Arsonists Anonymous

by Nora Snowdon

  She grabbed it.

  “Ow!” Byron snatched his hand back and blew on the red blisters forming where her fingertips had touched.

  “Oh God, I’m sorry.” She shook her hands. “They’ll cool down in a minute.”

  Wild-eyed, he stared at his hand then at her and muttered, “I guess shit just got real.”

  “Hey, Bossman?” A young cop sauntered over. “Want me to book that guy?”

  Byron blew out a breath and composed his features. “Thanks, John.”

  Lu hadn’t thought her nerves could get more rattled as she watched Byron hand off his collar. He believes me, but now what?

  John walked away and Byron turned back to her. “Holy shit, woman.” He touched her shoulder as if testing for heat. His brow furrowed. “Just your hands?”

  She nodded. “Fingers.”

  He pulled her into a hug. “I think I preferred it when you were delusional.”

  “It’d be easier,” Lu conceded. Oh fuck, here come the bloody tears.

  “Can we deal with this later?” He pulled back to look at her, his face still etched with confusion. He glanced over at an older cop waving him over.

  “Sure.” Lu checked her fingertip against her arm. Almost normal again. She started walking toward the crowd of cops and fire fighters. “So how did you find us?” She had so many questions, she was more than happy to divert from the fire issue.

  Byron’s smile was a little sheepish. “I had a GPS on Reynolds’ car.”

  Lu dropped her voice. “Are you allowed to—?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “How’d you figure it was him?” Lu slowed down, hoping to get a few more answers before they joined the melee.

  “You. I hadn’t known how deep his hatred for me was until we saw him in the restaurant that night. Then I got thinking about how he’d requested to work with me in the investigation. I wasn’t sure, though, until after I saw you kissing him on the street.”

  “But you looked so mad?”

  “Yup. I was ready to shoot both of you.” He rubbed her shoulder. “Then I thought better of it.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “Me, too.” He rolled his eyes. “That would’ve been a big blot on my pristine record.”

  “Excuse me?” Lu looked at him in mock horror.

  “No. You’d left that address on my answering machine. Not exactly the first sign of a woman meeting a secret lover. And your body language was off, you were tense.” He indicated the increasing crowd of cops in front of them. “That’s when I got the W.I. team in action.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Morgan.” A large uniformed cop separated from the group. “We picked up a couple of people running down the street, but the house came up clean in our database. Fire crew says they’ll have this one under control quickly. The kitchen was toasted, but the sprinkler system seems to have saved the rest of the building.”

  Lu watched Byron take charge of the various crews. After a few minutes he came back to where she was standing.

  “Hey Lu.” He discreetly kissed her forehead and held out his keys. “Why don’t you go sit in my car? I won’t be long and then I’ll take you home.”

  “Whose home?” Her stomach clenched as she waited for his response.

  “What?” He shook his head, his expression worried. “Whichever you’d like, but I hope you’ll come to my house. You don’t have to work tomorrow.”

  “You still—?” Ah fuck. Lu blinked, trying to stall the tears.

  “Love you?” He gathered her in his arms as she nodded. “Of course I love you, woman. What’s a little fire between friends? It scares the hell out of me, but we’ll deal with it.”

  She sniffled, hoping she wasn’t getting snot on his shirt. “I love you, too. I was so mad when I thought Reynolds was going to kill me and I’d never see you again.”

  “No, sorry. You’re stuck with me, Lu.” He put his keys in her hand. “But first I need to talk to the guys and make sure there’re no fuck ups. I won’t let Huang’s lawyers get him off on some technicality.”

  Lu nodded and turned toward his car. “Oh, wait. Where’s Susan? Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine. She asked Ed to marry her.”

  Lu shook her head. “What?”

  Byron chuckled. “The drugs. But who knows? She could do worse than Ed.”

  CHAPTER 20

  Two heavyset police officers stood on either side of the green doorway, their expressions bored and guarded. They straightened when they saw Byron.

  “You sure you want to do this?” Byron asked her again.

  “No,” Lu answered. “But I think I need to. I mean. It wasn’t like we were friends, but I can’t see how … I don’t know.” She smiled and shrugged.

  “Okay.” Byron nodded at the shorter of the two men and he opened the door for Lu. “I’m right out here if you need me.”

  “Thanks.” Stepping into the hospital room felt odd. It looked much different seeing all the equipment attached to someone else. She glanced at the monitor, I.V. pole and locker, before focusing on the prone figure on the bed. His hand with the I.V. was handcuffed to the bed rail.

  “Hey.” Lu was surprised at how much smaller he looked. He turned to face her, his expression giving nothing away.

  “How’re you feeling?”

  Reynolds huffed. “You care?”

  “Maybe,” she waffled. “You visited me when I was injured.”

  “Ri-ight.” He rolled his eyes in disgust.

  “What about the hall and the other fire fighters?”

  “What about them?”

  “Didn’t you care about them?” Lu was shocked by the blankness in his eyes. It felt like the old Reynolds had been replaced by a computer clone.

