Six Months (25 page)

Trevor volunteered to pick up a sack of bagels for breakfast on the way home, so I had a feeling he didn’t mind so much.

I shut the door, flipped on the light, and tossed the key on the table.

Just as I reached for the fish food, I heard a car pull in and the engine cut off.

“Trev, did you find it?” I yelled out, opening the door.

It swung open and the force pulled me off-balance as I was thrown back in a violent motion.

I crashed against the table and hit my head on the wall. Dizzy, I rolled to the side and looked up from the floor. A sunburst of pain radiated at the back of my head, causing me to see tiny flickers of light.

“How’s it going, Vanilla? Miss me?”

Sanchez loomed in the doorway, dressed in all black. What scared me was the lighter fluid in his hand that he was spraying all over the floor, the curtains, and the table Reno had built for me. Hermie swam sporadically in his bowl.

“Wait, wait,” I said. “What do you want? Please don’t.”

“Ahh, too late, Vanilla. You want to sit and whine about it now? You think you can talk smack to me and I’ll let you get away with it? Bitch, you don’t know me.” He sprayed the sofa while holding a box of matches in his left hand. It rattled as he pooled up the fluid and finally threw down the empty can.

“I’ll do what you want,” I said, hands shaking, voice wavering. The thought of burning alive terrified me to the core of my being.
Thank God Trevor isn’t here
, I thought.
At least he’s safe
.

“Of
course
you’ll do whatever I want. You know what I want?” he said, backing up toward the door. Sanchez held up a match and a malevolent grin spread across his face. “I want you to
scream
.”

The wooden stick scratching along the rough edge of the box sounded like an attack.

And it was.

I screamed before the flame hit the accelerant. Sanchez lunged forward and stomped on my foot. A feral scream poured from my mouth as pain exploded up my leg. He closed the door behind him after he ran out, and the fire engulfed the sofa, floor, and doorway, forcing me to scramble into the back room. The pain in my head and foot became blinding and I fell on my knees and crawled through the noxious smoke that was quickly filling the room.

Years ago when the riffraff had moved into our neighborhood, Grandma had sealed up the windows, afraid of someone trying to snatch one of us girls in our sleep. One of them she had completely covered. The searing heat reminded me it was the only way out. I needed to bust the back window with something and squeeze out.

The pain and shock of what was happening consumed me. I was going to burn alive, and oh God, the dumbest things ran through my mind. Like poor little Hermie, and my dad’s snow globes. I managed to crawl on the bed and I struggled to breathe. Oxygen was running out and I began coughing as my chest tightened, which made me dizzy and nauseous. I knew I was in mortal danger, but between the pain and inability to breathe, I became disoriented. I pushed my face into the mattress—my eyes stinging, lungs burning.

An explosion rocked the trailer and a force of energy burst into the room.

“April, I’m coming!” Reno shouted.

“No, no, no,” I murmured, not wanting him to be there. Not wanting him to get hurt.

“Get up.” He yanked my arm and when the weight settled on my foot, I screamed so loud that I blacked out.

After Reno had spoken with his pack about April, he let his wolf run on the property.
After shifting back, he’d spent the rest of the afternoon thinking about her and then decided to head over to her house late that evening. His wolf demanded it. She had sent him a message on the phone that she was spending the day with Trevor and they were going out for some Mexican food before heading home. On the main street near the turnoff, he thought he saw Trevor’s car speeding away.

As he eased up the road, an orange glow illuminated the dark sky in the distance. He blinked from the headlights of an oncoming vehicle, and an expensive car blew past him. Reno glanced in the rearview mirror and slammed his foot on the gas. Something wasn’t right, and the closer he got to the trailer, the more he knew why. He sent a message to Austin:

LEVEL RED. APRIL.

Reno went cold with dread when he saw the trailer burst into flames. A window on the right shattered and fire licked at the roof like the devil’s tongue. The fire engulfed the right side—not so much on the left from what he could tell.

“Jesus,” he breathed, feet barely touching the ground as he tore open the door. He had only seconds before it consumed the entire thing.

Flames and thick smoke poured out with the introduction of fresh oxygen and then receded. Reno didn’t hesitate.

He ran through fire.

Heat seared his skin and he grimaced from the intense burn on his arms. His eyes teared up and he covered his nose and mouth.

“April, I’m coming!”

She was sprawled across the mattress with her legs hanging off. He tried to pull her up, but she screamed and passed out in his arms, completely unresponsive. Reno had no time to assess her injuries.

