Ignite

by Emma Renshaw

  I kissed Zoe’s temple. I was damn glad that she was here with me. If she hadn’t been, I’m not sure I would’ve made it through the door.

  “I’ve wondered about you too much to let you walk out the door and never see you again. I’d like a chance to know you.”

  An hour later, when Zoe and I left, I didn’t know what the future would hold for my sister and me, but I was happy to try to have her in my life. She was shy and hadn’t offered much about her life. I hoped one day she could trust me. Even if we took it one step at a time.

  26

  Zoe

  I slung my bag over my shoulder. Ridge had just gotten off a forty-eight-hour shift and was off for the next seventy-two hours. The weeks until the banquet were flying by. Each time I saw Ridge, I knew that our time was limited and our remaining days together would soon be in the single digits. It was time. I’d planned to be here two days, and those two days had turned into months.

  I still hadn’t decided on the perfect spot for Georgia, but I would. There was still a little time.

  I opened the cabin door, closed it behind me, and turned around to lock it. A legal-sized manila envelope was taped to the door, and my name had been scrawled across the front with a Sharpie. I smiled and tugged the envelope from the tape, putting it under my arm as I locked the door. Delilah had mentioned that her mom and dad had found the land for Castle Rock Inn online, they were great at finding just the right piece of property, and they would help me. I’d described to Gayle exactly what I was looking for and she had promised to bring some options by. I couldn’t wait to look at the properties.

  A little voice inside my head screamed that none of them would be as perfect as the house on Ridge’s land.

  I slid into my car, tossing the envelope and my bag into the passenger’s seat. When I pulled into Ridge’s driveway, he was on his porch, leaning against the brick column, waiting for me. He was shirtless and his jeans were low, showcasing his body, which I hadn’t been able to get enough of. A beer bottle was dangling from his fingertip, and he had a wicked grin.

  He met me at my car door, took my hand to help me from the seat, and planted a kiss on my lips. It had been only a couple of days since I’d seen him, and I’d already missed him. I pushed thoughts of actually leaving from my mind.

  I broke the kiss and bent down, grabbing my bag and envelope. Ridge took the bag from my hands. “What’s in the envelope?”

  “Gayle looked up some properties for me. Want to check them out with me?”

  Ridge’s jaw ticced then he smiled, but it didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Sure.”

  Ridge set my bag down by the couch, and I went to his bar, feeling an odd mixture of giddiness and dread as I opened the envelope. Giddiness because I wanted to make my dream a reality and offer a home to those who needed it. Dread because I was one step closer to severing my connections to Hawk Valley and to Ridge.

  I slid out the small stack of papers from the envelope and flipped them over. A startled breath left my lips, and I dropped the stack of papers on the counter, taking a step back. I jumped when Ridge put his hands on my waist to steady me.

  “What’s going on?”

  I swallowed and took a deep breath before stepping back to the counter. I needed to know what was in this stack. I’d only caught a glimpse of the typed note on top. I picked up the note and Ridge read over my shoulder.

  These deaths are on your hands.

  If you don’t leave Hawk Valley, more deaths will be on your hands.

  LEAVE!

  “What the fuck?” Ridge growled. I set down the paper on the counter, looking at what was next. My nose burned as tears stung my eyes. My heart felt like it had been ripped from my chest as I stared at Macy’s senior photo. In thick red ink the words My death was Zoe’s fault were sloppily written across the glossy photo.

  I knew who I would find next. Even as I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable, I placed Macy’s picture on the counter and choked on the sob I’d been holding back as Allison’s eyes stared back at me. The same words were written across the bottom. Somewhere off in the distance I heard Ridge on the phone, but I couldn’t focus on anything besides what was in front of me. The truth of what I’d always known.

  One by one my dead classmates’ senior photos—all with the same words. When I got to the last photo, I couldn’t hold it in anymore. Declan’s cocky grin wrecked me and tore down the final crumbling wall. I sank to the floor, wrapping my arms around my knees, and sobbed. Ridge kneeled next to me, whispering in my ear as he held me, but I couldn’t make out anything he said. He scooped me up into his arms and carried me to his room, and he set me gently on the bed.

