Wrapped in Flame (10 page)

She was more relaxed now. Tension no longer etched lines in her face. As they walked from his truck to the grocery store, little space separated them. He wanted to hold her hand, tuck her under his arm. But other rules were still in play. Keith was dead. Even though she didn’t mourn him—no one did—there was still some measure of decorum required for the public. But he loved the way she’d glance at him as if he was the best thing ever. She was a dream come true.

Mike didn’t fool himself into thinking everything was perfect. She had her fears, and he respected that, but he refused to let those fears affect what they’d had before sex entered the picture. They were still friends, and if things didn’t work out the way he wanted—with her in his life forever—they would still be friends, even if losing her would break his heart. He recognized Erica needed control over her life. He wouldn’t take that from her. Not ever.

He pressed his hand against the small of her back when the doors shushed open. Erica leaned into his touch ever so slightly. For the moment, she was his. Pride filled his heart. Then she tensed. A blonde headed their way, eyes huge behind her thick glasses. The speed at which she pushed her overloaded basket threatened collision.

“It’s the school’s principal,” Erica muttered. “What’s she going to think about us being here together?”

“That we’re shopping for groceries. We’re friends. We’ve shopped together before. It’ll be okay.” He felt her tension abate before he slid his hand away.

“Oh, Erica, I heard the news.” She jerked her basket to a stop. Bags tumbled, bottles rattled. “You must be devastated.” She wrapped a hug around Erica. Not an easy feat, considering she was all of five-two against Erica’s five-ten. Still, Erica indulged her.

“It’s been quite the shock.” Erica gently extricated herself from the woman.

“If you need anything, anything at all…”

“Thank you, Glenda, but I have good friends within the fire department who are helping me get settled. I believe you know Captain Barnard?” She motioned to Mike.

Mike extended his hand to the woman. “Glenda Ritz, you and I spoke on the phone about the demonstration on Monday.”

Her smile grew as she shook his hand. “I’ve seen you around. Nice to meet face-to-face. How comforting to know Erica has friends to help her out during this horrible disaster. It’s got to be quite the shock for you as well, losing one of your own.”

“Yes, ma’am. It’s never easy. We’re a tight-knit group.” With one exception. She’d learn that soon enough once the reporters got wind of Keith’s crap. They were in for a hard ride.

“Whatever it takes. That’s the firemen’s motto, right?”

Mike cringed. “Yes, that’s the
firefighters’
motto.” People were always going to get that wrong.

“You’ll be needing time off to handle things,” she said to Erica.

“Not right now,” she replied. “I need to keep busy. I plan to be at work for now. When that changes, I’ll give you as much notice as possible.”

Glenda flushed. “Of course. Silly of me. You can’t plan services until the body is… I mean…” She fumbled for her basket.

“No worries. It’s the truth.” Erica pushed Mike ahead of her as she started to walk away. “Thanks for understanding.”

“Anything you need. You have friends at the school, too, you know.”

“I do.” Erica flashed her a quick smile. “Please excuse us now. It’s been a long day, and I need to stock up on some groceries before calling it a night.”

“Of course.” Glenda charged for the doors, then jerked her cart around and headed for the lottery machine. “Almost forgot to buy a ticket.” She flashed them a smile. “Did you know the latest jackpot winner got their ticket from this store?” She took off before either of them could reply.

“Does she do everything at warp speed?” Mike asked.

“Only when it suits her purpose.” She snickered. “So, I’m thinking steak for dinner. I’m hungry enough to eat a cow.”

“I’ll second that. Do you want to grill at my house or broil at yours?” He held his breath, waiting to see if the suggestion threatened her.

“Mine,” she said without pause. “I have a lot to do.”

“Then I’ll cook while you do.”

Her bright smile crowned him king. “Sounds like a plan. The place has a microwave over the stove. You can nuke potatoes. Veggies?”

Mike braced himself for battle. He knew what she was going to choose. “I hate brussels sprouts.”

She elbowed his ribs. “You’re not eight anymore. Indulge me. Try them. If you cook them to death, they’re really very good.”

He released a beleaguered sigh. “Very well. But just this once.”

“Thanks.” Another big smile. “I’d give your fine ass a love pat for that one, but I wouldn’t want you to get too excited in the store.”

Mike tried unsuccessfully not to laugh. “Too late.”

