by Hagen, Casey
“On it,” Tex said.
Cole pulled out vests from his trunk and tossed one to each of them.
Seconds ticked on, the sound of the alarm obliterating the tear of Velcro as they suited up.
Evan glanced back. “Ready?”
“We’re a go. Heads up, lots of children will be spilling out at any second,” Dylan said.
As if on cue, the side door slapped open, and kids spilled out single file. They glanced around and chattered as if this was just one more drill.
“They think its practice. Conceal your weapons,” Slyder said.
“Cole, Dylan, take the north end. Slyder, you get west. Dude and Mozart, the main entrance. Josie, cover the back,” Evan instructed. “I’ve got this side.”
A purely selfish decision on his part. He needed to see Blair. To reassure himself she made it out just fine before he could think about getting his hands on Willy.
And he had every intention of doing just that.
Evan found Kate Reynolds at the side door.
“This isn’t a scheduled drill,” she said in a hushed whisper.
“I know, there’s smoke. He’s here.”
The blood drained from her face. “The kids—”
“My team is moving in now. They’ll make sure everyone is out. They’ll find him.”
“I’m counting on you,” she said.
He nodded and slipped through the door, searching the lines of children following along the wall.
A haze filled the air. One of the boys waved his hand in it. “Cool. They even made it seem like a real fire.”
Hell.
“Front lobby, clear,” Mozart’s voice came through on the earpiece.
He found Blair at the end, holding hands with what he recognized as some of her needier students.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“Rand’s prints matched. We think he’s here. The team has the building surrounded. Go outside and stay with your class. It’ll be okay. Just wait for me there,” he said, the words so similar to ones he said all those years ago to a brave, innocent young girl in Pakistan.
“I’ve got him on camera. He’s on the west side, heading toward the playground,” Tex said over the comm.
Evan kissed her hard and fast. The words he’d held inside stirred and although it wasn’t the way he wanted to say it for the first time, he wouldn’t risk her never hearing them. “I love you. Now go!”
“Shit, the cameras just went out. I don’t have a visual on him,” Tex said with a frustrated growl.
“Where did you last see him?” Slyder asked.
“He’d turned back toward the west entrance. He had something in his hand. I couldn’t tell what,” Tex said.
“The smoke is getting thick in here,” Dylan said. “Stay low.”
“Any sign of him?” Evan asked, fighting the urge to cough. He searched the classrooms first, starting with Blair’s, followed by the bathroom and teacher’s lounge, making sure to open every closet and cabinet.
“He’s not out here. He had to have gone back in,” Josie said.
The sound of sirens in the distance reached through the cracked windows in the classrooms.
Ducking out into the hall, the sound of a child sobbing caught his attention. In the haze, near the side exit, Keegan stood crying.
Blair had to be frantic out there looking for him. Evan scooped him up and headed for the door. “Come on, let’s get you out to Miss Sullivan.”
“Bu-uu-ut, she’s i-i-in the-re,” he said, battling a sob and pointing toward her closed classroom door.
“It’s okay, buddy. She’s not in there, I saw her on her way outside.”
Tiny fists clutched at his clothing as the boy choked on a sob. “She-ee ca-ame back for Boo-oots.”
Evan shot a look over his shoulder, his gaze landing on her classroom.
Why did she close the door?
“Did you follow her in?” Evan asked.
“Uh, huh.”
“Is she alone in there?” Evan asked.
Tears ran down his cheeks as he shook his head no.
“He’s in Blair’s classroom with her. I need everyone on the west end now. Classroom three,” Evan said into the comm as he carried Keegan to the door and handed him out to Kate.
“We can’t find Blair,” she said.
“She went back for the guinea pig. The suspect found her in there, and they’re shut in. I’m going after her,” Evan said before looking the little boy in the eye. “I’m bringing Boots out, too. It’ll be okay.”
He heard his team moving in, confirming their progress as they proceeded, but he wouldn’t be able to wait.
He couldn’t.
He’d left her to go after the suspect, just as he had then, and he prayed with everything in him in this loop of history repeating itself, that he’d get there soon enough to change the outcome.
He took slow steps, careful to stay silent as he approached the door. Their muffled voices came through the door, but he couldn’t make out their words.
“Outside the door,” he whispered as loud as he dared into the comm.
“We’re almost there,” Dude said.
Hand on the knob, Evan twisted a fraction at a time, desperate to go faster, but hoping he might catch him unaware and get the upper hand.
About halfway, the door flew open. “Nice of you to join us. In here now or she gets it,” Willy snarled, aiming what looked to be a homemade flamethrower built from a torch mounted with a tank full of clear liquid pointed right at Blair.
Evan would guess paraffin.
Evan took a step.
“Ah, ah, ah, give me the gun!” Willy barked.
Evan stepped in and locked eyes with Blair as she stood next to the cage, Boots in hand.
Her cheeks flamed red, and her glossy sage eyes flashed with temper.