  I clung to him. This was the only place I felt like the pieces of me were held together. Even if it was with glue and tape, I was held together in his arms. When he let go, I didn’t know if there would be any pieces of me to pick up.

  “Clover, I need you to talk to me.”

  “They’re dead because of me,” I whispered, the tears still streaming down my face. There was no stopping them now. Every crack in my heart ached and begged to be filled. The shame of my mistakes and the guilt I’d carried for so long were suffocating me. I was drowning in it.

  I needed to leave, and I would as soon as I spread Georgia’s ashes and went to Ridge’s banquet. I wanted one more night out with him. Those memories would last me a lifetime.

  “Who?”

  “The fire,” I said and slid off his lap, wrapping my arms around my knees. “My friends Allison, Macy, Makenna, and I, we were best friends for our entire lives. Everyone threw a graduation hat into the fire, but we decided to throw something else in, something that we didn’t want to carry with us anymore. I threw in a framed portrait of my family. It was big and heavy. The branches underneath it cracked, and that’s how the collapse happened.”

  “Zoe, that was an accident,” he said softly.

  Anger swelled inside me. “I fucking hate that word,” I said harshly. “Accident. That erases nothing. If someone is in a car accident…” I spit out that word. “And someone dies. The family of the dead isn’t going to shrug their shoulders and say ‘oh well, it was an accident.’ No! Their loved one is gone because of the fucking accident.”

  I jumped off the bed, ran to the bar, and picked up the pictures, spinning around. Ridge was standing in the doorway, looking at me with sympathy in his eyes. His hands twitched at his sides, and I knew he wanted to hold me. Didn’t he understand that I didn’t fucking deserve that? Deserve him? I held up the pictures, one by one. “My accident took their lives. Their parents will never be the same again. The survivors will never be the same again. My accident took two of my best friends. Two of Makenna’s best friends and the love of her life. And then, what did I do? I left. I left, Ridge. Because I couldn’t take what I had done. I couldn’t pass the memorials in town or the crosses out in that field. I couldn’t smile and wave and be neighborly in the town I love. The only home I’d ever known. I couldn’t stay here and live that lie. I left and now that I’m back I’m causing destruction all over again.”

  Ridge shook his head, taking a step closer to me. “No!” I shouted and held up their pictures again. My skin was heated and flushed. Ridge was shaking from the tension in his muscles, but I couldn’t be held by him.

  I set the pictures back down and looked at Macy’s and Allison’s photos. I closed my eyes as pain slashed through me.

  “You have to let me hold you, clover,” Ridge whispered. He stepped forward and I didn’t stop him. I collapsed into his arms and held on as tightly as I could. He felt warm and he held me fiercely.

  “I think the fireworks, Foster’s concussion, the note on my car…that they are all connected, and I think it’s because I’m here. I need to leave, Ridge.”

  “No, you don’t,” Ridge said. His tone brooked no argument. “I won’t let anyone chase you from this town. That fire was not your fault. Baby, it was an accident and not one caused by you. Bonfires are supposed t
o be sanctioned events and built by structural engineers, not eighteen-year-old boys who stacked wood as high as it would go. That bonfire was coming down one way or another.”

  I shook my head.

  “Zoe, it wasn’t your fault,” Ridge repeated.

  “I’m not sure I’ll ever believe that.”

  “One day I’ll get you, clover. One day you’ll believe me, and you’ll stop living with this guilt.”

  “You’ve got about three weeks.” My joke fell flat. Ridge frowned and shook his head.

  “I called Colt. He wants us to come in tomorrow morning to file a report so it’s on record. There’s nothing he can do. He’s also going to check for prints, but if you’re right, and all these incidents are connected, there won’t be any.”

  I nodded. Colt hadn’t been able to find any prints, and the man who’d been paid to stand inside the building where Foster had been hurt didn’t have any helpful information. With no leads and hardly any evidence, Colt and the rest of the department were at a dead end.

