Autumn was sleeping next to a starfished Lydia when a loud shriek pierced her dream. An overwhelming volume of sirens cut through the silence of the night, making her heart hammer against her ribcage. She sat up and looked around, suppressing a chuckle when she saw her sister’s undisturbed slumber. Blue lights were flashing through the window behind her like a frenzied disco.
Curious, she climbed out of bed and looked through the thick glass at the back of the house, blinking as the fire engines whizzed past. They continued north along the road until they were out of her sight, the high pitched alarms fading into the night.
In her bare feet, she padded out of the bedroom and into the living room, perplexed when she could see an orange glow flickering through the window facing the beach. She licked her dry lips and pulled at the curtain, her feet frozen to the spot as she saw where the color was coming from.
The pier was on fire.
Large flames were licking up against the darkness of the sky, the grey smoke curling and dancing in the night time breeze. She wrenched open the door, and the sound of the blaze hit her. Little pieces of ash were drifting past the cottage.
Without thinking, she began to run, her bare feet pounding against the cool sand. Her breath was short, panicked, and with every stride she completed, the heat of the air increased.
It was every owner’s worst nightmare. The reason insurance was so damn high on the wood-and-iron constructions. In spite of the frothing ocean beneath, pier fires were a dime a dozen. Their materials were combustible, the construction and electrical wiring often out of date, and more than anything, they were hard for firefighters to access, meaning it took longer than usual to douse any flames.
She was panting, her legs flying as she got closer still. Firefighters were pulling hoses from the engines parked at the base of the pier, their movements fast but considered, as they entered the burning edifice.
As she got closer, she could see the fire was consuming Delmonico’s and her office. Everybody had left, hadn’t they? She remembered Pietro saying goodnight before she’d sat down with Ally and Lydia in the office. He’d locked up the restaurant and all his staff were gone.
The fairground rides had been taken down and put back onto the trucks that had driven them away. The stage was still up, but she didn’t care about that. Her eyes darted this way and that as she scanned the pier, her chest screaming from the speed she was running.
Then her gaze landed on the Ocean Explorer. Griff’s boat. He’d left the pier hours ago. Please god, don’t let him have come back for any reason. She blinked, her eyes watering from a combination of the smoke, salty air, and fear.
The smoke was so thick as she reached the end of the pier, choking her lungs as she tried desperately to stop breathing it in. When she reached the boardwalk she slowed, lifting her gaze to the orange flames as tears rolled down her face.
The heat scorched her nose and throat as she hurried along the wide concrete path. A crowd of onlookers had gathered, held back by caution tape the firefighters had placed. A few of them turned to look at her, blinking as she walked toward them. She looked down and remembered she was only wearing a thin tank and a pair of tiny sleep shorts, with nothing on her feet.
With her hair tangled and knotted, she must' look like a crazy woman.
What sounded like thunder rumbled ahead of her, even though there were no clouds in the sky. She looked to see Griff running at twice the speed she had, his face twisted with emotion as he reached her.
“Thank god,” he said. “I thought you might be in there.” He pointed at the burning pier.
She blinked back stinging tears. “I thought you might be, too.”
He looked like he was going to hug her, but then he stepped back, shaking his head to move his hair from his eyes. Standing with the blazing fire reflected in his gaze, he looked every inch a wild man.
“Do you know if there’s anybody stuck on the pier?” she shouted over the noise of the flames and the firefighters, fear clenching her chest in a vice grip. “I know Pietro went home, and everything looked empty when I left tonight, but…” she trailed off as she turned to look at the blaze again. Please God, don’t let anybody get hurt.
“Not that I know of. I came with Lucas and he’s been briefed by the team. They think it was empty.”
“Thank god,” she whimpered, her legs trembling. Her whole body quivered, as though the ground beneath her was vibrating. Her teeth started to chatter. Griff was looking over her shoulder at something, and she followed his gaze.
