His mind spun. Did they have two people to deal with? Were they connected? Or did Clark and Sally have different interests?
He needed fewer questions and more answers.
He pounded on the steering wheel in frustration as the car in front of him stopped for a red light. Why hadn't he realized he'd seen the Corvette twenty years ago? Why had he blocked it out of his mind? He'd known all along who burned down the house, who killed Stacy, and he couldn't see it. That knowledge poured more guilt on the already huge pile that he carried.
"
It's in the light
." He heard the voice again, but this time it sounded like his subconscious and not like Stacy.
His eight-year-old brain had locked away the pain and everything that went with it. But he knew the truth now. He floored the van with gas as the light changed.
Five more minutes, he told himself. That's all he needed. He picked up his phone and called Jessica again. Still no answer. He tried his parents' house. No answer there either. Where the hell was everyone?
"Hang on Jessica," he muttered. "I'm coming."
* * *
Jessica fought her way back to consciousness. Her head throbbed with intense pain, and her chest felt incredibly tight. She tried to breathe, but she couldn't suck in any air. Coughing, she forced her eyes open. The attic was dark now, the only light coming through the one small window. The air was thick, smoky…
Fire!
The realization propelled her to her feet. Clark had said he was going to burn the whole house down this time. How long had she been unconscious? Judging by the amount of smoke—too long!
She moved toward the door, but she couldn't release the steps. Clark must have locked the door from below. She jumped up and down, hoping to jog something loose. She'd rather fall through the floor then suffocate or burn to death in this attic.
A wave of fear ran through her with that thought. She looked around the attic for something she could use to break the glass window. Maybe she could get enough air in to keep her alive until help came.
Someone would see the smoke and call the fire department. Sally and her husband were right next door.
But would Sally rush to her aid? Or did she also want to see the house burn down along with everything and everyone in it? Would she let someone die to protect her blackmail?
Jessica grabbed an old umbrella and swung it at the window. The umbrella broke but the window remained intact.
Her eyes were running now, and she was having trouble breathing. Was this how Stacy had felt? Her heart went out to the little girl who hadn't made it out of this house. She didn't want the same thing to happen to her.
Her mind turned to Sean. He'd be destroyed if she died in the fire. He might not love her the way she loved him, but he cared about her, and for her to die like Stacy…she didn't know how he would handle it.
She wished now that she'd told him she'd loved him. She wished she'd called Kyle before he went to school and told him she loved him, too. But it was too late for any of that.
Coughing, she sank to the floor, and prayed that help would come in time.
* * *
Sean turned the last corner and raced down the street. As he pulled up in front of the house, he saw the smoke, and the flames. Every bad feeling he'd had was coming true. It was just like the last time.
No, it wasn't!
Because he wasn't going to stand by and do nothing.
Jumping out of the car, he ran toward the house, ignoring the fear rushing through his body. The front door was locked. He picked up a brick and tossed it through the living room window. The glass shattered, and he hauled himself inside, not caring about the shards of glass that cut his arms and clothes. He tumbled into the living room and scrambled to his feet. As he ran toward the stairs, he barreled into a man coming down.
The older man stumbled back against the wall, a gasoline can in his hand, and a wild, crazy light in his eyes. Clark had gone over the edge. Sean could see the trail of gas in the hallway, and there was smoke rushing down from the upstairs. Clark must have started the fire on the second floor.
"Where's Jessica?" he demanded.
Clark didn't reply. He threw the gas can at him and pulled out a book of matches.
Sean dodged the can. Then he rushed forward and tackled Clark to the ground.
The older man fought back with ferocity.
"Not going to lose everything now," Clark ground out, swinging his fist at Sean.
The blow barely grazed his jaw. He hadn't grown up with four brothers without learning how to dodge a punch.
Now it was his turn. He slugged Clark in the face, and blood spurted from Clark's nose as he howled in pain.
