The Maverick - By Jan Hudson Page 0,65
perimeter of the barricade. “Cass!” Terror clawed at his insides. “Cass!”
At last he saw four women standing beside a sawhorse. One wore rubber boots and a blanket.
“Cass!”
She turned.
He ran toward her, grabbed her and held her tight. He held her and swung her around and kissed her face all over. “I’ve never been so scared in all my life.”
She struggled in his arms. “Let me go! Dammit! Let me go.”
He set her down, but held her at arm’s length and scanned her from head to toe. “Thank God you’re okay. You are, aren’t you?”
“I’m okay, but Chili Witches isn’t. It’s gone. Nothing but ashes will be left. Are you happy now?”
Griff felt the blood drain from his face. “You can’t believe I had anything to do with this! Cass, I swear by all that’s holy, I would never do anything to hurt or endanger you. You have to believe me.”
“Go away, Griff. Just go away. I want to be with my family now.”
He didn’t want to go. He wanted to hold her in his arms and wash the soot from her face. But in the end he left. She was safe. That’s what was important now.
BY EARLY MORNING, Chili Witches and Hooks were blackened skeletons of one-hundred-and-twenty-year-old jagged, broken bones and heaps of smoldering ashes. Sid and Foster stood beside their little group, looking dazed and lost. Ben, who’d heard about the fire on the early news, had his arm wrapped around Sunny. Cass stood between her mom and aunt, squeezing their hands.
“I suppose it’s over,” Gloria said. “There’s nothing we can do here. Let’s go home and get some rest.”
“I agree,” Min said. “I’m exhausted. Did all our insurance papers burn?”
“No,” Sunny said. “I have them in a lockbox at my house. Cass, come home with me. I have an extra bedroom and clothes you can wear.”
Cass nodded, then turned to the owners of Hooks. She hugged Sid and Foster. “Guys, I’m so sorry about this. What can we do to help?”
“There’s nothing you can do,” Sid said.
“We’re fully covered by insurance,” Foster added, “so we can take our time about deciding our next step.”
“Does someone need to stay and talk to the authorities?” Cass asked.
“I’ll handle things,” Ben said. “All of you go on home. You look like you’re about to drop.”
Slowly they hugged and dispersed. Cass followed Sunny home and took her meager pile of belongings inside with her.
CASS STOOD IN THE SHOWER for the longest time, soaping off the soot and washing the smell from her hair. The water seemed to help. By the time she was finished, Sunny had left a nightshirt and clothes for her. There was no point in trying to sleep, Cass was too agitated. She felt like crap, and to top things off, she’d started her period. Thank God. To have been pregnant would have been the last straw.
Opting for yoga pants and a tee, she dressed and padded into the kitchen in search of coffee.
“Coffee’s dripping,” Sunny said. “I didn’t figure you could sleep.”
“Not on your life. My brain’s like a hornet’s nest. Have you ever felt like a black cloud was hovering over you and following you wherever you went?”
“Oh, yeah.” Sunny poured two mugs and added sugar and cream.
They took their coffee into the living room and curled up on the couch.
“Think Mom and Aunt Min will want to rebuild?” Cass asked.
“I don’t know. Things wouldn’t be the same.”
“Nope. Sunny, this breaks my heart. A part of history burned this morning. The town’s history, our family’s history. I already feel like a big chunk of me is missing.”
Sunny only nodded. They felt the same way. “You don’t think Griff had anything to do with the fire, do you?”
“Not really. No. I can’t imagine he would sanction such a thing. If Hank hadn’t awakened me, I could be dead. The security alarm and the smoke alarm were going off like crazy, and the noise didn’t faze me.”
Sunny shuddered. “I don’t like to think about it.”
“Me either.” She took another swallow of coffee. “Thankfully, I saved my purse, along with my checkbook and credit cards. I need everything from the skin out. I don’t own a hair drier or a toothbrush or shoes. Nothing. I can’t even recharge my phone.”
“Don’t you have a charger in your car?”
“I do, now that you’ve reminded me, but I don’t want to have to ride around to juice up my battery. I need to make a list of essentials. Help me. It’ll keep our