And Reece…
She scanned the crowd of firefighters until she found him again. He hadn’t moved, still stared up at the house, covered in soot. Alone. Did he realize he was only alone because he separated himself from his brothers?
She wanted to go to him, the urge to soothe him nearly overpowering, which was precisely why she walked in the opposite direction. Legally, yes, she had married into the family. Emotionally, she was a complete outsider. Even her sister was distancing herself from the hot mess that was Shelby’s life. Not that she blamed Eva for it. If it was possible to distance herself from her own life, she would do it in a heartbeat.
But that was impossible and, family or not, the Wilde brothers and their wives couldn’t help her. There was only one person who could, and she hated that fact.
She needed some privacy, so she climbed into the passenger seat of Reece’s car, which had been backed out of the driveway to allow the fire trucks better access to the house. What she really wanted to do was jump behind the wheel and put the pedal to the metal until she left all of her problems in the rearview mirror. But adding grand theft auto to her list of misdeeds seemed like a very bad idea, so passenger seat it was. Besides, Reece still had the keys.
She locked the door and sat in the cold, silent darkness for several minutes. Working up the courage. Or, no, more like biting back the surge of intense disgust. The one person who could help her now was the last person on earth she wanted to talk to, and the idea of asking him for anything turned her stomach into an acid pit.
But what choice did she have?
She found her cell phone in the glove box where she’d left it during the cocktail party. Didn’t give herself time to rethink it and dialed Jason Mallory’s number. He answered almost immediately, and she didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “There was another fire.”
She heard some shuffling on his end, and a door shut quietly. “Where?”
“Reece’s parents’ house.”
“I thought his parents are dead.”
“They are. He owns the house now. Or at least, I think he owns it. Or maybe all five of the brothers do, I’m not sure.” And she was rambling. It didn’t matter who had owned it. It had been more precious to them than anything, and now it was gone. Because of her.
She sucked in a deep, slow breath to calm herself and got to the point. “I thought Steven was gone.”
“I thought so, too,” Jason said after a moment. “Honestly, I thought he was dead. Figured they had killed him.”
Oh God. She’d thought so, too, and had carried the guilt of her ex-boyfriend’s death as a stain on her soul ever since. Steven hadn’t always been on the right side of the law, and her relationship with him had started out as another info-gathering job for Jason, but she’d stupidly fallen in love with him. Jason had been furious, had demanded she end the relationship or face consequences for reneging on their arrangement. So she had broken up with Steven. That night, the neighbor’s house went up in flames, and Steven had been the number one suspect. Her father had vowed to kill Steven for trying to hurt her and when her father made vows like that, he kept them.
Sure enough, Steven hadn’t been seen since.
And she’d been so angry, so afraid of what her father was capable of, she turned over every bit of damning information she knew about him.
“Except if Steven is dead,” she said into the phone, “who else is setting these fires?”
Another beat of silence on Jason’s end stretched into two, then three. She stiffened in her seat. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Jason hesitated. “Shelby.” More silence. “Is it possible you’ve been made?”
“You think they know I’m a snitch? Great.” She laughed bitterly. What else could she do? “Just great. I wish I could say it’s been awesome knowing you, but fuck that. I hate your guts.”
But, no, that didn’t make sense. If she’d been revealed as the snitch who put their leader and several other members behind bars, The Headhunters would kill her. Wouldn’t matter what her last name was or whose blood she had in her veins, they’d roll up to her house and put a bullet in her without a second thought. They wouldn’t set fires to the buildings she was inside of and hope for the best. That was a coward’s crime, and The Headhunters were not cowards.
“Shelby, listen. You’re doing great work. If you can just get the information we need about DMW Systems, we can protect you. We can see about relocation, maybe witness protection.”
She lifted her head and stared out the windshield, but she was so numb with disbelief, she didn’t see anything beyond the glass. “Are you serious?”