She’d burn if he carried her out. There wasn’t time to think about why she hadn’t busted out the windows, so he wrapped the blanket around her tight and rolled her up like a burrito—not an inch of her from head to toe exposed.

“Hang on, princess,” he whispered.

Lifting her in his iron grip, Reno turned around and walked through fire. It singed his hair immediately and burned his face and arms. He kept his eyes closed and head turned away, focusing on walking steadily so as not to fall. It slowed his pace to a painful degree, but he managed to continue holding his breath, enduring the heat as he went for the door.

He nearly fell down the steps but caught his balance and staggered several yards away from the danger. Reno dropped to his knees and patted out the flames from the ends of the blanket, quickly tearing it off.

“April,” he gasped, patting her cheek. His world was about to come crashing down if she didn’t wake up.

Reno struggled for breath, skin peeling off his arms. But all his worries melted away when he saw her eyes flutter. She’d live, and that’s all that mattered. Reno fell to the ground beside her and everything went dark.

***

“The patient needs rest,” a woman’s voice spoke from a distance. “I’ll be back to check her vitals. Do you want me to bring you a blanket?”

“No,” I heard Lexi say. “I don’t plan on sleeping until my sister wakes up.”

Sister? Why would she say that?
I wondered.
I must be dreaming.

As a door clicked shut, I slowly opened my eyes. “My arm burns,” I croaked.

Lexi leaned in close. “Shhh. The nurse mixed something in with the potassium drip—it should stop burning in a minute. How are you feeling?”

I licked my dry lips and looked around. “Where am I?”

“The Four Seasons?” Lexi smiled and brushed a strand of hair away from my forehead. “The hospital. They had you on oxygen for a while and said if you have any trouble breathing to let them know right away. You had me worried out of my mind. Reno sent a message to Austin that sent him running out the door without his shoes.”

I tried to sit up. “Reno?” Then a memory flashed through my head of seeing him inside the trailer. Tears blurred my vision. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s not hurt… Oh God…”

“He’s better,” she said gravely. “Austin got there in time, but Reno sustained serious burns. Austin made him shift. That’s how we heal; shifting back and forth from human to animal works a magic through our body. Something that bad, well, Reno needed to do it several times in order to heal. Once he was in wolf form, Austin had a hard time forcing him to shift back because Reno’s wolf guarded you as if he was your protector.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He took off an hour ago and said he’d be back. I want to apologize, April. Reno explained everything. If you had told me someone was threatening you, I would have given you that money. I know why you kept it to yourself, but sometimes it’s okay to let people know you don’t have everything under control. Nobody’s perfect, and it doesn’t say anything bad about you. We all have things going on in our personal life, but you can’t carry that burden alone.”

“I shouldn’t have taken it,” I said in a raspy voice, feeling a stiff board and tape on my index finger where they were monitoring my pulse. The discomfort in my foot became a dull ache when I bent my knee and tried to move.

“Your doctor took an X-ray and said he thinks there’s a hairline fracture in your foot. But it’s definitely sprained and bruised up.” She leaned over my bed and held my hand. “He wants you to wear one of those ugly boots with crutches. After they ran the CT scan to check your head, they gave you a mild painkiller.
Thank God
we have insurance because this is going to cost a fortune. I’ll help with the expenses your insurance doesn’t cover, so don’t worry about a damn thing.”

“I can’t ask you to do that.”

“I don’t care,” she said matter-of-factly. “You’ve never once asked me for anything and all this time, you were the one who needed help the most. Accept my help, April. I’m giving it to you and that’s final. Dammit.”

I smirked at her stubbornness and she smiled at mine. “I’ll pay you back.”

“No, you won’t. This isn’t a favor; this is me helping out a friend and you accepting. That means no paybacks. Who did this to you?”

I turned away.

Lexi’s voice lowered. “Reno thought it was Trevor.”

My eyes widened and I tried to sit up but she pushed me down. “He didn’t go after him, did he? It wasn’t—”

“Chill out, babe. No one’s coming after me,” a good-humored voice said from the doorway.

His oxfords crossed the floor to the left side of the bed and Trevor bent over and kissed my cheek like he meant it. He did it super-softly this time and sighed, pressing his forehead against mine. Lexi walked to the foot of the bed and squeezed my left toe—the one that wasn’t hurt.

“We’re going to kill the asshole who did this to you. All I need is for you to give me his name,” Trevor said.

I looked up and saw Reno looming in the doorway, quietly watching us.

