Nothing.
Surely they would miss me. Next came one of my shoes. Tap, tap, tap, each hit louder than the one before. Listen. Then repeat.
Crap, I needed a new idea. Little late to think about the cellphone in my purse but I did, it was just too bad my purse was out front with the others.
I banged again but stopped when I heard shuffling around outside the door like someone was moving boxes.
“Hey, thank God! I thought I was going to spend the evening locked in here. The lock is broken or something because the door won’t push open.”
The noise stopped. But then a new worry surfaced when I began to smell smoke.
“Anyone? Can you hear me?” I yelled and banged on the door with my fist. “Something’s on fire!” I picked the dented can back up and pounded with everything I had. It would have been easy to let panic and fear take over but that wouldn’t help the women out front. “Come on, anyone!”
“Bitch, there is no one but me. Shut up, you are giving me a headache.”
“Inspector Richie?”
What the fuck?
“I want you to think of me when the fire surrounds you and pulls the oxygen out of the air and you gasp for your last breath.”
Okay.
“Let me out. We have to get the other women out of here. What the hell is wrong with you? I’ll tell you what I’m thinking. You are fucking nuts! We have to find where the smoke is coming from.” I fought to calm down, if I could keep her talking someone would come looking for us.
“No one is coming. They are outside waiting for us.” She laughed and it was creepy and sent a chill down my spine.
“Then let me out so we can join them.” More shuffling sounds reached me and when I looked down, smoke was beginning to flow under the door. “I don’t know what you’re plan to accomplish by this, but let me out! I can hear that you are still there!” The sounds stopped and when Mona spoke her voice was soft and eerie.
“Oh, Ana. It must be nice to be you. The woman everyone loves and wants to make happy. Men drop at your feet and worship you. Women like you don’t have to worry about being lonely or accepted. You can pick and choose who you will spend time with. I will give you this over the others, you were a challenge to me. I had to actually plan, which I did. You can thank your latest conquest’s family for giving me this opportunity, but oh, wait, you won’t be able to. Don’t worry, I will take care of O’Malley for you. I will help him through the grief of losing you and then he will be so grateful and come to realize that I am so much more of woman than you.”
“You’re not nuts. You’re fucking insane! Kian will never care for you, no matter if I die. Let me out of here! I can’t believe you are doing this because you have some infatuation with Kian O’Malley. They will catch you and you will spend your whole life in prison. You’ll never have the chance to find actual love.” As I talked I pulled my shirt off, leaving just my bra and shoved the shirt at the bottom of the door to stop the smoke that was working its way into the bathroom. Smoke that was coming faster, which meant more of the store was catching fire. Mona had to be standing right outside the door because she began to whisper and I strained to hear her words.
“I had love once. He was beautiful and I would have done anything for him. But women like you kept luring him away with the promises of sex. He loved me but refused to admit it because others spread their legs freely for him. When I offered to do the things I watched him do with the you and them, he laughed.”
“What?”
“I got wise to him and realized when I was on shift, he would bring the women to his house. The cameras I installed made it so I could watch him to make sure he wasn’t being lured away. Each woman acted the same, dressed the same, even you. I showed him the tapes the day he told me to no longer come to his house, that he was done with me. You and the others were responsible for him not wanting me. His screams as the fire took him eased my pain but didn’t make it go away completely so I found the first three and watched them. They had found each other because of him and they too had the flames to cleanse them. It was one of my finer plans and you shall die in a repeat of it. Shall I tell you how before I go? I need to leave soon before the fire takes complete control.”
“Don’t do this, Mona. We will get you help. Please, I have a baby,” I needed to reach her.
“I know, his child. It should have been with me, not you!”
“Ray? Oh my God, you killed Ray?”
“And the other women too. That is why it is time for you to join them. No one could save them when the nightclub went up. Just like they won’t be able to save you when the store goes up in flames.”
