Burning For Claire (The O'Connell Family Book 2) (11 page)

I was at my breaking point. Was there anything else that could go wrong? I thought. The doctor just came out to tell us that my brother was in a coma. I just absorbed the words, trying to understand that he might not make it. When my father rushed us out of the house I knew it was bad. At first I thought it was Travis, but he said it was Rick. My big, strong, amazing brother had been gunned down. When I saw Travis, I rushed into his arms. The tears were steadily pouring as Travis held me throughout the six hours of waiting.

Sam was with us even though she’d been grazed by a bullet. They patched up her in the ambulance, but she didn’t really even notice what happened to her. All Sam’s thoughts were in the OR with Rick.

Travis left me for a moment to hug Sam. She cried into his chest, and I surprisingly wasn’t jealous. Her heart belonged to my brother, and Travis’s belonged to me. Hell, we were supposed to be sisters. We’re going to be sisters, I had to believe that. I needed my brother to make it.

“Baby, I have to make some calls. Can you hang in here by yourself for a few?” Travis asked gently, looking at me like I was going to fall apart at any moment. If he wasn’t here, I really might have crumbled.

“I’m not by myself,” I mentioned.

“I know, but I’m worried about you,” he said sincerely.

“I know, and I love you for it, but I also know you have to work to find these bastards,” I growled as I tried to control my anger and pain.

“He’s going to pull through. Think like that for me, please. I love you, Claire.”

He walked away after he gave me a peck on my lips. I knew he didn’t want to leave me just in case something happened, but I wanted him to find them and make them pay. I wanted him to get those bastards.

My brother was lying in a coma, fighting for his life. He may not make it and they needed to pay for it. My uncle John was ready to get his hands dirty, and I think my whole family wanted to join him. Ethan was pacing, hurting like all of us, but he was looking like a really pissed off caged lion. Angry men are dangerous ones.

“Ethan, calm down,” I whispered as I put my hand on his shoulder. 

“Claire, I can’t calm down. Some bastards tried to kill my brother.”

“He’s my brother too. I don’t want you to go all ape-shit on these people and get in trouble or even worse killed.”

“Baby sis, I’m not going to do anything like that. I’ll leave that to uncle. I just want to smash something. This is nuts.” I knew what he was feeling. We were all feeling the same thing.

“I know. I want him to be his overbearing, bossy self again,” I sobbed.

“Me too, but there is nothing we can do here. Sam isn’t going anywhere, but they aren’t going to let all of us live in the waiting room. Are you ready to head back to the house?” Ethan asked as he wrapped me up in a hug.

“I’m just waiting for Travis to come back, and then we can go back to the house,” I said as he loosened his hug a little.

“He means a lot to you, doesn’t he?” Ethan asked sincerely.

I smiled up at my brother and said, “Yes, he does. Since the first time I’d seen him. You have no idea how I wanted to pull Sam’s hair out when I thought they were together.” He started laughing at me. “Don’t laugh. That shit isn’t funny, but Travis told me of their relationship from the start was nothing but a brother-sister love.”

“Here he comes.” Ethan looked up over my head. I turned around and saw my Travis walking towards me looking so strong and tough.

“Baby, how you doing?” Travis whispered as he took me in his arms and kissed me softly.

“I’m as good as I can be. You’ve got blood on your clothes.” I just noticed the dried stains and knew it was probably Rick’s. My heart felt the pain all over again, and I started to cry.

“I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t have a chance to change. I only had the clothes from the bag I packed before they blew up my apartment. Mel ordered me some clothes and had them delivered to your parents’ house. They should be there already. I’ll change as soon as I can. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“It’s not your fault. You did what you could to stop what was happening. I just know it’s my brother’s blood on you. I want him to be okay.”

“He will, Claire. He’s a stubborn prick. He’ll be fine.”

“I hope,” I sobbed.

“Are you ready to go back to the house?” Travis asked.

“Yes, Ethan’s going to drive us back.”

“Good. I need a shower. Then I’m going to hold you until you fall asleep.”

He kept his promise. He took me home and held me all night long.

It had been four days since the attack on Rick and Sam. It seemed that the group who had shot Rick and Sam had been found in their homeland and had been dealt with. I didn’t ask questions about what happened to them or who did it because frankly I didn’t want to get involved.

I called John for some information as I poured myself some coffee.

“John, I don’t want to know anything other than if those fuckers tried to kill my Claire.” All I needed to know was if it they had been involved in the attack on Claire.