  “You’re moving in with me.”

  I backed out of his arms. “What?” I asked.

  He scrubbed a hand down his face. “Whoever left this, left it at the door of your cabin. You were inside, Zoe. You’re not going back there. You’re staying here with me until you leave.”

  I bit the corner of my lip.

  “We’re spending all our free time together anyway. The only nights we’re not in the same bed are when I’m at the station. It’s only a few weeks, Zoe.”

  I finally nodded. “Okay.”

  I couldn’t argue with any of the points he’d made. And I couldn’t deny that I felt safer when I was near him. I didn’t know who was trying so hard to get me to leave, but they would have their wish soon.

  Ridge put his hands on his hips. “That was easier than I thought it would be.”

  I shrugged. “I don’t have a lot of fight right now.”

  He wrapped me back in his arms. “It wasn’t your fault, Zoe. The night of the fire, when you became conscious, you tried to tell me about the portrait, didn’t you?”

  Tears sprang to my eyes again. “Yes.” But he had cut me off, trying to get me to stay still, and after I told Georgia, I never told the story again until years later when I met Jesse. Then I confessed to Makenna. And now Ridge.

  Ridge framed my face with his hands. “It wasn’t your fault, clover. You are beautiful, kind, smart, funny, and have a passion for helping people. You would never harm anyone.”

  “Not intentionally,” I whispered but, intentional or not, it had still happened.

  “When I look you, I don’t see what you see. You are not at fault. Those lives are not gone because of you. The world is fucking unfair sometimes. I don’t know why bad things happen to good people, and I can’t change the past, but what I can do is tell you that you aren’t to blame for what happened that night. You’ve carried those burdens long enough, clover. Let them go. You are not at fault.”

  “I wish I could believe you,” I whispered.

  “I swear, Zoe. One day you will,” he vowed and sealed his lips over mine. Our kiss deepened as he started to walk backward to his bedroom and pulled me along with him without breaking our kiss.

  Ridge pulled the shirt from my body, and I pushed down my shorts and thong, kicking off my sandals. My hands met his at his zipper, and he tugged his pants off. He stepped forward, wrapping an arm around me, and I collided with his chest. I sighed when our bodies connected. I loved the feeling of his warm skin against mine and his strong heartbeat against my chest.

  Ridge cupped the back of my head and kissed me, nipping my lip until I parted my lips for him. His tongue swept inside my mouth, brushing against my own, and ignited every nerve ending in my body. He broke the kiss to skim my jaw with his mouth. Then he moved down my neck, my shoulders, and my breasts. “You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He lay back on the bed slowly. “I thought so the first time I saw you. You were pinned to the ground, but when your eyes opened, you captivated me, Zoe. I thought you were beautiful. You’re more than that. You’re fucking magnificent.”

  His hand brushed over my chest. “You’re so sweet. So sweet it kills me, but there’s a little fire mixed with your sweetness. You aren’t to blame.”

  “Ridge,” I whispered, shaking my head to stop him from talking.

  “No,” he said, brushing his finger against my lips. “You’re so much more than you see. If only you could see what I do.”

  His gaze swept down my body, and he bit his lip and groaned. Ridge spread my thighs, landing between them. I was soaked for him with barely a touch, and I knew he knew it. He was in tune with my body.

  Ridge wrapped his arms around me, after bringing my legs to his hips, and slowly slid inside me without breaking eye contact. “I’ll never get enough of you. I couldn’t eleven years ago and I can’t now. You’re like an addiction in the best way.”

  He rocked his hips slowly, alternating between kissing me senseless and staring into my eyes. “You’re not at fault, Zoe. I’m going to get you to believe me. I’m going to make you see what I see when I look at you. When you grow up with nothing, it’s easy to recognize a treasure. I know how rare you are, clover. You’re extraordinary. And you’re mine.”

