Page 13 of Claimed By the Deputies

I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, I guess you can say that again.” I pause to look out the window. “It looks like they got the fire out.” I sigh heavily. “All my stuff. Everything I had was in there.”

“I’m sorry,” Lucas says earnestly. “Like we said earlier, these cabins are great to live in, but if they’re not properly taken care of and upgraded?—”

“They become tinder boxes. Case in point.” I nod at the smoking mess outside what used to be my home. “I didn’t have much to begin with, but it was still mine.”

My books. My clothes. The handful of trinkets I got at the autumn fair last year. The little bit of décor on the walls. My vibrator… damn, I’m gonna miss that little guy, which is such a pathetic thing to think about in the particular circumstances.

“Objects can be replaced,” Lucas says. “What matters is that you’re alive.”

“Thank God you were so quick to react,” I respond, remembering the moment before he got me out of the house. I was about to run back upstairs thinking a small fire extinguisher would do the trick.

“We smelled the smoke, then spotted the flames. We were pretty certain you were home, so I had to do something.”

“I can’t thank you enough, really.”

“You have nothing to thank me for, Tassia. I was only doing the right thing. Not only as a law enforcement officer, but as a human being.”

He’s being humble. The man rushed into my cabin and saved my life.

A knock on the door brings the conversation to a halt. I wrap the blanket tighter around myself as Tyler gets up and lets the fire captain in.

“It’s not looking good,” the captain says as soon as he sees me, streaks of soot on his face, hands, and neck. “The blaze spread quickly and was very destructive.”

“What do you mean?” I ask, my heart breaking all over again because deep down I already know the answer.

“My guys are sifting through the wreckage as we speak, but right now, I can’t render the cabin habitable again,” he replies.

“No…”

“I’m sorry. It’s just not safe. It’s going to need partial rebuilding—wall reinforcement, new floors and windows upstairs, all of the electrical will need to be rewired, and the entire staircase needs to be replaced. The foundation is good, but the walls and the structure pillars were compromised,” he says. “I’ll talk to Tim and recommend a couple of builders for the job. We help each other out around here.”

Clearly, but who’s going to help me? I’m more or less homeless now.

“Ok,” I say quietly. “Does anyone have a recommendation of where I can stay? Tim and Danica don’t have any extra roomwith their daughter and another baby on the way, which is why he let me rent the cabin from him.”

“The Lilac Motel is nice,” the captain suggests.

“Nonsense,” Lucas shakes his head. “You’re staying here, Tassia.”

My mind draws a complete blank as I look up at him. “What?”

“You’ve got nowhere else to go, right?” he asks. I shake my head slowly in response. It’s the truth, albeit a hard pill to swallow. “Then you’re staying here. We’ve got a spare bedroom and there’s plenty of space so we won’t trip over one another. Until Tim gets your place fixed up, consider yourself our new roommate.”

“I couldn’t possibly?—”

“You could, and you should,” Tyler interjects. “Let’s just say you’d be staying in the safest place in Frost Valley,” he adds with a wink.

I want to laugh, I really do. It’s a good break in the seriousness of the situation, but I’m still baffled by how quickly my life is changing, literally in the blink of an eye.

“Do we know what started the fire?” I ask the captain.

He frowns. “Not yet, but one of my lieutenants will investigate. Once the interior of the cabin has cooled, you can go in to see if any of your personal items are salvageable. But I advise against going in there on your own.”

“She won’t be going in alone,” Mitch confirms. “And don’t worry about the police report. We’ll file it, first thing in the morning.”

“Thanks for that, Mitch.”

“No sweat, Paul. You guys were amazing to get here so fast,” he replies, shaking the captain’s hand.

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