Hearts on Fire 1: Serefina(3)

Her main concern now would be for Serefina. She had never shared the details of that night, but it had been a miracle that she survived. Marty got the story from the witnesses and firefighters involved. Her boyfriend, Matt O’Reilly, was heading up in the ranks. He had a great future ahead of him and was an outstanding man. Serefina might never get over losing him, but if being home gave her better peace of mind, or helped to build up her confidence again, and move on, then Angelina was going to do everything she could to help her.

The cell phone rang interrupting her thoughts, and she smiled when she saw that it was her husband.

“Hi, Marty, what’s going on?”

“Eddie heard from Serefina. She’s definitely coming home.”

“I can’t wait to see her and to hold her in my arms. Nine months was too long.”

“Well, if we had our way, she would have come back home with us then.”

She heard her husband’s concern. Those five days had been deeply emotional. Serefina had gone through twelve separate funerals, including Matt’s. She lost weight and looked sick until some friends of Matt’s started coming over and helping her through the mourning process. Marty begged her to come home and she declined. It had caused a bit of a fight.

“I know, honey, but she needed to handle this her way.”

“Her way? She’s coming back now because things aren’t getting better. You heard what Walter told Eddie. She talked about taking her own life.”

Angelina’s throat clogged up and tears stung her eyes.

“But she didn’t. She may have talked about it, felt that way in a state of emotional turmoil, but she didn’t attempt it. She’ll be with us now and we’ll do whatever we can to help her. So what time will you be home?”

“I’m sorry, Angelina. I didn’t mean to blurt that out and upset you. It’s weighed heavily on my mind for weeks. I can’t wait to hold her in my arms and show her that she’s meant to live and that she’s a survivor.”

“That’s going to be hard for her to understand, Marty, but we’ll try. The best thing we can do is to love her, and be here for her.”

“Agreed. See you at seven. Love ya, doll.”

She smiled. “Love you, too, Martelli,” she countered and he chuckled before getting off the phone.

Angelina took one last look around the room before descending the stairs. She closed her eyes and prayed to God.

Please watch over my baby girl. Please help her to see that life’s worth living, and you have plans for her.





Chapter 2




Ace heard the door open and close. He saw the shadow go down the hall and immediately knew it was Ice. “Hey, what are you doing getting in this late?” he asked in a hard whisper, then raised his head up from the pillow to look at the alarm clock.

Ice pushed the door open a little wider. “Sorry if I woke you. Late night. I’m showering and then heading to bed.” Ice’s shoulder-length blond hair was pulled back in a pony at the base of his neck. Ace’s brother was a big guy. It ran in the family.

“We have to be at the station in three fucking hours.”

“I know, I know. I’ll be fine. Good night.” He walked down the hallway.

“More like fucking morning,” Ace snapped and then snuggled under the blanket and closed his eyes. His brother had been acting funny lately. He was sneaking out and making excuses of why he couldn’t hang out on certain nights of the week. He also returned late, too. Getting to bed three fucking hours before their shift was not a good thing in their line of work. Firefighters needed to be sharp and ready for the action. If Chief Martelli knew, he’d be pissed. What the hell was Ice up to?

He can’t be seeing someone. Hell, none of them had much interest lately. It was the same old thing. Women threw themselves at them because they wanted to be with a firefighter. Some wanted to show them off like a grand prize and others just wanted to say that they fucked a firefighter. Not that he turned them down. He and his brothers did their share to make the fantasies a reality, but the shit was getting old. Things just weren’t the same since Marco died. He’d had a way of pulling them all together. Now Ace, Ice, and Bull were growing further and further apart. Maybe he should talk to them again about Marco’s idea?

He shook his head. Ménage relationships were for other people, like for their friends. The way their relations were now, growing further and further apart, they’d be lucky if they stuck to living in the same house and working in the same station house. Things just weren’t the same anymore. Not since that arsonist took Marco’s life.

