Page 46 of Playing with Fire

The sirens grew louder, multiple engines converging on our burning legacy. I kept Leo close as we moved to join Mom and Dad near the driveway. His body trembled slightly against mine, not from the cold but from the adrenaline crash.

River and Theo materialized from the growing crowd of neighbors. River's face revealed nothing as he assessed the situation, but I caught the subtle tightening around his eyes. He understood immediately what this meant.

"Did anyone see anything?" River asked, voice pitched low.

I shook my head. "We were all asleep. By the time we smelled smoke, it was already too late."

Fire trucks blocked the street, emergency lights painting everything in strobing red. Firefighters deployed, hoses snaking across the pavement, the dull roar of water pressure building as they attacked the blaze. A waste of effort. The building was already lost.

The next hour blurred into a tired dance of statements and sympathy. We played our roles flawlessly—the devastated business owner, the supportive family, the traumatized boyfriend. Fire officials asked their predictable questions. Dad provided his rehearsed answers about chemicals and storage. Mom wept at strategic moments. Neighbors gathered to gawk while Theo moved among them, planting seeds of gas leaks and faulty wiring. River handled the police, directing attention away from anything that might raise suspicions.

Ash Valentine arrived halfway through and started flashing his former FBI status around. His presence provided exactly the buffer we needed, steering investigators toward conclusions that would keep us safe.

I kept Leo close, my arm around his shoulders both performance and necessity. His exhaustion wasn't fake. The tremors running through his body were real, the hollow look in his eyes genuine. Two fires in one week had left their mark, wearing him down to raw nerves and sheer willpower.

I spotted him before anyone else did. Something in my blood recognized its source, some primal part of me sensing his approach like prey feels a predator. I stiffened, my arm tightening around Leo's shoulders.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" I growled, watching as a sleek black Bentley rolled to a stop at the police barricade.

Leo followed my gaze, his exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "Is that...?"

"Algerone." The name tasted acrid on my tongue.

The crowd of officers and firefighters parted as Algerone Caisse-Etremont stepped from his vehicle. Even from this distance, his predatory grace was unmistakable—tailored suit without a wrinkle despite the hour, silver-streaked hair immaculately styled, and that face that was an older, harder version of my own. The face I'd see in the mirror in thirty years if I lived that long.

He moved through the chaos like he owned it, which, knowing him, he probably did. Nothing happened in this part of Ohio without his knowledge or permission. Nothing except this fire.

Behind him followed Maxime, his personal assistant, efficiency personified in a pristine suit, tablet in hand as always. The man's fingers darted across the screen, likely already updating schedules and making arrangements.

"Xavier." Algerone's voice carried easily across the space between us, commanding rather than requesting my attention. Even after all this time, something in me responded to that voice. Part of my genetic code recognizing the one who'd created it. Hating that response only made it more obvious.

Mom's head snapped up, her carefully constructed mask of grieving business owner flickering for just a second before settling back into place. Dad's hand slipped to the small of her back, steadying her. The perfect united front they always presented when Algerone appeared.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, not bothering to disguise the hostility in my voice as Algerone approached. "This doesn't concern you."

"Someone tried to incinerate my son's family home,” he said. "I'd say that concerns me quite directly."

"We've got it handled," I ground out.

Mom stepped forward, her spine straightening as she positioned herself between us. "Algerone. Your concern is... appreciated. But as Xavier said, we have this under control."

"Is it, Annie?" The way he said her name was cold, layered with years of resentment. I could feel the tension crackling between them. Algerone had never forgiven her for taking us, for keeping his children hidden from him for years. In his mind, she had stolen what belonged to him. "Because right now it looks like you could use all the help you can get. Unless you want the investigators sifting through the remains of your business? I'm certain they wouldn't find anything out of the ordinary."

Mom narrowed her eyes, one hand clenching into a fist. I didn't blame her. Algerone was always manipulative, but doing it while our family legacy burned behind us? That was an especially dickish move.

But what choice did we have? Ash had a lot of pull, but he couldn't put a stop to an arson investigation. Algerone could. He had enough contacts in the right places to bring the whole damn state to a grinding halt if he wanted.

"This is our home," she said firmly.

"It was your home. Now? It's a target." Algerone shoved his hands deep in his pockets and looked straight at me with those piercing green eyes that were so much like my own.

He looked like he was going to say something for a moment before deciding instead to shift his attention to Leo. The way he looked at him made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I had the strangest urge to move between them and bare my teeth at Algerone. How dare he look at my Leo like that?

"If you have something to say, say it to me," I ground out.

Algerone's attention snapped back to me, where it belonged. "Two blazes in one week," he said, and my blood ran cold.

He knew.

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