Chapter Twenty-Three

Axel

I lay in bed feeling good about my decision to give Savannah another chance. She wasn’t the bad one in all of this, and I had to keep reminding myself that she’d had to make some tough decisions in life. She needed someone on her side, and I wanted to be there for her. The night before had been wonderful, and just what we needed to reconnect with one another. As I lay there, with her sleeping peacefully by my side, I tried to come up with a plan. It still didn’t feel right that Duke hadn’t been in touch with us yet. Either he had moved on, or he was planning something. And, unfortunately, I was sure it was going to be the latter. I decided that the only way to move on would be to confront him. I would have to go and talk to him. Savannah was not going to be happy with my decision, but it felt like the right thing to do in the situation. I looked down at the sleeping beauty beside me, and I knew that I had to do it for her. She looked so beautiful and peaceful lying beside me. I couldn’t let anything happen to her.

I looked at the time and was surprised to see that not only had we slept in, but that so had Bobby. I listened in case I could hear him walking around, but there was only silence. Since he’d been living with me, he had never slept in. Not once. I wondered if he was now finally starting to feel like this was home. Maybe he finally felt more relaxed. That was good. I had been worried about him with everything going on. I didn’t want him to be affected by Duke. Safe was exactly how I wanted him to feel. I smiled and wondered how best we could spend our day. Either we could all make breakfast together, or else I could treat them and take them out. Perhaps some breakfast followed by a movie or a trip to the park. I’d been promising Bobby that I would take him to the park for some time now. Hell, maybe we could do breakfast, the park and a movie. Why limit our day? I was looking forward to doing more family things together. It was strange to think that only a few months ago, the only things I did on the weekend were working on bikes, racing, and other bike related things. Sometimes I’d go to the pub and see if I could meet a woman for the night. The whole thing seemed so trivial now. All I wanted was to spend my time with Savannah and Bobby.

The phone rang beside me and was so loud in the silent room that Savannah opened her eyes immediately in a panic.

“Don’t worry, it’s the phone,” I said and quickly reached out to answer it. Although I wondered who would call at this time of the morning.

“Hello, Axel speaking.”

“Axel, it’s Spike.”

“Spike? What’s going on?” Spike would never call me so early unless something was wrong, and there was an uncomfortable twist in my stomach at hearing his voice. I knew that something bad had happened. I just knew it.

“Axel, the shop . . . ”

“What’s happening?”

“The shop is in flames.” There was panic in his voice.

“What do you mean?”

“I wasn’t even going to come in today. But I decided to go in and work a bit on one of the bikes. And . . . shit. Flames everywhere. I don’t know what to do. I’ve called the fire department, and they are on their way. Oh, I hear the sirens. Good, they’re here. Thank goodness. I feel completely helpless standing here by myself. I still can’t believe this is actually happening. Can you get here too?”

What was he talking about? A fire? The shop? My heart was beating so hard, I was sure that he could hear it through the phone. I sat up.

“Oh my god, Spike. That’s crazy. What the hell is going on? Of course, I’ll be right there.”

I put the phone down and looked at Savannah. She was sitting upright and looking at me with a panicked look on her face.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“The shop is on fire. That was Spike. He went in this morning and found it in flames. He’s asked me to come. What the hell is going on?”

She frowned. “A fire? Oh no. Okay, I’m coming with.”

“What about Bobby?”

“We’re not staying here alone. We can all come with. I’ll go wake him up.”

I didn’t argue. She was right. So much for spending a nice family day together. This was the last thing that any of us needed at the moment. I climbed out of bed as if I was in a trance. All I could think about was the shop that I had worked so hard to get. In flames. How could this be? I felt sick just thinking about it. I got changed, and the three of us headed out. I called Pop on the way and asked him to meet us just in case we needed him to take Bobby. Pop had a million questions, and so did Bobby, but I had no answers for them.

When I got to the shop, I gasped. I hadn’t expected the whole shop to be on fire. I thought that perhaps just a small section would be in flames, not the whole shop. I didn’t realize how bad it was until the moment we arrived and I saw it for myself. I looked on as the fire engulfed the shop. I saw my beautiful wooden sign fall down to the ground. People from the neighborhood had all come out to see what was happening. I felt helpless. I wanted to rush in and help, but I knew there was nothing I could do. Instead, I just watched as the firefighters did their best to calm the fire. They knew what they were doing, and I could see that they would have the fire out soon. I felt sick as I watched the scene in front of me.

