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She stirred the warming soup with her back to me.
I obeyed and took one of the chairs at the kitchen table.
“I realize you haven’t courted my girl. But I see the way you look at her. And you clearly can’t stay away.” She turned and lasered into me with shrewd eyes. “So when the time comes to fight, what are you gonna do?”
I folded my hands on the table and looked down. The answer was no clearer than it had been when she asked a few minutes ago. It wasn’t simple.
I’d already broken promises to myself and to Pepper by recklessly continuing to defy my father. It was dangerous to be here. Pepper and Miss Adeline had already had to split up their family.
Part of me questioned if somewhere deep down I believed they were better off if I were here to help protect them instead of leaving them on their own. Yes, it put them on my father’s radar. But they were already there.
I didn’t know what kind of perverse pleasure he took from destroying innocent people’s lives. And I shouldn’t matter to him. I didn't matter to him.
She ladled some soup in a bowl and set it in front of me. “I’ve never backed away from hard times. You bring a fresh kind of trouble with you.” She sank down in the adjacent chair. “But I won’t go through hell for a coward.”
I froze mid-lift of the spoon.
I’m not a coward.
Then I thought about the way I’d jetted out of here the day my father arrived. How I’d jumped when he’d summoned me.
But I did it for her.
If Pepper weren’t in the picture, my father could’ve set fire to my shoes and I still wouldn’t have set foot in his office.
Did being motivated by fear make me a coward?
“Believe” by Cher blared from my pocket. I nearly dropped the spoon but managed to hang onto it and dig my phone out.
“Yo. Five alarm on West Fourteenth and Tenth. Need all hands. Can you make it?” The alarm screamed in the background along with shouts.
“I’m not far. Bring my gear.” I threw down the spoon, shoved out of my chair, and pocketed my phone in one swift motion. “Massive fire. I gotta go.”
I grabbed my coat and raced down the stairs. My mind was in overdrive, mapping the intersection in my head. The back door of Grey Paws slammed behind me.
I sprinted down the alley. We were on West Seventeenth and Eighth Avenue. West Fourteenth was a few blocks away.
Rain pelted my face as I ran. In two blocks, the red strobe lights of a fire truck beamed through the night sky. Off in the distance, another siren wailed.
A car skidded to a stop, narrowly missing me in the crosswalk. The horn blew, but I ignored it.
Flames shot through the darkness. And when the blaze came into view, I realized I’d been here only a few days ago.
Pepper’s park.
Chapter Forty-Two
Pepper
“You ran him off.”
I towel-dried my hair as I walked into the kitchen—minus a certain someone.
“For your information, he had an emergency call.”
I frowned. “Everything okay?”
My mind jumped to worst-case scenarios. Had something happened to his brother or sister? Someone else at work?
