Page 9 of Up In Smoke

“You closed your doors,” Luke told her by way of explanation. “It's dramatic. It prevents the spread of fire.”

“But the outside …?” She’d seen the blackened streaks on every wall. So how could what was inside have survived?

“Someone put accelerant all around the outside of the house in a ring, right at the base—in the flower beds and everything. So the siding is a mess. But accelerant burns faster than other materials, which means it burns first. So the damage didn't come through the walls. On this half of the house, just the outside needs work.”

She could live with this, Ivy thought. Maybe she could even live in this end of the house while it was repaired.

But Luke seemed to see what she was thinking. “You can't, you can't stay here. The living room and the kitchen, they all need to be repaired before it's livable. It's not safe with the odors and the mold. How's your homeowners insurance?”

At least that was okay. “It's good. The deductible is pretty high.”

“We can help.”

His offer made her shake her head. “I've got it.”

“Unless you went really high end …” he trailed off, letting her know that he didn’t expect anyone in this neighborhood to have top notch insurance. “It won't cover everything. But I’ll help.”

For a moment, she stared at him, wondering at the sincerity of the offer and hating again the impulse to just say no. That she would need to do all of it herself.

“I don't know.” Ivy was proud of herself for finding at least a middle ground. “How would I ever repay you?”

But Luke Hernandez only shook his head. “You don't need to repay me. You won't owe me anything. I need to help you fix this place up because I owe you.”

Chapter Eight

Oh, wow. He managed to hold in the comment that wanted to roll off his tongue. Luke had not been prepared for the woman who walked toward him. In jeans and a T shirt, Ivy Dean strode across her own lawn wearing sneakers and a tool belt strapped expertly around her hips.

It matched his own, only hers was brand spanking new. He wanted to ask,do you know how to use that thing?as he was always worried when someone showed up with a shiny hammer and a tape measure that had never been pulled before. But he'd learned better than to ask that question. No one liked to be told they were out of their league.

Her head tilted to the side as she spotted the setup in the driveway. “What's this?”

“The guys dropped their tools off so we can get started.” He was proud of that. The A-shift crew all loved Ivy. Hell, Sebastian and Kalan owed her a debt that they might never be able to repay. Now, Luke did, too. He tried to cover his guilt with words. “We’ll need to lock them all in the garage before we leave.”

The garage had been spared, though the siding would need a total replacement. But the interior of the garage—and even Ivy’s car—had survived fine thanks to the cinderblock construction.

“Do you guys just collect woodworking tools?”

He shrugged. “Pretty much. The job requires that we're familiar with a variety of kinds of construction. If we don't know how it was built, we don't know how it comes down.” She was nodding along and Luke had always enjoyed watching people absorb that aspect of his work. “Also, carpentry is an easy gig to pick up on the side.”

“I'll pay you,” she offered, once again hopping on any kind of mention of his work. But again, he refused.

This was his fault. He had come close to telling her so when they’d done the walk through. But even though he'd like to admit it, he couldn't. He didn't even know what he'd be admitting to. And that was the problem: if he threw someone under the bus, he needed to know that it was the right person.

If he told the world his suspicions and he was wrong, he would ruin a life. If he didn't tell, and this got pinned on him, he'd spend the rest of his life in prison unless he could prove his way out of it.

His heart beat harder these days. It had ratcheted up a little with the first fire. And then the second arson had torched the home where his family had lived when he was four. A third fire had eaten a small, abandoned store at the edge of town where he and Tiago had once held jobs—a job that he'd loved because the owner had taken good care of him and treated him like family.

The recent spate of arson fires in Redemption traced the path of Luke's childhood. He might have figured it out before anyone else, but very quickly, someone else would too. He had no idea how much time he had to save his own ass.

Hell, even he would have suspected himself. Had he gotten blackout drunk and lost hours, he would have believed he was doing it. Because who else could it be? But he had his suspicions, and they only made him feel worse.

“What do you think we should tackle first?” Ivy asked when she turned away from admiring the sawhorses and makeshift tables that held compound miter saws, sanders, and even a tile cutter.

“I think we have to go through the main rooms where the walls are exposed and check every stud and replace every one that doesn’t pass muster. The inspection showed the roof is fine, though.”

“Well, that's a relief.” Ivy opened the front door and left it standing wide.

Luke followed her in, but moved quickly through the house opening windows to let it air out again. It was cold, but they’d be working and since they could monitor the building, now was a good time to freshen as much as they could without worrying about looting. Ivy followed him from room to room, and once all the doors and windows were open, she stepped back into the living room.

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