“Mona, listen to me—”
“No, there is no time. You shouldn’t even have given birth to his child. You should have perished with the child in the fire while you were at the doctors. Or the apartment when the flames reached your room. But no, you continued to live with your bastard child! He left everything he had to you and her. Nothing for me and I’m the only one who loved him.”
The smoke still found its way in the bathroom. I could hear popping and cracking as the fire was evidently growing. I was beginning to sweat as the temperature rose and the air was already thinning.
“Mona, please let me out.” It was quiet for a few minutes and I wondered if she’d already left me to die.
“I have to go, Ana. Tell Raymond I will see him soon.” When she went quiet, I knew she must be gone.
Siren were in the distance and I needed to last long enough for them to fight the fire to reach me. I refused to spend the time I might have left saying silent goodbyes to the people I loved. If I was gone today, when they found my body, I wanted them to know that I did everything to stay for them, that I didn’t give up to die.
With strength I didn’t know I held, I turned around and headed to the sink, taking the can with me to beat at the pipes. When the water began to spray the floor, I moved to the toilet and filled the bowl with toilet paper and flushed, the water swirled, the paper stopping it from going down. I removed the back lid and pulled the plug off to let the water continue to run. As the floor became wet, I grabbed paper towels and wet them to hold over my mouth and nose, I would sit in the corner between to the two outside walls and wait.
As the smoke filled the room, I got down on my knees to crawl to the corner. The firemen had to be here. They had to be.
The ground shook under me and I didn’t see what hit me, I only felt the pain as darkness surrounded me.
I groaned and squeezed my eyes tighter. What the hell happen? It was hot and my head hurt, and water was dripping on me. I forced my eyes open and lifted my head. Smoke. I could still smell it but as I looked around, it had thinned. The water on the floor came from above as it dripped free through the cracks in the bowed ceiling. The broken pipes barely trickled and I could have smiled, the pressure in the lines would be gone only for one reason. They were here.
In all the years my dad had been right. ‘If you find yourself in a fire and you can’t get out, find a safe place and wait. The firemen will find you.’
“I have my safe place, Dad. Now where are my firemen?” I spoke out loud.
“Ana! Ana!”
“Kian!”
“Almost there, Ana,” Kian said and then he spoke to whomever was with him. “Come on, we are almost there.”
“I’m locked in! Mona locked me in.”
“I see it, honey. We’ll talk about when we get out of here.”
“We need to hurry. LT said roof isn’t going to hold much longer. Minutes if we are lucky.” I listened to the men and forced myself to stand. It was almost too quiet, allowing the sounds of the building groaning to be heard over the muffled shouts.
“Oh hell!” I heard Kian’s voice outside the door and moved toward it.
“That is just wrong!” I recognized Ferg’s voice.
“Get away from the door, Ana, in case the frame around it falls when we pull it open.”
“Okay.”
/>
“Holy hell, we are going to need the ax this fucker and hopefully the vibration does set something off.”
“Just do it! We got to get her out,” Kian said to a voice I didn’t recall.
I moved back and out of the way as they hit the door from the outside. With every thud sound the door split more until the final blow had it crumbling. I flattened against the back wall as ceiling tiles began to fall and I covered my head. When it stopped, I dropped my arms and raised my head in time to be wrapped up in strong arms.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life.” Kian hugged me and then I felt my feet leave the floor as he swooped me into his arms.
“Nice to see you, Ana,” Keaton said.
“Not as glad as I am to see all of you,” I said and laid my head on Kian’s shoulder.
“Let’s do this reunion outside, can we?” Zan said and touched my arm and I nodded in agreement.
“Hold tight, Ana. I told you I would always catch you when you fall,” Kian said and I wrapped my arms around his neck as we stepped through what was left of the doorway.
“Oh my God, I thought she left,” I said and buried my face at the sight of Mona Richie’s body laying burnt not ten feet from where she had left me to burn.
