A Promise to Protect (Logan Point Book #2): A Novel (8 page)

“I don’t believe you were that bad,” Sarah said.

“Picture purple hair one day and jet-black spikes the next. Rings in my eyebrow. Ran with the wrong crowd. Straight A student though and never did drugs. That was Tony’s deal.

“No, I just flouted the rules. Even went to work at the local ‘dance’ club.” She held her hand up. “I just worked the cash register. Some of the ladies in town complained, and Sheriff Tom Logan hauled all the girls in one day. Me included. Told us we needed to find a different job. My smart mouth almost got us all put in jail.”

“I just can’t see you being that way. Why? And what changed you?”

“Why? I had a lot of built-up anger. My dad died, and my mom moved us to Logan Point and then committed suicide two years later. Before she did, she told me I would never amount to anything.” Leigh pressed her lips together and looked toward the ceiling. “I set out to prove her right.”

“I never knew.” Sarah patted her hand. “I’m so sorry. How did you go from that to becoming a doctor?”

“I went away to college in Jackson, and a professor took me under her wing. Pointed me in the right direction.”

Sarah smiled. “Good for her. But if you were in Jackson, how did you and Ben get together?”

“My grandmother still lived here, and I always came home at Christmas and a few weekends. But the summer before my senior year, I didn’t take any classes. She wanted me to come home and talk to Tony. He’d dropped out of college and still ran with the wrong crowd.

“I did, but it didn’t do any good. Anyway, that summer, Ben and I ended up working at the same camp. We started dating and kept dating when we returned home. It wasn’t long before we realized we were in love.

“His dad didn’t like it one bit. He wanted Ben to follow in his footsteps someday and be sheriff. And even though I no longer had the spiked hair and the piercings, he still saw me as that person. But we didn’t care. We were in love, and one night . . .” Leigh looked down. “We knew we shouldn’t, but we got caught up in the moment.” She took a deep breath. “Right after that, Sheriff Logan came to me. He’d picked up Tony and a bunch of his friends on marijuana charges. Said if I’d back away from Ben, he’d drop the charges against Tony. But I couldn’t tell Ben why. Tom said it was only a summer fling, anyway.”

Leigh lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “I wanted to let Tony go to jail—he needed to learn a lesson. But, before I gave Sheriff Logan an answer, I went to see my brother. He didn’t know about the deal.

“Tony begged me to get a lawyer. He swore to me on our dead father’s grave it wasn’t his marijuana, that one of the guys he was with planted it on him, and if I would help him, he would change. No more drugs, no more hanging out with potheads.” Leigh shook her head. “I never could say no to him, and I really didn’t want him to go to jail.”

Sarah pressed her hand to her chest. “What did you tell Ben?”

“I called him and told him I didn’t want to see him again. That I didn’t have time to be distracted by a long-distance relationship. That was the last time I talked to him until the night Tony was murdered.”

“He never tried to see you again?”

“He called, and my grandmother told him I wasn’t there. Once I think she even told him I was on a date. It wasn’t long before I went back to college, not knowing I was pregnant.”

“Why didn’t you tell him when you found out?”

Leigh glanced toward the hallway, listening for the annoying
wawawa
of TJ’s game. Satisfied the game still had his attention captured, she turned to Sarah. “Ben gave up too easily. I didn’t think he’d want to know.”

Sarah took a deep breath and frowned. “Do you smell something strange?”

Leigh sniffed the air and shook her head. “Just the pizza we had for supper.”

“It doesn’t quite smell like pizza. But back to Ben. Did you expect him to pursue you?”

“I don’t know what I expected.” She massaged the tight muscles in her neck. “I probably did. My grandmother died right after I found out I was pregnant. Tony had straightened up, gone back to college. As I drove home to make the arrangements, I debated whether to tell Ben. I decided he had a right to know and planned to tell him after the funeral.

“The night before the service, I went to a restaurant, and Ben was there with some girl. It was obvious they were in love . . . he even kissed her right there in the restaurant. I heard the next day he was engaged. Guessed that was why he didn’t come to the funeral or to see me. His dad had been right—I was just a summer fling. I was on my own. So I went back to Jackson, and you know the rest.”

“Evidently he didn’t get married.”

“No, he didn’t. Sometimes I wish . . . it doesn’t matter what I wish. It’s hard to undo decisions made ten years ago.” She rubbed the back of her thumb, thinking of TJ asking Ben to take him to ball practice. “But, I made the right choice, Sarah. Ben wasn’t ready to be a father back then, and he still isn’t.”

Sarah lifted her head and wrinkled her nose, sniffing the air. “What is that odor?”

Leigh inhaled, and this time acrid fumes burned her nose. “Something’s on fire.”

She jumped up and ran into the kitchen. Nothing wrong there.

Sarah halted near the door that led to the attic. “I think it’s coming from upstairs.”

Leigh jerked open the door, and smoke rolled into the room.

Rain poured from the night sky, blending with water from fire hoses. Ben stood beside the ladder truck and wiped his brow, thankful the fire that had blazed from the roof of Leigh’s house seemed to be contained. Lieutenant Carson James came to stand beside him.

“Thanks for the help. If we’d had another truck, we probably could have saved more of the house,” James said. “But this is the third lightning fire tonight.”

“You think this one was lightning?”

“Know for sure after the fire marshal takes a look. Any reason you think it’s not?”

“I just want to make sure it isn’t another attempt on Leigh’s life.”

“Gotcha. We’ll stand by for another couple of hours, in case it flares up again.”