“Hmm.” She gave him a wink and took off. “Grab a basket.”

“Yes, dear.” Hot damn, he loved her.

They worked through the store, selecting only what was necessary for dinner and breakfast in the morning. Erica planned to do bulk shopping tomorrow while Mike was on-shift. They rounded the final aisle into the dairy section, more than ready to be on the way home, and found Craig standing there staring at the milk. He looked lost.

“Chief? Something wrong?”

He turned haunted eyes Mike’s way. They teared up when he saw Erica next to him.

“She’s still not home.”

Gray peppered a day’s growth of whiskers. They rasped under the hand he wiped over his face. In the five years they’d worked together, Mike had never seen him unshaven. What the hell was going on?

Erica was by his side in an instant, hand on his arm to help steady him. “Did you call your kids?”

He nodded. “Neither has heard from her. They’ve demanded action, and I’m helpless. My daughter started blaming me for not trying to help her more. I did everything… How can she…” His shoulders drooped.

“Betty’s missing?” Mike felt stupid for asking the obvious.

“She left home last night with suitcases.” Erica patted Craig’s arm. “Did you call the sheriff’s office?”

“Twice. It doesn’t help that the neighbors saw her leave of her own free will. Told me to give it a couple of days. I called her cell. No answer. I…I don’t know what to do. We’re out of milk.”

Poor guy. Mike couldn’t believe this. Why hadn’t he said something to one of them? Well, he had. He’d told Erica. “Come on, Craig. You can have dinner with us. That’ll help pass the time. Then we’ll call the sheriff’s office again.”

“But…we’re out of milk. I don’t know which one to buy. There are so many choices. Betty always…”

“That’s okay.” Erica steered his attention to the selections. “Let’s figure it out. Then we’ll finish shopping, have a good meal and, shoot, you can even stay at my place tonight if you’d like. Someone gave me a couch today that’s guaranteed to give you one hell of a good sleep.”

Craig managed a smile. “You’re an angel, Erica.” He leaned down, glanced around, then quietly said, “I’m so glad that bastard’s dead.”

“Me too,” she softly replied back. To Mike she said, “Do you mind if I ride with Craig? He doesn’t know where I live.”

“Not at all.” The man didn’t need to be alone.

“No, no.” Craig slowly shook his head. “I’ll follow you.”

“Okay, then.” Erica pulled a half gallon of two-percent milk from the shelf. “Here you go. Can’t go wrong with two percent. Nonfat is just wrong.”

They sped through the remainder of their shopping and were checked out in record time. Craig was right there with them but too quiet for Mike’s liking.

“Okay, fill me in,” he said to Erica when they were on the road.

“I honestly don’t know what’s going on.” She glanced in the side mirror to make sure Craig followed. Mike had done the same thing in the rearview mirror. “When I left the fire scene, he asked me to check on Betty. She wasn’t answering the phone, and he was worried. Said she was pretty pissed about the crap Keith was pulling. I think he was afraid she’d killed him and set the fire.”

Mike didn’t see that coming. Betty had the knowledge to do it too. A person didn’t live with a firefighter for thirty-some years without learning a thing or three.

“She wasn’t home. A neighbor told me she left around dinnertime with her suitcases. So she couldn’t have killed Keith and started that fire. And she did leave of her own volition.”

“All true.” He stopped short of telling her all the ways to start a fire on a slow fuse. “We all know she took her mother’s death hard. She’s essentially shut herself away from everyone and everything. Maybe she did that to Craig as well.”

“After thirty-four years of marriage, she just walked away without a word or a note?”

“Grief fucks people up.”

She twisted to face him. “
Thirty-four years
, Mike. You’d think they’d learn to trust each other and talk it out.”

He flashed her a look. “Some people never learn to say what’s really on their minds.”
Or they walk out on conversations.
He kept that comment to himself.

“Well, that’s just dumb.”

Erica tucked her arms over her chest, settled into the seat, and kept her eyes riveted to the road ahead. She could feign ignorance that the comparison hit home all she wanted. Her body language said otherwise. Mike wouldn’t push his luck.

Dinner was awkward at best. Mike doubted Craig even tasted his food, but he sure sucked down the wine Mike had bought. The minute Mike had popped the cork on the first bottle of malbec, Craig had his wineglass at the ready. It was a big sucker too. In one pour, half the bottle was gone. By the time Mike had dinner ready, Craig was into the second bottle.