He rolled over and covered his head with the pillow. He needed the last three hours of sleep. Maybe he’d talk to his brothers this weekend on the boat? Or at their parents’ restaurant café. That was another thing. Visiting their parents on the boardwalk café always led to the same thing. Their mom wanted them to leave the fire department and work with them at the restaurant. The small café and breakfast nook they’d started three years ago had become so popular they needed to expand. Their original idea was to serve food late, especially for first responders and then serve breakfast early, as they got of their night shifts.

Now it was a full restaurant, serving boardwalk favorites all day and night long as well as breakfast. Sullivan’s was a gold mine.

He glanced at the clock and cringed as he realized his thinking cost him thirty minutes. Closing he eyes, he focused on sleeping and not his brother Ice.



* * * *



The smoldering ashes left over by a four-alarm fire filtered through the air. Detective Buddy Landers spoke with his brother, arson investigator, Trent Landers by the scene.

“What do you think, Trent?” Buddy asked him. The coroner had arrived to gather what was believed to be left of two males and a female, charred to death.

“I’ll need to take some samples and collect some more evidence,” Trent stated as he pulled off his gloves and locked up what he had collected to go to the lab.

“But I can tell you where I believe the point of origin was.”

“Okay, I was thinking the kitchen stove and gas line.”

“There were accelerants found near the basement back door, the front entryway, as well as in the kitchen. I think that was our arson’s igniter.”

“Do you think the set of candles burning in the kitchen added to that explosion?”

“I think that the person responsible ensured that some sort of flame was present when that gas released through the house. The master bedroom is directly above the kitchen. The fireplace wasn’t turned on, and there was no way the arsonist knew they would light candles.”

“That’s why the fire was set by the front door?” Buddy asked Trent and Trent nodded.

“The person responsible for this deadly fire strolled up to the front door while these three people went about their business and they set the fire. Then they high-tailed it out of here before the explosion.”

“Shit,” Buddy said and then ran his fingers through his hair.

“Do you think it’s our guy?” Buddy asked, feeling his gut clench with trepidation.

“No. But there’s something about this target that doesn’t seem right. You’ll need to do your investigative thing, bro, while my men and I do ours. I say find out who these people were who lived here, what they did for a living, and whether they have any enemies. We’ll work on the evidence to put them away when you catch them,” Trent said and then winked.

Buddy chuckled as he shook his head. “I thought you’d be a better help than that,” he teased.

“Sorry, this isn’t television, this is real life.”

“Yeah, tell that to the victims’ families.”

Buddy walked away to let his brother continue his work as he spoke with the patrol officers.

“I want the entire neighborhood interviewed. Someone had to have seen or heard something. This person walked right up to the front door and set a fire. Let’s move. Canvass the entire neighborhood and don’t minimize even the smallest detail. Call me on my cell if anything comes up,” he told the group of officers and then dismissed them so they could begin.

Buddy looked around the nice, upper-middle-class neighborhood, only a few blocks from the beach.

He didn’t like the feeling he had, and he worried about his brothers as well as his cousins, Ace, Bull, and Ice. Marco’s killer was still out there, and all of them were determined to find him and put him away for life.





Chapter 3




Serefina was minutes from her family home, two blocks from the beach on the New Jersey shore. Using her Bluetooth, she called the house and told her mom she would be there soon. As she drove down the final strip of road viewing all the changes and updates to homes and storefronts, her heart began to lift. The moment she realized that, she frowned as she thought about Matt. He never even had the opportunity to see her childhood home or to even meet her family. The tears stung her eyes and she took a deep breath then released it.

This was why she came back. She needed the strength and the love of her family right now, more than anything else.

Serefina pulled the Jeep down the long road that led to the private house with one of the largest lots around town. The house looked gorgeous even now, as the sun began to set, shadowing out so many of the things she remembered about her home. The large gardens, the cobblestone walkways that led to the pool in the back, and the separate drive that led to the detached garage, a renovated apartment, just for her. Now that Eddie and Lance moved down toward the end of the pier and into their own bachelor pad, it was only Tyler at home.