“Are you sure it wasn’t another one of the men, coming to help? Or that Noelle wasn’t dropping someone off?”
“I’m positive. She didn’t stop long enough to let anyone out. Besides, that car’s old and distinctive. I don’t think I’d confuse it. She pulled in, circled around the parking lot and then got the hell out. The sight of her gave me the creeps—made me feel like she was coming back to survey what she’d done. As if she was excited about it.”
It was hard to believe someone would go that far, but Lourdes knew it happened occasionally. “Are there any security cameras that might tell you what happened?”
“No, there’s never been any need for that sort of thing. I’ve never even considered it.”
“Still, if this is arson, they should be able to tell once they get the fire out, and things cool off.”
He didn’t respond. He just kept staring at the plant as though seeing it go up in smoke was so terrible he couldn’t look away.
“You have insurance, don’t you?”
“I do, of course, but this will be a serious disruption to my business. And who knows whether the insurance company will step up the way they should. Insurance companies are notorious for doing everything possible to reject a claim or make some exception or other.”
She wished she could offer him more consolation. “I’m sorry, Kyle. I feel awful about this.”
“It’s cold out. You should go home,” he said.
“You’re worried about me being cold? I’m the one who’s wearing a coat—your coat. Here, you take it. That sweatshirt can’t be doing much to protect you from this wind.”
He waved her off. “Keep it. I can’t feel anything.”
She folded her arms to protect her hands from the biting wind. “If it’s her, if it is Noelle, she’ll be in real trouble. Maliciously setting a fire is a felony, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know about anywhere else, but it is in California. If she’s convicted, she’ll go to prison.” He shook his head. “She’s so used to getting away with all the shit she does. People around here have been putting up with her bad behavior for years. Her family’s been doing it her whole life. But maybe she’s finally gone too far.”
*
It took the firefighters more than two hours to put out the fire and make sure everything was properly soaked. Kyle was numb by the time it was over. He sent a text to Morgan. He knew she turned off her cell at night and wouldn’t get his message until morning, but he didn’t want to call the house and wake her. Morning would be soon enough for her to receive the bad news. She could try to get word to the rest of his employees then, at least as many as she could catch, so they wouldn’t drive in to the plant for nothing.
With a final, heartbroken glance at what he used to be so proud of, he and Lourdes got in his truck to return to the house. He’d tried to convince her to go back ahead of him. There wasn’t any need for her to be out so late in such cold weather. But she hadn’t been willing to leave him. She’d said friends didn’t leave friends in the middle of a crisis.
He was glad she’d clarified their relationship—since the line between friends and something more had blurred beyond distinction right before Warren showed up.
On the one hand, the timing of that interruption couldn’t have been worse, Kyle thought. Neither he nor Lourdes had obtained the physical satisfaction they’d been seeking. He was so upset by what had happened to the plant that a heavy dose of sexual frustration on top of it made him even more bad-tempered.
But it was possible that Warren had knocked at just the right time, since the interruption gave them a chance to step back and reconsider what they were doing. Kyle couldn’t imagine that having sex with Lourdes would make her life any less complicated—or his any easier when she left.