Kayne felt it instantly.His arm tightened reflexively, protectively, before he was fully awake.“You okay?”he murmured, voice rough with sleep.
Chloe swallowed and reached for the phone, her pulse already skidding.The screen glowed with the name Evan Calder.Had her website crashed again?That would suck, but would it be worthy of an early morning call?
“I need to take this,” she whispered.
Kayne nodded once, already alert, his hand sliding away but his presence staying close.
“Evan?”She pressed the phone to her ear, sitting up.
His voice came through strained, breathless, and edged with something she’d never heard from him before.Fear.
“Chloe, you need to listen to me.There’s been a fire.”
Her heart thudded hard.“A fire where?”
“Sandy’s house.”
Her hand flew to her mouth.
“It’s bad,” he cut in, voice breaking.“Really bad.The fire department’s here.The whole place is gone, Chloe.They’re still working on it, but,” he exhaled sharply, “Sandy and Mark lived on the top floors.We can’t get in touch with them.”
The words didn’t land all at once.They fractured, splintered, then scattered.Inside, something broke.
“No,” Chloe whispered, shaking her head even though Evan could see it.“No, they would’ve gotten out.Sandy sleeps with her phone on.She’d have heard alarms.”
“Chloe.”He said her name gently, and that was worse than shouting.“You should come.We’re all here.”
She ended the call without realizing she had done so.
Kayne was already sitting up, his gaze reading her face with terrifying accuracy.“What happened?”
Her throat felt too tight for air.“Sandy’s house is on fire,” she said, the words foreign and brittle.“The offices.The entire building.They ...they think Sandy and her husband might have been inside.”
Kayne swore under his breath.He was out of bed in seconds, pulling on jeans and already reaching for his phone.
“We’re going,” he said, not asking.
The street was chaos when they arrived.Fire engines lined the block, lights strobing red against the dawn sky.Smoke billowed upward in thick, choking plumes, the smell of burning wood and melted insulation clawing into Chloe’s lungs the second she stepped out of the SUV.
The building was unrecognizable.
Where Sandy’s vintage Victorian home had once stood proud was now a blackened skeleton, windows blown out, upper floors collapsed inward, as if the structure had folded in on itself.Firefighters swarmed what remained, hoses arcing water into the wreckage as steam hissed and smoke churned.
Chloe stopped dead at the curb.Her body refused to move.Kayne’s hand closed firmly around hers.Anja and Leo flanked them, silent and watchful, their expressions grim in the flickering light.
“Oh, my God,” Chloe whispered.
She spotted Evan first.His shoulders were hunched, arms wrapped around himself, trying to hold his body together.He looked up and saw her, and something in his face crumpled.He crossed the distance quickly and pulled her into a hug she didn’t have the strength to return.
She stepped back, her eyes scanning desperately.“Where’s Sandy?Have you talked to her?Have they said anything?Anything at all?”
Evan shook his head, chin wobbling.“They’re still searching.It happened fast.Neighbors said the fire was already tearing through the top floors when the alarms went off.”
Chloe’s gaze drifted past him and landed on Jezzie, Aiden, and several of Sandy’s other employees.Aiden’s hands were shoved into the pockets of his hoodie, his face lit by the orange glow of the flames.His expression was unreadable.Jezzie couldn’t stop moving from one foot to the other, her head shaking from side to side, clearly not believing what her eyes were seeing.
Chloe started to tremble.
“Cher.”Kayne turned her gently toward him.“This is not on you.”
