Blakely shook her head. “I just can’t believe his did this.”
“Who did it?” Preacher asked.
Panic flashed over Blakely’s face and Jump wondered if he should ask the guys to change the subject. Blakely squared her shoulders. She was strong enough to face these questions.
Blakely blew out a breath. “Grayson. He found me. That’s when Jump stepped in and made Grayson leave. I guess he came back and set the fire.”
The guys were all gathered around her, serious looks on their faces. For a moment she thought they didn’t believe her.
“Jump, do you have someone looking into this guy?” Preacher asked.
“I know Tex is busy, so I was thinking of asking Thario.”
“You should send a note now. This guy seems dangerous,” Flash said.
“We’re lucky no one died,” Blakely said.
“Yeah, real lucky. It seems like he was trying to kill someone. The fire set in multiple areas seems like a lot.”
MacGyver nodded. “That’s a lot of rage you see right there. Whoever set that fire did so with a lot of anger in his heart.”
Blakely hated that Grayson had so much anger directed at her. Maybe she should have run instead of staying. Both actions were dangerous. Grayson would eventually find her, unless she took off.
Jump put his hand on her shoulder and leaned in. “The police are headed this way. Do you want to step away?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m going to have to talk to them, eventually.”
Her stomach clenched as the cops moved closer. Maybe she should have taken Jump up on the offer to leave. She wasn’t thrilled with the idea of talking to cops. She’d never been thrilled with the idea of police. From the time she was little, it had been hammered in her brain that police were bad news.
They were the enemy of The Faithful, which had been proven when the police had taken her from her family. She’d been held up and shown as proof of how evil the police were. She hadn’t ever told anyone that living with foster parents had actually been better than living with her parents. They wouldn’t have believed her, and she probably would have been punished.
“Hello, I’m Officer Dooley and this is Officer Crane. Which apartments did you all live in?”
Jump stepped forward. “I’m the one who lived here. I was in three eleven.” Jump pointed to his apartment.
The officers nodded. “That one isn’t too bad,” Dooley said. “I think you’ll be able to recover some stuff.”
“I’m military. I don’t have any ordinances in there, of course, but I do have plenty of ammunition and a few guns.”
Dooley wrote something down. “Thank you for telling us. We’ll be careful in there.”
“It’s best to know. Also, it would be best if the place wasn’t cleared out by some random person.”
Dooley nodded. “Yeah, got that.”
Blakely thought about saying nothing. Eventually the police would come looking for her. The main fire had been started in her unit. The other fires, the ones in the stairwells, were fueled with stuff from her apartment.
Grayson had been showing his anger by trying to punish her. She’d gotten the message loud and clear. He would do something like this, burn down the place to show his anger. But how did she make the police understand?
“I live on the third floor. My apartment is the one that was destroyed.”
Dooley raised his eyebrows. “And your name?”
“Blakely Masters.”
“So were you in your apartment when the fire started?”
“No.”