  “They didn’t care about me.” His eyes flashed with anger. At least it was an emotion. “I was supposed to get the next promotion and then that—” Reynolds shook his head, his lips a tight white line. “Comes in and suddenly he’s the new golden boy. I’m not ‘fun’ enough, to heck with procedures, bloody Morgan breaks all the rules and he gets my job, the awards. I had to work like a dog for every scrap and Morgan …” He turned his head and stared at the ceiling.

  “But …” She took a step closer to the bed.

  “You stupid cow.” His free hand snaked out and grabbed her wrist. His grip was surprisingly strong. “You still don’t get it. Morgan doesn’t care about you. He only wanted you because you were mine.”

  “What?”

  “All he cares about is screwing me over.” The corner of his lips turned up in a malicious grin. “I showed him. His botched drug busts were making me rich. And the idiot kept feeding me the information to give to my new partners.” He released her wrist. “I was winning, finally.”

  “But people die from drugs.”

  Reynolds turned back to face the ceiling.

  “What about the woman who was burned in the fire? What about me and my friend? You were going to—”

  He closed his eyes. If it wasn’t for his tightly clenched fist she’d have thought he was sleeping. She ran her hands through her hair wondering if there was anything she could say that would penetrate his conscience. After a couple of moments of silence, she walked to the door. She turned back to look, one last hope that he’d show a shred of humanity. Then she left the room.

  Byron jogged over from the nurses’ station and put his arms around her. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.” Lu’s tears started streaming and she buried her face in Byron’s neck. “Fuck, I still don’t get it.”

  “Me neither,” he agreed and held her tighter.

  *

  “How was your first day back at work?” Byron handed her a glass of wine and kissed her forehead.

  “Strange. They’ve brought in the captain from Bellevue One for the interim, but it sounds like Red’s getting promoted pretty quick. He’ll be a good boss.” She dropped her bag in the corner and walked into the living room. With a groan she sunk into the comfy
leather couch.

  “They should’ve put him up years ago. There just wasn’t room there and his wife wasn’t prepared to move.” He sat beside her. “Susan phoned. She said you weren’t answering your cell.”

  “Uh-oh. What now?”

  “Three things. One, she has to tell you all about the big fight between her and Kaitlynn—the good thing is they seem to have made up. Two, Kaitlynn has the money to pay you back finally. And three, she wants to know if you’ll help her paint your old apartment on Tuesday. Pink,” he added with a smile.

  “Wow, and you thought the white was bad?”

  “Yeah. I said you’d love to.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  “And I promised you’d be nice.”

  “What? Why would you—?”

  “Her ex-husband is going to be there painting, too.” He raised his eyebrows. “She says he’s changed.”

  “Oh God.” Lu rubbed her face. “Do you think it’s possible?”

  “Doesn’t matter what we think.”

  “Shit. You know I hate it when you’re right,” Lu grumbled.

  “Yeah. That’s what makes it so much fun.” Byron took her wine glass, sipped from it and placed it on the coffee table.

  “Hey!”

  “You were too slow,” he explained. “And my sister Annie wants to know if you’d like her to redecorate any of the rooms for you. She found a great Mexican adobe style that would work for the dining room. I think she figures with you living here, she can redo the whole house again.”

  “Great.”

  “One more thing—”

  “You’re kidding, there’s more?”

  “No, I’m deadly serious on this one.” Byron said. “You still owe me a whole lotta sex, lady.”

  “Oh yeah?” She stared at the candle on the coffee table and smiled as it lit up. “Maybe a little mood lighting first. And now—” She started to climb onto his lap.

  “Wait.” He eyed her cautiously. “Are your fingers safe?”

  She held out her hand and lightly caressed his face. “Just a little warm. I’ve been practicing moderation.”

  He pulled her the rest of the way onto his lap. “Not in all things, I hope.”

  Lu smiled and licked the sooty taste from her teeth. “Well, certainly not in anything we’ll be doing twenty-four-seven.”

  THE END

  AUTHOR NOTE

  Hey Kids!

  Writing and researching his book was a lot of fun for me. I got to chat with firefighters, tour fire halls, meet marijuana growers and even attended my first (and probably last) “scissor party” where we sat around trimming the leaves from around the marijuana buds. Who says research is dull? It’s making me think my next book should be set in either a winery or a pastry shop …

  And if you enjoyed this book, I’d be incredibly grateful if you’d leave a review of it on Amazon and/or Goodreads.

  Thanks,

  Nora

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  This book wouldn't and couldn't have happened without the amazing help from my fellow writers. Thanks especially to Jacqui Nelson for critiquing and computer wizardry, Terry Mitchell for the amazing art, publishing knowledge and procrastination wrangling, and Kay Gregory for tea, sympathy and copious amounts of wine.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Living in New York and Toronto, Nora Snowdon was a jerk of all trades–one week hawking toys at major toy conventions, the next in a high-end jewelry store pandering to the rich. She worked in the financial market, gambling dens, environmental protection, food service industry and sold shoes. During these years she also either appeared in or directed twenty-five plays.

  Then Nora moved to the wet coast, took up health foods (dark chocolate and red wine) and became a Writer of Elegant Smut, (Although apparently her books are generally considered to be Romantic Comedies. Go figure.) Her ambition is to become a crazy cat lady and wine hoarder, not necessarily in that order.

  You can read more about Nora at

  http://norasnowdon.com

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