The Fire Still Burns (28 page)

Adam sucked in a breath, balling his hand into a fist, but the bastards he wanted to slam it into were both already dead.

“I followed him into a dark room and he locked the door.  I was pushed onto a bed and I thought it was you, I thought you were just drunk and that's why you were so rough.  Oh, Adam, how could I have been so stupid?”  Brynn let out a deep sob, squeezing her small hands into fists before continuing.

“I let Cal rape me and when the lights were turned on and I realized what happened and that Zeke was there,  I tried to run but Zeke grabbed me.  I tried to scream, but he shoved his hand into my mouth and I bit it.  This look of rage came over him, and he shoved me down.  He said I'd just earned a second round, and he raped me with his fist in my mouth while Cal was puking in the corner.”

Adam sucked in a breath and slowly released it, fighting the urge to puke himself.  He cursed himself for believing she'd cheated on him, for every bitter feeling he'd held against her, for not being there for her when she'd needed him…for causing this tragedy to take place.

“It was all my fault.” He stood.  “I'm so sorry, Brynn.  I'm so sorry for everything.”

“Your fault?”  Brynn's brow crinkled in confusion.  The way she looked at him, bewildered by his statement, made him feel even worse.  “You had nothing to do with it.”

“I had everything to do with it.  My so-called best friend raped you because he was in love with me and jealous of you, and my brother set the whole thing up and joined in because of his own jealousy and apparent hatred of me.  So, yes, Brynn, this was all my fault, especially since I was so gullible to believe in the lies my brother told me.”  Hot angry tears rimmed his eyes, threatened to fall.

“I should have had more faith in you, more trust.  Yet, I took his word over yours when it turns out you are the only person who has actually cared for me at all.  I don't blame you for running.  Why should you have told me anything after the way I accused you?”

“I didn't run from you, Adam.  I ran from my own shame.  And I ran to protect you.”

“To protect me from what?”

“The truth.  I know you loved your brother.  I couldn't stand the thought of you knowing what he'd done to me.”

Adam’s stomach took a dip.  She’d run away from her home and raised a child alone just so he wouldn’t know the evil that lurked inside his brother.

“Knowing what he was would have been better than being a blind fool all these years, all these years that he spent abusing other women.”

Brynn flinched, and he felt the heat of shame searing through his body.

“I didn't mean that as a reprimand.”

“You should have,” she replied, turning her face away but not before he caught the sheen of fresh tears coating her eyes.  “For all we know, I could have been the first.  I could have stopped him and Rachel Wood would still be alive today.”

“You don't know that.”

She sniffed, composing herself before meeting his gaze full-on.  “You said something about videotapes?”

“You were right about the hiding spot in my mother's room.”  Adam sighed with disgust.  “I found a stack of tapes and I loaded one into the VCR to see what he'd hidden.”

“Was I on it?”  Her voice shook.

“No, thank heaven.”  His stomach churned at the thought of seeing her suffer through such an ordeal.  “I didn't have to watch much to realize what I was seeing, and I didn't watch the others.  I turned them all over to the sheriff.”

Brynn's eyes widened in unmistakable fear as her skin suffused with color.

“I don't think you were on the tapes.”  Adam read her mind easily.  “They didn't appear old enough.”

“No, but he might have a stash somewhere else and they might be found.  He might have recorded me that night, and, if he did, the whole town will know what happened to me.  It'll get around and Nathaniel will find out the truth.”

“The truth that you told me a gay guy who raped you was my father?” Nathaniel questioned, stepping out from the shadows of the kitchen.  “Or the truth that my real father was either another rapist or this guy right here who fell from the same screwed-up family tree?”

Brynn made a gargled sound in her throat as she quickly rose from the bottom step to run to her son.  She stopped halfway and, judging by the hardened look upon the boy's face, Adam didn't blame her.  The kid was madder than hell.

