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Azurdee. Please God. Please don’t take her from me too.
I needed to get to Azurdee. I needed to get home. I was just about to reach for the radio to call an abort on the mission when Jason gave the signal sound. I quickly got into position and tried to calm my shaking hands. I turned on my iPod and took a deep breath and cleared my mind of everything. I looked and saw Jose walking out. They were laughing and high-fiving each other.
The fire. It wasn’t an accident.
I focused my scope in and put my target right on that fucker’s head.
“This is for you, Azurdee,” I whispered as I pulled the trigger.
The moment he slumped to the ground, I yelled out the signal and gunshots rang out all around me. I checked through my scope to make sure Jose was down. I aimed one more time and shot again for good measure.
Jason held up his fist and called out “All down!” We jumped up and grabbed our stuff and began humping out. We got a few miles out and Jason called in our location and estimated time to the extraction location. I walked up to him and grabbed the radio from him.
“Skip. Is Azurdee okay? There was a fire.”
“How in the fuck did you know?”
“I forgot to turn off my phone. I got a text.”
“What?” he yelled out.
“Skip!”
“Our guy saw her walk in, only he never saw her come out. He said he heard a car door shut and looked up to see a car pulling away. He grabbed the plates and they are being run now. He decided to follow the car. He got about a mile away when he heard a loud explosion. He looked in his mirror and saw flames shooting in the sky in the direction of the restaurant. He turned around and went back to find the restaurant up in flames.”
“Did he see who got in or out of the car?”
Silence.
“Fucking hell, Skip, don’t do this to me.”
He let out a sigh. “He said he fell asleep, so the car door was someone getting in and then they drove off. We’re thinking they planted the bomb and then gave themselves plenty of time to get away before it exploded.”
“Did she get out?”
“Lark, let’s just get y’all off the goddamn mountain.”
“Did. She. Get. Out?”
He let out a sigh and said, “They just got the fire under control. Her car is still there though.”
I stopped and tried to keep my legs from giving out on me. “No,” I whispered.
“Lark, we don’t know anything yet. Let’s just get you off that mountain. Get your ass to the extraction location and by the time you get back we’ll have more information.”
“Oh my God. She can’t leave me. She can’t leave me,” I cried out.
“I can’t believe we get to hang out. It’s about time,” Ryn said with a wink.
“I know.” I chuckled to myself when I thought about Ralph. He had no idea I had planned on closing down the restaurant today. He never paid attention to what our website said, or the door for that matter. It wasn’t a planned closing but the regulars were aware we changed the schedule up sometimes.
We heard a loud bang and Ryn jumped. “Shit. What in the hell was that?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Not sure, but damn it was loud. Hey, we have to go to the Wimberley glass blowers. It’s a bit outside of town, but I think they have the pendants you’re looking for.”
Ryn looked at me and raised her eyebrow. “Really? Don’t get my hopes up, Azurdee. You know how I’ve been searching for the perfect pendant lamp.”
I laughed as we continued to drive through Wimberley. When we pulled up to the Wimberley Glass House, I let out a little squeal. I knew Ryn was going to flip when she saw this place. It was just the type of place she had been looking for.
When we walked in, I watched her face. I smiled knowing I had hit a home run.
“Oh, Azurdee. This place is amazing.”
I nodded and said, “I know, isn’t it?”
We walked around a bit and we were even lucky enough to see a demonstration of glass blowing. Ryn finally picked out the pendants she wanted.
We were walking out when her cell phone rang. “Ugh. It’s Tristan. What the fuck does he want? He hasn’t called in a few months.”
She hit ignore and sent it to voicemail. As we walked outside her phone rang again. She hit ignore again and rolled her eyes. We got in the car and before she put it in park a text message came through. She sighed as she opened it up.
She looked at me and said in a scared voice, “He said it’s an emergency.”
My heart began pounding in my chest so loud I could hear it in my ears.
“Lark,” I whispered.
Ryn hit Tristan’s number.
“What’s wrong?” Ryn asked.
She looked at me and gave me a weak smile. “Why do you want to know where I am? Listen, I don’t have time to…”
“Yes, I’m in Wimberley. How did you know that?”
Her mouth dropped open and she began shaking her head. “Wait. Tristan. Slow down. Azurdee is with me. Yes! She is sitting right here next to me. What do you mean there was an explosion?”
I started wringing my hands together. I was wishing she would just put it on speakerphone.
Her face turned white as a ghost as she handed me the phone.
“Hello? Tristan! Is Lark okay? What’s going on?”
“Azurdee! Oh my God.” I heard him muffle the phone and then yell, “She’s okay! I’m talking to her. She isn’t in the restaurant. She’s with Ryn. She’s okay.”
“Tristan. What in the hell is going on?”
“Azurdee, I don’t know how to tell you this but…your restaurant. There was some kind of explosion and it…there was a fire. Honey, I’m so sorry but it is a total loss,” Tristan said in a worried voice.
I swallowed hard and looked at Ryn who had tears streaming down her face. “Oh my God. If we hadn’t left, we would have been...”
“What? What did you say, Azurdee?” Tristan asked.
I shook my head. “We’re on our way.” I hung up and Ryn and I just stared at each other.
“The explosion we heard, Ryn. That was the restaurant. That must have been like three minutes after we left. We could…we might have been…” I put my hand over my mouth and jumped out of her car. I felt like I was going to throw up. I closed my eyes and thought about the strange man who came to the house last night.
Once my stomach settled I turned and numbly got back into the car.
We pulled up and I let out a small cry. My entire restaurant was gone. Ryn parked the car and we both got out. Tristan and Ralph both came running over. Ralph grabbed me and began saying. “You bitch. You tricked me into thinking I had the day off!” I couldn’t help it, I started laughing. Only he could make a joke at a time like this. Ralph pulled back and said, “Dee, we thought you were in there. Your car was still here. Then when this guy said he saw a car driving off and gave the plates to the police and it pulled up as Ryn’s car, we had a bit of hope.”
I looked over at Ryn and Tristan was hugging her. She gave me a confused look as he kept repeating: “Thank God you’re both okay.” She finally pushed him away and said, “What are you doing here?”
“Lark. He sent me a text to come check everything out.”
My heart skipped a beat when he mentioned Lark. “Is he okay?” I asked.
He nodded his head and said, “He said he was on his way back. He’s really upset. He’s been trying to call you.”
I put both my hands over my face and tried to calm myself down. I dropped my hands and looked at what was once was my dream.
“I left my cell phone in my office. Ryn called and said she was here and I just quickly got up and left. If I hadn’t left though...”
Tristan walked up to me and pulled me into a hug and I lost it. I hadn’t cried this hard since the night Lark and I broke up.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. Shh. I promise it’s okay.”
Ralph put his hand on my back and said, “We?
??ll start over, Dee. It can be even better, honey.”
I knew they were trying to make me feel better but it wasn’t working. The only thing that would make me feel better was if it were Lark holding me in his arms.
I hung up the phone and let out a long, drawn-out sigh. I had to practically beg Jessie to just stay in Mason. There was nothing she could do. It was looking more and more like arson, and I kept thinking of the creepy guy who had stopped by my house the night before. I told the police about him and they said they would look into it.
Meanwhile there was a CIA agent who was parked outside my house. He claimed at first the local police called him in but I knew it had to have had something to do with Lark. When he pulled me to the side and mentioned Skip and Lark and that he was the one who reported the tags, it all made sense.
