She pressed her lips tight. “Me too. The fire took the last and only picture I had of my son.”
Heaviness weighed over me.
Her eyes glistened with tears and she breathed in, sniffling but the wetness didn’t fall from her eyes. Her strength surpassed mine. “I don’t want to talk about it anymore. It hurts too much to think about. I miss him every day, but his hospital bracelet and photo were inside my knapsack.”
I pulled her into my lap, my embrace crushing her, keeping her tight to me. Her body trembled. Her breaths were shallow and short. “Let me take your pain away,” I whispered into her ear.
Her cheeks were flushed. Her hands came up to my neck, icy cold. She ran her fingers through my hair. “You can’t. No one can.”
My forehead pressed firm against hers. I wouldn’t take that as an answer. I wanted to lay her down on the sofa and kiss her pain away.
“I don’t know how I would have raised Noah with Benjamin in prison, on my own.” Ariella winced. “I’m sorry.”
“About what?” Why was she apologizing to me?
She kissed my cheek before she moved her head to rest on my shoulder. “I don’t know how you do it.” She paused for a beat, exhaling a heavy sigh. “Raise a daughter by yourself. It’s impressive to me that you’re a single father and you work full-time.”
“Maybe it will comfort you to know that we believe you and your ex-husband were set up,” I said.
She pulled back from my embrace. I thought hearing that would have made her happy. “What?”
“Blue Sky Resort requested that we run a background check on you before you were hired. I didn’t dig too deep, once I connected you were married to Benjamin Ryan, I admit, I lost my shit.”
“Is that an apology?” Ariella asked, tilting her head before climbing off my lap. I didn’t want her to pull away.
“It might be,” I said. “Mason kept digging and discovered your previous employer. There were a number of questionable transactions that were traced back to the C.I.A. Mason brought up that someone might have set you and Benjamin up.”
“Who would set him up? Unless they were also setting me up but why? Could there be a mole in the organization, someone that set me up to take the fall?”Rubbing her temples, she leaned forward, her head in her hands.
I hoped she wasn’t about to get sick. I wanted to take her back with me to Eagle Tactical, but I wasn’t sure she’d be willing to go.
The anger quelled and dissipated as her body relaxed. “I never thought I would want to thank Mason,” she said.
“You’ll have your chance.”
“Benjamin wasn’t guilty?” Her voice was soft, reflective of the news. “He’s serving a 150-year term in federal prison for securities fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, the list goes on. Gosh, I’m such an asshole.” She pulled away from my touch. “I told him I hated him, that I never wanted to see him or talk to him again.”
I hadn’t considered the fact she might still have harbored feelings for her ex-husband. If he wasn’t guilty, what chance did I have that she’d even want to be with me? I ran a hand through my short hair and needed to change the subject fast. The whole thought of Ariella feeling guilty and wanting to be with him again made bile rise into my throat.
“That aside,” I said and cleared my throat. “We have more pressing matters. You mentioned earlier that the thugs who attacked you demanded four million dollars.”
“That’s right. I don’t have that kind of money. If I did, do you think I’d be living in the woods without electricity or accessible heat?”
She had accessible heat. It may not have been the easiest method to warm the place up, but the cabin still could be kept plenty warm. I held my tongue. There was no sense fighting over a cabin that had burned to the ground. The fire department would take at least twenty minutes to climb the mountain, and whatever water the truck had would be all they could use.
Twenty minutes was too long to save the cabin, but it would stop the destruction from spreading and turning the forest into a giant tinder box. The wail of sirens on their approach echoed outside and through the canopy of trees.
“I don’t have that kind of money either, but I think there’s another way.” I headed for the window, staring outside at the heavy blackness like clouds that billowed to the sky for a moment before turning around to give her my attention.
Ariella stood slowly, folding the blanket back to its original shape. Each corner perfectly lined up to match. “I would love nothing more than never to lay eyes on those men again, but I know if we don’t stop them, next time will be worse.”
She placed the Sherpa blanket over the back of the sofa where I’d grabbed it from earlier. “Do you think they’re somehow responsible for the fire?” she asked. Ariella walked ever so quietly. Her footsteps were silent to the ear. Had I not been watching from the corner of my eye, I never would have known she stood beside me.
I turned and watched the plume of smoke.
“Can we go outside and watch?” Her voice was soft and tentative. Was she afraid I’d tell her no?
While I wasn’t keen on taking her with me, I wanted to survey the scene and determine if evidence had been left behind out in the open. If the firemen hadn’t arrived yet, maybe we could spot tire tracks or footprints. Years of tactical and military training told me this wasn’t an accident. It was risky but I wasn’t going to let anything happen to Ariella.