Ben turned and scanned the crowd for Leigh and found her near the edge of the driveway, hugging her stomach. The shower had tapered off to a fine mist, and as he approached, she looked up with those luminous green eyes. With her chestnut hair plastered to her head, she reminded him of a waif.

“Do you think they saved it?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Ben blew out a hard breath. She didn’t look like she could handle his suspicions right now. “We’ll know more tomorrow.” He looked around. “Where’s your friend?”

“Gone to pull TJ away from the fire truck.”

Ben frowned. “I was just there, and I didn’t see TJ.”

“Leigh!” Sarah hurried toward them, her voice frantic. “I can’t find TJ!”

Ben scanned the area. “Did anyone see which way he went?”

“The fireman”—Sarah stopped to catch her breath—“said he asked about a bear. He told him there weren’t any bears—”

“Bear!” Leigh started for the smoldering house. “He went after the bear Tony gave him!”

Ben caught her. “You can’t go in there.”

She tried to break away from him. “I have to!”

“I’ll go.” As he ran to the back of the house, he spied the lieutenant. “There’s a boy inside. Going after him.”

“Wait, Ben!”

He ignored the lieutenant and sprinted for the front door that stood open. No, someone would have seen the boy if he’d gone in through the front. He turned and ran for the back. The door gaped open. “TJ!”

No answer. Ben stepped through the door and hit total darkness, the house reeking of burnt wood and smoke. He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth. Overhead, the ceiling hissed and cracked. Even though he didn’t see any flames, wood smoldered, waiting for a draft of air to rekindle the fire. A light shone behind him.

“Where are you, Ben?”

Carson. With a flashlight.

“Shine it toward the right over here.” The light only made the smoke and haze worse. “TJ! Where are you?”

“Ben?”

TJ’s faint voice quivered somewhere to Ben’s right, and he stumbled toward it. A smoking board dropped in front of him, and he veered away from it. His head rammed a wall. “Ow!”

He inched along the side. “TJ, talk to me, boy.”

“I can’t see. My eyes burn.”

“Where are you?”

TJ coughed. He was close.

“TJ?”

“Ben!” The boy almost bowled him over as he latched onto him.

“You’re going to be okay.” He hoisted him on his shoulder. “I’ve got him,” he yelled. “Shine the light on the floor so I can see my way out of here.”

“I’m sorry. I thought the fire was out.” TJ buried his head in Ben’s shoulder. “I just wanted to get Bear.”

“It’s okay. We’re getting out of here now.” Staying low, Ben carried TJ toward the kitchen and the light.

Leigh paced in front of the fire truck, never taking her eyes off the path that Ben, then the fire chief, took. What was TJ thinking? What if the fire rekindled, trapping them all in the house? Her heart thundered in her chest as Ben rounded the corner with TJ in his arms, and she raced to meet them. Ben set TJ down, and Leigh knelt, wrapping her arms around him.

“Thank you.” She mouthed the words over TJ’s head then hugged her son closer. Ben had risked his own life to save TJ.

Ben grinned, his teeth white against the soot covering his face. He tousled TJ’s hair. “You have a brave boy here. Scared us, though.”

She nodded, unable to speak. Leigh wanted to throttle her son and dance and embrace him all at the same time. “Why did you go back into the house?”

TJ looked at her, his eyes wide in childlike earnestness. “I couldn’t let Bear burn up. Uncle Tony—” He hiccupped.

“I understand, but don’t
ever
do anything like that again!” Leigh brushed his hair back with her hand. Soot streaked his face. The vise that had cut off her breath earlier tightened again. If Ben hadn’t gone after him . . . She couldn’t bear the thought of what might have happened.

“I won’t, Mommy.”

He hadn’t called her mommy since he was six. The tears she’d dammed back threatened to break and spill down her face. He wiggled out of her arms, and she choked down the knot in her throat. She got to her feet and nodded to the paramedic waiting beside Ben. “I’ll check him out.”

Ben scooped TJ up and carried him to the ambulance, where Leigh borrowed a stethoscope. After going over him from head to toe, she decided all he needed was a good bath. And maybe a seat warming. At the very least, a good talking-to for the scare he’d given them all. But not tonight—she was too happy to have him safe and sound. She handed the stethoscope back to the paramedic. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, Doc.” The medic turned to TJ. “Want to see what it looks like inside an ambulance?”

“Sure!” TJ looked down at the stuffed animal in his hand then held it out to her. “Mom, would you keep Bear?”

She wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He’d risked his life for the teddy bear, but now he didn’t want anyone to see him with it. “Sure.”

As TJ walked to the front of the ambulance with the medic, tears stung her eyes again. What she wouldn’t give to get her normal life back. It seemed an eon since she’d treated Jimmy West in the ER for a snakebite or laughed with Tony over one of his stupid jokes. Her shoulders sank. Tony was gone, and she had nowhere to live—her life as she knew it was over.

Ben cleared his throat. “Tell me what happened tonight.”

Leigh reeled in her thoughts and sucked in a shaky breath as
she replayed the events from earlier. “Sarah and I were talking . . . it was storming, lots of thunder and lightning. I heard something hit the house, like a limb, and then the next thing I knew, the house was on fire.”

“Did you hear a pop?”

She closed her eyes and tried to remember. Did lightning always pop? “I don’t think so.”

“Well, I can tell you, I don’t think it was lightning.”

Leigh and Ben both turned to stare at Sarah.

“How do you know?” Ben asked.

She put her hand on her hip. “’Cause I smelled something funny before I ever smelled smoke.” She nodded at Leigh. “Don’t you remember me asking about that strange odor? And you said it was pizza.”