Page 121 of Frosting and Flames

“What about Kyle?” I ask. I still haven’t seen that fucker. He and I are going to have a reckoning real soon.

“He ran when the fire started.” Jae rolls her eyes. “Not that I’m surprised he bailed at the first sign of trouble.”

“Did he start the fire?”

Jae shifts nervously from foot to foot. “We both kind of did.”

“Why was he even here?” Mark said the shop is closed on Sundays and there doesn’t appear to be anyone working. “Did he break in?”

“His brother works here,” Rachel says. “But I don’t know if he had permission.”

Looks like we’ll need to do some investigating. In addition to the breaking and entering to my own house, wouldn’t that be real interesting if he ended up getting charged with more? Maybe I can even get negligent arson to stick, depending on how it plays out.

I rub Rachel’s back as she tells me and Mark her point of view of what happened, and though it doesn’t paint her friend in a good light, it doesn’t help Kyle’s case any, either, especially if he abandoned two women to a fire. Jae said she was the one to call 911.

“All right, Mark, you track down the owner of the garage and let them know what’s up. I’ll contact the police.”

“Am I getting arrested?” Jae asks worriedly.

“Let’s find out first if the owner wants to press charges. Sometimes they will for insurance purposes, depending on what was damaged.”

Rachel moves to take Jae’s hand, comforting her, and Mark and I make our calls. Luckily, I get hold of a guy on the force I know well, and after I explain everything, he agrees he has enough probable cause between breaking into my house and what happened at the garage to arrest Kyle and bring him in for questioning.

Though I’d love to make good on my promise to Kyle and deliver him the ass kicking he deserves, this might be better. After a quick search online, he could be looking at a third-degree felony for burglary. I knew about the potential third-degree felony for negligent arson.

And besides all that, there’s his reputation in town, which is already tarnished from cheating on Rachel.

Mark is cool with letting me hang around here to finish things up with the police while he goes back to the station to write up the incident report, and once the owner arrives, he confirms Kyle didn’t have permission to be there.

Oh, sweet justice.

I don’t get a chance to talk to Rachel about anything personal again amid the flurry of activity as Officers Jensen and Patel arrive, and thankfully the owner doesn’t want to press charges against Jae, who really plays up the theatrics, crying that she wasscared of what Kyle was going to do when he pushed her and how careless he was with the lighter. I have to hand it to her, she knows what she’s doing.

Even if maybe it’s not the most ethical.

As she and Rachel are released after questioning, I manage to pull Rachel aside briefly to whisper in her ear that I love her and can’t wait to see her tomorrow. She gives me a heated look in response before letting Jae drag her off toward her car.

The fire is out. Kyle’s getting arrested. And Rachel is safe.

I really can’t ask for any more.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

RACHEL

“Okay, get this.” Sydney comes back from the office, where she was talking to one of her friends on the phone. Mostly, I’m surprised she knows someone else who’s up at five a.m. “I got the scoop on Kyle.”

“How?” asks Hailey, who I just finished filling in on everything that happened the past two days with Nick, Kyle, and Jae. I already told Sydney after coming back to the bakery yesterday.

“She’s an administrative assistant at the police station. But this is all confidential. You can’t share it with anyone.” She considers for a moment, then looks at me. “You can tell Nick. But not Jae. It’ll be halfway across town, otherwise.”

Fair enough.

“Apparently, Autumn kicked Kyle out of her apartment after the cookoff. You know, because he’s a creep still hitting on his ex, even after leaving her for his rebound.”

As glad as I am there are consequences for Kyle’s actions, my heart goes out to Autumn, who seems like she got caught up in this mess the same as I did.

“So, since he had nowhere to go,” she continues, “and didn’t want to admit to anyone how awful he is, he had the bright idea to steal his brother’s key to the auto repair shop and hang out there, knowing they’d be closed.” She rolls her eyes dramatically. “Which doesn’t even make sense since he opened the garage door. Anyone passing by could see. How dumb is he?”

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