Chapter Eleven
Angel’s pie stand burned down, and the fire department immediately labeled the incident arson. Pirro stood by Angel as the firefighters questioned her, but she hadn’t seen anything unusual during the day, nor had she been near the pie stand at the time of the fire. Pirro said a silent prayer of thanks nobody had been hurt.
The firemen instructed everyone to clear the area, and Rafe invited Nick, Angel, Pirro and Vivian to come back to his house for a while until everyone had calmed down. Pirro sent Vi along with Angel, promising to meet them there in a little while. He couldn’t stop thinking about the two men who’d approached him to sell hard drugs. Could it be coincidence that bad things were starting to happen now that he’d said no?
He didn’t have to go looking for the men to find out. No sooner had his family driven off than they found him.
“It’s a shame that your daughter’s pie stand burned down,” the blond man said, coming up to Pirro. “She was so proud of how well she was selling and how much everyone loved her apple pies.”
“It’s a good thing she wasn’t in the booth when the fire started,” the other one chimed in. “I heard the firemen say that with the amount of accelerant that was used, the booth went up like that.” He snapped his finger in Pirro’s ear.
“If a fire like that happened at her house, she’d have no chance of getting out,” the blond man—Pirro refused to think of him as a gentleman—said.
Pirro shivered at the implied threat. “What do you want me to do?” he asked, willing to do anything to keep his family safe.
“Talk to your supplier and pave the way for us to meet with him.”
“Okay,” Pirro said, feeling sick as he agreed. But he’d be even sicker if he didn’t. “But I don’t contact him. I just meet him at a set place and time every couple of weeks. I need time.”
A lie that bought him a little time to think, he thought, and his hands were shaking as he shoved them into his front pants pocket.
“It’s beautiful this time of year, so we’re in no rush to get back to the city. As long as you’re telling the truth, and you put things in motion, your beautiful daughter will be safe. Are we in agreement?”
“Yes. But remember one thing. If anything happens to my daughter, you two will be the first ones the cops look at since you’re two strangers staying under her roof,” Pirro said to the blond man whom Pirro was convinced was the one in charge.
“Don’t worry about us. We can take care of ourselves. But I think you understand what you need to do now.”
The other man slapped Pirro on the back. “Relax, old man. It’s all good. We’re going back to Angel’s. I don’t know about you, but after all the excitement tonight, I can’t wait to get a good night’s sleep.”
The two men bid him goodbye and walked away.
Pirro was sick to his stomach, and he still had to go to Rafe’s. The man was a cop and could spot a lie a mile away. Pirro wanted nothing more than to tell him everything, but he needed to think things through first. Now that he’d agreed to go along with the men’s plan, his family was safe, at least for now. He’d bought himself some time to figure out how to fix the mess he’d gotten himself into.
Rafe’s family was in a panic, and he knew he had to take control. He sent his parents and sisters home, assuring them there was nothing more they could do to help. Then he gathered the more immediate people involved with Angel’s pie stand in his den. As the cop in the family, they looked to him for answers, but he had none.
He glanced around his small den, where the entire clan had congregated, and clapped his hands to shut them all up.
They turned their heads toward him.
“First, I need everyone to stay calm. The fire department and the county police already took Angel’s statement because she owned the booth. They’ll continue the investigation, but I have some questions of my own.” Rafe glanced around the room, and his gaze met Sara’s.
“Let’s start with what we know,” she suggested.
He nodded. “The fire department said it was definitely arson. An accelerant was used.”
As he spoke, Sara marked down notes on a pad she’d grabbed from the kitchen.
“Gasoline,” Nick added. “The chief said the area reeked of it.”
Sara nodded and made another note. “That takes care of what we know about the crime itself.”
“So now we move on to possible intended targets,” Nick said.
Angel stepped forward. “Well, that’s obvious. It was my booth, so it must have been me they were after.”
Nick stepped up and wrapped a reassuring arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him for comfort. At least something good was coming out of this nightmare, Rafe thought.
Rafe glanced at his aunt Vi and Pirro, who’d arrived late. His aunt appeared worried and distraught, while Pirro was sweating and pacing beside her.
“Who would want to destroy my booth?” Angel asked. “All I was doing was selling apple pie.”
Rafe didn’t know enough to calm her down just yet, but he had a few more delicate questions that might help him narrow down the scope. “You were also booking reservations. Could someone want to sabotage your business?” Other than his brother, that is, Rafe thought wryly.
Angel shook her head. “Everyone claims to want me to succeed. At least, that’s what they say to my face.” She let out a shaky laugh.
