Page 63 of What They'll Say About Us

"What happened?" Morgan asked. "I heard a big crash, and then you disappeared from sight." She picked several slivers of wood out of my hair and tossed them to the ground.

"The door blew open and the wood broke apart and rained down on me," I said, still shaken by how close I'd come to getting completely caught up in that fire. I turned to look at the building, realizing that the fire had now engulfed both stories.

Morgan followed my gaze as we kept our arms around each other's waists. "The whole building is going to be gone," she murmured. "Our clothes, our suitcases, all your aunt's furniture and belongings…"

"But we're alive, and we have the important things. We can replace the rest."

"I know. I'm grateful," she said. "I just can't believe what happened."

I couldn't believe it either. I'd thought we'd be safe in that apartment with the double-locked doors between us and the street, but someone had gotten into the building another way. And they'd used the opportunity to set a fire to try to trap us inside.

"We're getting close to the truth," I said. "No more warnings. They're not going to wait for us to leave. I should have expected something like this after what happened to Detective Cabot."

"Excuse me," a police officer said, coming over to us. "I understand you two were living in the upstairs apartment. Can I get your names? Can you tell me what happened?"

We gave our names and a very short statement about waking up to smoke and alarms. We'd called 911 and waited for help. He asked a number of other questions that appeared to be related to whoever had broken into the building, but after repeating several times that we hadn't heard anything or seen anything, I said, "You should talk to Detective Barclay. This fire could be related to a case he's working on. He knows who we are and how we're involved. It's a long story."

He gave me a thoughtful look. "Got it. Do either of you need to go to the hospital?"

"We're fine," Morgan said.

As he left, I heard my name called and saw my aunt rushing down the street, a sweater over her leggings and T-shirt, her face terrified.

"You're both all right," she said with relief, throwing her arms around us as she gave us a tight hug. "I couldn't believe it when I got a call from the owner that the building was on fire. I called you, Tessa, but you didn't answer."

"I threw my phone in my bag. It's on silent. Sorry."

She stepped away to look at us, her gaze narrowing with concern. "You're sure neither of you is hurt?"

"We're fine. The medics checked us out," I said.

"I don't understand what happened. How did the fire start?"

"We don't know. We woke up to smoke. We couldn't go down the stairs as the fire was coming up. The firefighters took us out the window."

"This is awful."

"This is my fault, Aunt Viv. I shouldn't have agreed to stay in your apartment. You're going to lose everything because of me. I think the car might be gone, too. It was in the garage."

"Maybe this has nothing to do with you. There could have been an electrical problem or a gas leak."

Despite her suggestion, I knew the truth. "This is about Paige. The fire wasn't an accident."

"There's the owner of the building." She pointed toward an older, stocky man in sweats, talking to one of the police officers. "I'm going to see what I can find out. And then you'll both come home with me."

As Vivienne left, I thought about her suggestion that we go home with her, but that was a bad idea. I'd already cost her the apartment. I couldn't let her become a target. Anyone close to me was in danger. What had happened tonight had made that very evident.

"I think we should split up," I told Morgan. "It's too easy to target us when we're together."

She frowned at that suggestion. "I disagree. We're stronger together."

"We can work together without staying together. And if we're not in one place, they can't take both of us out at the same time."

"I don't want to think about either one of us getting taken out. What does that even mean?"

She knew what I meant, and I couldn't say the words. "You know I'm right, Morgan."

"I can't think right now. Let's talk about this tomorrow."