The Fire Still Burns (6 page)

He refocused his gaze on them and Adam could feel himself shrink under the older man's heated glare.  “I want results and I want them yesterday.  And if you come across another fire you’d better call it in, don’t wait on us to see the smoke in the sky.”

“Yes'sir,” Adam mumbled as he turned for his truck, knowing Brynn would follow.  She wouldn't give up the chance to go off on him once they were away from the firefighters who’d arrived on the scene minutes after them.

“Explain yourself.”  Her order was low in voice, but strong in tone.  He could tell by the way she growled the words that she was royally pissed.  He didn't blame her.

“I will,” he promised.  “Just not here, not right now.” 

She huffed and he couldn't help but look at her, taking in the way the spots of color diffusing her cheeks matched the red highlights in her hair, the way her breasts rose and fell as she breathed hard and angry.

The urge to kiss her, which had swept over him by the Mulroney property, hit him again, slamming into him with the force of a hurricane wind.  What the hell was wrong with him?  She had already burned him once, and now she knew something that could ruin his whole family.  The last thing he should be worrying about was kissing her, despite the desperate yearning clawing its way through him as he gazed at her rose-hued lips.

He shook off the confusing sensation while he held the passenger door open for her, looking away while she got in the truck.  He couldn't let the fact that she looked innocent, had always looked innocent, cloud his judgment.  She fooled him once.  Shame on her.  If she fooled him twice…well, then that would just make him a great big idiot, wouldn't it?

~~~

Brynn fumed in silence, angrier at herself than at Adam.  She'd let him destroy evidence.

Evidence!

How could she begin to justify her actions?  Her job was to find the arsonist.  Letting evidence burn and not saying a word to the fire chief was not the way to run an arson investigation.

She’d let her personal feelings cloud her judgment and had gone along with Adam’s lie.  Her stupidity was laughable.  Adam wasn't there for her when she'd needed him, but it didn't stop her from going along with his story.  Why did she help him, knowing he'd turned his back on her when she'd needed him most?

“Enough stalling, Good.  Fess up.  My patience is wearing thin.”  She barked out the demand and clenched her hands into tight balled fists, her nails imprinting crescent marks along her palms.

Adam glanced her way, but didn't say a word.  He continued to steer the truck down the narrow rural lane, his facial expression grim and tight.

“Adam.”

“I know.  Just…wait.”

Maybe it was his tone, but she managed not to slug him.  A part of her even felt compassion for him.  She found herself wanting to erase the tired, troubled look in his eyes.  Wasn't that a bitch? 

He turned off the road, maneuvered the truck down a dirt road, which after half a mile, formed a circle encompassed by trees.

“I can't believe you brought me to Lover's Loop.”  Brynn gasped in outrage, recognizing the teen make-out spot.  She and Adam had fogged up many a window during their late-night make-out sessions on the circular road.

“I didn't bring you here to neck.”  Adam shut off the engine and turned toward her.  “Nobody comes out here in the daytime.  I want a quiet, private place to talk.”

“To confess, you mean.”  She narrowed her gaze on him.

Adam grimaced.  “Yeah, I guess.”

“You burned evidence, Adam.  Why shouldn't I turn you in?”  She studied him, taking in the strained look on his face, the tense shoulders as he stared out the windshield with his hands still gripped on the steering wheel.

“My mother took it hard when my father died.  You remember how she was.  She took it even worse when Zeke was killed.”  He turned toward her and looked at her with his eyes beseeching understanding.

“You're right about all this having something to do with Zeke.  I know this, but it would kill Mama to know that maybe Zeke did something bad enough to gain this much hatred.  Our whole lives, we were brought up to be perfect.  Perfect grades, perfect manners…you name it.  I was always a little bit better than Zeke, but now that he's dead…”

“Your mother has martyred him, and you want her to keep thinking he was perfect.”  Brynn let her disgust at supporting the egomaniac woman drip into her words.  “Dammit, Adam.”

