter needed them. Later, Eddie had said she lost friends in a bad fire. They had heard about the club fire on television, as most of the news channels covered the story. But the chief never let on to any connection to it, or that his daughter had been in the fire.”

  “Why hadn’t you or your dad mentioned to us that your sister was in that club fire and that she nearly died?” Bull asked, feeling a combination of anger, as well as relief.

  “We didn’t know that she had been trapped. She never told us the whole story. She still hasn’t told us about the experience,” Eddie told him.

  “How the hell could you not know when she has that burn scar on her neck? You were out there to see her,” Ice said.

  “What burn mark?” Eddie asked.

  “The one she hid from us because she didn’t want us to worry about her,” the chief stated, joining them on the porch.

  “Dad?” Eddie questioned him.

  “Son, I only just found out about that scarring and that she was actually burned in the fire last week. Your mom told me after she visited your sister and saw it. She questioned Serefina, and Serefina basically told her that it wasn’t important. That people lost their lives and a little burn, a scar, was nothing.”

  “My God. Did she explain about the fire, what she saw, anything?” Trent asked.

  The chief shook his head.

  “We tried to ask. She wasn’t budging with answers and had lost her boyfriend, Matt. So we didn’t push. Especially when she had to attend all those funerals. Angelina stayed on for an additional week, but it was a blur even for her. We tried to convince Serefina to come home then, but she refused. Then I heard from a friend of hers about the depression.”

  “Depression?” Ace asked.

  “She was down, had missed Matt terribly, and taken his death really hard.”

  “She said they were serious, that she loved him,” Bull added as he looked at his brothers.

  “Well, she said some things that concerned Angelina and I, so we pushed for her to come back home.”

  “What things?” Eddie asked.

  “Let’s just say we were concerned that she might hurt herself.”

  “What? Why would she do that? Over some guy, some first love?” Eddie asked, obviously not knowing how to handle it.

  “Son, we didn’t know why. But then that same day, when your mom saw the scar, Serefina told her that she had seen Matt die. She saw him fall into the fire to his death.”

  Everyone was silent.

  “You said that Serefina was burned? Was that public knowledge?” Trent asked.

  “I’m not sure. I mean I think she was the only survivor with a burn. I heard that the others had bruises and things, why?” the chief asked Trent.

  “He pulled out a folder and rummaged through the documents. He found what he was looking for and pulled it out.

  “There was this article in the local paper from North Carolina. It shows Serefina at the funeral for Matt and another two firefighters. She had been so supportive to their families, and they mention that she was burned but somehow survived and weren’t certain why. Serefina hasn’t told anyone the story, so maybe she doesn’t even know how. But if the arsonist read these, and celebrated over his act of fire and killing, he could see Serefina and the other survivors as ones who got away and escaped. Now it’s just a hunch, but I remember reading about numerous arsonists who were so obsessed with fire they actually thought that God, or a spirit was telling them what to do. They don’t have a grasp on reality. There are many possibilities.”

  “Oh no. You could actually be onto something, Trent. Just in her name alone, and a crazy arsonist obsessed with fire could gain interest,” Eddie said.

  “What do you mean?” Bull asked.

  “Serefina has meaning. The burning one, one of the nine orders of angels according to Christians,” Eddie replied.

  “Serefina, the highest ranking angel of God who helps guard the gates to heaven,” the chief whispered.

  “What evidence would point to this theory, Trent?” Ice asked.

  “I’m not sure, but I’m not dismissing it. It’s right there in plain sight. What I need to figure out is what is the business aspect the Feds are so hung up on?”

  “He could be a hired arsonist. It would explain the use of explosive devices and barricading exits to ensure the elimination of the target,” Ace stated, and everyone looked at him.

  “A definite possibility. I’m going to go look up similar cases around the area, and see if there are further matches,” Trent said and then stood up and exited the porch.

  The chief followed, leaving Eddie, Ice, Ace, and Bull.

  Bull looked at Ace who was staring out toward the backyard with both hands holding on to the railing. He could sense his upset and uneasiness about the situation. Hell, he was scared, too, and he wanted to go inside and hold Serefina in his arms and never release her, but he couldn’t.

  “I’m going to take some personal time. I’m gonna talk with the chief about it so that I can watch over Serefina,” Ace said, still looking off toward the yard.

  “We’ll take time off, too,” Ice stated.

  Ace turned around. “No. You two will have the protection of the firehouse, and can stick to your regular routines. It’s my responsibility, my job to keep her safe.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” Ice asked, raising his voice and the attention of Bull and Eddie. Even Bull was a bit hurt by what Ace said, but he understood his brother.

  “It’s the way it’s going to be. Her brothers and father and I will keep watch over her. I can stay in her apartment or she can stay in our house. Whatever she wants to do.”

  “Ace, I understand why you think that you have to take on this responsibility and that you feel the need to take control here, but she doesn’t just belong to you, she belongs to us. We care about her deeply. In fact, I’m in love with her. It’s all our jobs to protect her,
to protect one another,” Bull stated.

  “I won’t fail her. I won’t fail you two either.”

  “Goddamn it, Ace, you didn’t fail Marco. He was the one who didn’t tell us about the things left behind at the fires and about the arsonist taunting him. No one knew, not you, not the chief back then, no one knew that fire was a set up and that Marco was inside. It’s not your fault. It’s no one’s but this arsonist’s,” Bull told him.

  “It’s the same guy. He took Marco from us. It nearly made us fall apart. Serefina completes us, she’s brought the three of us together just like Marco said. I wouldn’t survive without her in my life. I can’t fail her. I won’t fail her,” he stated firmly and then walked off the porch.

  * * * *

  Serefina was getting changed out of the dress she wore last night. Her brother Tyler remained outside of the apartment, on guard. She was shaking from the overload of information from Trent and Buddy. The thought that there was a person out there who wanted to kill her, most likely by fire, made her feel sick and petrified. Her hands were shaking as she put on a bra after applying some light lotion to her skin. She stepped into a pair of panties and then a skirt before searching her draw for a tank top. As she approached the dresser, her eyes locked onto the five-by-seven brass picture frame.

  Her heart sunk. Her eyes welled up with tears as she stared into Matt’s blue eyes. The picture beside that one was a single picture of Matt in uniform, and he was smiling wide. She traced her finger along the frame and thought about him, about that night he died.

  She was suddenly hit with guilt again. A feeling so deep it pulled a hoarse cry from her throat as she grabbed his picture and hugged it to his chest. It wasn’t fair. None of this was fair. Why had he died? Why was this monster set on killing innocent people with fire now set on having her? She looked down at the picture, tears flowing from her eyes and landing on the glass frame as she snorted and then used the back of her hand to wipe her eyes.