I nod. “You should have heard the way people spoke to me in school. I think they held me personally responsible for it. Imagined that the money would go into my college fund, or something like that.”
“Well, did it?”
“Never made it to college,” I reply with a shrug. “Did the whole military thing instead. Don’t get me wrong, I stuck around here for a while before I took off, thought I might be able to put some of it right, but it was just better for me to move on. Do some goodin the world where people hadn’t already decided that my name would keep that from happening.”
I don’t know what makes it so easy to talk to her, but the words tumble from me before I can stop them. I don’t talk often about my father—perhaps that’s the reason it all comes so easily to my lips.
Or maybe it’s got something to do with the fact that it’s my family she and the quads will be a part of if I turn out to be their father. My own father, he showed himself to be the worst kind of man in so many ways. Focused on making money and commanding control over everything else, willing to put this entire town on the line just to earn his cash. And I can’t help but wonder if some of that has passed down into me, whether I want to admit it or not. As much as I hope that I’ve done enough to prove myself a better person than he was, I’m not sure I get to lay claim to that, not quite yet.
Nor do I know what it will take for me to feel as though I do.
“You’ve done so much good, Carlisle,” Angelie tells me, her face softening as she assures me. “Listen, even if you hadn’t, what your father did, that’s not on you to make right. You don’t have to?—”
But before she can finish what she’s saying, a loud, shrill alarm cuts through the quiet between us and I spring to my feet. Her face pales and she rises too, her hand shaking where it’s still clamped around the glass.
“Is that the?—”
I nod, taking off toward the operations room before she can finish her question. I need to get the hell out of here while I still can—not just to deal with whatever has sparked the alarm, butbecause laying all of that out in front of her feels like more than I’m willing to contend with.
In the ops room, the others have already gathered, and Angelie is hot on my heels, arriving in the doorway behind me a few seconds later. She’s breathing hard as she looks to the map, which is lit up with a cluster of lights toward the east side of town.
“Looks like we’ve got a problem,” Dylan growls, already pulling on his jacket and helmet. “Fire’s coming in through the east side, but it’s closer to town than it was before.”
I hear Angelie draw in a gasp. “That’s…that’s near the school,” she mutters, moving in close to the map, reaching out to touch the area where the lights have sparked up.
“We need to move, now,” Joe announces. “It could be serious, if the sensors are catching this much. I’ve already put in the call to the forces in the city, they should be here in the next hour or so, but we need to do what we can to contain it while we still have the chance.”
“Point taken,” I reply as I go to get myself kitted out.
Angelie is just standing there, eyes wide and mouth agape, as we move around her, preparing ourselves for what comes next.
“Angelie, you need to stay here,” I tell her, gripping her arms and trying to pull her back into the moment. She blinks a couple of times, like she’s a million miles away, and then manages to find my gaze.
“I—I want to come with you,” she replies, her voice quivering. “If the school is under threat?—”
“We need someone to keep watch on the map,” I tell her, gesturing to the board that stands beside us. “There’s a walkie-talkie here—” I hand it to her, pressing it into her palm, trying to make her feel like she’s a part of this. “And if anything else lights up, you can let us know. Okay?”
She looks reluctant, but seems to sense that she’s not going to get through to me. Judging by the intensity of that cluster of lights on the map, I know there isn’t a chance in goddamn hell I’m letting her come with us. The school is where she works, where she has made her career, and she’s too emotionally invested not to be a liability. This isn’t like it was with her parents, when we needed help navigating the back roads. This is the town, the same school most of us attended growing up, and I’m not going to let her get pulled into the middle of this if I can help it.
“I’ll pull the van around, make sure the tanks are secured,” Dylan tells me, his voice curt. I know he just wants to get out of here, get this shit under control, but the way Angelie looks right now, it’s hard to focus on anything else.
“Please, make sure the school is okay,” she breathes. She clasps my hands so tight it feels like she’s tattooing the shape of her fingers on to me.
I nod. “I’ll do everything I can?—”
“Please, Carlisle…” Her voice cracks, desperation written in every word that comes out of her mouth.
Before I can stop myself, I lean forward and plant a kiss against her forehead, not caring, for just an instant, how it will look or what the others might think of it. “I promise.”
And with that, Callum calls me through to the front of the cabin. Joe is already waiting in the van, engine running, water tanks filled, hoses coiled.
“You ready?” Callum asks as he throws open the back of the van and clambers in. Dylan is already inside, his face set tight, jaw hard, clearly preparing himself for whatever it is we’re about to drive into.
Angelie’s words flicker through my mind once more, and I nod. “As I’ll ever be,” I reply. “Come on—let’s get this thing over with.”
I climb into the van and we take off down the road, toward the burning town, into the smoke-filled air.
And I pray I’ll be able to keep my promise to Angelie. No matter what it takes.