“How could you?”  Nathaniel’s eyes were wet with unshed tears.  “I knew there was something off about that asshole.  I never could understand how you could be with him, but I'd never have imagined this.  Why did you tell me he was my father?”  His eyes narrowed.  “Why did you make me think I came from the bastard who hurt you?  Oh, that's right.  Maybe I did
come from one of the guys who raped you.”

“I'm so sorry, honey.”  Brynn whimpered before sucking in a big breath, visibly struggling to pull herself together.  “There's a chance you could be Adam's,” she offered.

“Great,” Nathaniel looked directly at Adam.  “My father was either a rapist or his brother, who cared so much about you he let you just walk away, choosing to believe lies about you.  Or did I misunderstand part of the story?”

Adam looked at his feet, unable to meet the boy’s gaze when he’d summed it up perfectly.

“Don't blame Adam.  He thought I was pregnant by another man.”

“It's all right,” Adam said calmly despite the anger rolling through his body as he placed his hands on Brynn's shoulders, giving her the comfort she desperately needed.

“Nathaniel has every right to be angry with me and he's had quite a shock.  We both have.  A simple paternity test will straighten things out and we can go from there.”

“Like it's that simple,” Nathaniel bit out.  “I've been lied to my whole life, and you think this can all be swept under the rug.  What kind of mother—”

“Watch your tongue, boy,” Adam snapped instinctively, going into protective mode as he felt Brynn's shoulders tense beneath his palms.

Nathaniel scoffed.  “Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do?”

“Apparently, I'm either your father or your uncle,” Adam retorted.  “And that gives me every right.  Now, if you're going to be mad, be mad.  You have a right to how you feel, and you can direct that anger at me all you want because you're right about one thing.  I should have trusted Brynn, I should have been there for her, for both of you regardless whether you're my son or my brother's.  So go ahead, blame me if you want, but don't put all this on your mother, not after all she's been through.”

The boy had the decency to look ashamed, but he didn't offer any apology.  He stood before them with his hands clenching at his sides and Adam could tell the kid was using all the control he had to keep the rage-heated tears at bay.   Adam could see the kid wasn't a kid at all, but a young man, one who had just learned he was possibly the product of a rape.  He wouldn't think any less of him if he did let those tears go.   

Adam's cell phone vibrated against his hip, and he stepped away from Brynn and Nathaniel to take the call.

As the sheriff gave him disappointing news, he watched Nathaniel and Brynn embrace, all the anger in the room seemed to dissolve as the young man realized his mother's pain was far greater than his own.

Adam wanted to hold both of them, to comfort them the best he could and to promise he would never allow any further pain to enter their lives, but he didn't belong in that embrace.  Whether the boy was his son or his nephew, he'd failed him and that went double for Brynn.  He'd led evil right to her door.

Brynn looked at him expectantly as he snapped the cell closed, her arms still wrapped around her son.  “The expression on your face says that was bad news.”

“The police raided Riley Wood's home, but she wasn't in it.  They found all kinds of evidence that she's been plotting revenge against my family for quite some time.”

“You mean we were right there in her home and we didn't find anything.”

“We were too focused on her sister,” Adam said with a hefty dose of self-disgust.  “I think she was just using us to help locate Rachel.  If it weren't for the fact my mother saw her attacker, we still wouldn't know for sure Riley was the one who killed Zeke.  And now she's on the loose.”

Brynn tightened her arms around Nathaniel’s shoulders, fear evident in the tight set of her mouth.  “The first fire was set to kill Zeke.  Then, she took out places that had significance in Zeke's life, the last being his family home.  Where will she hit next?”

“She's already gotten her revenge against Zeke, and she's left enough clues that he was the cause of her sister's disappearance.  I think she's going for the family now that she knows for a fact her sister is dead.  She tried to take out my mother.  All that's left is me.”

Brynn released her hold on Nathaniel, taking the two steps necessary to reach Adam.

