Hot Seduction (15 page)

22

C
ODY
'
S
HEART
SHIFTED
in his
chest as he came upon the old couple standing in the middle of the street. They
held each other tight. Their pale, wrinkled faces were smeared with soot.

He slowed the truck and asked them, “Are you okay?”

Mrs. Gulliver's usually perfect white-and-purple-and-pink hair
was mussed and dirty. But he saw no blood on either senior citizen. He saw
nothing but their shock and fear.

Through the open window of the truck, Mrs. Gulliver grabbed his
arm. “They're in there, honey,” she said. “They're trapped in that house.”

He knew that; Serena wouldn't have left her elderly boarders
standing alone in the road.

“The fire engine's coming,” he assured them. He hadn't been
able to wait for everyone else, though. The second he'd heard the address of the
fire, he had jumped in the truck and taken off. “Help will be here soon.”

Mrs. Gulliver squeezed his arm then slapped the side of the
truck. “Go!” she yelled. “Save them!”

He pressed hard on the accelerator and raced down the driveway
toward the house. The huge structure was fully engulfed, black smoke and flames
rising from it. He threw open the driver's door and jumped out. As he raced up
to the front door, the porch and the balcony above it collapsed. Flaming straw
rained down around him. He'd already known but now he had proof: the arsonist
had set the blaze.

He kept getting more and more dangerous. But he hadn't claimed
a life yet. Cody wouldn't let him take one now; he wouldn't let him take anyone
from Cody that he loved.

He hurried around the burning house to the back door that
opened onto a brick patio. There were no shooting flames here. He pushed open
the door and hurried inside the kitchen. Holes had burned through the tin
ceiling, which was turning black; it was probably about to collapse like the
porch.

Through the billowing smoke he found the back stairwell. The
smoke was so thick—so pungent—he could barely see. But he forged ahead and
stumbled onto the second-floor landing. A body lay on the floor, the curly mop
of blond hair darkened with soot.

“Stanley!” he yelled. “Stanley!”

But the kid didn't move. A dog barked—it sounded rough and
weak. Cody listened intently, trying to figure where the sound was coming from.
Then he heard the scratching at the door behind him. Stanley had nearly gotten
to Annie. Cody touched the wood; it wasn't hot—not like the rest of the
structure, which was aglow with heat and fire. He turned the knob and pulled
open the door. Annie—her usual boundless energy spent—crawled out, her head and
body slouched low to the floor.

She licked Cody's face. Then she turned her attention to
Stanley—drooling all over him. The kid swiped at her and murmured, “Go
away...”

Cody gently slapped his face. “Come on, kid. Stay with me!”

Stanley's lashes fluttered and then his eyes opened. “Cody?
You're home?”

He nodded. “Where's Serena?”

The kid's thin shoulders shrugged. “She got Mrs. G and Mr.
S...” He started choking.

He'd inhaled too much smoke. Cody swung him over his shoulder
and carried his limp body down the back stairs. Annie didn't come with him,
though. He heard her feet scratching across the floor above as she headed down
the hall toward the front stairwell.

That had to be where Serena was.

He dumped Stanley on the lawn outside—far enough from the house
that if it collapsed, none of it would fall on him.

But what about Serena? Cody would lose her if he hadn't
already. He hurried back inside but bypassed the kitchen stairwell. He could
hear Annie barking near the front of the house.

So he hurried through the dining room. Holes burned through the
coffered ceiling. The paneling turned black and curled away from the
walls—leaving the wooden studs bare like the bones of a skeleton.

“Serena!” he yelled for her. But he had no hope that she could
hear him. If she was conscious, she would have been with Stanley. She would have
been rescuing him like she had her elderly boarders.

No. Serena was the one who needed saving now. He passed through
the parlor and stepped into the foyer—what was left of it. The porch had
collapsed on top of the chandelier, now lying in jagged fragments beneath it.
Only a few steps were visible next to the banister.

