Page 48 of Together We Burn
Pulling out of his hold, I sank into the seat and leaned against the cold window. A rogue tear rolled down my cheek as I heard him sigh and start the car. Turning the heating up full blast, Jake angled all the fans in my direction and drove off toward his apartment.
Chapter eighteen
Jake
Ioncesawoneof those stupid meme quotes that said women cry because they know it's illegal to murder. Stefany would put a bullet between your eyes without batting an eyelash, so watching her quietly wipe at her red-rimmed eyes, I wished I hadn’t given her that letter.
And to top it off, she’d been driving under the influence.
I had no idea what was going through her head as she absentmindedly stared out the passenger window, barely registering the direction we were driving. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Stefany pull my jacket tighter around herself, and then she cleared her throat.
“I need you to take me somewhere,” she said, her voice low and rough as she leaned to the GPS and entered an address not far from where we were.
I nodded, not bothering to ask where the directions would take us. When forced into a corner, losing control like this, Stefany was vulnerable and broken, and that is when she was the most deadly. Because she was unpredictable. And unpredictable people were the ones to watch.
The street was quiet when we pulled up opposite a smaller version of a stately home. Unbuckling her belt, she went for the bag sitting between her feet. I followed her lead; I went for my belt buckle, but stopped when she rested her hand on my forearm.
“I need to do this myself,” she said, her eyes void of emotions as she looked from me to the house. “Can you keep a lookout?”
“What are you…”
“It’s best if you don’t know. Accomplice and all that.” She shrugged with a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes, then opened the door. I grabbed her wrist as she took it from my arm, and pulled her back.
“Don’t do anything stupid, Stefany.” I wrapped my hand around the back of her neck, pulling her close, so our foreheads touched as I whispered, “Be careful.”
“I always am.”
Exiting the car, she walked up the path leading to the front door with her backpack strapped to her back. Pulling out what looked like a key from the back pocket of her shorts, she opened the door. Glancing back to check the road, she slipped inside and closed the door behind her.
“Whose house is this?” I asked Rocky as he panted from the back seat and stuck his head through the middle as if he were looking at where she had disappeared. “Huh, boy? Why did she come here?”
I scratched behind his ear, keeping an eye on the area. Thankfully, the street was pretty remote, with only three other houses, two of which were in darkness, and the other was far enough away that they wouldn’t see my SUV parked outside.
Glancing at the clock, I noted it had been ten minutes since Stefany had left, and I wondered how much longer she’d need. I held my phone in my hand, contemplating between giving her a quick text or giving her more time.
Stop being a needy bitch, Weston.
Leaning my head against the headrest, I angled myself to see Rocky better.
“She’s fine, right?” I asked with a chuckle at the ridiculousness of speaking to her dog like he’d answer. The idea to face the dog and talk at the same time was the wrong thing to do because I was answered by his big wet tongue licking up the length of my face.
“Urgh, fuck’s sake, you mangey mutt,” I chastised, leaning over to the glove compartment and grabbing a pack of wet wipes I kept in there. This car was too nice not to keep those bad boys in case of spillages.
I plucked a couple from the pack and began cleaning my face, when Stefany appeared in the doorway and relocked the house.
She was walking to the end of the path, with a roguish smirk on her lips, when she paused and turned toward the big house again. She then dropped to her haunches and began rummaging around her backpack. I leaned over the passenger side to get a better look when she stood up, arms clasped in front of her, holding something I couldn’t see.
I slowly opened my door and stepped onto the sidewalk. Leaving the door open so as not to spook the girl who was already a flight risk, I rounded the car and leaned on the hood.
My brows knitted as I watched her reach into her back pocket and pull out a small object that glinted under the streetlight. A spark ignited, and I recognised she held a zippo lighter. That's also when I noticed three bottles lined up by her feet.
“What the fuck?” I managed before she threw a bottle with an ignited cloth fuse straight for the house. The bottle smashed and the liquid it contained coated the ivy that lined either side of the front door. Flames erupted everywhere the accelerant touched as Stefany bent down and lit a second bottle.
I couldn’t move, couldn’t understand the damage she was causing to someone's property as she happily tossed then relit another bottle., walking with purpose across the grass toward a large open-view window. Throwing the third from above her head, it broke the windowpanes as it connected.
Finally, my brain caught up to my body, and I jogged across the road, meeting Stefany as she went for the last bottle. I reached out and held the hand with the lighter, stopping her from igniting another Molotov cocktail.
“What are you playing at?” I asked, searching her gaze for something to explain how she’d lost her mind. But her eyes were dark pits that betrayed nothing. “This is arson, Stefany. This is someone's home, and you’ve destroyed it.”
