“Fine.” She turned to Charlie. “I apologize for upsetting you. I’m just trying to find out who was behind that fire.”
Too angry to respond, Charlie remained silent as the other woman started for the door. York stopped suddenly and turned back around.
Surprisingly, her eyes seemed less guarded, and her hard voice softened slightly. “For the record, I hope you’re right about your boyfriend.”
She slid a sideways glance toward Eric as she passed him, but he kept looking straight ahead. A few seconds later, Derek barged into the room.
Guilt filled his eyes as they found hers. He closed the distance separating them and pulled her into a rough hug. “Are you okay?”
She nodded against his chest. “Yeah. I was just scared, and I didn’t know what else to do.”
He backed away enough to see her. “I’m so fuckin’ sorry. I finally figured out the issue with the system I was workin’ on. I was so focused on trying to get everything up and runnin’ again I didn’t realize my phone was dead until the police showed up.”
“I figured it was something like that,” Eric told his brother. “Charlie said you were working a job, so I called Jake and got the address from him.”
“Thanks, man.” Derek then looked back down at her. “I should’ve kept a better eye on my phone.”
“It’s okay,” Charlie tried to reassure Derek. Naturally, he refused to listen.
“No.” He cupped her face, his regret obvious. “It sure as hell is not okay. It won’t happen again, I promise.”
“Derek, it’s fine. I wasn’t hurt or anything. I just...freaked out for a minute.”
“Yeah, for good reason.” Keeping his arms around her, he turned to his brother. “Any word on Porter?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it.”
“Work harder.”
“Derek, don’t.” She tried to make him see reason. “This isn’t Eric’s fault.”
He closed his eyes and sighed. Opening them again, he looked back at Eric. “She’s right. Sorry.”
Eric nodded. “You’re pissed. I get it. I would be, too.”
“Mainly at myself,” he growled, running a hand through his hair. He turned to Charlie, his eyes pleading with her to believe him. “I knew you were home, locked inside the apartment. I thought...” His voice broke. He blinked quickly and cleared his throat. “I thought you’d be okay there. I never would have left you alone if I thought for one second you were in danger.”
“I know.” She prayed he could see she truly did.
After taking a deep, calming breath, Derek asked, “So, what exactly happened? The officer who came to get me said Caleb was in your apartment, but he didn’t know anything else.”
For the third time in less than two hours, Charlie went back over what brought her here.
“That motherfucker.” His hands became fisted at his sides. “I’ll kill him.”
“Easy, man. Now is not the time to throw around empty threats.”
“Oh, trust me, Eric. It’s far from empty.” Derek shook his head, the muscles in his jaw twitching. “Apartment security was supposed to contact me if they saw any sign of Porter. Of course, my phone’s dead, so they probably did but couldn’t reach me.” Derek locked his fingers behind his head and paced a few steps away and then back. “Fuck!”
“We don’t even know for sure it was Porter, Derek.” His brother tried to calm him down.
Derek’s face contorted with disbelief. “Seriously?”
Charlie kept silent as she watched the tense interaction between the two brothers. She hated that she was at the root of it all.
“I’m still waiting to hear if he’s at his place in New York.”
“It was him,” Derek stated with confidence. “I’ve been inside this guy’s apartment. The shit in his cabinets was arranged the exact same way Charlie just described.”
