At this point, I’d believe in anything.
Willard tightened his arms around me and laid his head on my breast. I wept, not for him, but for me, for Easton, for my parents, for the life I’d never know. The air choked me, the smoke infiltrated my lungs, burned my throat and eyes as the flames got hotter, higher, and hellish. Sweat broke over my skin. The fire inched into the room, traveling up the doorframe, reminding me of a monster reaching out from under the bed, the fiery tendrils grasping the wall in a sensual manner, teasing me with its danger.
It was becoming harder to breathe.
I coughed, and my vision swayed. I glanced to my left, seeing the wooden letter blocks hanging from the ceiling.
N. O. R. A. and they slowly fell to the ground as the heat melted the strings attaching them to the ceiling.
He brought me to the room his wife built for his daughter.
For me.
No. He was wrong.
“Easton,” I croaked for him through the soot gathering in my throat. “Easton.” A tear left my eye, not even the heat of the fire could extinguish the pain in my tears or the love I had for him.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
My entire world was falling apart around me.
This damn house was cursed, but not for anyone else, just for me.
If I was a Hampton, death wanted me to crumble with the rest of the house just like the past had. I’d be cremated into the ground, become what used to be. I closed my eyes as the flames roared and let my mind drift.
My life flashed before my eyes, and all I saw was a flipbook of me and Easton. I smiled when all I felt was happiness and love.
“I love you,” I whispered to him, hoping he could hear me. I regretted never telling him that I loved him because I loved him all along.
“I love you too,” Willard said as the roar of the fire wrapped around the room, and the glass of the window shattered from the heat.
It was wrong of me.
But I imagined Willard being Ethan telling me he loved me. I ran with it in my dreams and let the fire consume me.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Easton
We checked everywhere for Luna, but when the call came in that another fire had lit up the Hampton mansion, I knew that she was there. It was a sick feeling, something that took over my body and paralyzed me with fear.
I wasn’t on duty. I was on leave until my arm healed, so Evan was with me when we pulled up to the house to see black smoke curling over the roof of the Hampton house.
“Don’t even think about going in there,” Evan slapped a hand against my chest. “Let the firefighters do their job.”
I pushed him away, angry and ready to kill. “Fuck you. That’s Luna. My Luna.” I pounded my chest, spit flying in all directions. “Our Luna. You’re going to let me in there.” I was determined to get in that house, and I didn’t care who I had to take down to get inside. The love of my life was in there, waiting for me, and honestly, if anyone dared get in my way, I might kill someone. I didn’t want to think about if this was a diversion, if this was a trick, and she wasn’t in there. I had no idea how I’d live my life.
“You’re going to die if you do.”
“I don’t care.”
‘We do!” he shouted and took out his cuffs. “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.” He unclipped his handcuffs. Before he could get them on me, I lifted my leg and kicked him right between the balls and then punched him in the face with the arm that was cast. He fell to the ground in a useless heap as the firefighters hooked up the hose and started to spray water on the house.
I only had a minute to get in there.
I ran toward the entrance while my name was shouted behind me, but I didn’t care about that. My main goal was Luna and to get to her. I kicked open the door and immediately smelled gasoline. To the right, half of the house was already on the ground in ruin from the fire from so many years ago, but to the left, a new fired was alive
and well. I didn’t care about getting burned again; I didn’t care about dying; I just needed to get to Luna.