“You can tell us everything, honey, when we get outside,” Kian said and held me tighter as he moved through the rubble that had been my boutique. I couldn’t think of that now. There would plenty of time later.
The first thing I saw when we reached the front of the building was the blond hair of my daughter as my mom held her. And as we moved closer I looked around and saw the faces of all the people in the last few weeks who had come to mean so much to me.
“Here, sweetheart,” my dad said as he threw a blanket over me.
“Shit, I forgot I took my shirt off the shove under the door. Thanks, Dad.”
“Sorry you had to use what I taught you, but I’m damn glad you remembered it,” my dad kissed my cheek and then Kian started to walk again until we reached the ambulance.
“I don’t want to go to the hospital. I’m fine.”
“Ma’am, let us look you over, okay,” the female EMT said and I nodded.
“After I get to hug my daughter and mother,” I answered and as soon as the EMT agreed, my mom was there and she handed Lily to me. I held her tight and my mom hugged us both.
“Baby, I knew you would hang in until they got to you,” my mom said and tears ran down her cheeks.
They let me hold Lily for a few minutes and then Kian held took her, kissed my forehead, and sat beside me and held my hand while the EMTs started to check me over.
“Are you okay enough to tell us what happened?” Sully asked.
“Yes, where do you want me to start?” I asked.
“Do you boys have to do this now? Can’t you wait?” Serena said and smiled at me. “Happy you are okay?”
“Ma, there will be plenty of time to spend with Ana. She isn’t going anywhere,” Kian said and a grin spread across Serena face and she turned to hug her husband.
“When everyone got out, Mona went back in to get you. Start there, Ana,” Brodie said.
Everyone listened as I told them everything that had happened before Kian got to me. There were curses from the men and shocked gasped from the women. I knew every time I said something Kian really didn’t care for, the grip he had on my hand would tighten. When I finished everyone wore shocked looks.
“That bitch was absolutely fucking nuts,” Fi broke the silence.
“Fiona!” Serena chastised.
“Please, like no one thought that.”
“Well, Fi, she did get hers inside,” Ferg said.
“Thanks, Ana.” Brodie said and then turned to Kian, “I’m going to get a ride to your house, Kian, grab my car and go into the office and see if we can close a few things up in one.”
“Let me know what you find out, bro,” Kian said.
“We’ll go with you. They are done here other than putting away their equipment,” Sully said, “I’ll give all you guys a ride.”
After I received hugs and kisses, even with Kian’s growls, the brothers and cousins left and others began to follow. The ladies who had attended the party said their goodbyes and so did the parents and Fi, leaving only my parents, Kian, and Lily.
The EMT finished and I got the okay to go home with orders to watch for any changes. The knot on my head still hurt but I told them not enough for painkillers. After a list of things to watch for I stood on the sidewalk and we watched the ambulances pull off.
“Ready to go home, sweetheart,” my dad said.
“Their coming home with me, Cap,” Kian said to my dad and my dad looked at him and then at me.
“Is that right, Ana? Do you want to go with Kian?” I looked up at Kian and then at my dad.
“Yes, I want that,” I answered and instead of seeing hurt in my dad’s eyes there was something different shining in them, acceptance.
“Kian, let us take Lily home with us. That way Ana can rest and you can keep both eyes on her and not have to worry about Lily,” my mom asked Kian and I just looked at her and she smiled at me.
“Okay, we will come by and pick her up tomorrow,” Kian said and hugged Lily, then handed her to me so I could do the same before giving her to my mother.
Hugs and goodbyes were said and my parents started to walk away and my dad yelled over his shoulder, “Take care of her, son.”
“Always,” Kian replied.
We stood and watched until they were out of sight and then headed for Kian’s truck. The ride to the house was quiet. When we walked into Kian’s house, he still hadn’t said a word.
“Are you going to talk to me?” I asked as he folded the bed down.
“Tomorrow.”
“You are going to talk to me until tomorrow?” I said and stared at him.