How had Evan ever managed to see her as a pushover?
He placed his weapon on the desk closest to him and held his hands up. “It’s over. My team and police are here. The fire company is on their way.”
Slamming the door behind Evan, he stuck the end of the torch into his back, “Go join your lady love over there. You two can die together.”
“No one needs to die,” Evan said, keeping his eyes on hers, whether to reassure her or himself, he didn’t know.
“No, I guess they don’t. But I want her to burn. I want Bruce to know what it’s like to have the last person in the world left who cares about him out of reach, for good.”
“Your son is to blame for this. He’s the one who set fires. He’s the one who killed your wife,” Evan said.
Blair’s mouth fell open as she turned to Willy. “Your son?”
“We’re just outside the door. Keep him distracted and facing the windows.”
“Yeah, my son,” Willy said with a jut of his chin. “He loves fire. Just like his old man. Born with that same passion for the flame. I had a duty to encourage him, guide him. What happened to Rebecca was an accident.”
“He couldn’t have been more than ten,” Evan said. He just had to keep the man talking, but also keep him from reacting.
“Eight, actually,” Willy said, disappearing into a memory that from the look in his eyes bordered on a religious experience earning his devotion. “When the flames engulfed her, he tried to get to her and put them out, but the flames seduced him. The same way they seduce me.”
“He watched her burn?” Blair said, her voice high and thin.
“Judgmental bitch,” Willy spat before his eyes took on that faraway look again. “When the screaming stopped, when Rebecca was gone, there was nothing left to do but to feast our eyes upon the caress of the flames.”
A deranged glee filled his eyes, making Evan’s stomach pitch.
The door cracked open.
“You twisted motherfu—”
Willy’s hands dove into Blair’s hair and yanked her toward him, causing her to cry out. With a pull of the trigger, flames shot at the ceili
ng leaving black scorch marks. “You say something?” he asked easing the nozzle toward her cheek. With another hard yank, she fell forward, the hot metal tip searing her skin leaving a white line along her cheek.
Her wide, panic-stricken eyes flashed to his right before she raked her nails over Willy’s cheek, drawing blood.
Howling in pain, he let her go, grabbed the side of his face with one hand, and aimed his weapon at her with the other.
“No!” Evan jumped in front of her, a wall of flames scorching his back, neck, and hair. His skin blistered, and pain exploded in his skull as he landed on the floor on top of her.
His team poured in behind them, the sound of their boots a welcome break from the pain sizzling into his skin.
“Oh God, no. Oh God! Help!” Blair screamed as she patted his back, the smell of scorched skin and hair singing his nose.
Boots skittered across the floor.
Wedging himself under a backpack, the guinea pig stared at him as the world faded to black.
Epilogue
The pain in Blair’s spine threatened to explode from sitting in the chair hunched over Evan’s hospital bed for hours on end.
But she didn’t move. She refused to move until Evan woke up.
The antiseptic scent lingered in the air, clinging to her skin. She leaned her forehead against their joined hands, grateful for the warmth of his skin seeping into her chilled bones because it meant he was alive.
Still, terror filled her that he’d never be anything more than this.
Still.
So far out of reach although he lay right next to her.
What if she never heard that laugh again? Felt his hands glide over her skin with purpose?
Loneliness smothered her, sitting like lead on her shoulders, crushing her under the weight of fear and grief.
They’d shaved his entire head, removing the scorched strands on the back, and exposing his scalp so they could staple the gash and relieve the bleeding in his brain from hitting his head when he shielded her.
Three days and he still hadn’t woken up.
“Blair?” her father said from the doorway, the look of self-imposed guilt ravaging his features, making him age a decade in a handful of days.
She sat up and swiped the tears leaking from her eyes. “You can come in, Daddy.”
He glanced at Evan and winced as he shuffled in and eased into the chair next to her. “I’m sorry, sweetheart, I really am.”
She squeezed his hand and smiled through the tears. “Don’t be, this is what he does. He wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
“Have they said anything?”
She bit her lip and shook her head. “We just have to wait. They changed his bandages earlier. The burns aren’t so bad. His vest protected most of him. The nurses don’t even think he’ll scar all that bad.”
If he woke up. They didn’t say it, but she read it on their faces. Heard it in the tone of their voices.
He patted her hand. “I can sit with him if you want to grab a shower. I’ll call if he wakes up.”
She glanced over at Evan and shook her head. “No.”
“Blair—”
She whirled, impatience making her short with him. “I’m not leaving him, Daddy. We stick together. He’d do it for me.” Her voice broke as she choked on fresh tears.
“Together,” Evan rasped.
Blair gasped, shot out of her chair, and leaned over him. Reaching out with tentative fingertips, she brushed his forehead and cheeks. Each movement from him, his attempt at a smile, turn of his head, and the way he licked his dry lips easing the pinch in her heart.
