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Chapter 16
When the blaze was finally conquered, the Angel Fire rescue services had managed to save the rest of the structure. Tanith’s gallery was all but destroyed, along with an insane amount of smoke damage done to the apartments directly above it. However, the rest of the building was safe. The firefighters had done their jobs. No one was hurt—not physically, anyway.
Blake had watched the love of his life fall apart all day, unfortunately. All they could do was stand by, helpless, as Tanith’s life dream went up in flames. Windows shattered. Artwork burned. All her hopes, her goals, her desires for the future—they went up with the plumes of black smoke, never to be seen again.
When the firefighters defeated the fire, the gallery was beyond saving. The building would remain closed for the rest of the day while detectives and fire marshals combed through it from top to bottom, searching for the source of the fire. Was it an accident? Was it arson? No one should have been in the gallery, according to Tanith when she issued her statement to those who wanted to hear it.
During the whole ordeal, people had wandered over to express their sympathies to Tanith. She’d been in shock for a lot of it, so Blake took over the bulk of the conversation. After a while, he managed to stop people from approaching with just a look. She had every right to be devastated, every right to feel as though she had lost a loved one. Because she had.
And Blake had a suspicion he knew exactly who was behind the murder.
Even through the smoke and fire, he could scent them. Cougars. Their scent was all around the outskirts of the building, and he was sure if they’d been allowed to go inside—the building had been roped off, a police officer stationed to keep watch—Blake would find even stronger cougar scents amongst the ashes.
“Now, I want you to give me a call if you remember anything,” Bill Jennings, the lead detective assigned to the case, insisted as he thrust his business card into Blake’s hand. He then nodded to Tanith, who stood in front of the roped off entryway, what was left of it, with her arms limp at her side. “Both of you.” His voice lowered. “Is she going to be okay?”
“She just lost the thing she’s been working her whole life to build,” Blake snapped, shoving the card in his pocket and biting back to urge to tell the guy to fuck right off with that fake sympathetic tone of his. “So, yeah, she’ll be okay, but probably not today.”
The guy tipped his stupid little bowler hat before stalking off to an awaiting car across the street. Blake watched it drive off with a scowl, then returned to Tanith’s side. He had already called in to miss his shift that night, knowing there were at least five doctors who owed him a favor. Hayley was with Trudy, who had also agreed to stay as late as necessary. All that mattered to him in that moment was being there for Tanith, however she might want him. He had a few ideas how to take her mind off things, but he needed to make sure she was in the right headspace for it.
She flinched when he placed his hand on the small of her back, her beautiful eyes darting up, wide-eyed and shocked, as if she had only just realized she wasn’t the only person in the world right now.
“Sorry,” he murmured, opting to wrap an arm around her shoulders instead. She stiffened for a moment, then leaned into him, her arms locked around his waist. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m feeling…” Her voice caught and she cleared her throat softly. “I’m feeling everything. Devastation. Disbelief. Anger. Fear. The whole scale.”
“I don’t blame you.” This was one of those moments in her life that she would remember forever. It might even haunt her if she let it.
And it had all happened because she was his fated mate. Why else would the cougars target her? She had no connection to the Angel Fire bear clan outside of a few friendships with its members. She wasn’t privy to clan business. As far as he knew, Tanith didn’t even know shifters existed.
She was just a resident of the town, one of its permanent fixtures—the eccentric, beautiful, sweet artist everyone knew and loved. What could she have possibly done to warrant all this special attention from those asshole cats? Nothing. This was all because of Blake. Someone was trying to send a message, and if that was the case, then it was working.
Because he wanted to tear someone’s throat out.
“Tanith, why don’t we go sit somewhere—”
“No.” She shrugged out of his grasp, holding herself in a solo hug. The look on her face made his heart hurt. “I can’t just…sit.”
For the most part, he wanted to get some fluids in her, maybe get her out of the steadily rising morning heat, and away from the smoky aftermath of her life. However, he knew that if she didn’t want to do something, there was nothing he could say that would change her mind—not about this, anyway. So, he wracked his brain for other options.
“I’m going to kill Alani.”
His gaze shot to Tanith. That was unexpected—and certainly not one of his options.
“What?”
“She always leaves the kiln running,” Tanith snapped, her voice quivering. “I can’t count the number of times I’ve found it on when it shouldn’t be, long after she left her studio.”
“Tanith, you can’t know for sure—”
“I know,” she said firmly, eyes watering with unshed tears. “I just know. I didn’t want to sell her out to the police, but I know she’s responsible for this. No one else is so careless or forgetful. Or stupid.”
Blake licked his lips and kept his initial reaction to himself. He knew Tanith liked Ivo’s mate Alani. She didn’t think Alani was stupid, and even if she did, Tanith would never say it to anyone. This was the grief talking.
“Tanith…” He couldn’t have her go on thinking that her friend, her fellow artist-in-arms, had done something that cost Tanith everything. It wasn’t fair, especially when Blake had a pretty damn good idea about who actually was responsible. But Tanith seemed fairly set on blaming Alani, and he actually had to grab her arms and give her a little shake to snap her out of it. “Tanith.”
“What?” Cheeks flushed, she tried to wrench herself free again, but this time Blake held harder, his inner bear riled up at all her signs of physical distress.
“Let’s go clear our heads,” he suggested, keeping his voice low and steady. “Okay?”
