Page 86 of Beautiful Sins

I run to the firefighters. “You need to find him.”

Before the firefighter can say anything, two others bring Harrison out of the club. He’s stumbling between them, breathing through a mask, his arms clutched against his chest.

I’m over there in a heartbeat, and Harrison’s pushing something into my hands before they usher him into an ambulance.

* * *

“You were with him.”

I look up to see an officer blocking the hallway I’ve been pacing for the last two hours. It’s been a long night at the hospital while Harrison has been put through a barrage of tests. I’ve heard almost nothing about his condition except that he’s stable. The doctor told me that as if I should have been relieved—like the fact that the man I love running into his burning building had a happy ending after all.

“Who are you?” I demand.

The officer gives me his name. “I need to ask you a few questions. Let’s find chairs and talk.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He sizes me up, his gaze landing on my bracelet. He nods toward the side of the hallway, and I grudgingly step out of the way of traffic.

“You were the first person on the scene.”

“Second,” I correct. “Harrison got there first.”

The last time a police officer surveyed me so intently, I was a teenager at the front desk of the local branch, deciding whether to report what had happened to me. I was nervous, sweating. In the end, fear overtook me, and I turned around and never went back.

Not only fear of the police, but fear of being found out, exposed, judged, ridiculed, hated.

“How did it start?” I demand.

“It’s too soon to say.”

“Was it…? Tell me it wasn’t the marquee.” My voice fades to a whisper.

He relents. “I heard the firefighters say there was some kind of accelerant inside. Now, Mr. King was found in the building. Theonlyperson found in the building.”

Hostility slices through the fear in my gut. “You don’t think he did this? Kings is set to open in less than three months.”

“Why would he be inside?”

“To try and save his damned club!”

He sighs, and I play with the strap on my purse.

“We’ll be reviewing security footage. If anyone was staking out the building after dark this week, or arrived tonight, maybe we’ll be able to see who.”

No, you won’t.

Thanks to me, the exterior security cameras have been out for the past two days.

26

Harrison

“You need to lie down.”

I look up from where I’m seated on the side of the hospital bed at the nurse’s voice.

“I’m fine,” I rasp, spreading my hands carefully to avoid jarring the IV in the back of one.

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