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ONE
Everett
I stood there as the flames licked the damn sky. The only thing I could do was stare at it. Drew, Cayden, and Cash were here. And I knew Lucas was on his way. But I was so fucking flabbergasted at the whole situation that I didn’t know what the hell to do.
The entire property was burnin’ before my very eyes. The old mansion we’d purchased. The old mansion we’d thrown the damn party at. It was all burnin’ to ashes. Straight to the ground. I raked my hands down my face as I heard a car race up behind me. Tires squealed and rocks kicked up as firemen rushed around. I felt the presence of my brother beside me.
“What the fuck happened?” Lucas asked.
I shook my head, unable to answer his question. The flames roared as they worked their way down the sides of the house. The roof caved in and I flinched, watching as a plump of dust rose into the air. The fire was devouring the house quicker than anything I’d ever seen. Fire trucks roared past us, skidding into the tailored lawn of the property before pumps were dipped into lakes and hooked up to fire hydrants. Water filled the sky as it rained down onto the house, but I knew the fire would eventually put itself out. It would eat up the house before fizzling out once its appetite was satiated.
“I don’t know what happened,” I said.
“How did you know the damn thing was on fire?” Lucas asked.
“When you didn’t answer your cell phone around three thirty, I came out here to make sure you weren’t doin’ stupid shit. Flames were spewin’ from the top of the damn thing and I called 9-1-1.”
“After he called me,” Drew said.
“Why did you call Drew?” Lucas asked.
“You know why the hell I called Drew. We bought this property without Mom and Dad’s help. Our first shot at turnin’ a property flippin’ it for a little more money. Drew’s gonna help us break the news to them.”
“Why do Mom and Dad have to know?”
“Because we’re gonna need their help bailin’ us out financially.”
“You’re talking about more debt, Everett.”
“We don’t have a choice, Lucas! Look at it!”
My arm thrusted out at the towering inferno. We didn’t have another choice. I wish we did, but we didn’t. This mansion was a guaranteed thing. We bought it, we worked on it a little bit, then we’d sell it to the historical society when it was finished. That was the plan. It was supposed to do two things. One, it was supposed to show the historical society of Charleston that we could take care of their properties, thereby bustin’ into a market Mom and Dad have struggled to get into for years. And two, it was supposed to show Mom and Dad that we could take Wisteria Lake Designs and turn it into an entire home-flipping operation like all of us brothers eventually wanted to do.
Now, we all watched as the damn thing burned to the ground.
“Mom and Dad are never gonna trust us to take on properties by ourselves after this,” I said.
“Mom and Dad can deal with whatever we decide to do with our business. They gave us a meager loan we paid back to get Wisteria off the ground. There’s no reason why they should hold this over our heads,” Lucas said.
“Unless we didn’t take out insurance on the house.”
“Are you fucking kidding me with this shit? You, Everett Wilder—the man who thinks of everything—didn’t take insurance out on this house?”
“The rate the insurance company quoted us would’ve made this place a terrible investment. Because it was only going to be in our possession for—”
“Look at it, Everett!”
“I’m looking at it, Lucas!”
“How much are we out?” he asked.
“Don’t ask me that question.”
“How much is the company out on this one?”
“A little under two million.”
“Flynn is going to kill you,” he said.
I watched my brother rake his hand through his hair as the flames cast shadows along the entire property. We’d have to take another loan from Mom and Dad to keep Wisteria Lake afloat. It was the only option we had. And I felt like shit. After years of working to separate ourselves from them and their real estate empire, it took one bullshit move on my part to swing us back to being dependent on them.
“Everett Wilder?”
“That’s me.”
I turned and watched the firefighter as he approached me and took his helmet off.
“Well, we’ve finally got the fire marshal out of bed and he’s personally coming out to the property to look it over. There isn’t going to be much left for him to look at, however.”
“Yeah. I figured,” I said flatly.
“Do you have any idea what caused this fire?” Lucas asked.
“Well, for now my guess is a potential electrical fire? This house is ancient, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that the damn thing’s never been updated.”
“But…?” I asked.
“A buddy of mine who’s still on the hose pointed out that even for an old home, a house that size came down real quick. I mean, we’re talking in less than an hour and over half the house has been eaten up by flames our water ain’t even touchin’.”
“You think someone burned this down on purpose,” Lucas said.
“It’s only a theory. We aren’t investigators. I’m just tellin’ ya what we’ve seen. The fire marshal is about twenty minutes out, and he’ll draw up an official investigation if he thinks foul play is involved,” the fireman said.
“I appreciate the update. Let me give you my information so you can pass it on to him,” I said.
I pulled my wallet out and drew out a card to give to the man. He nodded towards me before sticking it in his pocket, then he walked back over to the fire truck.
“We’ve dealt with electrical fires before. The insurance’s business will cover some of it if that’s the cause,” Lucas said.
“But if it’s foul play, nothing will get covered until the case is wrapped up,” I said.
“Who the fuck would burn down a mansion we were working on?”
“A rival company?”
“Do we have any of those in the state?”
“I’m not sure. I don’t know of any if we do,” I said.
“Well, if it is an electrical fire, we might be out of the woods with the bulk of what we’d ask Mom and Dad for. But if it’s anything else, I’ve got no clue.”
