The Maverick (14 page)

Cass ran for the exit, grabbing whatever she could on her way. The smoke grew thicker, and she heard Hank still pounding on her door. Yanking it open, she fell outside. Flames shot up behind her.

Hank yelled, “Quick! Get as far away as you can!”

“Call 9-1-1!”

“Trucks are on their way. Go! Go!”

She ran out to the parking lot. Thankfully, her purse was one of the things she’d grabbed, and she fished out her keys as she ran. Quickly unlocking her car, she tossed her armload of stuff inside, drove two blocks away and parked. Fire trucks and police cars screamed by her, and as she looked back over her shoulder, fire had completely engulfed the lower floor and flames were shooting up fifty feet or more over the roof. She could hear the whoosh and crackle from where she sat, watching as a window of her apartment blew out.

She had her cell phone as well, and she immediately dialed Sunny. Weeping hysterically now, Cass said, “Come quick. Chili Witches is on fire! Hank and I are okay.”

Holding her steering wheel in a death grip, Cass fought to
calm herself. What else? What else bad could happen? Her nerves were stretched to breaking.

More police cars and fire trucks screamed by, and great streams of water poured over the fire, but the inferno raged on. Cass pawed through the items she’d been able to save, hoping for clothes to put on. The closest thing she found was the blue chenille throw from the couch. She’d saved her laptop, her tote of color samples, a painting her mom had done that had hung near the door, and one left shoe. A red high heeled sandal.

The sum total of her belongings was what she had in her car. The little stuffed cat, all her clothes, the box of medals and memorabilia from high school and college, her furniture, her jewelry—everything was gone. Everything.

But she was alive. Hank was alive. Stuff could be replaced.

But Chili Witches… She choked on a sob.

Cass got out of her car and locked it, carrying with her only her phone, her keys and the chenille throw, and walked back toward the conflagration, where flames and glowing embers licked the sky and drank the gushing streams of water.

S
UNNY PASSED HER ON
the way and screeched to a stop at the curb. Jumping from her car, she ran to her sister. “Oh my God, Cass. Oh my God.”

They hugged each other and sobbed.

“What happened?” Sunny asked.

“I don’t know. The downstairs was already burning and my apartment was getting smoky when Hank managed to wake me. Did you call Mom and Aunt Min?”

“Yes. I told them not to come, but they’re already on their way.” She looked down at Cass’s feet. “Where are your shoes?”

Cass shrugged.

“Wait a minute. I think I have something in the trunk.” Sunny ran to her car and popped the back. She returned in a minute with her gardening boots. “This is the best I can do.”

“Sold,” Cass said. She brushed off her feet and stuck them into the boots. Pulling the chenille throw around her shoulders, she trudged with her twin toward the fire.

Police had blocked off the area, so they couldn’t get too close, but they saw their mother and aunt, disheveled and distraught, running toward them.

“Are you okay?” Gloria asked. “What happened?”

Cass shrugged. “I don’t know. It obviously started somewhere downstairs—either at Hooks or Chili Witches.”

Holding each other, the four of them watched the building burn.

“My stars and garters,” Gloria moaned, shoving her fist against her mouth. “I can’t believe it.”

Tears trickled down Aunt Min’s face. “Oh my, at the memories burning with that place! It’s gone, isn’t it?”

Sunny nodded. “No way to save anything. They can only keep it from spreading to surrounding buildings.”

G
RIFF COULDN
’
T SLEEP
. He hadn’t been able to since Cass left. He stood at the window, staring at a spot to the west of the capitol grounds where he knew Chili Witches stood. Because of buildings in the way, he couldn’t see the actual structure or Cass’s apartment, but he knew exactly where it was.

He frowned. A bright glow lit the sky where he looked. Was that a fire? His pulse kicked into overdrive. Could it be Chili Witches? Cass!

He had to find out if she was okay. It was three o’clock in the morning, and there wasn’t a chance in hell she would answer if he called.

In record time he laced on his running shoes, stuck his keys and wallet in his pocket and hurried downstairs. As soon as he hit the street he could hear the sirens and smell the fire.

Panicked, he ran toward the activity, his long strides eating up the pavement. The closer he got, the more his panic grew. Oh, hell! It
was
Chili Witches! He prayed and ran faster.