His eyelids fluttered open. He flinched against the light, and blinked rapidly as the cloudiness cleared from his eyes.
“Get the guys. They’re in the cafeteria,” she said to her father before turning back to Evan.
“Selfish bastards,” Evan ground out, his voice not much more than a whisper.
She laughed through her tears and patted his hand, her heart soaring when he squeezed back. “Stop it. If they waited any longer, they would have ended up in a bed right next to you.” He let him go to pour a cup of water. She supported his head as he raised it just enough to take a few sips.
He reached for the burn on her cheek, his eyes narrowing. “Willy?” he asked.
Laying her hand over his, she leaned into his palm. “He’s in jail right where he belongs.”
“The kids?”
“All safe, even Keegan,” she reassured him as she smiled down at his handsome face.
“That troublemaker, Boots?”
Her shoulders shook as she laughed, the feeling as restorative as if she’d gotten a full night’s sleep, shower, and a filling comfort meal. “In his cage and safely at home. Keegan said Boots wants to visit when you’re well.”
He reached up to his head, his fingertips running along the end of the bandage in the middle of his forehead. “How bad is it?”
“The burns are minimal. You may have some light scarring.”
“I hear chicks dig scars,” he said.
“Excuse me?” she said with a raised brow.
“I thought it was funny,” he muttered.
“Uh, huh. They stopped the bleeding in your brain and relieved the pressure. You have staples to close the cut from the fall. And you’ll have to grow out your hair again.”
“I need to sit up,” he said, trying to lift himself into a sitting position.
“Hold on.” She held the button down until he reached a forty-five-degree angle. “Good?”
“Yeah, thanks,” he smiled.
“Well, well, well, sleeping beauty finally woke up,” Cole said from the doorway.
His team and their wives crowded in and surrounded his bed. They’d been by her side almost every minute since Evan was admitted, bringing her food, telling her stories about him, holding her when she cried. She’d never be able to make it up to them, but she’d spend a lifetime trying.
“What? Am I dying?” Evan asked.
“You made us wonder,” Slyder said, cuffing Evan on the foot that stuck up under his hospital blanket.
“I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon.”
“Good. Because we’re already shorthanded and as much as Josie’s dad likes us, we can’t keep using the police force as our own personal crew,” Dylan said.
“So let’s expand,” Evan said.
“There’s a lot of things we should discuss first,” Dylan said. “We’ll get there. You get better first.”
“No more discussing. We know what we need to do to keep going. Let’s do it. It’ll give me a chance to focus on marrying my girl here,” he said, bringing her knuckles to his lips and pressing a kiss to them. “If she’ll have me.”
Her heart lurched in her chest as she stared down at him. Twenty minutes ago, she would have made a deal with the devil if that’s what it took to keep him here. Now, here he was, a reformed commitment-phobe with his friends, his chosen family, watching them, and offering her everything she could ever want.
Her butt hit the edge of the bed when her knees gave out. “You’re sure?”
Those eyes of his burned into her as he leaned in. With his lips to the shell of her ear, he said, “We’ve been over this. I always mean what I say. Do I have to show you in front of all these people?”
“No,” she said, her cheeks burning with the sting of embarrassment.
“So what do you say? Will you marry me?” Evan asked, looping an errant curl around his finger.
She held his face in her hands and pressed her forehead to his. “I love you so much, Evan. I hope you know that. Yes,” she smiled. “I’ll absolutely marry you.”
“The minute I get out of here, I’m taking you up on that. Be ready,” he murmured, hovering over her lips.
She slid her thumb along his bottom lip and kissed him. “That very minute,” she murmured, knowing that she’d happily sacrifice a big, fancy wedding, or any planned event, as long as at the end of t
he day, he belonged to her.
Forever.
About the Author
I hope you loved Evan and Blair’s story!
Look for new members of Fierce coming Fall 2018!
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ABOUT CASEY HAGEN
Casey Hagen pens her snarky, passionate stories from the salty air of Kennebunk, Maine. She’s a born and raised Vermont native, a New England girl to the core, with Ben & Jerry’s in her heart and real Vermont maple syrup pumping through her veins.
She’s the proud mother of three girls and a soon-to-be first-time grandma with an insatiable addiction to Fall Out Boy, and a new, rather concerning obsession with tattoos and piercings. Can you say “cool grandma?”
The inked and pierced grandma spends her time tucked away in her office, coated in cat hair, alternating between tearing her hair out trying to find the perfect words and being one step ahead of her three scheming fur babies she is positive are plotting her demise with every swirl around her ankles at the top of her office stairs.
She loves writing stories about real people, with complicated histories, relatable everyday problems, and giving them the hard-won happily-ever-afters they deserve.
And she thanks every last one of you who picks up one of her stories.
Casey is done talking about herself in the third person.
*Casey out*
Fierce Protectors Series
Special Forces: Operation Alpha
Shielding Nebraska
Shielding Harlow
Shielding Josie