  I cried out as I came around his hard shaft, his name nothing but a whisper from my lips. With me beneath him, wrapped in his arms, full of him, he filled the cracks in my heart and in my soul, even if it was only temporary.

  27

  Ridge

  “Does Halligan Construction travel?” Zoe asked while playing with the ticket in her fingers. An auction would happen later, and each guest had received two tickets to place in drawings of their choice for different prizes. Foster and I donated our time and services every year.

  Zoe stood in front of the box for eight hours of free service from Halligan Construction. The little smile on her face was coy, and her eyes were even brighter than they normally were. She’d turned heads as soon as she’d walked into the event room tonight, and I was proud and damn humbled that she was there with me. Her long vibrant red hair cascaded down her shoulders and swooshed to one side. The deep purple dress she wore was classy and utterly tempting with a low swooping front and naked back. It would take one flick of my wrist to send it tumbling to the floor, and all her glorious skin would be on display for me.

  That was exactly what I had planned for later. To watch her dress pool on the floor around her feet. I groaned, my dress shirt suddenly feeling too tight around my neck and my pants becoming uncomfortable. My eyes hadn’t left her all evening. The drive to Austin had been long. I’d kept missing turns because I couldn’t stop stealing glances at her.

  I cleared my throat to answer her question. “I think I could be persuaded, for the right price.”

  “It’s supposed to be eight hours of free labor.”

  “The labor doesn’t include travel but, like I said, I could be persuaded.”

  “So if I won eight hours of your time, how could I persuade you to travel to me?”

  My jaw locked. Over the past week, Zoe had found a few properties she was interested in. One was in Virginia, another in Tennessee, and the last was in Oregon. None were in Texas. She was leaving soon and I wasn’t ready. She’d permeated every facet of my life. Her perfume, makeup, and toothbrush were mixed with my razor and shaving gel on the bathroom counter. Her suitcase was empty and sitting on a shelf in the closet, while her clothes hung next to mine. When I’d gotten home from a shift last night, in the middle of the night, I’d tripped on her sandals by the front door, and it had made me fucking smile. I swiped that away from my thoughts. No matter how much her leaving irritated me, I wasn’t going to ruin our last days together.

  I rubbed a hand along my jaw, pretending to think. Simple fact of the matter was all she had to do was call and I’d be there. Whether she won a raffle or not. “I can think of a few things. You. Naked. A bed. That’d be a good place to start the ne
gotiations.”

  She smiled more widely and dropped a single ticket into the Halligan Construction box. She stepped forward, one hand lying on my chest, the other weaving into the hair at the base of my skull. “I think I would like that type of negotiating,” she whispered.

  My palm ran down her naked spine until it met the fabric at her lower back. I leaned down to kiss her, my lips barely brushing against hers before we were interrupted.

  “Ridge.” I stood to my full height, bringing my shoulders back, and turned to face my chief. One of my arms was still wrapped around Zoe’s waist. Her soft body was molded to my hard one, and her hand was resting on my chest.

  “Chief Talbot, this is Zoe Boswell. Zoe, this is my fire chief, Chief Hank Talbot.”

  Zoe stuck out her hand with a smile on her face. “It’s wonderful to meet you, Mr. Talbot.”

  He shook her hand. “Call me Hank or Chief. None of that mister shit.”

  I chuckled as Chief Talbot’s wife came to his side. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and smiled at her. The only time I saw the chief soften his edges was when he was with his wife and daughters. His wife was nearly as tall as he was, but where he had muscles packed on muscle, she was thin from her days as a ballerina. Her braids were tied in an intricate bun on her head.

  “Ridge, it’s good to see you.”

  “Same to you, Sylvie,” I said and introduced Zoe and Sylvie.

  “Zoe,” Chief said, giving her a stern look. “Are you the mystery woman my firefighters and EMTs are refusing to tell me the identity of?”

  “Wh-what?” She glanced at me.

  I covered my mouth and turned my laugh into a cough. Chief had overheard that someone had been with us when we threw the glitter-filled water balloons at the officers, but none of us had told him who that person was.