He said little about Betty being gone. He didn’t have to. Confusion haunted his expression, saddened his eyes. The more he drank, the worse it got. It was painful to see the normally ebullient man brought to his knees by what seemed to be the demise of his marriage. But like Erica, Mike refused to believe Betty would leave Craig without telling him first. There was something more going on.

“Have you looked through Betty’s things to—”

“Oh no.” Craig’s spine snapped him upright. The wine in his glass—the remains of the second bottle—sloshed over his fingers, leaving a puddle of red on the yellow kitchen table. “We agreed from the start to never, ever invade each other’s privacy. She has her things in her area. I have my things in mine. We even have separate bank accounts.”

Erica mopped up the spill with the paper towel she’d used as a napkin. “But she’s missing.”

He stubbornly shook his wobbly head. “But what if she comes back and finds out I went through her stuff?” He downed the wine in one gulp.

Erica grabbed the glass and cleared the table. “What if I look through her things?”

Chuckling, he waved a finger at her. “You’re a tricky one. Clever. But that’d be cheating. I’m not a cheater. Oh, I’ve had my chances. You know how those floozies can be. There was this one time—”

“Okay, I think it’s time we called it a night.” Mike pushed to his feet. “You have two choices. Erica’s couch, or we take you home.” His choice would be home. The last thing Mike wanted to deal with was his chief puking through the night or hungover in the morning.

Craig frowned up at him. “Home. If Betty comes home, I want to be there.”

She’d love coming home to find him drunk on his ass. “We’ll get you home. I’ll drive you there. Erica will follow behind.”

“Sounds like a plan.” He smacked the table and launched to his feet. Mike grabbed him as he staggered. “You’re good people, you two. You look good together. Really good.” He waved that finger again. “I can’t wait to see the babies you make.” He grinned. “Make a lot of pretty babies.”

Mike caught Erica’s deer-in-the-headlights look. Craig wasn’t helping him any. “Let’s get you home. Keys.” If he was going to puke, it wasn’t going to be in Mike’s truck.

Craig fished them from his pocket and plopped them into Mike’s open palm.

Somehow he got the chief home without incident. He maneuvered him into the house, where they made it as far as the living room before Craig passed out on the couch. Mike tossed a rainbow-colored afghan over him and called it a success.

“He’s out like a light,” he told Erica when he slipped into the passenger seat of her car.

“He’ll be feeling it in the morning. I can’t believe he polished off both bottles. And here I thought I’d scored when Gina gave me those big wineglasses.”

“It wouldn’t have mattered what size the glass was. He was determined to get drunk. We could stop at the store for more.”

“No. All I want is to soak the day away in a nice, hot bubble bath.”

Grinning, Mike draped his arm over the back of her seat. “I could go for that.”

Erica laughed. “You and me in that little tub?”

“I’m good at squeezing into tight places.” He rolled her earlobe between his fingers.

“So you are,” she murmured. Light from the streetlights they passed shimmered over her wet lips. “Are you good at washing dishes? Because we still haven’t cleaned up from dinner.”

“I’ll make you a deal.” He brushed his fingers down to her elbow, then moved away. “I’ll prepare the bubble bath of your dreams while you make the bed and get the dishes.”

“Sounds like an offer I can’t refuse, but”—she trailed her fingers up his thigh right to his dick—“I have very high expectations when it comes to my bubble bath.”

He grabbed her hand and pushed it over his erection. “Trust me. I’m up to the challenge.”

“We’ll see about that.” Her fingers slid away. “Craig forgot his milk.”

Mike snickered. “I doubt he’s going to want that in the morning.”

“True.” She tapped her index finger on the steering wheel. “You were pulled off the investigation, weren’t you?”

“Yes, but not because of us.”

“Keith’s lawsuit.”

“Exactly.”

“Frustrating. How did things go with Detective Posner this afternoon?” she asked.

“He opted to wait another day to interview us.” Actually, Craig had called Posner’s captain, and they’d both agreed Posner needed to tone it down.

“You really did have a lot of time to kill today, then, didn’t you?” A grin pulled up her lips.

Mike twisted her way again. “Would you believe I spent it thinking of you?”