“Yes, because tonight, I am going to put you in the shower, towel you off, then put you to bed.” Kian moved until he stood in front of me. “Then I want to get into the bed with you and pull you tight against me, so when I wake in the morning, I will remember how close I came to never having that with you. Is that okay?” He waited for me to answer.
“Who could argue with that?” I smiled at him and he picked me up and did exactly what he told me he wanted to do.
Chapter Fourteen
Kian
I opened my eyes to the sound of banging and then a bell. What the fuck?
“Kian, someone’s at the door,” Ana said.
“Yeah, better be a good damn explanation for whoever decided it was okay to ring the bell this damn early,” I said and dipped my head to kiss her lips. And when I pulled back she smiled. To think how yesterday could have ended. I blocked that, because it didn’t happen, the woman was in my bed, in my arms, and that was all that mattered.
“It’s eleven, Kian,” Ana chuckled.
“What?” I looked over my shoulder at the clock on the nightstand. “Wow, we really needed the rest.” The bell and pounding resumed and I released my arms from around Ana and got out of the bed. I grabbed a pair of shorts from a drawer and put them on and looked at Ana. “Help yourself, honey, to any of my clothes because you aren’t going downstairs in your birthday suit.” Hearing her chuckle was the sweetest sound.
“Go, I will find something,” Ana said and got out of bed. I headed downstairs to kill someone.
I yanked the door open just as Brodie was going to knock.
“‘Bout fucking time,” Brodie said and walked past me.
“Fucker, my house. Learn to use a phone,” I said as I shut the door.
“Do you not want to know everything I found out about the nutcase fire investigator. Don’t mess with me, I haven’t been to bed. Between me and Sully, who said you owed him and then went home to bed, we got it all wrapped up into a nice little bow,” Brodie said and pointed to the living room.
Ana joined us before we even had a chance to sit. I smiled at her when I saw what she was wearing. Th
e t-shirt hit her mid-thigh and she had a pair of my shorts on but instead of hitting at her knees, they hit well below.
“Nice look, Ana,” Brodie said and chuckled.
“Asshole, she didn’t have any clothes here. Watch it,” I said and glared at him.
“Kian, he didn’t mean anything by it. Now let’s listen to what he has on Mona,” Ana said and patted my arm and leaned into me.
“Yeah, Kian, listen to me,” Brodie chuckled.
“Sleep or no sleep for you, if you don’t get to talking I’m going to kick your ass,” I said and cocked my brow in challenge.
“Dude, if I wasn’t so tired I would take you up on that offer but, my ass is a dragging. So let’s get down to it. Well, first, I closed the case on the three women’s murders at the nightclub, thanks to Mona and, since she was the investigator on the fire, that’s why it was cleared as electrical. The sample she took, never went to the lab. She forged what paperwork she needed to clear it. Probably what she was going to do if she got away with the fire at your store, Ana.”
“Jesus, she really had issues,” I said and Brodie agreed.
“Oh, bro, more. What she told Ana was verified. She did the same thing to Raymond Tyre. Her being an investigator on each case just gave her cover on her craziness. And, Ana, I’m sorry about Lily’s dad,” Brodie said and then continued, “and I want to be the first to tell you that the fire wasn’t chasing you. We were able to tag her with your apartment too.”
“What? She hinted but never really went into it. How were you in such a short time able to find all that information out?” Ana asked shocked and I had to agree with her.
“This is the craziest part. It didn’t take much other than going to her house. Her guest bedroom was filled with goodies and not furniture. Spray bottles that the lab now has, that without testing said they contained different liquid forms of accelerants. They will test each one to find out exactly what she was using.
“Whatever it was, didn’t take much. Her body was more heavily burnt than it should have been and the...sex toys in those boxes that fell on her, I was told would have to be in some serious heat to melt like they did. Let me apologize right now for what I am going to say. Death by melted dildos.”
Smoked and Smitten (The Titans of South Side Book 1) Page 10