Set the Night on Fire (15 page)

She had a
lot
of catching up to do. And hardly any time to do it in.

A
fter Brad’s malicious hint
, Evie knew he was planning something for the coalition meeting. But still, it came as a shock when she walked into the back room of Don Pedro’s, their traditional meeting place, and saw everyone’s sober faces. Even though she was ten minutes early, judging by the empty glasses littering the table, everyone else had been there for some time.

The Jupiter Point Business Coalition, which had just elected her president, was meeting behind her back.

She scanned the faces of the other business owners, but no one met her eyes. Mrs. Murphy looked as if she might burst into tears.

Evie cleared her throat. For the second time that day, she felt as if her voice had been stolen from her. “Why are you all meeting without me? I’m the president.”

Jack Drummond, the former president, answered. “Evie, we didn’t want things to pan out this way. None of us wanted it.”

Belladonna, the owner of Written in the Stars Tarot and Fortune-Telling, swept to her feet and enveloped Evie in a sandalwood-scented hug. “Awful situation, sweet-pea. But we may have stumbled upon the perfect solution for everyone.”

“This way, you don’t have to torment yourself,” said Benito, owner of the Dream Getaway. “We think it’s the best decision for everyone.”

Evie extracted herself from Belladonna’s smothering embrace. “
What
decision?”

Mrs. Murphy bustled to her feet and shoved Belladonna. She took Evie’s hands in hers. “Honey, we want you to take a temporary leave of absence to take care of your mother.”

Evie’s jaw fell open. They wanted to use her mother as a smokescreen? She pulled her hands free and took a step back.

Belladonna continued. “Jack has volunteered to take over until you’re ready to come back. It’s a perfect plan, sweet-pea. You can save face. You don’t have to endorse the boy who broke your heart.” Belladonna cupped Evie’s face in her hands, which would have been a nice gesture except she wore rings that dug into Evie’s skin. “The coalition is no longer caught in a controversy. And Brad White finally gets his endorsement. Best of all, your mother will get a little extra attention from her favorite daughter. Your family will no longer be in the spotlight. I understand that stress is very bad for her.”

Evie shoved aside her automatic sense of guilt as she examined the faces around the table. Was someone in this group doing Brad’s bidding? Where had this idea come from?

Belladonna continued. “It’s a win-win-win-win-win…” She threw up her hands, rings catching the light from the chili pepper twinkle lights. “I can’t even count the wins.”

“Whose idea was this?” Evie was shocked that her voice sounded as calm as it did. No one answered. She turned to the miserable-looking bookstore owner. Mrs. Murphy never kept a secret in her life. “Mrs. Murphy?”

She blinked rapidly, clearly at war with herself. “It was Brad’s,” she blurted.

Brad’s idea. Of course it was.

“And I guarantee it’s only temporary. We want you back as soon as possible, believe me.” Jack directed his booming laugh at the circle of anxious faces. “I know what a pain in the rear these jokers are. We all think you’ve been doing an excellent job, Evie. This has nothing to do with you personally.”

Evie put a hand to her forehead, trying to contain her whirling thoughts and emotions. She’d come here ready to announce her change of heart. She’d been ready and willing to endorse Brad in order to stop him from smearing Sean. But now it didn’t even matter. The choice had been taken away from her.

“If you’re going to allow Brad White manipulate you like this, I can’t be part of it.” She turned on her heel and stalked toward the exit.

“Evie! Please don’t take this the wrong way,” Jack called after her. “We’re on your side.”

“Really?” She spun around and planted her hands on her hips. “Explain to me how you’re on my side?”

“Well, you’re a McGraw.” He said it as if that explained everything.

“So? I don’t see what you’re getting at.”

“Your family is respected and loved around here, you know that. But the McGraws are well-known for not courting controversy.”

Evie tried to calm her racing heart and the fury that kept coming in waves. “Just so I have this straight.” She cleared her throat and tried to even out her tone, like a good little McGraw. “Because you love the McGraw family, you are temporarily displacing me as president without even consulting me. Why is that? Did you think I couldn’t handle it?”

