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“Cassano is dead.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Teague
The phone fellfrom my grasp onto the carpet.
“Yo. Teague.”
I dropped my chin to my chest.
Beau picked up the device and held it to her ear. She murmured and nodded, though her face was ashen.
Cassano is dead.
Cassano. Is. Dead.
I’d seen him a few days ago. We’d joked about who cooked a better chili. He’d been determined to get back to work in a few weeks.
“Doc saysI’m doing better than expected.” He grinned. “I’ll be back making your sorry ass look bad again in no time.”
“You better. Captain’s getting bored with only having me to peg stuff on.”
He flipped me the bird.
“He’s really going to be after you when he hears your next ringtone. I’ll be calling you nonstop.”
He had. Two days ago. “Believe”had repeated so much Captain turned off my phone. And someone had already changed the ringtone.
How could a person playing pranks just the other day be gone now?
Beau ended the call and sat on the arm of the chair. “Heart attack. They’re not sure what caused it yet.”
“He was thirty-five,” I all but shouted.
She put a hand on my knee. “I’m sorry.”
“He was fine,” I whispered.
When I’d carried him from that townhouse, he’d been in bad shape. Life-threatening shape. But he’d pulled through it.
He was dead.
“They’ll have more details about arrangements tomorrow.”
Dread filled every crevice within me.
“Will you stay? Go with me?” I sounded like a little boy begging, but if anyone understood my hate of funerals, it was Beau.
“Yeah. I’ll stay.”
I couldn’t stand the worry on her face, especially knowing it was because of me.
“I’ll be fine.” There was no other choice. That didn’t mean it would be easy. Cassano made some terrible choices in that fire, and ultimately, the ceiling would’ve collapsed no matter what we’d done. It still felt like I bore sole responsibility for his death, even though I knew full well accidents were an everyday part of the job.
“This isn’t your fault.” Her tone was stern, like she wanted to shake some sense into me.
“I’m gonna hit the hay.” I stretched my arms above my head and faked a yawn.
