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I had been ready to jump out of the SUV and find Jesse sitting there with Max. I planned to wrap them in my arms and assure them it would be okay. I had even decided to take them to my house and let Jesse fall apart in my arms while we watched over Max together.

But once we rounded that corner, I saw her house in flames and engines 3 and 4 parked outside. Hoses were hooked up, trying their best to contain the blaze while the neighbors watched from a safe distance. None of them were Jesse, though.

When Miles stopped the car, I ran straight toward the heat of the fire. Captain Reed saw me approaching, raising his hands in the air to stop me until West and Miles could catch up.

“We were able to clear the living room, but we were unable to make it up the stairs before the structure started to collapse. We don’t think anyone was home, but we are getting a ladder ready to check the second story.”

“No,” I shook my head, not believing what he was telling me. I looked to the side of the house for Jesse’s car, and it wasn’t there, but that didn’t reassure me because she had started putting her car in the garage. Max liked parking inside.

That was all I could think about as I started running toward the house again, but my brothers held me back. “Max likes to park inside,” I yelled, trying to shake their hold. “Max likes to park inside.”

“Hey,” West was in my ear. “You can’t go in there. You’re not suited up. It's dangerous.”

Miles was holding my other side, but shouting over the top of my head that he wanted to know what happened. He wanted to know how the fire started, and if anyone was able to get ahold of the occupants. He was yelling over and over to try her phone again, to keep calling until Jesse answered.

But the calls kept going to voicemail.

Realizing I couldn’t run into the house, I backed away and West and Miles lowered their hold on me. Tears had begun prickling at my eyes, I ran a hand down my face, and I fell to my knees.

My breathing was erratic, my body was shaking, and I could feel bile rising up my throat, threatening to spew out from between my lips. I thought it’d be impossible for me to move or speak, but then I heard four little words that had me jumping back to my feet and pushing my captain forcefully against the truck.

“It was a candle.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine

MILES

Chaos.

The entire scene was pure hell, with people running everywhere, neighbors screaming, and the entire fire department using every resource they had to try and tame the flames. But nothing was worse than seeing my brother on his knees, completely overcome with emotion and fear as he faced the idea that Jesse and Max were inside the blazing house.

West and I were immobile, neither of us wanting to stray too far in case he tried running into the house again. West had lost his jacket, rolled his sleeves halfway up, and was lacing a frantic hand through his hair. He was watching his house burn down, but I knew that didn’t matter to him. Somewhere, deep down, he was reliving the night we lost our parents, and only holding himself together for the sake of Easton.

Then the county fire chief arrived from the next town over; there to oversee what was undoubtedly the worst fire in town since that fateful night. He and Captain Reed were advising everyone where to go, and what they should be doing. They werebarking orders and trying to keep the mayhem as organized as possible.

But they didn’t bother Easton. They didn’t tell him to move, or tell me to move him. They let him be, let him process, and I nodded my thanks as they walked behind us.

“What started this?” The chief asked withanangry yell.

“It was a candle,” Captain Reed explained.

There was no time for him to elaborate. Not before Easton rose to his feet and turned around, almost lifting Captain Reed into the air as he backed him up against the fire truck.

West and I jumped into action, trying to pull Easton away, but somehow, he had become more powerful than the two of us combined.

“A candle?” Easton screamed. “A candle?”

“Calm down, Son,” Captain Reed grunted, incredibly patient considering he’d just been thrust against a truck. “Give me some space and I’ll tell you everything we know. Calm down.”

Easton looked around, realizing what he had done, and nodded, slowly backing away. The fire chief was close to blowing a gasket, but he let Captain Reed lead as he got Easton to take a breath.

“When we got here, we were able to enter the house and the crew reported a candle had been knocked over. The rug was in flames and had already spread into the dining area, making it hard to get to the staircase. Like I said, we couldn’t breach the stairs before the flames had gotten too high and the ceiling crashed in. We are sending our best up on the ladder now. I promise, Easton, we are doing everything we can.”

“Are you sure it was a candle?” Easton asked, almost eerily calm.

“The fire spread toward the back of the house, the first thing we saw was the candle. It's safe to assume it was the root causeconsidering where the fire started, but we will conduct a full investigation.”

“It wasn’t an accident,” Easton started repeating, shaking his head with his hands on his hips. “It wasn’t an accident.”

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