“Except for me.” Nick shocked them all by admitting the truth out loud.
“Nick!” Angel said, horrified.
Nick held up his hands in defensive mode. “Hey, I’m just stating the obvious before someone else does.” Nick met Rafe’s knowing gaze. “I was the one who said I was against the B-and-B venture.”
To Nick’s credit, he sounded ashamed.
“But you wouldn’t burn down the booth!” Angel stepped up, defending her husband. “And you were with me during the entire dance.”
“I agree with Angel. Nick’s not a suspect,” Rafe said. “Who else in the family might have someone with a grudge against them?”
Angel stepped forward once more. “Not that I want to be the target, but if the fire was aimed at the family or the business, wouldn’t the person have hit the spice booth, not the pie stand?”
“Depends on how obvious they wanted to be. Sometimes someone who has an agenda will start small, with a warning, as opposed to hitting the main target,” Sara explained.
Pirro began to cough hard.
“Dad, I’ll go get you a glass of water.” Angel ran to the kitchen and returned with a drink for her father.
Rafe nodded. “Sara’s right,” he said when Angel returned. He glanced around the room. “Pirro, are you okay?”
The older man nodded. “I’m fine.” He coughed some more, but the sound was less harsh than before.
Still, he’d been unusually quiet tonight, probably because he was worried about Angel’s safety.
“Any problems in shipping I should know about? People with a grudge?” he asked Pirro.
He rubbed his bald head. “No, no, not at all. Everything’s fine. Why wouldn’t it be fine?” he asked, upset and rambling.
“Couldn’t it just be a random act? Teenagers causing trouble?” Angel asked.
“Anything is possible,” Sara said.
But Rafe just didn’t believe in coincidences, and his gut screamed this wasn’t random.
“I’m sick with worry about someone wanting to hurt my Angel. It’s just not right,” Pirro said.
Aunt Vivian nodded her head in agreement. “Angel, darling, I don’t want you alone in that house with all those strangers. You’ll sleep at our place tonight.” She issued the statement as if it were a done deal.
Angel glanced at Nick and subtly shook her head.
“It’s okay. I’ll stay at the B and B tonight,” Nick said. “Angel won’t be alone.”
Pirro exhaled hard, obviously relieved. “You’re like a son to me, Nick. You’re a good boy. Thank you.”
“It’s been a long day. I’m exhausted and upset, and I’d really like to go home,” Aunt Vi said.
Rafe nodded. “Pirro, take her home. There’s nothing more you can do here, and Nick will look out for Angel.”
“That’s a good idea, Dad. You look tired, too. Go home and rest,” Angel said. “I’ll be fine.”
“Okay.” The older couple began to say their goodbyes.
As usual, it took another half hour for them to finally get themselves together. Rafe had hoped the seriousness of the fire would take Aunt Vi’s mind off the possibility of her husband cheating or whatever else she thought he was doing. But as Rafe walked them to the door, Aunt Vi gave him one last hug and a whispered reminder that the next time Pirro went out alone, she’d be calling Rafe to follow him.
He returned to the family room, where Sara had poured everyone a cold glass of iced tea. The three of them talked, looking comfortable together. Apparently, she had a way with his family that won them over. She’d made herself at home in his house, serving his brother and Angel as if she were the hostess. And Rafe liked what he saw.
But he didn’t have time to enjoy the moment. “Now that Pirro and Vi are gone, I need to talk to the two of you,” Rafe said to his brother and Angel.
“What’s up?” Nick asked.
Rafe met Sara’s knowing gaze. “Before I say anything, is there any chance you know of any complaints lodged with the company? Or someone with a grudge against you who’d use Angel to make a point?”
His brother shook his head. “I checked in with Dad on the way over here, and he’s blank, too. Nobody can imagine anyone who’d want to target us.”
That’s what Rafe figured. “There’s a very real possibility that Angel wasn’t the target, but Sara was.” And she’d worked the booth along with Angel.
“What? Why?” Angel asked.
Sara cleared her throat. “To put it simply, I’m supposed to testify against someone in New York, and he wants me too scared to come home and take the witness stand.”
“Or he wants to shut her up permanently.” Rafe walked over to her chair and put a hand on her shoulder. “She came here to hide out.”
“Oh.” Angel’s eyes opened wide.
“I still don’t get it,” Nick said. “If she’s here to hide, I’m assuming she didn’t tell anyone she was coming, so why would you think the fire was aimed at her?”
“Because the Bachelor Blog in New York posted that I’d escaped the city to rendezvous with Rafe in his hometown,” Sara said as she absently rubbed her bad knee.