Brynn shoved the door open and jumped out of the truck, needing the space.  What she really needed was to hit something or someone, but she paced instead.  She whirled around the moment Adam's feet hit the ground.

“What is wrong with you, Adam?  Your mother has commanded perfection from you since the day you were born.  A saint couldn't live up to the expectations she placed on you and Zeke.  Are you really going to sabotage this arson investigation just so Mommy Dearest can continue on with her delusions that she gave birth to the world's first non-sinners since Jesus?”   

“Don't talk about my mother—”

“I'll talk about that hateful old bitch any way I want!  Do you really think I'd just forgive and forget the way she had me run out of town?”  The yell burned her throat on the way out, but it felt good to finally get her feelings for the woman off her chest.

“You ran yourself out of town.”  Adam growled and stepped around the truck to face-off with her.  “You shouldn't have slept with my best friend if you couldn't deal with the shame of it.  My mother may be suffocating, opinionated and overbearing, but at least she's not a wh—”

“Don't even say it.”  She pointed her finger at his face.

“First of all, you've been lying to me from day one so don't bother casting any stones in my direction.  Second of all, you don't realize how screwed you are.  You lied to the fire chief and you burned evidence.  Those are the only two things I witnessed first-hand.  Who knows what else you might've done before I showed up.”  She stepped closer, putting herself only a breath away, and lowered her voice for emphasis.

“Keep on insulting me and see how fast I go to not only the fire chief, but the sheriff as well.  My daddy was the sheriff before he died and everyone in the department admired him.  Believe me, supposed slut-ness or not, they'll take my word.”

“You really would do that?”  His voice shook disbelievingly. 

“Try me.”  She crossed her arms.  “You know I never allowed anyone to walk over me when I lived here.  I haven't lost my backbone.”

“Why did you allow them to run you out?”

Brynn stepped back.  His question hit her with the force of a hard slap and she searched his eyes only to find cold, blue fury.  His whole body tensed, his hands held at his sides, the fingers slightly curled.  “What do you care?  You wanted me to leave.”

“I couldn't look at you then.”  He shook his head, and briefly closed his eyes.  “I definitely couldn't handle seeing you and Cal together.  I'd have killed him.”

“Then you should be happy I left.”

“You left with him.”  His voice was barely an angry whisper.

“Yeah, so?”

“You don't think it’s worse knowing you were with him, in his bed?”

Brynn stared at Adam, shaken by the anger in his voice, the ferocity in his gaze, and didn't know what to say.  She knew she hurt him all those years ago, but she hadn't known how badly he still hurt.

Her own heart ached, and she wished she could say something to make it go away for both of them, but she couldn’t.  Not without telling him exactly what happened thirteen years ago and that would destroy him, crushing her, too. 

“Honestly, Adam, I would have stayed despite what your mother and her Bible belt friends thought.  Hell, I would have stayed just to tick them off.  I left because of you, because of the way you looked at me that day—”

“You should have seen me the day you left with a child that should have been mine growing inside you.  My best friend left town with the woman who should have been my wife, had a little boy who should have been my son.”  He slapped his palm against his chest.  “Do you know what it did to me to hear that?  Do you know how hard it was for me to stay in this town, living with Cal's family and yours close by?”

“That's why you didn't join the police force like you'd planned.”  Nausea rumbled through Brynn’s stomach as realization sank in.  “You couldn't work with my father.”

“He should have been my father-in-law.  How could I stand going into his office and seeing pictures of you and another man with a baby who didn't look like me?”

The world spun around.  Brynn's vision clouded and she fell back against the front of the truck, propping her elbows on the hood to support herself.  Her legs wobbled like Jello.  

“What is it?”  Adam's voice held no compassion.  His eyes still burned with rage.