The business owners exchanged glances ranging from worried to alarmed. “Why, sweet-pea, that’s how Brad suggested we handle it. He said your feelings are easily wounded. He pointed to the scene at the Seaview Inn the other night. We didn’t want to upset you.” Belladonna clasped her hands at her chest in a prayer motion, as if begging Evie to understand.

Evie did understand. She understood perfectly well. She’d been outmaneuvered by Brad. He’d been running circles around her for the past thirteen years, in fact. This wasn’t the coalition’s fault. This was
her
fault because she’d stood by, silent and oblivious, while he did so.

“I resign,” she announced. “Effective immediately.”

“No, Evie, that’s not necessary.“ Jack Drummond’s voice rose above the protests from the rest of the group. Several business owners jumped to their feet. She held up a hand to stop them from coming closer.

“I know you all mean well, or at least I assume you do. But there’s no way I can fulfill the duties of president if you don’t think I can handle whatever challenges arise.”

“But Evie,” Mrs. Murphy clung to her hand, “you
weren’t
handling it. We had to do something.”

Evie opened her mouth—then closed it again. Mrs. Murphy was right. She hadn’t been tending to the situation. Instead, she’d been playing nice while Brad stabbed her right in the back.

“You’re right. All of you. Until I can do the job properly, I resign.”

“
B
ro
, the time has come,” Josh announced. Wearing a loose leather jacket and his favorite bear-tooth thong pendant, he tossed the buggie keys in the air, then caught the key ring on his index finger. “We’re going to Barstow’s Brews and we’re getting shitfaced.”

“Can’t. I have to get this email off to Boise.” The National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho was responsible for sending fire crews where they were needed. With the fire season coming up fast, they’d been checking on his progress.

“No.” Josh actually grabbed him by the upper arm and hauled him to his feet. “It’s nine o’clock on a fucking Friday night. Boise can wait. You know what else I’d like to know? Who the hell decided Boise, Idaho, ought to be the center of the wildfire universe? Have you ever been there?”

“No.” As he passed the corner of the desk, Sean snagged his phone, which he’d been checking about every ten minutes. The coalition meeting must have ended by now, but he still hadn’t heard anything from Evie. “Have you?”

“Hell no. Question is, has anyone? Is Boise a real place or more of a figure of speech, like ‘tarnation.’ That’s what my granny used to say. ‘Where in tarnation did I leave my glasses?’”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about half the time.”

“Half the time? You’re doing better than I am. I only know what I’m talking about ten percent of the time, on a good day. The rest is pretty much babble.”

“Good to know.”

In the parking lot, Sean blinked at the deep, nearly purple night sky. “Didn’t realize it was so late.”

“That’s what happens when you ignore the world.”

“I’m not ignoring, I’m just—” Sean sighed. Maybe he
was
ignoring the world. Between the burnover accusations, the crash reopening, and the constant bullshit of Brad White, the world wasn’t much fun right now. The news that the investigation into the Marcus crash had been reopened had just hit the papers. And his old boss at the Fighting Scorpions had called, warning him that this new federal investigator was hell bent on finding some kind of wrongdoing.

Why the fuck had he come back to Jupiter Point? For a town that prided itself on its peace and quiet, it had given him nothing but trouble so far.

They loaded into the pickup and Josh steered them off the base.

“Gotta warn you,” Sean told his friend, “I may not be the most popular person in Jupiter Point right now.”

“Yeah, I know.” Josh took a corner at about twice the speed limit. “That’s why I’m dragging you out tonight. The worst thing you can do is hide out at the base. You have to get out there. Mix it up.”

“I’m not hiding out. I’ve been working.”

“I know that, but to the town, it probably looks like you don’t want to show your face.” Josh shrugged. “Any good politician will tell you that you have to go brass balls with this sort of thing.”

“You’re talking like I did something wrong. I didn’t.”

“And it’s about time we corrected that.”

“Is that why you’re speeding? You think I haven’t spent enough time at the police station?” Sean gripped the strap above the window and hung on through another rubber-laying curve.

“Tip of the iceberg, Magneto. We’re just getting started.”

“If I end up married to another stripper, I’m suing.”

Josh just laughed and amped up their speed another notch. Dark pine trees and telephone poles whipped past, and Sean decided maybe he’d been working too hard. A beer wouldn’t kill him.

