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I ran my hand through my hair, feeling like my whole world was about to collapse, just like the night Hannah was attacked. I had to get away from them. I was too close, too fucking emotional about people that I didn’t even know. I walked out of the house to give them space and watched the flames burning in the distance. That was so fucking close…too close.
I slowly turned and faced the house across the street, adjacent to mine. “Son of a bitch,” I muttered under my breath. I slid my hand into my pocket and pulled out my phone, dialing the number I had memorized.
“Jack—”
“What the fuck did you do?” I snarled.
“Nothing,” Jason answered. “I swear. We had planned to do something, but didn’t get the chance.”
“You fucking told me that something would happen tonight. You expect me to believe that you didn’t set the explosion that could have killed my neighbor?”
“We didn’t. We were shooting for the end of the block, but we never got to set the charges. That fucker at the end of the street came back early from his run.”
“If you didn’t set the explosion, then who the fuck did?”
“Give us a chance to look into it. And don’t call me again. It’s too dangerous.”
He hung up without another word. I had to believe he didn’t do it. If I couldn’t trust him, then I was truly alone, and that was a shitty place to be as I knew all too well.
Sirens blared in the distance, growing louder as they got closer. Skylar peeked out of the house, calling my name. “Jack!”
I ran back to her, hoping she was okay. “What is it? Is he alright?”
She shook her head. “He’s scared. He needs his bear.”
“His bear?”
“It’s…on his bed,” she said, her voice shaking as she tried to hold it together.
I didn’t wait for her to finish. I ran back to her house, waving at the smoke that was already filtering inside. When I got to his room, I was at a loss for what to grab, but I saw a small suitcase on the shelf in the closet. Pulling it down, I opened it on the bed and started stuffing anything I could inside.
By the time I got back to my house, I could hear Parker’s cries growing louder. The kid was terrified. I opened up the suitcase and started digging around for the bear.
“That one,” Skylar said, pointing to the dark brown bear with the floppy neck. I held it out to her, then backed up, not knowing what else to do. I wanted to wrap them up in my arms and tell them it would be okay, but I didn’t have any right to. I wasn’t with her and he wasn’t my kid.
Car doors slammed outside and I recognized Officer Pete running to her door. I headed outside, meeting him halfway across the lawn.
“They’re in my house. I got them out as soon as I heard the explosion.”
“Did you see what happened?”
I shook my head. “It woke me out of a dead sleep.”
“Are they okay?”
The concern in his voice dug at something deep inside. I shouldn’t be jealous of how much he liked her. I wasn’t good enough for her, no matter how much I wanted to be. Pete was a good guy, sticking around when most guys wouldn’t. And for that reason, I had to walk away.
“The kid is pretty freaked out, but I think they’re okay.”
He cuffed me on the shoulder, squeezing tightly. “Thanks.”
He took off without bothering to look back. I knew he didn’t like me, but we came to a mutual understanding where all that mattered was the two of them. I promised him I would watch out for them, and I wasn’t about to break that promise.
I stayed outside, watching the firemen put out the flames. Anger built up inside me with every second that passed. That could have been Skylar. Hell, that could have been me. I needed to know what happened here tonight, and there was only one person I knew of who could get me that intel.
With everyone’s focus on the blaze, I slipped through the shadows, backtracking through yards until I was across the street in the back yard of my team’s house. Rae was waiting for me at the back door.
“I figured you’d come,” she said, shutting the door behind me. “Johnny and Jason are installing cameras around the neighborhood.”