The area was blocked off and hoses poured water onto the roaring, raging flames. He tried to get through but was stopped at every turn.

“Cass!” he yelled, running around the perimeter of the barricade. “Cass!” Terror clawed at his insides. “Cass!”

At last he saw four women standing beside a sawhorse. One wore rubber boots and a blanket.

“Cass!”

She turned.

He ran toward her, grabbed her and held her tight. He held her and swung her around and kissed her face all over. “I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”

She struggled in his arms. “Let me go! Dammit! Let me go.”

He set her down, but held her at arm’s length and scanned her from head to toe. “Thank God you’re okay. You are, aren’t you?”

“I’m okay, but Chili Witches isn’t. It’s gone. Nothing but ashes will be left. Are you happy now?”

Griff felt the blood drain from his face. “You can’t believe I had anything to do with this! Cass, I swear by all that’s holy, I would never do anything to hurt or endanger you. You have to believe me.”

“Go away, Griff. Just go away. I want to be with my family now.”

He didn’t want to go. He wanted to hold her in his arms and wash the soot from her face. But in the end he left. She was safe. That’s what was important now.

B
Y EARLY MORNING
, Chili Witches and Hooks were blackened skeletons of one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old jagged, broken bones and heaps of smoldering ashes. Sid and Foster stood beside their little group, looking dazed and lost. Ben, who’d heard about the fire on the early news, had his arm wrapped around Sunny. Cass stood between her mom and aunt, squeezing their hands.

“I suppose it’s over,” Gloria said. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go home and get some rest.”

“I agree,” Min said. “I’m exhausted. Did all our insurance papers burn?”

“No,” Sunny said. “I have them in a lockbox at my house. Cass, come home with me. I have an extra bedroom and clothes you can wear.”

Cass nodded, then turned to the owners of Hooks. She hugged Sid and Foster. “Guys, I’m so sorry about this. What can we do to help?”

“There’s nothing you can do,” Sid said.

“We’re fully covered by insurance,” Foster added, “so we can take our time about deciding our next step.”

“Does someone need to stay and talk to the authorities?” Cass asked.

“I’ll handle things,” Ben said. “All of you go on home. You look like you’re about to drop.”

Slowly they hugged and dispersed. Cass followed Sunny home and took her meager pile of belongings inside with her.

C
ASS STOOD IN THE SHOWER
for the longest time, soaping off the soot and washing the smell from her hair. The water seemed to help. By the time she was finished, Sunny had left a nightshirt and clothes for her. There was no point in trying to sleep, Cass was too agitated. She felt like crap, and to top
things off, she’d started her period. Thank God. To have been pregnant would have been the last straw.

Opting for yoga pants and a tee, she dressed and padded into the kitchen in search of coffee.

“Coffee’s dripping,” Sunny said. “I didn’t figure you could sleep.”

“Not on your life. My brain’s like a hornet’s nest. Have you ever felt like a black cloud was hovering over you and following you wherever you went?”

“Oh, yeah.” Sunny poured two mugs and added sugar and cream.

They took their coffee into the living room and curled up on the couch.

“Think Mom and Aunt Min will want to rebuild?” Cass asked.

“I don’t know. Things wouldn’t be the same.”

“Nope. Sunny, this breaks my heart. A part of history burned this morning. The town’s history, our family’s history. I already feel like a big chunk of me is missing.”

Sunny only nodded. They felt the same way. “You don’t think Griff had anything to do with the fire, do you?”

“Not really. No. I can’t imagine he would sanction such a thing. If Hank hadn’t awakened me, I could be dead. The security alarm and the smoke alarm were going off like crazy, and the noise didn’t faze me.”

Sunny shuddered. “I don’t like to think about it.”

“Me either.” She took another swallow of coffee. “Thankfully, I saved my purse, along with my checkbook and credit cards. I need everything from the skin out. I don’t own a hair drier or a toothbrush or shoes. Nothing. I can’t even recharge my phone.”

“Don’t you have a charger in your car?”

“I do, now that you’ve reminded me, but I don’t want to have
to ride around to juice up my battery. I need to make a list of essentials. Help me. It’ll keep our mind off…everything.”