“Oh Griff, your boat,” she said, clamping her hand over her mouth. It wasn’t simply her pier that the blaze was destroying. Those flames were eating up Griff’s livelihood, and the Delmonico’s, too. Her body shook uncontrollably as she watched the firefighters train water onto the flames, trying to beat the blaze into submission.
“Forget about the boat,” Griff said, his brows pinching together. “It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it does.” A sob escaped her lips. “It was your grandfather’s fishing boat. You told me that. And Delmonico’s. All that history being destroyed.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke.
“You’re cold,” he said, his voice strangely calm. “Here, take my shirt.” He deftly unbuttoned it and lifted it around her shoulders, but the shivers didn’t ease at all. She was finding it hard to breathe. Any air she managed to inhale felt like fire against her throat. Her chest rose and fell quickly in an effort to get the oxygen she needed.
“I think you’re in shock.” Griff put his hands on her arms, rubbing them fast to try and get some warmth into her, but nothing in her was responding.
In spite of the heat radiating from the pier, she felt so cold. As though ice had replaced the blood in her veins, and was freezing every organ. The tremors in her body increased, making her shake like crazy, her legs barely able to keep her standing.
A moment later, they buckled beneath her, and she was falling to the concrete. That’s when she felt them – those strong, sure arms, wrapping themselves around her and saving her from impact.
He lifted her against him with a whoosh, her frozen skin pressed against his heated chest. She turned her face against him, her skin desperate for warmth, as she tried to keep breathing.
“Stay with me, baby. It’s going to be okay,” he murmured into her hair. She tried to mumble that she wasn’t planning on doing anything else, but the words froze against her tongue. The last thing she heard before everything turned black was Griff’s worried voice.
“Any paramedics here?” he shouted out. “I need a goddamn medic right now.”
“Is Autumn okay?” Ally asked Griff as she and Nate carried crates of coffee over to the fire crews and onlookers.
Griff was sitting next to the ambulance. Inside, the paramedics had managed to warm Autumn up with a heated blanket that was still enveloping her. She was awake and talking to them, though the shivers hadn’t quite gone away.
He could hear her telling them she was wasting their time. They had much more important people to take care of, that she would be fine if they let her leave.
Griff’s lips twitched, relief flooding through him. “Yeah, she sounds better. They’re getting her warm and she’s bitching, so that’s good.”
Ally laughed, looking relieved. “She’s had such a bad day. With her dad and then you.” Her voice was pointed. “And now the pier. No wonder it got to be too much.”
“Yeah, well a lot of that is my fault.” He pressed his lips together. “I was a dick.”
“Glad you realize that.” Ally gave him a tight smile. “Here, have a coffee. You look like you could do with a warming up yourself.”
From a brief chat he’d had with Lucas, the fire was under control, but still burning. The worst of it had hit the restaurant and the office, but there was smoke damage to everything that wasn’t burned. Not that he gave a shit. Everybody was safe and that’s all that mattered.
Just thinking about Autumn being in the office only hours before made him want to throw up.
He should have been with her when she found out about the fire. If he hadn’t been such an ass, he would have been. She and Lydia were supposed to stay at his place, after all.
Lydia…
“Have you seen Autumn’s sister?” he asked Ally, his brows dipping.
“No.” Ally shook her head. “She left the pier when we did and headed home.” Her eyes widened. “You think she’s still asleep at the cottage?”
“She could be.”
“I’ll get somebody to go and check on her.” Ally nodded at him. “You stay here with Autumn.”
“Wasn’t planning on going anywhere else.”
“She loves you, you know?”
He swallowed hard. “No, I didn’t know.” But it warmed him more than the coffee cupped between his palms. “I know I love her, though.” And that the thought of losing her made him feel sick. “If she’d been on the pier when…” his voice cracked, and he looked down.
Ally set the extra coffees down and slid her arm around his shoulders. “She wasn’t,” she said softly. “She’s fine. You told me yourself. Don’t start beating yourself up for things that aren’t your fault.” She bumped her shoulder against his. “Beat yourself up for being an asshole instead.”
