CHAPTER 18

Brian

I woke up to my cell phone ringing on my nightstand. I groaned and reached for it, ready to silence it and roll back over. Amanda was pressed into me, and Lanie was still asleep, and I wanted to treasure this rare kind of morning. If I played my cards right, I could slip myself right in between Amanda’s luscious thighs and wake her up with a mind-blowing orgasm.

But when I saw it was Jack calling, I picked up the call immediately.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“We’ve got a problem,” Jack said.

I slid out of bed, leaving Amanda to sprawl out as I walked into the bathroom.

“One of our warehouses was burned to the ground.”

I splashed some water on my face before I searched for my robe.

“Which one?” I asked.

“The one near you. With all the new fucking materials we’d just bought for our full-time guys. They were being held there until we could get them shipped out.”

“Why didn’t you ship that shit right to L.A.?” I asked.

“We didn’t have the warehouse space cleared out yet. So we used the one near you as a holding tank. You need to get down there, Brian. I’m in fucking L.A.”

“It’s all gone?” I asked.

“From the sounds of it, yes. But I won’t know until you get down there. Look, I know you’re not working right now, but it’ll take me hours to get out there. I just got the call.”

“Isn’t some of that shit supposed to be fireproof?” I asked.

“Not when you add an accelerant to it.”

“So it was arson,” I said.

“Yes. The detectives are sure of it from what they told me over the phone.”

“Jack. I’m going to ask you a question, and I need you to be honest with me. Did you take my name off the company docket?”

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“When I asked you to take over my position, I know you kept me on it. But two years ago, I told you I had no intentions of coming back. Did you take my name off of shit?”

“No. In case you wanted to come back. If you came back and your name was gone, it would’ve been a hell of a lot of paperwork. You still hold majority stock, Brian. It would’ve been stupid to remove your name.”

“Shit,” I said.

“Brian?”

I whipped my head up and saw Amanda standing at the door. She was wrapped in nothing but a sheet, with her hair mussed and her neck covered in red marks. She was a vision, an angel dripping with seduction. I walked over to her and wrapped my arm around her, pulling her to my chest.

Then, I heard Lanie beginning to stir.

“I’ve got her,” Amanda said. “You do whatever you need to do.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Brian?” Jack asked.

“Am I needed in L.A. after this?” I asked.

“No, but you need to get to that warehouse. I need to know how bad the damage is. Pictures. Get me pictures so I can send it to the insurance company. And all the official paperwork you can get from them now would be awesome.”

“File the insurance claim, and when a check is cut from them, re-purchase all of the equipment and ship it right to L.A. I’m getting dressed and going to see about the warehouse.”

“You call me the second you get there,” he said.

“I will.”

Hanging up the phone, I began to throw my clothes on. I knew exactly what had happened. Lanie’s fucking father. Whoever the hell this man had working for him, they were digging into me and digging deep. They were trying to hit me where it hurt.

At this point, the man had declared war, and I was going to come at him with everything I had.

Lanie was sitting at the table eating breakfast as I rushed past. I gave her a quick kiss before I shot Amanda a grateful look, then I was out the door. I drove like a bat out of hell into town and raced through Asheville, all the way to the other side of the city. But it didn’t take long before I came upon police cars, ambulances, and multiple fire trucks.

And our warehouse fucking burned to the ground.

I got out of my car and approached the fire truck whose hoses were still on. I presented my I.D. to the police officer before he let me through. Jack was right. The entire thing was a total loss. It was nothing but a pile of rubble with a metal skeleton looming over the whole damn thing.

I pulled out my phone and dialed Jack as I surveyed the scene.

“How bad is it?” he asked.

“As bad as you think. There’s nothing left.”

“Fuck.”

“I’m going to talk to the fire chief and see what I can figure out. I’ll call you back when I’m done.”

“Thanks, man.”

Hanging up the phone, a man approached my side. He was looking out over the smoky terrain with a stone-cold look on his face. His brow was furrowed, and hands were on his hips. We both stood there for a little while before he finally broke the silence.

“Detective Landry,” he said.

“Brian Murphy.”

“It’s obvious this is arson, but there’s no security footage in this warehouse compound. It appears all of the cameras had been disabled before the fire was set,” he said.

“Fuck,” I said, murmuring.

“Without footage, it’ll take a couple of months before we can link this to anyone. That’s the average timeframe for a case like this.”

“Even understanding it was arson?” I asked.

“Especially with that understanding. We can know it’s arson, we can label it as arson, but the fact is that arson is extremely hard to prove. We’re going to get this fire under control first, then there are some questions we want to ask you. Starting with whether or not you or the other owner have any enemies that might want to do something like this.”

I turned my body toward him as the detective’s eyes turned to look at me.

“I have my own private investigator. He’ll contact you with the information you need to know. I’m currently entrenched in a custody battle for my niece. I have a feeling this is connected,” I said.

“Any information that you can give us will be helpful in proving this case. I’ll be happy to take a look at anything and everything you have.”

“Thank you, Detective. Do you have a card?”

The man pulled one from his pocket and handed it to me.

