Hearts on Fire 1: Serefina(24)

Ace squeezed her hand as he drove the truck, and Ice held her other hand.

“I’m sure everything is okay. Stop freaking out. We were going to have to face your dad eventually, so why not now?” Ace asked.

“For one, we’re not exactly dating, Ace. We jumped into bed, did some wild stuff, and all within twenty hours,” she replied.

“You regret what we did?” Bull asked from behind her.

“No, of course I don’t.”

“Then what does it matter? Twenty hours, two hours, two months, two years, it doesn’t matter. We want to be together and we have something special,” Ice said and lifted her knuckles to his lips and kissed them. She smiled as she leaned against his shoulder.

As they pulled up the long driveway, Ace noticed the arson investigator truck and the unmarked police car.

“What are Buddy and Trent doing here?” Ice asked.

“Shit,” Ace added, and they got out of the truck.

“Who are they?” Serefina asked.

“Our cousins. Trent is the arson investigator for the county and Buddy is a detective in the sheriff’s department,” Ace told her. Before they even reached the front door, it opened. Her father was there and he looked like he was biting the inside of his cheek.

Serefina was going to release Ice’s hand, but he squeezed tighter.

“What’s going on, Chief?” Ace asked, leading the way.

“Come inside,” he told them, opening the door wider. When he looked past them and around the yard, Serefina had a terrible feeling in her gut.



* * * *



“Are you kidding me? This can’t be happening,” Ice stated first while Serefina sat there looking white as a ghost and numb.

“It’s true, Ice. It’s got to be the same guy. The evidence is piling up, and it seems like his next move might be Serefina or the last survivor. There are detectives protecting that guy as precaution,” Trent stated.

Serefina stood up and walked across the room. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest. “If this guy finds out that they’re Marco’s brothers and that I’m involved with them, he could go after them, too, couldn’t he?” she asked. They were all quiet.

“If he sees that you’re romantically involved, but we still don’t know if he is watching you or if he’s trying to track you down. The fact that you left North Carolina threw him for a loop maybe. We don’t know,” Buddy told her.

“We can’t take that chance. I’m not willing to take that chance,” she said.

“What are you saying?” her father asked her.

She looked at Ace, Ice, and Bull.

“I lost Matt, I’m not going to lose the three of you, or anyone else I care about.”

They didn’t seem to understand what she was saying, except for Ace. He walked closer.

“We lost Marco because of this psycho. We are not going to let this monster get to you, or anyone else. That’s the whole point of this. Thanks to Trent and Buddy, we can provide the protection you need.”

“What if he comes after you?” she asked.

He pulled her into his arms. “I failed my brother. I’m not going to fail you or my other brothers, and I mean all of you.”



* * * *



Bull stood on the deck outside of the chief’s house and stared out toward the yard. Ace, Ice, Eddie, and Trent were there, too.

“Twelve firefighters and a hundred and thirteen people? My God,” Bull stated aloud, still not really comprehending the casualties. He remembered it had almost been a year ago when Eddie, his brothers, and the chief said they needed to head out for a week to North Carolina, and that their sister and daughter needed them. Later, Eddie had said she lost friends in a bad fire. They had heard about the club fire on television, as most of the news channels covered the story. But the chief never let on to any connection to it, or that his daughter had been in the fire.”

“Why hadn’t you or your dad mentioned to us that your sister was in that club fire and that she nearly died?” Bull asked, feeling a combination of anger, as well as relief.

“We didn’t know that she had been trapped. She never told us the whole story. She still hasn’t told us about the experience,” Eddie told him.

“How the hell could you not know when she has that burn scar on her neck? You were out there to see her,” Ice said.

“What burn mark?” Eddie asked.

“The one she hid from us because she didn’t want us to worry about her,” the chief stated, joining them on the porch.

“Dad?” Eddie questioned him.

