Page 84 of Rafe: Sins of the Father

“Yeah, I do.”

“How do you know you love her, Rafe?” Cole asks.

I think about it for a long minute. “She sees me. Not the me the world sees, but the man underneath. It’s an incredible feeling. But it's more than that. It’s the feeling that takes over me when she leans her head on my chest. For the first time last night, it was like my heart remembered what it was like to feel safe to share the shit of my past. Ya know?”

“Amen, brother,” Crash downs his shot.

Cole nods. “Sex is great, and when it’s a new relationship, that shit is off the fucking charts, but it’s not about the fireworks. It’s about the quiet times in each other’s arms.”

Crash refills his shot glass. “For me, it’s the brush of her fingertips on the back of my neck while we’re riding. That little gesture that says she’s with me, and she trusts me. God, that gets me every time.”

Cole nods. “For me, it’s Angel barefoot in my shirt, dancing in the kitchen, no makeup, laughing like she doesn’t even know how fucking lovely she is. So lovely it hurts my heart to look at her. The morning sun shimmering over her. That right there is heaven, brothers.” He tosses back his shot.

“She’s your light, your joy, your fire,” Crash murmurs, staring into space.

Cole turns to meet my eyes. “She’s your anchor, your peace, your home.” He smacks his hand on the bar. “That’s fucking love, brother.”

Crash lifts his glass. “To ol’ ladies. They make our world go round.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Alex Powers—

Smoke billows from the embers of the fire, plumes darkening to a sooty black.

The shattering sound of a window bursting jars the already noisy area, and the red flash of sirens throws bizarre light and shadows across the burning, ruined mill.

The final roof beam caves in and sparks swirl into the air drafts. Ash drifts down from the smoky haze, landing on my suit jacket. I flick them away and stare at the patches of melted carpet through the office doorway.

Firefighters haul hoses through it, drowning everything in a torrent of water, turning it to a soupy mess of black melted plastic and ash.

A flickering orange glow comes from the wood stacked in the milling area.

I spot the silhouette of a firefighter striding through the thick haze, dragging his heavy hose toward it.

A smoky campfire smell saturates everything at first but is soon replaced by the sharp chemical odor of burned plastic and insulation. It stings my nose and throat, and the taste of ash fills my mouth.

A car races onto the lot, skidding to a stop, and Tori shoots out of the door like a rocket from a cannon, her face a mask of stunned disbelief.

“Oh, my God. Daddy, what happened?” She flies into the arms of her father.

Tears douse his soot-stained face. “It’s gone, baby girl. It’s all gone. Everything I worked so hard for. I’ll never be able to rebuild.”

He’s like a soldier in a war-zone, going into shock at the sight before him, his life going up in smoke.

I quietly step away and pull my phone out, scanning my texts and finding and deleting the ones from Charlie Thompson. The texts that told me the job was done.

Smiling, I slip it into my pocket, then return to the others.

We stand in stunned silence and stare helplessly as the mill burns to nothing. The firefighters are there more to prevent the flames from spreading to the surrounding woods and the house on the hill. It’d be a shame if it all went up, too. Tori would be heartbroken. Though, it would save me the cost of demolishing the place.

Half an hour later, the fire chief approaches with a discarded gasoline canister. He stops in front of Sawyer. “Looks like arson, Mr. Sawyer. The burn pattern confirms it. This was probably used as the accelerant. You know anybody who’d want to burn the place to the ground?”

I catch Tori’s eyes shift to me. She’s smarter than I gave her credit for, and I won’t underestimate her in the future.

“You got any security cameras that store footage off site?” the fire chief asks.

Sawyer lifts his eyes to the man, almost as if he’s swimming up from the depths of a lake. “What was that?”

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