Page 67 of Scorched Secrets

“No! Help!” Faye grabbed Colin, yanking hard to get him away from Annie. The rest of the Finnegans arrived, each of them tearing off their clothing, using the items to smother the flames.

“I hate you, I hate you, I hate you,” Annie chanted as she fought off their attempts to rescue her. Colin stumbled upright, tore his paint-thinner-dampened shirt off, and tossed it aside.

“Are you hurt?” Faye raked her gaze over him.

“I’m okay. I wasn’t as soaked as your sister.”

The rest of the team was doing their best to put out the fire that engulfed Annie. Joe Kingsley raked the backpack off her and threw it into the center of the road a few yards away. “We need to get out of here,” he shouted.

The group of Finnegans grabbed her sister and ran away from the backpack. Faye, Colin, and Rhy followed. There was a loud whooshing sound as the entire backpack ignited in a ball of fire.

“Annie, are you okay?” Reassured Colin had escaped the worst of the blaze, Faye turned her attention to Annie. Her sister had stopped screaming and chanting, likely overwhelmed now by the pain of the burn. “We need a first-aid kit.”

“I’ve called 911,” Kyleigh said, her expression grim. “They’ll be here shortly.”

Faye didn’t like feeling helpless, but there wasn’t anything she could do for her sister without medical supplies. Annie’s left side, the hand she’d used to hold the canister, appeared to be the worst area of the burn. Maybe along her back, too, where she’d landed on the backpack.

“I’m sorry,” Colin said in a low voice. “I heard her comment about having more in the backpack. I shouldn’t have taken her down so hard and fast, but I was scared she’d hurt you.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. My sister brought this upon herself.” Faye still couldn’t believe all these fires had been set by her sister. No wonder they’d been found at the lake house. And this also explained how her sister had been able to track her phone. They’d all used the find-my-phone app, especially when Annie was younger. She searched Colin’s gaze. “Are you all right?”

“I think so.” He glanced down at his bare chest. “I don’t feel like I was burned that badly. Thanks to you, Faye. You pulled me off her right away.”

“Not just me.” She knew the quick response from the Finnegan family and Rhy’s teammates had prevented Colin from being hurt too badly. Truly, Annie’s injuries could have been worse too.

“You saved me,” Colin said softly.

She wanted to lean against him, soak up his strength. “We saved each other.” Before she could say anything more, wailing sirens split the air. Annie’s backpack was still a burning mass in the center of the road when the firetrucks and ambulance arrived.

Faye rushed over to help herself to the ambulance supplies while giving orders. “I’m Dr. Kimble from the Trinity ED. This is my sister, Annie Kimble. You need to take her to Trinity’s burn center ASAP. I want her to get the best burn care possible.”

“You got it, Dr. Kimble.” The EMTs did not hesitate to place Annie’s gurney in the back. Her sister was sobbing now, crying out in pain. Faye hated hearing the agony in her sister’s voice but didn’t jump in to join her. For one thing, she didn’t want to cause her sister any more distress. Not after the hatred she’d spewed. Better for her to meet up with Annie at the hospital later, but in the meantime, she needed to provide care to Colin and call her dad.

He’d be devastated over this. And so would Claire. Annie was in deep, deep trouble. Larry had died because of her fire. And others had been put in harm’s way too. She’d burned a car and two homes. Not to mention attempted murder.

Many felony charges would be brought against her. And Annie was only sixteen!

She forced herself to turn away. “Colin, I need to see your arms and chest.”

He held his arms out from his sides in a move that would have made her smile under less grim circumstances. She could see there were a few areas of pink skin and one area in particular where the hairs had been singed away, much like the wound on his arm. The gauze wrap had protected his one extremity, but now she had the other to worry about too. She used a bottle of sterile water to soak the gauze, then pressed them against the worst areas on his torso and bare arm.

“We’ll need to take you to the hospital, Colin. No arguments this time.” She glanced at Rhy. “I’ll also need my phone from the safe house so I can contact my dad. He’ll want to get to the hospital to see Annie.”

“I’m sorry things ended this way.” Rhy’s empathetic expression warmed her heart.

“Me too.” She swallowed hard and squared her shoulders. “I want to thank all of you for your help with this. If I had known about Annie...” She couldn’t finish.

“I’ll grab your phone.” Kyleigh ran off, returning a few minutes later. She grimaced as she handed it over. “I guess our ruse worked.”

“Yeah.” Faye knew this scenario could have ended far worse.

“Come on, we’ll get Colin to Trinity,” Aiden said firmly. “I’m sure Mitch will want to talk to us, too, once Colin has been cared for.”

She nodded and followed Aiden and Colin to one of the Finnegans’ vehicles. She’d lost track of which belonged to whom.

As they headed to Trinity, she stared down at her phone for a long moment before calling her dad. The danger was over, but the nightmare wasn’t. If anything, she felt more depressed than before. It was one thing to know a stranger wanted to kill you.

But to find out how much your own sister hated you? Enough to set you on fire? That was worse.

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