Sean hit him again. While Clark was trying to recover, Sean opened the front door, grabbed Clark and threw him outside as sirens blazed in the distance.
Then he ran up the stairs. The second floor was engulfed in flames. He glanced quickly in Jessica's room but didn't see anyone. The attic stairs were up, which told him exactly what he needed to know. The switch didn't work, so he ran into Kyle's room, grabbed a chair and used it to release the latch. The trap door opened, and he pulled down the stairs.
"Jessica," he yelled, racing up the steps.
There was no answer.
He found her lying in a crumpled heap on the attic floor. She was barely breathing. He gathered her into his arms and ran back down the stairs.
She stirred. "Sean?"
"You're okay," he said, relieved to hear her voice, to see her eyes open.
But when he saw the wall of flames in front of him, he wasn't sure they were going to be okay at all. The only way out was directly in front of them. He tightened his arms around Jessica and said, "Close your eyes and hang on."
Then he ran through the flames, feeling the heat licking at his arms and the back of his neck.
Had Stacy run through fire just like this? Had she also thought she could outrun the fire?
He forced her image out of his mind.
He made it down the hall, and the stairs appeared in front of him. As he hit the first step, he saw firefighters coming through the door. The first man to reach him was his brother, Burke.
Burke looked at him in shock, then said, "Give her to me."
He shook his head. He wasn't letting go of Jessica until she was safely out of the house.
He ran down the stairs, dodging more firefighters on their way in. When he got outside, he raced to the edge of the grass and then set Jessica down, relieved to see no sparks in her hair or clothes, no burns on her beautiful face. She was breathing, but she had slipped into unconsciousness again.
"Move aside, sir," a paramedic said to him.
He didn't want to leave her, but she needed help. He got up and stood back.
Burke came to his side, putting his hand on his arm. "She's going to be okay, Sean."
"She has to be."
"Your face is bleeding."
He wiped blood from his nose and whirled around, suddenly realizing that they were missing a body. "Where is he? Where's Clark?"
"If you're talking about an older man who was beaten into unconsciousness, he's over there," Burke said, tipping his head toward the far side of the yard where a man on a stretcher was being loaded into an ambulance.
He started forward, but Burke held him back. "Let him go. Let the police handle it," he ordered.
"He set the house on fire. He tried to murder Jessica, the same way he killed Robert and Stacy."
Surprise flashed through his brother's eyes. "It was murder?"
"I should have left him inside. I should have let him die. Why the hell did I save his life?"
"Because you're not a murderer," Burke said. "And this time he didn't kill anyone." He tipped his head toward Jessica, who was sitting up now, an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth.
Sean dropped to the ground, putting his arms around Jessica. He needed to feel her body next to his, to really believe that she was going to be all right.
After a moment, she pulled back slightly and lifted the mask. "Thanks for saving me. I knew you would."
His jaw tightened, and his heart filled with emotion. She didn't know how close he'd come to not getting there in time.
"Clark killed Robert," she said. "He set the fire."
He nodded. "I know. Don't talk now. Just breathe."
"We can't let him get away with it."
"We won't. He's on his way to the hospital and then to jail. I'll make sure of that. Put the mask back on." He tried to do it for her, but she grabbed his arm.
"Wait." She gazed into his eyes. "When I thought I was going to die, I was really sorry that I never told you I loved you. I do love you. You don't have to say it back. You don't have to do anything about it. I just need you to know."
"I love you, too," he said, the words coming from deep in his heart. "Now put the damn mask back on."
She smiled and did as she was told. As he got to his feet, he saw Emma running down the street. "I couldn't believe it when I heard there was a fire here again," she said when she reached them. "Are you all right, Jessica?"
Jessica nodded, her hand dropping from the mask at Sean's warning look.
"She's going to be fine," he told Emma. "It was Clark Hamilton who set both fires, this one, and the last one. It's a long story, but I need the police to arrest him. I don't want him getting out of the hospital and disappearing."
