“You need to do it as soon as you can. The tire tracks could help identify the person. Of course unless the rain washed them away.”
“I took pictures.”
Raptor huffed. “Don’t overthink this, Viper. I don’t know you, but I can tell you like this girl. Let the police and the fire inspector do their jobs. Tell them everything you know.”
“Then why the hell aren’t they? How many people need to die until they get off their asses to do their jobs?” I could feel the blistering anger increasing, rising in a powerful way that clouded my vision.Breathe, asshole. You can’t do a damn thing about it now.
No, I couldn’t, but no one was going to touch her. Except for me.
“Just remember, you’ve got friends,” Raptor added.
Friends. The guys didn’t know shit about me. I looked away, struggling with my emotions. After two years nothing had really changed. I was the one needing to strike. Anyone getting in my way or trying to hurt people I cared about would face my wrath.
And damn it, I did care about her. Way too much.
“Alright, boys, break is over. Let’s see if we can get this fire under control by day’s end. I have a birthday party to get to.”
Almost no jumper grumbled. We knew the drill as well as the danger. As I stood, yanking my jacket off the ground, Axe meandered toward me, finishing his bottle of water.
He remained quiet until the others walked away. Then he turned his head toward me. “I know what you did.”
Now I bristled, ready to shove him aside like he’d done with me. This time he stepped in front of me. “Did you break into the captain’s office in the middle of the night, or did you and the other assholes enjoy a good laugh over a beer and a bottle of tequila?”
Nothing about his behavior was what I expected. “Captain Daughtry would never betray you. Neither would any of the team. But I had to know. None of my goddamn business, but I needed to know what I was dealing with. I asked around.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I took one step away and he shot his arm out, stopping me.
“I would have done exactly the same thing. Exactly. I have a sister. She’s the light of our family, especially after Will’s death. If some motherfucker had so much as laid an inappropriate hand on her, he’d be six feet under, buried without his hands. I’m sorry about Aimee, Viper. Truly, I am.”
“What are you saying?”
He huffed, his upper lip tipping at the corners. “You’re a hard man. Can’t blame you. I’m saying I hope you’ll take that as an apology ‘cause I suck at it.”
An unwanted chuckle left my lips. “Fine. Apology accepted.”
“So you know, the police have tried to find a connection to the two fires as well as a third that occurred right before the Monroes’ barn burned down. There are no direct links.”
I wasn’t certain why he was bothering to join in on the conversation. “No leads?”
“Not that I’ve heard about. I think they’re looking at the fires the wrong way. There’s a connection alright, but if you ask me, the dude’s rage is all about something in his past.”
“Then why handle the revenge now?”
Axe shrugged. “Maybe because something set him off. That’s usually what happens. Anger. Grief. Guilt. They linger in one’s mind, festering in a way that prevents all normal thoughts, progressing so that the issue becomes insurmountable. Once it takes hold, all other thoughts vanish. One thing takes precedence over everything else. When that happens, life is interrupted until the beast is satisfied.”
Only a crack in the distance as a tree crashed to the earth interrupted the reverent moment. “It sounds like you’ve experienced something just as powerful and controlling.”
He glanced in the direction of the sound, nodding slowly as he crushed the thin plastic between his rough hands. “Yeah, I have.” He turned his head toward me. “So have you. The trick is not to allow the demon to win. Don’t let one loss shut you down.”
“Where you’d learn that?”
I’d yet to see anything but a sharp glower on the man’s face. Until now. While he wasn’t looking me directly in the eye, he didn’t need to. He had the same expression I’d noticed that last time I’d glanced into the bathroom mirror. Happiness. The kind that couldn’t be fulfilled with heroic or vengeful acts. The kind that clawed at your soul, dragging you kicking and screaming into sheer joy. All because of someone else who’d managed to remind you that deep inside, you might be damaged but you were worth fighting for.
“Kenzie, the light of my life and the reason I’m still breathing. Maybe you’ll get to meet her one day.”
“I’d like that.” To say I was shocked was an understatement.
Even as he walked away, grabbing his heavy pack and joining the others, I hung back. He was right. We’d both allowed our emotions to strip away our humanity. Maybe the arsonist by all rights was a decent person on the outside, but the monster had chipped away at him for months, maybe even years.