“I'm sorry,” Brynn managed to half-whisper, taking deep breaths until her head cleared and she could speak normally.  “I'm so sorry.  I never meant to hurt you.  I never meant to take away your dreams.”

Anger at Cal and Zeke heated her blood, the unfairness of the situation sickened her more.  Tears were barely suppressed as she wondered for the millionth time why she’d been forced to keep such a horrible secret from the man she’d loved more than life itself.  Thank God for Nate or she’d have no light in her life.  “Everything went wrong and it’s my fault.  I'm sorry.  I admit it and I'm sorry.  Is that good enough?”

“No.”

Brynn's back hit the hood of the truck as Adam overtook her, his body ground against hers as his lips sealed over her mouth.  He invaded her with tongue and hands, their teeth gnashing together while his hands squeezed her breasts savagely.  There was nothing tender about this embrace, and she fought against it, pushing at his chest as he continued to let his hands run roughly over her body.  His lips traveled down her neck, freeing her mouth.

“Stop!”  She could barely breathe.

“Tell me.”  Adam grabbed her head at the base of her neck and held her face before his.  “I want to hear you say it.  I was your first.  I taught you everything you knew.  I was the first to taste you, touch you, and you loved it.  You screamed for me.  For
me
. Say it!”

“Say what?”  She looked into his crazed eyes, unsure what to do.

“I was better than him.”

Brynn gave another good shove to his chest and fell sideways, wincing as she landed on a large stick.  Adam looked between the truck and where she fell, blinking as though coming out of a trance.

“Oh, God, Brynn, I—”

“Don't come another step closer.”  Brynn stood with the stick in her hands, wielding it like a baseball bat.  She almost felt silly fending off Adam, but it was better to be safe than sorry.  His anger made him out of control, turning him into a beast.

“Brynn…”  He withdrew the hand he'd held out to her, but didn't step back.  “Brynn, you know I'd never hurt you.  I don't know what got into me.”

“Anger got into you,” Brynn snapped.  “I can't believe you are so pathetic.”

“Pathetic?”

“Yes, pathetic.  P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C.  Pathetic.”  She backed away a few steps, still holding the stick in front of her ready to strike.

“I really shouldn't be surprised.  You've spent your whole life being perfect.  Of course, you'd think someone would leave you if you weren't the perfect lover, but dammit, Adam, I won't tolerate this kind of behavior.  It's beneath you.”

“So, was that it?  I was too tame?”  His shoulders slumped, his hands hung loosely at his sides.

Brynn cursed, furious with Adam, but sad for him as well.  “There was nothing you could have done to change what happened.”

“Don't give me that, Brynn.  No matter what my mother thinks, you weren't that easy.”  A mirthless chuckle fell through his lips.  “You didn't sleep with just any guy, you slept with my best friend.  Why?  What did I do to make you want to hurt me that bad?  Just tell me why.”

Brynn gritted her teeth, wanting to give him the answer.  But, how did she tell him his own jealous brother and supposed best friend plotted together to trick her?  She'd thought she was having sex with Adam that night.  She'd never expected it to be Cal.

It would have been so much simpler if she'd told him when it happened, but she'd been so confused, had felt so guilty…  Then when she'd finally gathered the courage to tell him, he wouldn't listen, because he'd believed she'd willingly slept with his best friend.

So she'd left town, allowing him to find out through the grapevine that she was pregnant.  She'd never told him there was a chance the baby wasn't Cal's.  Adam had made it clear he no longer trusted her at all.  He obviously would have believed his brother over her, which Zeke had made sure she knew when he warned her to keep quiet, so in the end she didn't tell what really happened.  She had already been convicted without a trial.

She’d let Zeke and Cal get away scot-free and had justified it by telling herself she’d done it for Adam, to protect him from knowing what an evil man his brother was.  Maybe it didn’t make sense, but his question fueled the urge inside her to lash out and beat some sense into him.  He should have known she’d never hurt him, despite what he’d been told.  So what if she didn’t deny it?