“Oh, Axel, your shop,” Savannah said beside me.

“It’s all ruined,” I said.

The fire was now out, and there wasn’t much left of the shop.

“I’m going to find out what’s going on, stay here,” I said to Savannah, and I rushed off to find a fireman that would talk to me.

“Hey, sorry, you aren’t allowed here,” the man said as he saw me approaching.

“This is my shop,” I said. What I probably should’ve said was, this was my shop.

“Oh shit. You’re Axel?” he asked.

“That would be me. What the hell is going on? I got the call this morning to say that the shop was on fire. Do you know what happened?”

The man shook his head. “I have no idea. We got here as soon as we could. Look, we’re going to have to investigate matters further, but from what I can see, I wouldn’t be surprised if this is a case of arson.”

“Seriously? What makes you say that?”

“Trust me; I’ve put out enough fires to know when they’re done on purpose and when they’re not. I probably shouldn’t say anything to you right now, that’s not exactly the way protocol works, but that’s just my opinion at the moment. Don’t take my word for it until we’ve looked into this properly. But from the pattern inside, it looks like someone came in and torched the place. Have any enemies?”

“Don’t we all,” I said.

I thanked the fireman for all his help and marched over to Spike, Pop, and Savannah who were all huddled in the corner. Bobby was standing with one of the firemen and asking him a million questions. I was glad to see that he was distracted and that he didn’t know how bad all of this really was.

“What happened?” Pop asked.

“They don’t know just yet, but the fireman that I talked to said he thinks it's arson. He doesn’t have the proof yet, but that’s his opinion. And, to be honest, he probably knows what he’s talking about. He wasn’t really supposed to tell me that, and he was trying to backtrack. But I could see by the way he was looking at the shop that he believes someone did it on purpose. If he suspects that it’s arson, then it probably is.”

I looked at Savannah. Her eyes were big, and I knew she was thinking the same thing I had. Without the fireman telling me, I had already suspected arson from the moment Spike had called me. I had hoped I was wrong, but the whole thing had just been confirmed to me now.

“Duke,” she said, and I nodded.

“That’s exactly what I think too. I knew he was being too quiet. I knew it was too good to be true. He was only quiet because he was planning this. I guess this is the warning that he’s giving us. If that is what he does as a warning, then I hate to think of what else he can do.”

We stood around and waited for the firemen to finish up what they were doing. The same guy that I had spoken to earlier came up to me and told me that I was free to walk around the shop now to assess the damage. But he told me not to touch anything as they still had to investigate the matter. He walked with us as we examined the shop, and I felt so many emotions well up inside me as I looked around. I’d had this shop for years. It had been my pride and joy. It was like a second home to me. Now, it was all gone, and I had no idea what I was going to do about it. The fireman showed us the trail in the garage and in the office that proved that it was arson. Someone had come in and done this on purpose. And then, in the corner of the room, we saw that three letters had been spray painted into the corner. We could just about make them out. The fireman couldn’t see what it was, but to me, it was clear as day. XMC. I shook my head and pointed it out to Savannah.

“He’s made his mark,” I said.

I hoped that it would serve as proof, although I wasn’t sure. Just in case, we took pictures of the letters and I sent them over to the firefighters as backup. Afterwards, we all made our way back to Pop’s house to try and figure out what to do. Bobby kept asking us questions, and we told him that it must’ve just been a mistake. We didn’t want him to know that someone had done this on purpose. I put his favorite movie on and gave him a milkshake and a bowl of popcorn, and when he was all settled in the living room, I went and sat in the kitchen with Pop and Savannah. The three of us looked at each other and shook our heads.

“This is crazy,” I said. “What are we going to do?”

Nobody could come up with an idea. All I knew was that I had to find a way to respond to Duke. I also had to talk to my insurance people and make sure that I was covered for arson. I wasn’t sure if I was. This wasn’t exactly something you ever expected to happen to you. I sighed. I should’ve known that something was going to happen. I heard Bobby giggle at something from the room and shook my head sadly. I couldn’t let anything happen to that kid. I had to make things right.