Page 26 of Through the Fire
“The explosions were fairly limited until Sarah arrived,” Hugh said, giving Otto a look that Kit would’ve considered teasing if they hadn’t been talking about the town getting bombed.
“Not her fault,” Otto said calmly, not taking the bait.
“Never is,” Hugh said, glancing around the dining area. “And now there’s a new one. Wonder who’ll come gunning for her.” He grunted and glared at Theo. “Did you just kick me? What was that for?”
Theo just gave him a look, and Hugh sat back in his chair. By the way they were avoiding glancing in her direction, Kit was pretty sure they were silently arguing about her. She was starting to get a little aggravated by the secrets they were keeping for the women who lived—or used to live—in Jules’s house.
The silence hung on until it felt too heavy, and Kit cleared her throat. Now that she knew she wasn’t getting any more information by making herself semi-invisible, there was no reason to stay silent. “Did you find any new information about the fire yesterday? My canvass was a bust. Most of the neighboring houses were empty, and the three people who actually still live in town didn’t see anything related to the incident.”
“Any of those three greet you at the door with a shotgun?” Hugh asked.
She started and tried to hide the involuntary motion by reaching to flip her coffee mug right side up. “Nope. Guess I got lucky.” Although she tried to keep her voice light, Hugh studied her with enough interest that she wondered if her nerves were showing. She looked back with as blankly curious an expression as she could manage, and he turned his gaze away. “So…anything on your end?” She suspected they’d purposefully not answered the first time she’d asked.
“Nothing too useful,” Hugh said, turning slightly in his chair so he could stretch out his legs without bumping into Kit.
Silence fell over their table, and Kit wished that they’d forget she was there and start talking again. She tried to think of an innocuous conversation starter, but every question she wanted to ask was apparently a hot-button topic. She’d always been horrible at small talk. “So what’s good to eat here?”
Again, Hugh was the one who answered. “Pretty much everything. For a psycho, Vicki’s an excellent cook.”
“Except for the oatmeal,” Otto added.
“Right.” Hugh gave him an approving nod. “Forgot about that. Definitely avoid the oatmeal.”
Absently, she made a mental note to do just that, but most of her attention was back on Hugh’s first comment. “What do you mean by psycho?”
“She’s a practical joker,” Theo said with restrained anger, his gaze locked on the kitchen door. His tense tone meant there was a story there—yet another incident that Kit didn’t know about. The lack of knowledge was making her feel overwhelmed and antsy. She needed to learn quickly, or she was going to get herself into situations like the one yesterday, when she’d had five shotguns pointed at her. Her stomach twisted with remembered fear as for one brief moment she was back in that clearing, but she quickly shoved the memory away.
Digging her fingers into her thighs under the table, Kit forced her expression to smooth. Having mental freak-outs wasn’t going to get her anywhere. She just needed to be smart and learn as much as she could—starting, apparently, with the diner staff. “Did Vicki prank Jules?”
Theo’s attention turned toward Kit. “How did you guess?”
“You’re too angry for her to have played the joke on you, so Jules is the logical victim.” Although Kit had only seen Theo and Jules together a few times, she could already tell that he was incredibly protective of his girlfriend.
He studied her for a few moments. “Yeah, Vicki locked Jules in the walk-in cooler.”
“Whaaat?” Kit drew out the word in disbelief. “That’s not a practical joke. That’s dangerous and terrifying and just wrong. Poor Jules. How long was she stuck in there?”
“Just a few minutes.” Theo gave her a slight nod, as if he approved of her horrified response. “Jules is claustrophobic, so she started screaming. I was at the diner—the original diner, not here—heard her, and let her out.”
“No wonder you call Vicki a psychopath.” Kit made a mental note to never, ever be alone in the kitchen with the cook. Although she could take care of herself, she didn’t want to have to bring the woman down for some crazy stunt. Quiet settled over them again, but Kit refused to lose the momentum of their previous conversation and allow them to settle into awkwardness again. “Is that how you met Jules?”
“No.” Jules was the one who answered as she poured Kit a cup of coffee. Kit hid her surprise. She’d been trying so hard to keep the other three talking that she’d missed Jules’s arrival. “I met him a little before that, but I thought he was kind of rude.” Kit turned her amused snort in a cough. Theo definitely wasn’t the friendliest sort. Hugh didn’t even try to hide his booming laugh, but Jules ignored it and continued. “When he swooped in to rescue me, I started to see him in a whole new light.” She lightly bumped him with her hip, and he snaked an arm around her, giving her an adoring look that seemed so out of place on his harsh features.
“How long have you two been dating?” Kit asked, honestly curious now instead of just tossing out conversational topics randomly to see if one would stick.
Jules tilted her head, as if thinking, just as Theo said, “Three months next week.”
“Really?” Jules asked. “It’s been that long?”
Before Theo could answer, a new voice—a voice that was gruff and deep and put Kit’s belly butterflies on high alert—spoke. “Excuse me.”
Everyone at the table twisted around to stare at Wes. In fact, Kit realized, the entire diner had silenced, and all eyes were staring at their table… No, they were staring at Wes. It bothered her that everyone in town treated him like he was some wild, dangerous creature. It wasn’t like the rest of the area residents—with their shotguns and paranoia and bombed-out buildings—were the picture of normalcy. Indignation on his behalf bubbled up inside her, and she smiled at him more fiercely because of it.
He was even bigger than she remembered—bigger and hairier. In his tower, he fit into his surroundings, among the rocks and trees and solitary cliffs. Here at the VFW, he seemed out of place, too wild and rugged for the cozy dining room.
“Hey there, March.” Hugh greeted him calmly enough, although his eyebrows flew up high on his forehead. “What can we help you with?”
“Nothing.”