When the list grew to three pages, Cass stopped and they prioritized. Personal grooming items, makeup, a simple basic wardrobe, charger for her phone.

“Want to go with me?” Cass asked.

“Sure.”

Their first stop was Ulta. The second was IHOP. The third was Nordstrom’s. By the time they got to Best Buy, their tail feathers were dragging.

“Tell me this is all for today,” Sunny said.

“This is all. I promise. Let’s go home and order a pizza. I’m starved.”

When they arrived at Sunny’s they found two food bags from Cass’s favorite Italian restaurant sitting by the back door.

Griff.
Cass knew immediately this was from him. Before she could stop herself, a warm feeling stole over her and she smiled. No, dammit. She wouldn’t be suckered in by shrimp Portofino. She sighed. But she wouldn’t let the pasta go to waste, either.

Ben stopped by to bring them up to date, and he shared their meal.

“From the preliminary investigation by the fire department,” he said, “it looks like the fire started in the office at Chili Witches.”

“But how?” Sunny asked.

“Not sure,” Ben said, “but the safe survived and it looks like somebody had been after it with a cutting torch.”

“You mean a
thief
started the fire?” Cass asked.

“Maybe. Or the damage to the safe may have been caused during the fire. As I say, this is preliminary information. We’ll know more in a few days.”

“The alarm was set,” Cass said. “I distinctly remember setting it. How could someone have gotten past it?”

Ben shrugged. “An investigator will be out to talk with you tomorrow.”

“I’m going to leave it with you two,” Cass said. “I’m going to put up all my stuff and sack out.” On her way to the guest room, she paused at the bookshelf to select a novel and tucked it under her arm.

After she’d hung up her new and much abbreviated wardrobe and stowed her shoes—one pair of pewter flats, one pair of sport shoes, one pair of beige thongs and one pair of black heels—she brushed her teeth with her new brush and changed into her new nightie. Socks and undies went in a dresser drawer. She hooked up her phone to the new charger and climbed in bed with Janet Evanovich. She’d only made it to page three when her phone rang. Maddie.

“Hey, Maddie, what’s up?”

“Cass, I have the poop on Griff Mitchell. My brother knows him, but not well. My cousin Will is a friend of his. They still play racquetball or one of those guy games. Griff was a supersmart stud at Harvard Law, and he worked for a firm in New York for a while. About five years ago he and three other buddies from undergrad days formed a consulting company. ZASM. Walter Zeagler, Peter Adair, Fisher Smith and Griffin Mitchell. They partner with developers of hotels and high-rises in a variety of capacities, particularly acquiring properties, and they’ve made scads of money doing it.

“Will said Griff had been in Texas scouting properties, but he came back into town a week or so ago madder than hell at one of the partners, and quit the firm. Packed up his desk and
told them he didn’t like the way they did business and to go to hell. Will was stunned. We’re talking about thumbing his nose at megabucks.”

Cass sat straight up in bed. “He did?”

“According to my cousin, he did. And Will also got the idea he’d fallen in love with a woman in Texas because he was selling everything, and told Will not to expect him back. That woman wouldn’t happen to be you, would it?”

“How did you come to that conclusion?”

Maddie laughed. “I didn’t get where I am on my looks. Are you the one?”

“There are some problems.”

“I’d try to work them out if I were you. This Griff sounds like a keeper. Will’s very fond of him, and Will is quite discerning. Does my information help?”

“Perhaps. I’ll need some time to process what you’ve told me. Is there any way I can return the favor?”

“Sure,” Maddie said. “Invite me to the wedding.”

“Don’t pack your bags just yet.”

They chatted for a few minutes about mutual acquaintances, but Cass didn’t mention the fire or anything more about Griff.

After they said goodbye, she lay back and stared at the ceiling. Had she judged Griff too quickly and too harshly?

Maybe she had.

She picked up her phone again and listened to her messages from Griff—all twenty-seven of them.

By the time she’d heard him pour his heart out, she was in tears. She knew without a doubt that he loved her, and everything he’d told her was true.

She got up, dressed and packed a few items in a Nord
strom’s bag. Sunny’s bedroom door was closed, so Cass left her a note on the kitchen counter and tiptoed out.

She drove to Griff’s high-rise, went upstairs and knocked.