Fire (Beautiful Ashes Series, Book 2)(58)

“I’ve been trying. There’s some sort of lock on it.” He sat back rubbing his chin.

Shelby knocked on the doorjamb since the door was open. The sight of Mitch always caused her stomach to flip. God, she shouldn’t feel this way.

He motioned her into the office. “Hey.” Mitch wanted to grab her and kiss her hello. Where the hell were those thoughts coming from? “Did you learn anything new?”

“No,” she huffed. “I’d never seen those goons before. Thanks for letting me make sure.”

“You were helping us.”

Pamela coughed a little. “Is there anyone else you could show that to,” motioning toward the computer screen, “that could shed some light?”

Shelby’s attention was now drawn to the screen. Why did that place look familiar to her? Mitch replayed it for her but nothing popped. He sat there with a tremendous weight on his shoulders. Could that patient in the background be Chase McNeil? If so, how long did they have before his captors killed him? They were in a race against time. And this video actually put a ticking time bomb on the assembly man’s head. He stood, “Ladies, forgive me, I need to go,” and grabbed the laptop.

But Pamela didn’t miss his sidelong glance toward Shelby. Or the little quickening of Shelby’s pulse as she fought to look away from him. In the midst of crisis, she wanted more than anything for those two to work out. A hopeless romantic at heart, Dr. Pamela Sheffield believed in true love. She waited until Mitch was out of hearing range. “You like him.”

Shelby’s head shot up. “I never told you that.”

She scoffed, “I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t notice things.”

“Ah, hell. It’s that obvious,” defeat laced in Shelby’s voice.

“To me, yes. But I am a professional on studying people and their emotions.”

Shelby smiled at that. “True. But it’s silly. Romance isn’t for me.”

“You can’t go on punishing yourself. Don’t you think the best gift you could give your late husband and daughter is to go on living your life, finding love again?”

Damn. Why did she open up to her? “I think it’d be an insult to their memory.”

“Why is that?”

“Because I should be dead too.”

Pamela stood and walked to where Shelby was sitting. She gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “You can’t move forward until you let go of what was.”

Shelby shook her head. “I can’t lose them completely.”

“Oh, Shelby, you won’t. Don’t you see; giving yourself permission to really live; finding happiness; falling in love again will never erase what you had with them.”

“I just don’t know,” came the tearful admission.

“Don’t let the fear of living rob you of your life.” She let the words hang, hoping Shelby took them to heart.

Shelby stood and limped out but not before she added, “I hear you, Dr. Sheffield, but I’m not sure I can.” What she should’ve said was: I don’t deserve it. No one but her knew about the argument in that car on the terrible night that took three lives. She shouldn’t be here. Her husband had just come off a grueling shift. He was exhausted. But she’d had a couple of glasses of wine and he was pissed she was driving, especially with their daughter in the car. His attention wasn’t fully on the road, so he didn’t have any reaction time when the semi crossed the double yellow lines into their lane. No, in her mind, this was her penance for her selfish behavior that night. Her debt to pay for still being alive when they weren’t. Also why she couldn’t let herself have feelings for Mitch Rolston. She made up her mind as she continued to walk away. Being alone for the rest of her life was best for her. My price to pay, she reminded herself.





Tar entered the small house and was greeted by his excited nephew. “Uncle Tar!”

“Hey there, Buddy. I missed you.” He realized how true that was.

Lisa rushed around the corner when she heard his voice but slowed her pace before she turned his direction. “I thought you no longer wanted to be here.”

He held Cole in his arms and took a seat, motioning with a nod for her to join him. “Listen, what I want to do is go get my brother and bring him home,” his jaw clenched tight from the situation. He was worried sick about Chase and knew the longer he was in the hands of that cartel, the least likely he’d come home alive.

“I understand that. And am grateful.” Tears slid down her cheeks and Cole reached for her.

The hug was awkward with the three of them. Tar couldn’t shake the feeling of evil crawling along his skin, which made no sense. This was his family; why would he feel something so diabolical? He cocked his head toward her. She glanced up at him looking so pitiful, so heartbroken. “We’ll find him.” Dead or alive he would bring his brother home.