“They denied the arson. They said they would have rather stolen her for violation than blow her up, but they didn’t know about her. It has to be your initial suspects.”

“Are you sure?” I didn’t want it to be true because that meant Claire still had enemies out there that knew she was alive.

“Trust me. I made sure they had nothing to do with it,” he replied confidently.

“Thanks,” I said. I hung up the phone, and I was just sipping a cup of coffee when Samantha entered the kitchen.

“Morning, Sam,” I said. I didn’t like that she was still mad at me. She didn’t leave the hospital until last night, and she refused to talk to me when she got back.

“Morning, Bra…Travis,” she muttered, giving me a subtle glare.

“Samantha, we need to talk about this. I can’t stand the fact that you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you. I’m not pleased with you at all, but I don’t hate you. I just wish you would have told me before,” she hissed.

“I wanted to. I really did, but I couldn’t. After the first day we met I knew that you were special. When you came to live with me I felt like we were family, which meant I needed to protect you even more.”

She shed the anger, but the pain was still there when she asked, “Were you ever planning to tell me?”

“Yes. You were turning eighteen and that was when I was going to take you away until we captured them, but Rick did that for me. By the way happy belated birthday.”

“Thanks. Rick made it really special.” She started to tear up again, but she regained her composure. “I’m sorry that you lost everything in the fire.”

“Sweetheart, it was no big deal. It was federal money.”

“I forget you had a life back in Texas. Unless that’s a lie too?” she queried 

“No, it’s not. I was given the assignment because I’d been put on suspension for destroying city property while chasing a suspected murderer and kidnapper.”

“So you were punished and given this assignment?”

“No. It was still my choice to take it. I wasn’t losing anything by going undercover.” I tried to let her know that she was more than just a lousy assignment.

“But what about your family?” she challenged.

“You’ve heard me talking to my family. I would see my sister, Melanie a lot.”

“True, and I finally got to meet her family too. I always thought there was some reason why I never saw the kids.”

“Yes, because they call me ‘Uncle Travis,’” I chuckled.

“I feel like a fool,” she sighed.

“You’re not a fool. Don’t let the fact that I lied to you for so long make you doubt yourself. If anyone is a fool—it’s me. I should have told you sooner, but I was afraid you’d run, and I needed to have you close.”

“Good Morning, Sam, Travis,” Claire said as she walked into the kitchen and right up to me, kissing me right on the lips.

I grinned and turned to Sam. “See, Sam, if it wasn’t for you, I’d never have met Claire.”

“Yes. Thank you, Sammy. I have my man because of you,” Claire added as she gave me a squeeze.

“Yes, but Rick isn’t here because of me,” she whimpered.

Claire moved from me and put an arm around Sam, and said, “He’ll be here soon bossing you around again.”

“I hope so,” Sam said with a slight smile.

Claire pinched Sam’s waist before she let her have it. “You need to eat, girl. I don’t think you’ve eaten in days. It’s not healthy.”

“I know, Claire. I just can’t stop thinking of Rick.”

“Do you think he’d let you get away with it?” my pixie asked.

“Once he wakes up and finds out that you’ve been starving yourself, he’s going to lose his mind and snap on your ass,” I added.

“Fine, I’ll eat, but I really can’t eat much.”

I handed her an apple and said, “Start with this. A little at a time, and you’ll be okay.”

I turned to Claire and with one arm around her waist asked, “Babe, have you been eating?”

“Actually, I need to eat too. I’m really hungry.” She pulled away and walked to the fridge. “I have a taste for some cereal this morning. Do either of you want any?”

“No.” We both responded.

I looked at Claire and smiled. “Babe, I have to go into the office. So you need to stay here, protected by the guards.”

“I thought the danger was over,” Sam asked.

“Not for Claire. I forgot that you weren’t here when it happened, but Claire’s salon was bombed.” She wasn’t really here since she’s been back from Greece. She wasn’t up to speed on everything.

“What?! So there’s more crazies out there?” she replied.

I could see her anxiety start to build, so I tried to calm her. “Yes, but we have a lead, and that’s what Eli and I are working on right now. So you girls need to stay close to the house or with the security.”

“Are you going to be gone all day?” Claire whined. I loved that she was going to miss me because I was going to miss the hell out of her.

“I don’t know, sweetheart. I really have to nail these people first.”