"Don't worry. I'll take care of that. It would be nice if you had some proof though."
Jessica pulled her mask down. "I found papers in the attic. I gave them to Clark."
"Then he still has them, or they're in the house," Sean said with a sinking feeling, realizing their proof might be going up in smoke again. "Dammit."
"No way," Emma said. "Clark would have put the papers somewhere safe before he started the fire."
"His car," Sean said, looking around the street. The Corvette was at Clark's office but one of the other cars on the street had to be his. There was an SUV two doors down and a black Mercedes at the end of the block. "The Mercedes," he said. "I bet that's his car."
Emma put a hand on his arm, stopping him from taking off. "I will find his car. I will talk to the police, and I'll make sure that his office and his home are secured. Even without proof of the first fire, we've got him on this one. He's not getting away with this, Sean."
He looked into the determined blue eyes of his sister and knew he could believe her. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me. I never should have suggested you and Jessica go talk to him," she said, guilt in her eyes.
He immediately shook his head. "No, don’t go there. We've all had far too many regrets where this damn house is concerned. I asked you to help. You had no way of knowing what we were getting into."
"I should have guessed. Whenever there's a question of suicide, there's usually a question of murder. I'm going to talk to the police."
As Emma left, the paramedic came back to Jessica and said, "We'd like to take you to the hospital and get you checked out."
"I don’t need the hospital," Jessica protested.
"She's going," he told the medic. "You're going," he repeated, looking into her eyes.
"Kyle—"
"I'll call Nicole. She'll take care of Kyle."
"I thought I was going to leave him without a mother." Tears blurred her eyes.
He took her hand and pulled her to her feet. "Kyle is going to be fine, and so are you. I'll meet you at the hospital." He pulled the mask back over her face and said to the medic, "Take care of her. She's very important to me."
* * *
"She's very important to me."
Sean's words rang through Jessica's head on the way to the hospital, as she got thoroughly checked out and spent a good hour breathing in some really fine oxygen.
She'd told him that she loved him, and he'd said he loved her, too. It was amazing and wonderful, but as time passed, and her heart settled down to its normal beat, she wondered if they hadn't got caught up in the moment. Not that she hadn't meant what she'd said, because she had. She loved him with every ounce of her being. And if he even loved her a tenth as much, she would be okay with that.
Finally, the doctors released her, and when the nurse wheeled her into the waiting room, she almost started crying. The room was filled with Callaways—Sean's parents, his grandparents, Emma and Max, Aiden, Drew and Ria and seventeen-year-old Megan, Shayla and Colton. She couldn't believe so many people cared enough about her to come to the hospital. Although, it was probably Sean they cared about most.
Sean crossed the room and gave her a loving smile. "It's about time."
"You're the one who insisted I get a checkup. By the way, I'm fine."
"And I am really happy to hear that. I'm taking you home."
She suddenly realized she didn't know where that was anymore.
"My home," Sean said quietly. "Actually, my parents are insisting that you come to their house, so they can feed you and watch over you and generally drive you crazy."
She gave him a watery smile. "That sounds good."
He smiled back at her. "Tell me if you feel the same way in an hour."
* * *
Jessica did feel the same way in an hour. After settling her in on the living room couch in Jack and Lynda's house, the family had done everything they could to make her comfortable. They'd brought her a blanket, fed her an incredible dinner, made sure her tea never went cold, and were now offering her freshly baked cookies out of the oven. As she looked around the room, at all the people who'd taken her into their family, she felt incredibly blessed.
She turned to Sean, who hadn't left her side. "Your family is wonderful."
"They're your family, too," he said.
She didn't know if he meant because of Kyle or because of him, but she didn't really care.
"I just got off the phone with Nicole," Emma said, entering the room with Max at her side. "She wanted to rush over here, and make sure you're all right, but I told her that you wanted her to stay with Kyle. She promised to keep everything perfectly normal for him until you know what you want to tell him tomorrow."