“Unbelievable,” Nick muttered. “Rafe told me about that damned blog when he was in the hospital. But if no one in New York knew where you’d gone, then it had to be someone here who reported in.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Beyond that, Rafe was blank. He couldn’t fathom who would have reported on her whereabouts.
“Who would snitch about where Sara had gone?” Nick asked the same question aloud.
“Me.” Angel raised her hand in the air.
All eyes turned her way.
“I’m sorry! I had no idea you weren’t here just to be with Rafe. I’d never have done it if I’d known you were in danger!”
Shocked, Sara met Angel’s gaze. “Why? I thought we were friends.”
“We are! And it wasn’t personal. When you first showed up and asked for a room, I recognized you from the articles in the newspaper about the hostage crisis. But I also recognized you from the Bachelor Blog. I take out ads in the New York City newspapers to generate business, so I have them delivered, too.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you’d turn her in,” Nick said angrily.
Obviously, any good feelings they’d been working toward had gone south, Rafe thought. “Why did you do it?” Rafe asked Angel with more diplomacy than his brother had shown.
“For the same reason. To get the bed-and-breakfast’s name in the paper and generate business.” She glanced at Sara, then Nick, her gaze full of regret. “But I would never have put the business before Sara’s safety. I didn’t know!”
Sara exhaled a long breath. “It’s not your fault,” Sara said, letting Angel off the hook. “Actually, it was a pretty business-savvy move, if you ask me.”
“You’re too generous.” Angel rose and ran for the bathroom in the hall, slamming the door shut behind her.
Nick ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t savvy. It was selfish and stupid, just like this business,” Nick muttered.
“And you’re a hothead and an idiot,” Rafe said, not about to let Nick ruin the progress he’d made by picking a fight with his wife. “If Sara isn’t upset with Angel, then you shouldn’t be, either. Don’t make an ass of yourself just because she mentioned the bed-and-breakfast. You need to accept it, remember?”
Before Nick could reply, his wife returned, her eyes red, her face blotchy. “I’m sorry,” Angel said again.
“It’s fine. You had no way of knowing I wanted to lie low,” Sara reassured her again.
“Look,” said Rafe, “we’re all upset after the fire, but all that matters right now is that nobody was hurt. From this point on, we have to be more careful. Because the fact is, we have no way of knowing who the intended target actually was.”
He met Sara’s gaze, and she nodded in agreement.
It was possible Morley had sent people after Sara, and the accelerant had lit either too soon or too late, and thank God she hadn’t been in the booth. But there was the equal possibility that someone had a grudge against Angel or her family and the booth fire had been a warning.
Until they knew who the target was and why Rafe wanted everyone in his family on alert and being extra careful.
As Nick walked Angel to her car, he thought back to the events of the night. One minute they’d been dancing, getting closer, and she’d obviously panicked. She said she’d needed air, and he’d let her go, giving her space. The next thing he knew, he heard people yelling. He’d nearly had a heart attack when he’d seen the smoke and fire in her booth, not knowing if she’d gone there to be alone.
If he hadn’t already been shaken up by Biff’s and Todd’s interest in his wife, the fire had been an additional wake-up call. He had to fix things before it was too late.
“I’m sorry about the blog. I never intended to hurt Sara,” Angel said.
Nick nodded. “I know.”
“It’s been an awful night, and I can’t wait to just crawl into bed. Good night,” she said softly.
“I’m staying over, remember?”
“I thought you just told my father and Vi you’d stay over so they wouldn’t worry. I can’t imagine you really want to sleep there,” she said of the bed-and-breakfast, the major point of contention in their marriage.
He stepped closer. “Is that what you think?” His heart slammed inside his chest.
She nodded.
“Well, you’re wrong. If the fire had happened earlier in the day, you could have been killed.” And he’d have lost any chance he had of making things right.
She leaned against the door and met his gaze. “You panicked. I understand. But that doesn’t change the truth about us.”
“Which is?”
“It’s one thing to dance together and to get along for twenty minutes without arguing. It’s another to agree on what fundamentally divides us,” Angel said softly.
He grabbed her forearms and pulled her close, kissing her hard on the lips. She stiffened in shock, then slowly but surely relaxed against him, kissing him back. Opening for him. Accepting him and everything he wanted to give but didn’t know how to express in words.
He broke the kiss first, leaning his forehead against hers. “Let me come home with you tonight. Let me make sure you’re safe.” He barely recognized his gruff voice.
She licked her lips, then slowly nodded. “Okay. You can come home with me.”
His heart began a race inside his chest once more.
