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I ignored it, launching myself at him. I clung to him, burying my head in his shoulder and neck. “I don’t care about the computer. I care about you. If something had happened to you in there—” Shuddering, I just held him tighter.

“Lee Mckenna.” A voice spoke from behind us.

He tensed in my arms, going rock solid. “Fuck. Are you serious?”

That same voice spoke, authoritative, a little condescending, and a whole lot smug, “Normally we wouldn’t detain someone right away, but considering the circumstances that this is now the third fire we can place you at and we’re not counting the call to your home last weekend, I’d like you to come with us to the police station.”

“What?” I started to pull back, outraged.

One of Lee’s arms was yanked from me. There was a police officer beside us, a pair of handcuffs ready.

“Hey.” Lee hugged me tighter to him, speaking quickly into my ear. “You need to call Cassian. He’ll know to call my lawyer.”

“No.” This wasn’t right, but his other arm was pulled back and he was now handcuffed. The police officer walked him to his car, helping him get into the back.

The paramedic was still beside me, but she moved in, starting to ask me questions. What happened? How did I feel? Could I breathe okay? Could I sit down so she could grab a set of vitals from me?

I stood throughout it all, staring at Lee in the back seat of that squad car.

He mouthed to me, “Call Cassian.”

I nodded, but it was the look in his eyes. Resignation. Exhaustion. But no surprise.

He had expected this.

21

Cassian texted that he couldn’t get to me because of the fire trucks and police cars so after being cleared by the paramedic, I went in search for him. Noah and Benji were gone. More neighbors came out to check on my grandparents, but no one approached me. I saw my grandfather waving his hand my way and a few of the neighbors got nervous looks on their faces before hurriedly leaving. I was figuring those were the ones with my stuff, but I was tired. Defeated.

I left without saying anything more. There didn’t seem to be a reason.

Cassian saw me before I saw him and pulled farther up. Putting it in park, he raced around the side of his truck and caught me in his arms. “Holy shit. What happened? Are you okay? Lee just texted to get here now, and he dropped a pin. Where is he?”

I pulled away enough to lift my head. “He was arrested.”

“What?”

“Or detained. He’s at the police station. He said you’d need to call his lawyer.”

He made a grumbling sound, already pulling his phone out as I began to head for his car.

I got in the passenger side.

Cassian got in on the driver’s side, and after he started it up, the call synced with his radio.

A male voice spoke from the other end, “Mr. Ripp, I am severely hoping you are not calling on behalf of my nephew and godson.”

Nephew? Godson? My eyebrows went up.

Cassian winced at me. “Uh. Yeah, Mr. Mckenna.”

“It’s Phillip at this point, Cassian. What station?”

Cassian told him as we were heading there. I introduced myself and explained what happened. There was a moment of silence at the end of my story, which I understood as I heard myself explaining it to him without the ghostly parts. A spontaneous fire that burst in a kitchen the same day I found out I’d been kicked out of my grandparents’ house.

“Okay. I believe I got everything. I will see you there. I’m making calls already on my way.”

“Thanks, Mr. Mckenna.”