“Okay,” she mumbled. I knew she was frustrated. Since the attack there was no sign of Jane and Rita. They fled the moment they realized she survived. Eli took his family back home the day after the Turks who shot Rick and Sam were killed because the threat for them had passed.

“Just be careful and come home as soon as you can.” I loved it when she got all pouty. She really hated when I left her. Our relationship was still developing, but I couldn’t get enough of her and her need for me.

“I’m going to miss you too, baby,” I answered before kissing her passionately.

I left the house reluctantly. I’d rather have spent the day with Claire, but I needed to make our future safe. I took one of Richard’s rides to the police station just in case there was a chance that there was still someone looking for me. It was a nice, fancy ass ride, but nothing I wanted to have back home. On the family ranch, I needed a truck because of all the dusty roads.

I pulled up to the station, and I looked at the ground that had since been cleaned and prayed that Rick survived.

“Hey, Williams, you made it,” the lead cop on Claire’s case, Detective Anderson said.

“Yeah. Did we get the warrant?” I asked.

“No, but we got something better,” he smiled.

“What?”

His grin increased before he finally responded, “The landlord’s consent. Apparently they’d been behind on their rent for two months, and so they were evicted the morning of the fire.”

“Great, it adds to their motive. So what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” I shouted as I walked back out to the car.

The two investigators, Eli and I followed by the forensic team drove to their apartment five miles from the salon. It was a nice building and a little high-end for women who didn’t have a large income.

“Isn’t this place a little too rich for their blood?” Eli said.

“Apparently…that’s why they were evicted,” I responded.

The landlord let us before returning to his office. The apartment was almost empty. There wasn’t anything really in the apartment besides some furniture. We scanned room to room, but all the electronics were gone. I hoped to find something to tie these broads to the arson. I knew it had to be them. No one else had access to the salon like they did.

The forensic team started to get to work.

“Damn, Eli. It’s seems they cleared out.”

“Let’s hope that they left something here for us to find,” the younger investigator, Kline said.

“I want to find them.” I was ready to tear them apart for all this.

Eli chimed in, “I know you do. Claire won’t be safe until you do.”

“Sirs,” one of forensic investigators called to us.

“Yes,” I answered.

“I think we may have found what you were looking for. It was in the trash they didn’t empty. There were two crumbled receipts in it. There was one for a gas can and one for a gas purchase.”

“Let me see.” I took the bagged receipts from him, and sure enough, the purchases were made at two-thirty in the morning, the day of the fire.

“Did you get pictures of this and the can?” Anderson asked.

“Yes, we did.”

“Great, let’s see if we can find anything else.”

We searched the apartment, but couldn’t find anything else. After another hour, we called it a day at the apartment. Once we had the warrants we could search their bank statements and track their credit cards.

Eli and I left the team at their office and grabbed some lunch. We were almost done when his phone rang. It was my sister and of course they were doing their usual “I love you” thing, making me want to barf up my meal.

I heard him say, “Oh no. He isn’t going to like that. Yeah I’ll tell him.”

“What gives?”

“You’re parents and siblings are at my house,” he said with annoyance written all over his face. 

“What?!” I barked.

“Once they found out about Claire they couldn’t wait to come. Since you’re no longer undercover, they don’t have to worry about revealing your identity.”

I came from a large loving family. We had a crowded house: three boys and two girls plus our parents. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas when they came up to see Mel and the kids.

“Great. Well, let’s get down to the gas station and see if they got the footage we asked for ready and loaded for our viewing pleasure.”

“Sure thing, Travis. Are you going to introduce them to the Claire?” my brother-in-law asked the question that I knew he was anxious for an answer to.

“I have no choice. They don’t like the O’Connell family after what happened before, but I’m not letting them stop me from marrying Claire. So I might as well get the meet and greet over with.”

We finished our food and got down to the gas station on Washington Street. The owner left us the tapes then went back to work. We played the queued video. About one minute in there it was, all the evidence we needed. Jane was pumping the gas into the canister as a man I’d never seen before walked back to the car.

He was a shorter guy, about five foot nine, skinny with dark hair, and really needed a shave. I could see that there was another female in the car. It was more than likely Rita.

“There they are, and we got a great view of the plates!” Eli cheered.

I grabbed my cell and called the station to run the tags. They came up with the name of an Everett Meyer. I didn’t know who he was, but he was going to get his ass buried for trying to kill my woman.

Two hours after the request, the Chicago PD had a warrant in hand and showed up at his apartment in Chicago and arrested all three suspects. They would hold them until we were ready to pick them up.