“Son, I only just found out about that scarring and that she was actually burned in the fire last week. Your mom told me after she visited your sister and saw it. She questioned Serefina, and Serefina basically told her that it wasn’t important. That people lost their lives and a little burn, a scar, was nothing.”

“My God. Did she explain about the fire, what she saw, anything?” Trent asked.

The chief shook his head.

“We tried to ask. She wasn’t budging with answers and had lost her boyfriend, Matt. So we didn’t push. Especially when she had to attend all those funerals. Angelina stayed on for an additional week, but it was a blur even for her. We tried to convince Serefina to come home then, but she refused. Then I heard from a friend of hers about the depression.”

“Depression?” Ace asked.

“She was down, had missed Matt terribly, and taken his death really hard.”

“She said they were serious, that she loved him,” Bull added as he looked at his brothers.

“Well, she said some things that concerned Angelina and I, so we pushed for her to come back home.”

“What things?” Eddie asked.

“Let’s just say we were concerned that she might hurt herself.”

“What? Why would she do that? Over some guy, some first love?” Eddie asked, obviously not knowing how to handle it.

“Son, we didn’t know why. But then that same day, when your mom saw the scar, Serefina told her that she had seen Matt die. She saw him fall into the fire to his death.”

Everyone was silent.

“You said that Serefina was burned? Was that public knowledge?” Trent asked.

“I’m not sure. I mean I think she was the only survivor with a burn. I heard that the others had bruises and things, why?” the chief asked Trent.

“He pulled out a folder and rummaged through the documents. He found what he was looking for and pulled it out.

“There was this article in the local paper from North Carolina. It shows Serefina at the funeral for Matt and another two firefighters. She had been so supportive to their families, and they mention that she was burned but somehow survived and weren’t certain why. Serefina hasn’t told anyone the story, so maybe she doesn’t even know how. But if the arsonist read these, and celebrated over his act of fire and killing, he could see Serefina and the other survivors as ones who got away and escaped. Now it’s just a hunch, but I remember reading about numerous arsonists who were so obsessed with fire they actually thought that God, or a spirit was telling them what to do. They don’t have a grasp on reality. There are many possibilities.”

“Oh no. You could actually be onto something, Trent. Just in her name alone, and a crazy arsonist obsessed with fire could gain interest,” Eddie said.

“What do you mean?” Bull asked.

“Serefina has meaning. The burning one, one of the nine orders of angels according to Christians,” Eddie replied.

“Serefina, the highest ranking angel of God who helps guard the gates to heaven,” the chief whispered.

“What evidence would point to this theory, Trent?” Ice asked.

“I’m not sure, but I’m not dismissing it. It’s right there in plain sight. What I need to figure out is what is the business aspect the Feds are so hung up on?”

“He could be a hired arsonist. It would explain the use of explosive devices and barricading exits to ensure the elimination of the target,” Ace stated, and everyone looked at him.

“A definite possibility. I’m going to go look up similar cases around the area, and see if there are further matches,” Trent said and then stood up and exited the porch.

The chief followed, leaving Eddie, Ice, Ace, and Bull.

Bull looked at Ace who was staring out toward the backyard with both hands holding on to the railing. He could sense his upset and uneasiness about the situation. Hell, he was scared, too, and he wanted to go inside and hold Serefina in his arms and never release her, but he couldn’t.

“I’m going to take some personal time. I’m gonna talk with the chief about it so that I can watch over Serefina,” Ace said, still looking off toward the yard.

“We’ll take time off, too,” Ice stated.

Ace turned around. “No. You two will have the protection of the firehouse, and can stick to your regular routines. It’s my responsibility, my job to keep her safe.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ice asked, raising his voice and the attention of Bull and Eddie. Even Bull was a bit hurt by what Ace said, but he understood his brother.

“It’s the way it’s going to be. Her brothers and father and I will keep watch over her. I can stay in her apartment or she can stay in our house. Whatever she wants to do.”