“Not happening,” I interjected.
“Damn straight,” another member of our group stated.
“He knows. Just needs time to let it all sink in,” Don said in a very uncharacteristically mature way. “I needed to speak to you all about what happened to Corey. The fire.”
I stood up straighter, folding my arms in front of me. I knew this wasn’t going to be something I wanted to hear. I’d had a feeling since we first encountered that fucking fire that something was off about it. I hadn’t had time to speak to anyone else about it given everything that’d happened with Corey and then my needing to handle Michelle’s ex.
“It was set on purpose.”
My eyes narrowed. I’d already surmised that but I knew there had to be more.
“This conversation doesn’t go any further than Rescue Four, but one of the detectives with the brass thinks it was deliberately set to target Rescue Four.”
“The fuck?” I growled at the same time Eric cursed out loud.
Don sighed heavily, shoulders shrinking. “I went in the day after the fire, took my own pictures. Look,” he stated as he pulled his phone from his pocket. He scrolled to the phone’s image gallery and brought up the pictures he’d taken. “This is the beam that we had to pull off Corey.” He gestured to me, then ran his finger along the edge of the top of the beam. “The break looked unnatural. Didn’t look like it was caused by fire. No charred edges. See?”
I nodded, my eyes squinting. I saw it, too. A beam falling from a fire would’ve had burnt edges. I was too busy to look while we were in there, trying to free Corey, but I saw it now. “Someone fucking cut it,” I growled.
“Exactly,” Don answered. “Cut it with a hatchet or saw, just enough so that any pressure applied to it would snap the damn thing. When Corey opened that door, it was just the pressure it needed. We’re fucking lucky the entire roof didn’t cave in.”
“Someone targeting Rescue Four? That’s what the fuck you’re telling us right now?” Eric growled, sounding just as pissed as Don and I.
Don’s gaze jumped between all of us and he nodded. “I think this is connected with the other house fires, too. The ones that targeted the mothers with their children. I don’t know how. It’s just a hunch for now, but I feel it in my gut.”
Don might be a son of a bitch at times, but if he said his instincts were telling him something, I trusted that. He wouldn’t fuck around with something like this.
“You take this to the captain yet?” I asked.
“Not yet. Brass doesn’t think there’s anything to it. Says Corey just got unlucky.”
“My ass!” I growled.
“Yeah, fucking tell me about it.”
I pushed a hand through my hair. This shit was heavy. If someone was targeting our squad, then we needed to get to the bottom of it and quickly. Just then, another, even more ominous, thought came to mind.
“If whoever’s behind this is targeting Rescue Four, could they be after our families as well?”
Don’s gaze pinned me. He looked as if he’d never even thought of that question. But I had. I’d seen it before in war. One man doesn’t want to speak or tell what his squad is up to, the quickest way to get to him is through his family. Whoever was doing this, obviously had no problem taking any of us out. What’s to stop them from going after our family? Nothing.
“I’m getting Michelle out of here,” I began, not waiting for anyone’s answer. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Eric reaching for his cell phone in his pocket. No doubt calling his wife.
“Hey, we gotta go,” I told Michelle, low in her ear.
She gave me a concerned look but took my hand and followed me as we exited the waiting room.
“Diego’s with your mom, right?” I knew the answer. It was a silly question but I needed to confirm.
“Yes, why?”
“We need to go get him.”
“What? Why? It’s after ten o’clock at night. Where’re we going?” She shot off her questions rapid fire as I lead us onto the opened elevator.
“Home. We’re going home.”
It was the one place I knew I could keep them safe.
