The fire chief’s truck pulled up, and Chief Thomas climbed down. Yet another siren sounded in the distance as the chief went to confer with the firefighter who seemed to be in charge. The fourth guy, who I was pretty sure was Kemp, went to the door on the opposite side of the building and, along with the first guy, broke the door down. The two of them went in, charged hose in tow, and I swore out loud and hoped everyone would be okay. I wouldn’t be able to stand it if someone got hurt because of my mistake.

With my heart racing, I went toward the chief and called out to him by name. I didn’t want to interfere with their work, but I needed to know what was happening to my building.

The chief nodded at the firefighter a couple of times, barked something to the guy, then turned toward me as a second truck approached from Main.

“Hey, Holden. You call this in?”

I shook my head. “First I knew was when the truck pulled up. What’s happening?”

“Passerby reported smoke coming from the southeast corner. Looks like it’s not spread yet. With any luck, we should have it out pretty quickly.”

I didn’t ask if they knew the cause. I didn’t need to. Of course, I’d give them the info I had, the suspicions I harbored, when they took time to ask after the fire was out, but right now they needed to concentrate on the job.

My eyes were watering like crazy, and I could try to tell myself it was from the smoke, but that would be a lie. The truth was, I’d fucked up big-time, and my pride and joy was literally going up in smoke before my eyes.

Chapter 19

Holden

Two hours and an estimated hundred thousand dollars of damage later, I trudged home from the restaurant, my shoulders sagging, feet feeling like they weighed a ton each.

To think that, just hours ago, I’d been on top of the world… The higher you went, the farther you had to fall, I guess, and I felt like I’d plummeted down the steep side of a dark canyon.

It was well after one a.m. as I walked up the driveway, so I was half-surprised to see a light on in the office. Only half-surprised because Chloe was putting in a lot of long hours at her job. I’d hoped she was asleep, not only because she needed the rest but because I didn’t want to talk about what had happened tonight. To anyone.

I let myself in the front door, and Chloe came out of the office at the same time, as if she’d heard me.