Page 94 of Burn With Me

Me: If you aren’t home by the time Penny is done eating, I’m walking her without you, and then I’ll take the enchiladas home so you can’t have any.

Ten minutes later, both animals are done eating and I’m getting Penny ready for our walk. Still no response from Am, so I slide my phone in my back pocket and look at Penny. “Are you ready for your walk?”

A smile takes over my face as she taps her feet in place, tail whipping back and forth.

“Maybe we’ll see your mom on our way.”

I have a weird feeling in my stomach, and since I heard the fire trucks, I can’t reach out to the guys to see if they’ve heard from her.

Thirty minutes later, Penny and I are turning back onto the street when I hear more sirens, and the ball of worry grows in my stomach.

That’s a lot of sirens for our small town.

My watch vibrates, and I see a notification from the alarm company that a panic button has been triggered at the farm. Before I can click the notification, my phone rings, and it’s Noah.

“Noah, what in the actual fuck?”

“Have you heard from Amelia?” he asks, cutting me off.

“Yeah, about an hour and a half ago. She asked me to come let Penny out and feed the animals because the sensor on the construction door was giving her an alert, and she wanted to stop there on her way home.” I pick up the pace with Penny, who’s basically pulling me back to Amelia’s at this point.

“And you haven’t heard anything from her since then?”

“Nothing. I tried to text her about thirty minutes ago, but the last time I checked her location, she was still at the farm. What’s going on, Noah? Because I’m about to drive up to the farm and figure it out myself.”

“I don’t know, but I’m on my way there now with the on-call backup unit firefighters because the panic button and fire alarm are going off. Go back to Amelia’s, and please stay put until I call you in case she shows up there.”

Before I can say anything, he hangs up, and I’m left staring at my phone on Amelia’s porch.

Penny leans into me and licks my hand. I squat down and wrap my arms around her as I fight back tears.

She’s probably fine.

I pause when I remember I can see the security system’s camera feed.

Stupid. How could you forget that?

Picking my phone back up, I scramble to open the app. Clicking through the feeds, I zoom in on the cameras in the new construction section, and my blood runs cold. Without thinking twice, I call Noah back as I race into the house with him on speaker.

“Pam, I told you I would let you—”

“It’s him,” I say.

“Him who? What are you talking about?”

“It’s Amelia’s ex, Leo. He’s at the farm. I just checked the camera’s recorded feed because I can’t get the live feed for some reason.” I pause blinking to make sure I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing. “Holy fucking shit. Brian is there too.”

“What the fuck is Brian doing there? We just got the call, and he’s not on shift.”

“I don’t know, Noah. But he’s there with Leo and Amelia, and it looks like they’re yelling . . . ohhhh shit.”

“What is happening?” he yells.

I struggle to swallow past the lump in my throat. “L-L-Leo just shot Brian, and he’s just lying there.”

“I’m pulling up to the farm now. I’m switching you from my car to my Bluetooth. Tell me everything about this Leo guy.”

I tell him everything I know about Leo and how their relationship ended. My heart thuds louder and louder, and a weight grows heavy on my chest as I watch Leo flick something and then drop it. I scream as the floor catches on fire and the fire spreads around my best friend.

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