The Fire Still Burns (20 page)

“I did the only thing I could think of.  I did what I thought was the best thing for everyone.  I didn't feel like I deserved you after being stupid enough to mistake another man for you.  I didn't want to stay here and see my loved ones wallow in shame.”  She stomped toward the far wall, spun and marched back to stand before Adam.  

“When I finally realized I had been a victim, I didn't want you to know.  I didn't want to be responsible for whatever you might do.  I left my family and my home to raise a child all by myself.  I gave up my dreams.”  She smacked her palm against her chest.

“I gave up everything.  I hurt myself, Adam, I punished myself.  Why can't anyone see that?  I know I hurt you and I'm sorry.  I know I disappointed my parents, but I didn't do it for selfish reasons.”  She flung her hands in the air and started to pace. “Why can't any of you acknowledge that?  Why can't you see I hurt myself, too?  Why can't you see I damn near destroyed myself to protect you?” 

“You're right, you're right,” Adam reassured her as he rose from his seat to hold her, stopping her angry pacing.

“I'm sorry.  I shouldn't be focusing on my own pain when I can't even imagine what it's been like for you.  For the record, you're one hell of a good woman, raising a child who resulted from rape.  A lot of women wouldn't do it.”

Brynn stiffened at his remark.  “Nathaniel’s my gift, something wonderful I was given to make up for what I went through.  Raising him has never been a hardship.”

“I'm sure he's a great kid with you as a mother.”  He pressed his lips to her temple, gently as though she might break.  “I'd like to meet him.”

Brynn jerked away, icy fear circulating through her veins. “No, that's not possible.”

“What?  Why?”

Brynn looked into Adam's eyes, shame creeping into her body as she noticed how wounded he looked.  She hadn't meant to be so abrupt with him, but she'd reacted without thinking and the fear had slipped out.

“Because…” she struggled to find words to explain, words that wouldn't cut him any deeper.  “I don't want Nate to get familiar with this town or anyone in it.  I can't raise him in Black Bear Gorge, not with the way people still look at me here.”

“So, you don't want him to meet me or anyone else who knew you back then?”

“No.”

“And you're still planning on leaving.”  A shadow fell over his eyes.

“I have to, Adam.  It's the best thing for my son.”

“And what about us?”

Brynn blinked back the wetness building up in her eyes again and tried to swallow past the lump which had formed in her throat.  “I'll always love you, Adam, but fate just dealt us a bad hand.”

“That's bullshit!”  Adam clenched his jaw tightly, his eyes narrowed. “You're running away.  Why?  Why can't you just stay here and tell everyone to go to hell?  Who cares what people say, anyway?”

“You do,” Brynn replied softly.  “It wasn't very long ago you jumped away from me when your crew saw you kissing me outside Red's Tavern.”

“I’m an idiot,” Adam responded, color creeping into his face.  “I've been thinking about you, about us, and I don't care what people say anymore.”

“Yes, you do.  Only now you know I was raped and your ego isn't taking as bad of a hit because you’ve realized I didn't cheat on you.  But no one else is going to know that.  I don't want them to.”

He jerked back as though he’d been struck.  “I wouldn't tell—”

“So what would you say if we got back together and someone made a comment about you playing the fool again?”

“Brynn.”

“How about when they ask if they can have a piece of me when you're through?”  She stared at him, seeing the muscle in his jaw tick.

“Stop it.”

“Or when they ask you if I've picked up any new tricks?”

“Stop it.”

“I can't stop it, Adam.  I'm the town whore or did you forget?”  She crossed her arms and let out a chuckle devoid of humor.  “
Trust me
, this town won't let you forget it for long.  And the only way they'll stop passing judgment is if they know what Cal did to me, assuming they believe it, and even if that happens and I stay in this town, then guess what?  My son will find out.  This is why we can never be together again.”

Adam swallowed heavily.  “Because you're afraid of what your son will think if he finds out the truth of his conception.”

“Afraid?  I'm terrified.”

“Does he even know that Cal was gay?”

“I don't think so.”  Brynn slid her hands in her back pockets, once again wondering how much information to divulge.  “Cal wasn't really around. Nate just thinks of himself as one of the many unfortunate children in this world with a deadbeat father.”

“I wish I'd known you were all alone. I would have helped you.”

“You hated me when I left.”  Just saying the bitter reminder sent a jolt of sorrow through her system.

“I never hated you, Brynn.  I tried to, but I couldn't.”

Adam looked at her with a passionate intensity only pure love could create, and she regretted the harsh things she had said to him before her big revelation.

“I'm sorry I blew up at you about Stacy.  I know you thought I'd cheated on you for all these years, and we weren't together at the time.”

“It's all right, Brynn.  You were hurt by it and for that I'm sorry.”

“I wish things were different.”  She gave him a weak smile.

“So do I.”

Adam opened his arms and she stepped into them, wrapping her own arms around his waist.  He stared at her for a long moment, and she saw the emotions swirling in his eyes before he dipped his head to meld his mouth to hers.

He kissed her gently, sweetly, not a kiss of passion but an unspoken apology. And she returned the favor in kind.

“Are you sure you can't stay here?”  He rested his forehead against hers.

“I can't, no matter how badly I'd love to rekindle what we had.”

“I don't think it ever burned out, Brynn.  I've wanted you since the moment you stepped foot into Chief Parker's office.”

“When you called me a cold-hearted bitch?”

His face filled with color.  “Sorry about that.”

“It's all right.  After all, I wasn't so nice to you either.  I did beat you up and steal your truck.”

“Don't remind me,” he said with a light chuckle but quickly sobered.  “I don't want to lose you again.”