“But nothing can happen between us,” she said, putting the brakes on.
He silently counted to five, unwilling to argue and lose ground. And that was a first for him. “I understand.”
But him staying over wasn’t enough. He needed to be back in her life for good. She still focused on his resentment of the B and B as the source of their problem, but he believed they needed to talk and grieve together. Something she wouldn’t do unless pushed.
“What if we see a marriage counselor?” he asked, surprising himself. “That way we can make sure we agree on how to fix what’s wrong before we try.”
“And before I invest my heart again.” She blinked, and tears fell down her cheeks.
He wiped her cheek with his thumb. “Your heart is still invested,” he said gruffly. “And so is mine.”
As he followed her back to her place, for the first time, Nick felt a glimmer of hope. She’d agreed to see a marriage counselor. Maybe a trained therapist could help her learn to talk about the miscarriage and guide them toward redefining their future.
He didn’t know if either of them could make this work. But he loved her enough to try.
Rafe shut the door, locking it behind his brother and sister-in-law. Then he set the burglar alarm. “First thing tomorrow I’m calling the alarm company and having a perimeter alarm installed,” Rafe said.
“Isn’t that what you have?” Sara asked.
“No. I have one that just hits the main doors and entrances. Truth is, I only installed an alarm at all because I’m rarely here. The crime rate is so minimal, nothing more was necessary.”
Sara bit the inside of her cheek. Guilt was already eating away at her. If she had been the target of the fire, she’d caused fear and aggravation for his family, not to mention the cost of the destruction of the booth.
“I don’t want you to spend more money on the alarm system because of me. If you didn’t need it before, you don’t need it now.”
“Don’t argue. It’s necessary. You came here to feel safe, and I intend to make sure you stay that way. Besides, it’s never a waste of money to invest in a better alarm system.” He shut off the light in the kitchen and walked over to where she sat on the couch, sitting down beside her. “What’s wrong?”
“I just don’t want to cause problems for your whole family. Maybe I should go back to the city.”
He raised an eyebrow. “If you do, I’m going with you. Then we’ll have to have a state-of-the-art alarm system installed in your apartment and on the main front door, which will only piss off the landlord. So? What’s it going to be?”
“Okay, you can upgrade the alarm here.” But she’d pay him back, no matter how much he argued.
A satisfied grin settled over his face.
He was sexy when he was worried, sexy when he was happy, sexy when he had a satisfied grin on his handsome face. Boy, she had it bad, Sara thought.
“Earth to Sara?” Rafe waved a hand in front of her face.
“Sorry, I was distracted,” she said, shaking her head. “What did you say?”
“I asked if you thought Biff and Todd seemed like possible suspects.”
She wasn’t surprised he’d asked. He’d disliked them on sight. Besides, they’d begun to make her uncomfortable with the way they were constantly around. “They’re odd, but I already discounted them because when they checked in, they said they’d had the reservations way in advance. We could ask Angel, but I have a feeling they’re telling the truth.”
“Yeah, odd doesn’t necessarily make them criminal. But I’m keeping an eye on those two.”
Sara nodded. “I think that’s a good idea.”
“Thanks for going easy on Angel. I think Nick took his cue from you,” Rafe said.
“She didn’t mean any harm.”
“Now do you see what I mean about how hard it is to live here, everybody in everyone else’s business? To Angel, telling the Bachelor Blogger about you was just like telling her next-door neighbor.”
She curled her legs beneath her, getting more comfortable. “Actually, I think it’s kind of nice. Do you realize that in the city we rarely ever see our neighbors? We rarely see our friends unless we make a huge effort! Around here, people care about each other.”
“You don’t mind that Angel turned you in for her own selfish business reasons?” he asked.
“I’d care more if she did it to hurt me, but she had no idea I was hiding out here.” She met Rafe’s gaze. “I guess I just like the idea of having a place where I feel a part of things, you know?”
“Similar to how I realize I’m coming to like you hanging out with my family,” he admitted, his voice gruff.
She thought back to their earlier conversation about his ex-fiancée and how he hadn’t wanted to share her with everyone or expose her to the chaos that came along with his family. He’d drawn an unspoken distinction between her and Sara. She felt herself being pulled deeper into this small community and this loving family, and she didn’t know what to make of it—or them.
“I’m tired,” she finally said.
“It’s been a long day. We should get some sleep.”
“I’ll be right in,” she said, needing time alone to regroup.
And to remind herself that she didn’t do long-term relationships or commitment. That as much as she liked his family, she was a visitor passing through and would be returning to her solitary life very soon.
The thought didn’t bring as much comfort as it should have.