“I have to talk with my lawyer, then I’ll call my P.I. I’ll give him your number, and he’ll call you as soon as he can,” I said.

“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry about your warehouse.”

“No one’s hurt, and we had insurance on it. Things can be replaced. People can’t be,” I said. “Talk with you soon, Detective.”

I pulled my phone out and sent a text message to my P.I. I gave him a quick rundown of what was going on and gave him the number of the detective. Then, I called my lawyer as I turned on my truck.

“Mr. Murphy,” Luther said.

“Are you in your office? We need to talk,” I said.

“I can get there. Is everything okay?” he asked.

“No, not really. I need to see you immediately,” I said.

I hung up the phone without even saying goodbye and started at full-speed toward her place. I was not only racing against the clock at this point, but I was also racing against Lanie’s father. He was obviously devolving in his mental state and willing to destroy anything to get to Lanie.

And if we could prove this shit, our case was already half-won.

I pulled up into my lawyer’s office thirty minutes later. I saw him getting out of her car as I turned off my truck, and he immediately came walking toward me. His eyes were scanning me as I got out of my car, my eyes wild and my body smelling of smoke.

“Come into my office,” he said. “You look like you could use a place to sit.”

“There was a fire at my warehouse this morning,” I said.

“What were you storing in the warehouse?” he asked.

“New supplies my business had just purchased for our employees.”

“And the warehouse is here? In Asheville?” he asked.

“It’s a holding warehouse. Usually, it stores our older supplies as we phase them out. We were eventually going to use it to get an East Coast installment of our company up and running, but the plans always got shoved to the backburner. Apparently, the company used it this time as a holding tank for our newer items until the older ones could be cleared out in our L.A. warehouse.”

“And now it’s all gone,” he said.

“Yes. My business partner, Jack, never took my name off any of the company’s formal documents. I’m the majority stockholder in the company still, and he kept my name on things in case I decided to come back.”

“So you believe Lanie’s father did this,” he said. “Do you have any proof?”

“The detective I talked with has already declared it arson. But the security cameras around the compound had all been disabled, so there is no footage.”

“Of course there isn’t,” he said, sighing.

“I know it was Lanie’s father,” I said. “He’s devolving. He’s willing to do anything to get me to hand over my money to him.”

“But without proof, we can’t make that accusation in court,” he said.

I pushed my hand through my hair in frustration. “So this asshole just gets away with it? I’m telling you, Luther, at this point I’m ready to just pay him off and get him to leave.”

Luther shook his head. “I’ve already told you, Brian, that’s not a good idea. With guys like this, it will never be enough. You’ll give him a million today, he’ll come back tomorrow for two. No, the only way to make sure he stays away is to go to court and win custody of Lanie legally. Then he has zero recourse against you, and his game is finished.”

“Well, in a few days I’ll have a documented marriage. Where does that put me?” I asked while trying to control my anger.

“You’re getting married?”

“I am.”

“To who?”

“A woman,” I said.

“You know I was kidding about that, right?” he asked. “I didn’t expect you to actually go out and find a wife.”

“Well, I did. If you’re telling me it’s my best shot to get custody, then that’s what I’m doing.”.”

“Brian, if you’re serious and you’re going to get married, that puts you in a really good place,” he said.

“It’s about time you gave me some good news.”

“If you can marry her, get it documented, and prove the fire was caused by him, he’s finished. He’ll never take Lanie from you,” he said.

“Then that’s what we’re going to do. I’ve already talked to my P.I., and I’m having him contact Detective Landry.”

“Ok, and I will make sure to put in a call to the department as well. Keep the pressure on to get this case solved as quickly as possible.”

“Yes. I want all of us working this from every angle. Lanie isn’t going with that man. I’m not going down without a fight. By the time I’m done with that miserable piece of shit, he’s going to be sorry he ever tried to fuck with my family.”

“I’ll get on it. I’ll call your P.I. first. Maybe we can all sit down with the detective and figure out where to go from here. Brian, things are starting to look good.”

“Good. I have to go,” I said.

“I’ll call you when I know something.”

“Thank you Luther.”

I walked out of his office feeling hopeful for the first time in days. Suddenly, my business mind began to kick back into gear. The insurance claim, if they filed it properly, would cover the equipment. But the monthly premiums for the business would skyrocket because of this. The company wouldn’t be able to do anything about it until we could prove it was arson. That would be the only way the insurance company would have mercy on us.

“Hey, Brian. Whatcha got for me?”

“Hey, Jack. I can’t talk specifics, but I’m pretty sure I know who started the fire at the warehouse,” I said.

“You do?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’m working on getting the proof right now. I’ve got my PI and my lawyer on it, as well as the arson investigator. Hopefully we can get it wrapped up sooner than later.”

“This wouldn’t have anything to do with the custody battle, would it?” Jack asked, his voice dropping an octave like it always did when he was pissed.

“Pretty sure it does,” I said. “Listen, you just take care of filling out that insurance paperwork.”

“I’m on the phone with them now,” he said.

“Good. Let me know how things go .”

“Once they’re writing the check, I’ll let you know. And whatever the fuck’s going on, Brian, keep yourself safe.”

“Always,” I said. “That shit’s a given.”