She would be there, Cody knew, not just because he could hear
Annie barking louder now. He knew it because he could feel that she was near but
slipping away from him. He was running out of time if he didn't want to lose her
forever.

So he held tightly to the banister as the steps gave way
beneath him and he vaulted up, stepping over a gaping hole. The boards had
splintered—from the heat and from someone kicking them. Serena must have been
stuck. But she'd freed herself and she'd made it as far as the second-floor
landing. She lay there, her black hair covering her face. Was she breathing?

A board must have struck her—it stretched across her back to
the opening to the second-floor hallway. Annie pawed at it from the other side.
Finally the dog's frantic efforts pushed it forward. Cody caught it before it
struck Serena again. He shoved it behind him. Then he grabbed Serena. With Annie
following on his heels, he ran down the second-floor hallway toward the back
stairs. The ceiling and floor groaned above and beneath him, and as he ran, the
house began to crumple in on itself.

The back stairs cracked under their combined weight as the heat
destroyed the brittle wood. He slid down to the kitchen floor. Then he crawled
toward the back door. Later, he wasn't certain if he pushed open the door or if
Annie did. He only remembered dragging Serena's limp body to where Stanley
lay.

He didn't know if Serena and the kid were alive or if he'd lost
them both. And in the distance, he finally heard the whine of the fire engine's
siren. Help had arrived. But it was too late. The house was gone.

* * *

H
ER
HEART
POUNDING
FRANTICALLY
,
Serena jerked awake with a scream. Or she would have screamed had her throat not
been dry and burning. All she could manage was a whimper. Something cool passed
over her lips and eased down her hurting throat.

“You're okay,” a deep voice murmured, sounding nearly as hoarse
as hers felt. “You're safe.”

She opened her eyes and peered up at Cody. His beautiful green
eyes glowed brightly in his soot-streaked face. Was she dreaming or dead? The
last thing she remembered was rushing back into the burning house for Stanley
and Annie.

Panic clutched her heart and she whispered, “Stanley...”

Cool fingers brushed across her cheek, wiping away tears she
hadn't realized she was crying. Or maybe her eyes were just watering. Like her
throat, they burned, too.

“He's fine,” Cody said. “A little smoke inhalation. They're
going to keep you both overnight to make sure your lungs aren't damaged.”

“Mrs. Gul—”

“Mrs. G and Mr. Stehouwer are so healthy that the doctor didn't
even want to keep them overnight. Tammy wanted to take them back to her
place—probably to fix Mrs. G's hair—but there was an open room at the assisted
living center in town.” His eyes twinkled with humor. “They happily agreed to
share it. The fire might have finally made them realize how they feel about each
other.”

She hadn't needed the fire to make her realize how much she
loved Cody. She had loved him long before that. And she wanted to tell him.

But first she had to make certain everyone was fine.

“Annie?” She wasn't sure what Stanley would do if something had
happened to that goofy pup.

“She's fine, too.” Cody's lips curved into a faint grin. “Hell,
she deserves a commendation for making sure everyone got out alive.”

“So everyone's fine?” she asked, needing the assurance that no
lives had been lost. “Everyone got out? Even Mr. Tremont?”

“Yeah,” Cody replied. “Mr. Tremont had already packed up his
stuff and was heading out of town.”

She gasped. “You don't think...” She had checked him out,
though. He had no criminal background. But maybe the arsonist didn't either.
Maybe he was someone nobody would suspect.

He had to be, or they would have caught him before now.

“I did,” Cody admitted. “I thought he could be the arsonist
until I found out he works for Braden's ex's new husband. Or he did. He reported
back to the guy that nothing was happening between Braden and Amy, so his
assignment was over.”

Now that she knew he was safe she didn't want to talk about Mr.
Tremont anymore. She didn't care about anything but Cody. “Why are you here?”
she asked as she stared up into his face. He'd said he was never coming back to
Northern Lakes.

