She’s breathing. She’s going to be okay. They’re alive. He kept telling himself those things, except he knew breathing in toxic fumes from whatever had been burning could cause complications. At least she was in a setting where they could monitor her.
After a few minutes, he lifted his head and looked his brother in the eyes. “I started training my replacement this week. I’m ready to come home, too.”
Cocking his head, Ivan gazed at him. “What are you planning to do?”
“Travis told me he could use some help out at the boy’s ranch. He wants to teach an outdoor living class, and while he can teach camping and survival skills, he needs to be on site as well. I could come on part time and see how it goes.”
“Think that would be enough to keep you from going to seed? I sense something else in the works, brother.”
Giving a slight shrug, Samson looked at his hands and said, “I’d like to try writing a book. This idea for a military thriller keeps rattling around in my head.”
Ivan grinned slowly and then nodded his agreement and clapped him hard on the back. “You’ve always had a way with words. It could happen for you. And then, when you’re world famous, my claim to fame will be that I’ve known you since you were an embryo.”
“Dork.” Samson’s laughter rumbled quietly in his chest. Showing too much happiness in the wake of Cassie’s tragedy seemed inappropriate.
After an eternity had passed, Eli came out and sat down with them. “They had more than one ambulance come in so it’s busy in there. Her father is back there, too.”
“Her father?” they both asked in unison. “Was he in the fire, too?”
Eli shook his head. “Car accident. He was driving on Main Street and pulled out in front of a minivan. They swerved to miss him and were struck by another vehicle. He was hit as well by an oncoming truck. They’re taking care of Cassie and Joseph right now. I had a chance to talk to her briefly, and she wanted me to ask you to call her Mom and Tamara.”
Ivan nodded. “We did, and Tamara said she would let her Dad know.”
Samson rubbed his face with his hands. Good thing Ivan was thinking straight.
He took a deep breath, and Eli patted his shoulder. “You doing okay?”
“Yeah. Just relieved and shaken.”
“I can recall the feeling from personal experience, man. Your lady is in good hands. Do you need anything?”
Answers. Just answers.
* * * *
“I can’t believe it,” Cassie rasped through a sore throat as she looked at the charred wreckage that had been Divine Drip. There was nothing to salvage. “He could’ve killed someone. Either us or someone else.” Shock was giving way to anger, however.
Once she’d explained what had happened the night before to Hank, they’d gone online to review her security camera footage, which was uploaded automatically and available on a cloud storage site regardless of the fact that the cameras had eventually stopped working. The images were clear enough for her to identify the culprit as he ran out the back door. The sense of betrayal was profound. Her father, with his twisted logic, had enacted a solution to a non-existent problem.
At the hospital, Hank had detained her father in police custody, pending the investigation. That news had set her father off on a rant that was part tirade and part confession, which would take time to sort out. She couldn’t imagine he’d be any more cooperative with the sheriff’s department than he was with her or his family.
The sheriff’s department had sent an investigator to verify the actual cause of the fire. The insurance company also promised an investigation since they’d gotten wind from some helpful soul that Cassie had been heard talking about expanding the business and renovating the building. They had to look at the possibility the fire might’ve been set to facilitate a windfall, which would pay for the expansion. All the evidence supported her claim, and she was willing to wait for all the investigations to shake out because she needed time to recover.
When the storeroom had exploded into flames, the stainless steel ovens had created enough of a barrier to the blast that the office hadn’t immediately caught fire. Joseph had cleared them a path to the drive-thru station where he’d tried to break through the window before they’d both been overcome by the smoke. Joseph had protected her from the fire with his own body. He’d suffered burns. The thought made her irritated eyes tear up and sting. The memory of the heat and the horrible, thick smoke, and the terror she’d felt as they’d been overcome would give her nightmares and flashbacks for months to come, she knew, but the betrayal was even more painful.