Walking into Barstow’s felt like stepping back into senior year in high school. The place felt more like home than Jupiter Point High ever did. It still had the same horseshoe-shaped bar with the brown vinyl bumper adorned with brass studs. The grooves in the floor’s wide oak planks were worn even deeper by thirteen years’ worth of feet. The dusty bottles of liquor behind the bar might even be the exact same ones from his last visit here. At Barstow’s, customers drank beer on tap and the occasional shot of rum or tequila. It wasn’t the kind of place where the glowing green Midori liqueur went very fast.

When Josh and Sean walked in, the buzz of conversation took a brief pause. Sean saw the bartender snap to attention. The bartenders at Barstow’s were always braced for trouble, which was wise. Sean had caused more than his share back in the old days.

Josh jumped into the temporary lull. “Howdy.” He gave a cowboy salute to the crowd. Since he’d actually grown up on a ranch down south, he could pull it off. “We heard this is the best place to drink away your troubles.”

“Come on in, hotshots,” someone called out to them. Sean couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be mocking or not.

As they passed through the crowd, Sean exchanged some low-fives with a few people he recognized, though couldn’t name. To his relief, he didn’t catch any nasty glances from anyone. Maybe they were too afraid to mess with him to his face. Maybe they didn’t care about the dirt Brad was spreading. Maybe they just wanted to have a drink. Maybe Josh had been right and Sean had been hiding out at the base.

Maybe it was time for a drink, and he didn’t usually say that. But if ever a man deserved to get a little buzzed, this was probably the time.

Josh ordered them both a beer and a tequila chaser. It went down so easy that Sean ordered the next round. Once they were nice and loosened up, they found themselves in a game of darts against members of the local fire department.

“See, here’s the thing,” one of the firemen kept drunkenly telling Sean as he put holes in the wall next to the dartboard. “We gotta work together. Fires don’t care what kind of firefighter you are, know what I mean? Forest fire comes, you call us. We need help, we call you. We’re all firefighters under here.” He pounded his chest, then wagged his finger at Sean. “And we gotta stick together against the cops, am I right?”

The firefighters roared and slapped Sean and Josh on the back. Sean and Josh grinned at each other and tossed back more shots. Nothing bonded a group of firefighters like ragging on the local police department. Considering that he’d spent an hour with Chief Becker feeling like a delinquent facing the school principal, Sean went with it.

After the game of darts, they played pool with a couple of nurses from the urgent care clinic. One of them flirted madly with Josh, but sadly, it was one of the males in the group. Always good-natured, Josh played along. The other nurse, a striking redhead in her forties, kept excusing herself to smoke, which Sean always found strange in a medical professional.

They ordered another round, and things started getting fuzzy. The firefighters joined the pool game and started telling Sean Marcus stories.

“Didn’t you run through here naked once?”

“Yeah, it was a dare,” the one called Rabbit chimed in. “You and Hunter dared each other. You did so much crazy shit. Remember when you raced down Constellation on pogo sticks?”

“Or when you rigged the water fountain at school so the water came out red?”

Josh doubled over with laughter. “Man, I wish I’d known you back then, Magneto.”

Sean just laughed and hid behind his beer. Yeah, he’d had some fun back then. But mostly he’d been releasing energy in whatever way he could.

The next time she went for a smoke, the redheaded nurse dragged him out back with her. “Just gotta tell you, we’re not getting married,” he warned her, slurring the words. “Bad track record on that.”

“Dream on, buddy. I got a twenty-year-old kid.”

“That’s cool. Really cool.”

She dragged on her cigarette, then launched into a long, confusing story about her daughter and the callous older man who had broken her heart. Sean tried to focus on it, but he was worried about her lit cigarette and the scrub grass behind Barstow’s.

“The most fucked-up part is that she volunteers at his office.” The nurse dropped the cigarette into the grass. Sean jumped on it and ground it out with his boot heel. “She doesn’t care what I say.”

“Kids. They never listen.” Sean knew from experience, since he never had.

“Well, the thing is, he has money. And he’s got the looks. He’s going places, for sure. Every time I see one of his bumper stickers, I want to rear end someone.”

Sean squinted at her. Bumper stickers? He started to ask her who the man was, but Josh pushed open the door just then and yanked him back inside.