“Get out.”  She took his face in her hands.  “Get in your truck and keep going.  The police know she's responsible and they're on her trail.  Stay away until she's captured.”

“I can't do that,” Adam stated firmly, his instincts kicking into gear.  “She wants me to hurt, the way she hurts for her sister.  Simply killing me won't make that happen.”

“What are you saying?”

“I'm saying that once again, I've failed to protect you.  Wake your mother and pack a few things.  Riley will come after my heart first, she’ll come after you.”

Brynn jumped back, her mouth agape in shocked fear, but as she turned toward her son it was hard anger etched into her features.  “Hurry and pack a bag, Nate.  You and Grandma are getting out of here.”

Nathaniel turned and dutifully walked toward the back of the house.

“And you, too,” Adam ordered.

“No.”  She faced him again, her eyes shimmering with fierce determination.  “If she's coming for either of us, we'll meet her head on, together.”

“You're not going to have to wait long.”  Nathaniel’s words barely registered before Adam caught a whiff of what the kid had noticed.

The unmistakable smell of smoke.

“Get your mother and Nathaniel out of here,” Adam ordered.  He pushed Brynn and Nathaniel toward the stairs and made a run for the back of the house where the smell of smoke was strongest.  Just as he reached the kitchen, the smoke detector started to wail.

Fortunately, having a volunteer firefighter for a daughter had apparently influenced the Harlows to protect their home from the possibility of a fire, and an extinguisher was mounted to the kitchen wall.

Adam grabbed the canister and went into action, dousing the fire, which had been set on the back porch.  Flames quickly spread into the kitchen itself thanks to the gasoline which had seeped under the back door.

Sweat drenched Adam's clothes as he fought against the flames, his heart pounding in his chest with every cough, each second seemed more like a minute.  He'd fought fires for years and had definitely fought ones far more fierce than this, but none had frightened him nearly as much.

All he'd had to lose before was his own life, which seemed a lot less important when compared to the lives of Brynn and Nate.  He knew in that moment that whether Nathaniel was his or his brother's, he would do everything in his power to make sure the boy grew up to be a good man, one who knew he was loved.  Even if he didn't deserve to be with Nate’s mother and share in his upbringing on a daily basis.

A second stream of foam appeared from the other side of the kitchen, battling against the remaining flames, and, once the thick wall of smoke cleared enough for Adam to see, he discovered Brynn had entered the kitchen from another door equipped with her own fire extinguisher.

“I thought I told you to get out of here,” he called out to her, not bothering to hide the irritation in his tone.  How could he protect her if she wouldn't even listen to him?

“You told me to get my mother and Nate out, which I did.”  She continued to sweep her extinguisher from side to side.  “The fire department and the police should be here soon thanks to the alarm.”

Adam bit back the words he felt like speaking, deciding to focus on putting the fire out instead of scolding her for her hardheadedness—which he fully intended on doing later.  They worked together, coughing and sweating, fighting back the flames until none remained in the kitchen.  All that was left once his extinguisher emptied was a wall of flame on the porch.

“There's another extinguisher under the kitchen sink,” Brynn advised as the sound of a siren indicated the fire engine's approach.  “Take it and go out the side door to hit the fire from behind.  We might be able to salvage most of the porch if we're lucky.” 

Adam rushed to the sink to retrieve the other extinguisher, but, as he approached the window, he caught movement near the back of the Harlow property.  He leaned over the sink, peering closer at the dark shadows of trees until he picked out one that didn't belong.  Molten hot fury flooded through his body.

“What are you doing?” Brynn asked as he studied the lone figure hiding among the trees, watching the damage inflicted by her own hand.

He cast a glance at Brynn, noted she was handling the fire fine and that the blaze was small enough in size she could contain it until the fire department arrived, if not completely put it out.

“There's someone watching at the back of the yard, by the trees.  I think it's Riley.  I'm going after her.”  He ran to the side door.  “Stay here.”