“Sanchez,” I whispered. “His name is Sanchez. He sprayed a canister of lighter fluid or something onto the sofa and walls. Before I could get up, he stomped on my ankle and I was paralyzed with pain. Then he shut the door. He didn’t douse me in that stuff because he wanted me to be afraid for as long as it took. I should have tried to get out the door—but the fire—I was scared and confused.”

“You did good, babe,” Trevor said, brushing his hand over my forehead. “He was probably holding the door shut, knowing you’d try to get out. Running to the back bought you some time.”

I lowered my eyes. “I was going to try to smash the window but I couldn’t breathe… everything began to spin and—”

“It’s ok, honey,” Lexi soothed. “The doctor said you have a nasty bump on your head. You were awake when they brought you in, but not lucid. I’m guessing you don’t remember.”

I shook my head. “All I remember is not wanting to burn alive.”

Reno’s eyes were blazing like the fire that had consumed my home, and I could almost feel the tension snapping like one of those live wires on the road after a storm.

Lexi must have felt it too, because she shuddered. “I’m going to talk to Austin,” she said. “Do you need anything?”

I shook my head and Reno whispered something to her at the door before she left.

“So, you two are on speaking terms?” I asked Trevor with a faint smile. My best friend on my left, my best
I-don’t-know-what
on my right.

It was a rhetorical question and I looked at Reno, searching for injuries.

“I’ll be back,” Trevor whispered against my cheek. “The cops want my statement and all that. I’m heading out to the trailer to see if anything is salvageable before we track down the soon-to-be-dead man who did this. The firemen got there pretty quick, so there might be something.”

“Your guitar is gone,” I said wearily. “I’m sorry. All your stuff—”

“Yeah, like I give a shit about my junk, April. Won’t be the first time I’ve had to start over. Just let them take care of you and hopefully they’ll discharge you this afternoon. I’ll pick you up and we’ll stay with… well, I’ll figure something out.”

Trevor disappeared around the corner and shut the heavy door.

“Are you okay? Did you heal all the way?”

“Don’t you worry about me, princess.” Reno leaned down and cupped his warm hands around my face. “But when you feel better, we’re going to have a talk about your friend kissing on you. I got a problem with another man’s lips on your body.”

His thumb gently stroked my cheekbone and I smiled into his palm. I didn’t have words for a man who ran through fire to save me. How do you show someone your gratitude for burning alive to save your life?

His eyes floated up to the plastic tubes going into my arm, the machines, and when he eyed the space beside me, I scooted a little to the right.

Reno walked around to the left side and tested his weight, slowly easing himself on the bed and turning on his side, draping his arm around my stomach. His nose touched my neck and I relished the warmth of his body so close to mine.

“Is this all he did to you?”

My stomach knotted. The sharp edge in his voice terrified me.

“Yeah.”

He looked at me softly, not like he had before. Why had I been so afraid of this man when we first met? I’d never dated a tough guy before, so I’d never had a clue they were all soft inside. Reno redefined what a man was in my eyes.

“You’re more beautiful without makeup on your eyes. You know that?”

Which meant I was lying there without a speck of eyeliner. Not that it should have bothered me, but I must have looked like a hot mess.

“How long do I have to stay here? I can’t afford this.” I coughed a few times and cleared my throat.

“Don’t think about that right now. Just get better,” he murmured against my neck, kissing me tenderly. “I’m going to take care of you.”

Those last words lingered in my mind. I wanted to be with Reno, but I also wanted a fresh start. I couldn’t enter a relationship with him with all this debt, a man trying to kill me, being homeless, and not having a job. It wouldn’t be fair to anyone. He’d almost died for me and I needed to sort out my problems so nothing like that would happen again—I owed him that much. If they never caught Sanchez, then Reno would always be in danger.

I listened to the sound of the machine pumping fluids through the IV and closed my eyes. “I can’t do this with you.”

“Shhh,” he said. “Close your eyes and sleep. We’ll talk later.”

“When they let me go, I’m going to figure things out with Trevor. I don’t want you to get hurt again.”

Reno drew in a deep breath and sat up, leaning on his right elbow. “It’s about time you learned a little fact about your friend. Trevor is a Shifter.”

“Don’t do that, Reno. Don’t make up lies to try to turn me against my best friend.”

“How do you explain the night we found him beaten and he healed? Your friend had a compound fracture in his arm; that kind of injury doesn’t just mend with a little peroxide.”

“It’s not possible. I’ve known him forever.”

He quietly huffed out a laugh and looked up at the chalkboard where the nurses wrote their names. “He’s in the closet.”

My eyes went wide. “How did you know?”