He kissed her again, nothing chaste in his manner this time as his tongue explored the depths f her mouth.  Brynn was flooded with warm memories of kissing him in his truck at Lover's Loop, fogging up the windows on cool, autumn nights, both of them frantic with eagerness to please.

Something vibrated against her belly and she jumped back in surprise.

Adam groaned and detached his cell phone from his belt.

“Adam Good.”  He speared her with a look indicating they would be continuing where they'd left off.

Brynn smiled in response, but the gesture faded as she saw his brow crinkle with concern.  He didn’t talk, but listened to what the party on the other end of the phone was saying as his free hand stroked her back.

“How bad?” he asked the unknown party.  The color drained from his face.  “Damn. All right, Brynn's with me now.  We're on our way.” He snapped his phone closed and clipped it back onto his belt.

“What's wrong?”

“There's another fire and you won't believe where.”

Chapter Thirteen

Adam pulled Brynn's car to a stop several feet away from the house where many generations of high school seniors had held their annual costume parties.  The building, which had been the scene of the crime over a decade earlier when Brynn was raped, was now aflame.

Black Bear Gorge's two fire trucks were positioned around the structure.  Members of Adam's crew were busy hosing the building down to keep the fire under control while Black Bear Gorge's police department controlled the crowd that had formed, most of them teens.  Their faces filled with despair as they watched the site of their highly anticipated upcoming costume bash burn before their eyes.

But, it was Brynn who Adam worried about.  He glanced over at her, saw the way she paled as she looked at the building, and wondered what was going on inside her mind.  Was she reliving the nightmare all over again?  Remembering things best left forgotten?

“Are you all right?” He kept his voice soft.  “If you can't deal with this—”

“I'm all right,” she snapped, reaching for the door handle while staring straight ahead at the burning building.  “I'm not that damn fragile.”

“That's debatable,” Adam murmured under his breath as he exited the car to catch up to her, finding he had to sprint in order to do so.

Brynn marched up to Chief Parker and started firing out questions before Adam could even approach the man. Deciding to let her go ahead and get information that way, he stepped away and observed the crowd, carefully studying each and every face, looking for anything that stood out.

“Studying the crowd?”  Brynn joined him a few minutes later, seeming to do the same.

“Yep.  So far, the fires were all ignited during extremely late hours or as you know, Sunday morning, while the rest of the town was at church.  This is the first time it was done during a time of day when the rising smoke would catch the attention of a good-sized crowd.”

“So, this would be the first time our firebug would have the opportunity to view his or her work without sticking out like a sore thumb.”  Brynn raised an eyebrow.

“His or her?  I thought you were positive it was a woman.”

“I was positive it was Rachel Wood, but she's not in the crowd, not that she would be if she intends to stay missing.”

“Her sister is in the crowd,” Adam pointed out with a nod in Riley’s direction, having noticed the girl shortly after he'd started inspecting the group of people.

“I noticed, and she sure does have a scowl on her face.”

“Yes, but she lacks that 'Oooh, everything's going up in flames and I'm standing here getting my rocks off watching it burn' look in her eye.”

“Is that something you were taught during your arson investigation training?”  There was a lilt of laughter in Brynn’s tone.

“Not in those exact words, no.”

“Good to know.  But, you're right.  Of course, if these fires are being set to get a message across, then the arsonist might not get his or her jollies off watching things burn.”

“So, why the fires?”  He turned to face her.

“The fire represents something.  Your brother was murdered during the first one.  His death started all of this.  This isn't about a fascination with fire.  This is about saying something.”

“Then why don't they just have the guts to come out and say it?”  Adam growled.  The vision in his head of his brother screaming in pain as orange flames licked at his body flared the anger which seemed to lie just beneath his skin.

“I'm sorry.”  Brynn placed her hand on his arm.  “I should have said that a little more gently.”

“It's all right.  I've got to be a little more detached if I'm going to stay on this case,” Adam responded, clearing his throat as he banked down his anger. “So, what did the chief say?”

“The usual.  The fire has to be put out before we can actually determine the cause, yada, yada, yada, blah, blah, blah…the call came in about twenty minutes ago and was made by the senior class dance committee, who are the group of kids you see standing off to the left.”  She nodded toward the students’ general direction.

“You interview the kids,” Adam suggested, glancing at the six teenagers, all of whom he knew by name.  “They don't know you and you're not personally attached to the victim in the first fire.  You might be able to get more out of them.”

“Oh, I'm sure they know
of
me,” Brynn responded dryly. 

Adam felt the pangs of guilt roll through him once more, knowing he'd failed to protect her from a rape which had led to her being wrongly labeled the town slut.  A label he hadn't tried to remove.

“I'll interview them.”

“Hold your horses, Good.”  Brynn grabbed his arm as he made a movement to walk away.  “We don't know for a fact yet that this was arson.”

Adam gritted his teeth.  She'd never called him Good when they were dating.  He'd let it slide the previous times she'd called him by his surname, but now, it irked the hell out of him.  She still didn't forgive him, not fully, and she was doing her damnedest to ensure they didn’t get too close again.

“There's a reason why we have a fire and rescue team, not just a group of firemen, Brynn.  We do more rescuing and getting cats out of trees around these parts than putting out fires, and, regardless of how long you've been gone, you know that.  This isn't some coincidental fire.  This is arson.”

“I know that.”

Adam looked at her, bewildered.  “You just said—”

“I know what I said, Adam, but this hasn't officially been declared arson yet.  All I'm saying is be careful how you question the dance committee.  They're kids and kids do two things easily—scare and over dramatize. Let them tell you what they know in the way they recall it, don't put words like arson or arsonist in their mind first.  We want clear information, not muddled, and we definitely don't want any of them to be so scared of retribution that they don't tell us if they did see someone fleeing the scene.”