“We'd just gotten back from the fires in California when the
siren went off,” he said.

That explained why the other Hotshots had returned, but not
him. “But your other job...”

“What other job?” he asked. But his green eyes twinkled. He
knew what she was talking about.

“That's not the job I want,” he said.

“A new position came up?”

He nodded. “I hope so.”

“Where is it?” she asked. Hopefully closer than Washington.

“Wherever you are.” He leaned down and skimmed his mouth across
hers, kissing her more tenderly than he'd ever kissed her. “Whatever you want me
to be.”

“Cody?” She must be dreaming because she couldn't understand
what he was saying. His face was dark with soot and there was a slight scratch
on his head. “Do you have another concussion?”

He chuckled. “No. I'm thinking more clearly than I have in a
long time.”

“I don't understand.” She must have hit her head. “That smoke
jumper job is all you've wanted. Stanley told me about the posters you used to
have up in your room at the last foster house.”

Cody shook his head. “Not anymore. That was a dream. But I
realize now that what I really wanted was a family. A home. A place to belong,”
he said. “I found that with you.”

She was afraid she'd lost all that, though. That the arsonist
had taken it all.

“I love you,” he said. “And I want to be with you.”

The tears flowed now, and they weren't because of the smoke.
Emotion overwhelmed her, because she knew nothing else mattered but this—but
him. “I love you...”

He released a ragged breath of relief. “That's good.”

How had he not known how she felt about him? Because nobody
else had ever loved him. She should have told him weeks ago. She should have
made certain he knew—in case something had happened to one of them.

“I'm sorry,” she said.

He shook his head. “I'm the one who's sorry. I never should
have left you.”

“It's your job.” And she would never keep him from that. “You
had to go. You were needed to relieve those crews in California.” She knew how
important the Hotshots' jobs were.

“But I knew the arsonist was after me,” Cody said. “I worried
that he'd go after you if he really wanted to hurt me.”

It made sense then that he would hurt her and Stanley and even
the dog. Because no matter how much Cody had denied he cared, it was obvious
that he did.

“Will you ever be able to forgive me?” he asked.

“For what?” He had done nothing wrong.

“For what you've lost,” he said. He swallowed hard, as if
choking on emotion as much as smoke. “The house is a complete loss. It burned to
the ground. There's nothing left.”

She'd already known that, but she released a shaky breath. And
his arms slid around her as he pulled her against his chest. His hands trembled
as he stroked her hair.

“I'm sorry,” he said—over and over again.

The breath she'd released had actually been one of relief. She
didn't have to worry about the house anymore. With the insurance money, she
could pay off Courtney and do whatever else she wanted with her half.

“That last day—as I watched you with Stanley I saw what a great
foster home it would have made—what a great foster mom you would be.”

The idea filled her with warmth and hope. “That's a great
idea,” she said.

“We'll rebuild on your property,” he said. “We'll find old
pictures of the house and replicate it. We will make it happen.”

She shook her head. “Not now. Not yet...”

“Too soon?”

“Yes,” she said. “It's too soon for me to settle down—to work
so hard. I want to travel. I want to live a little.” Like Courtney wanted her to
live.

He touched her head now as if looking for bumps and bruises.
“Are you okay?”

“I will be,” she said. “As long as I can travel with you. If
you want to reconsider and take that smoke jumper job, I will move to Washington
with you. I'll go wherever you want to go.”

He hesitated and she understood. He might love her, but he was
used to being alone.

“Of course I know you'll be busy with training and everything,”
she assured him, hoping that she hadn't overwhelmed him, “so I don't have to
go...”

“You don't have to go,” Cody said, “because I'm not going. I
turned down the job. I want to stay with the Huron Hotshots. We're family. And
Northern Lakes is home.”

Her heart swelled over the orphan, who'd never felt as if he'd
belonged anywhere, finally finding his home. And love. “I love you.”