He huffed out a laugh. “Thanks.”
“Hey, I just say it as I see it.” Ally stood and grabbed the tray of coffees. “You guys have some talking to do.”
“Yeah, we do. But not now.” He glanced into the ambulance again. “Now I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
Ally’s face softened. “She’s a lucky woman. We all care about her.”
He couldn’t help but feel like he was the lucky one. From the moment Lucas got the call about the pier, Griff had been beside himself with anxiety. The two of them had run from his apartment to the pier, and as soon as he saw the blaze he’d wanted to run to the office to be sure she wasn’t there.
It had taken all of Lucas’s strength to hold him back.
Then, when he saw her running along the beach, her body orange from the reflected flames, a sense of relief had washed over him. So strong he’d almost laughed out loud from it. All he’d wanted to do was scoop her up and take her far away from the danger.
But that wasn’t Autumn. She didn’t run away from things, she confronted them. He could learn a thing or two from that.
“I don’t think we’re going to be able to keep her in there much longer,” one of the paramedics told him as they climbed down from the ambulance. “And she refuses to come to the hospital to get checked out. Do you have somewhere you can take her and keep her warm?”
“Yeah.” Griff nodded. “I’ll take her home.”
“Good. Her temperature’s almost back to normal, and there are no other signs of distress. She needs to get some sleep, but it’ll be better if you’re there in case of any trouble. If she gets cold again, call nine-one-one right away.”
“I will.” He nodded. “Thank you.” Taking care of her was all he wanted to do.
Tonight and forever.
He’d lost her once today. He wasn’t planning on doing it again.
Autumn sat up suddenly, panic taking over her body. There’d been a fire! She tried to scramble out of bed only to find a strong, warm hand restraining her.
“It’s okay. You’re okay,” Griff murmured as he leaned over the bed from where he was sitting on a wooden dining chair. Had he been sitting there all night? It looked uncomfortable as hell. He must have knots in the knots of his muscles.
“What’s happening with the fire?” she asked him, looking down at her body. She was wearing one of his t-shirts and a thick pair of leggings.
“It’s out. Lucas called about a half an hour ago.”
She let out a sigh of relief. “Did he say what the damage is?”
“The restaurant and the office are gone, but the front part of the pier is unharmed. They’ll inspect it later this morning. We should know more then.”
Autumn nodded, feeling her eyes well with tears. “And your boat?”
“It’s damaged. I don’t know how badly.”
“Oh god. I’m so sorry.” The tears spilled over as she reached out to touch his arm.
He covered her hand with his own. “It’s okay. Nobody was hurt, and that’s all I care about right now. Insurance can sort out the rest.”
“I’ll need to call mine first thing. I should probably make a list.” She looked around. Why had Griff brought her here instead of taking her home? “Oh damn, I left my purse at home.” Another thought occurred to her, and her mouth dropped open. “Lydia,” she whispered. “I left the door open. She’s still there.” She tried to scramble to her knees. “I need to get back.”
“Lydia’s here.” Griff inclined his head to the bedroom door. “She’s sleeping on the sofa. And… uh, somebody else is here to check on you, too.”
Autumn frowned. “Who?”
He cleared his throat. “Your dad. He came as soon as Lydia called him.”
“Dad’s here?” She glanced at the door, not sure how to feel about that.
“He’s worried about you,” Griff said. “We all are.”
“Don’t tell me Josh is here, too.”
He gave a little laugh. “I think he knew better. Or your dad did. Whatever. He’s leaving first thing for New York.”
Autumn felt the tears welling again. Where the hell were they all coming from? She didn’t cry. She hadn’t even shed a single tear when her divorce came through. Yet here she was, a snivelling mess.
If she wasn’t so exhausted, she’d be embarrassed.
“You probably think this is payback for me buying the pier when I was drunk.”
“I don’t,” he murmured. “I think it’s crap and it never should’ve happened to you. You’ve been through enough.” He looked at his hands. “There’s so much I want to tell you, but it’s about an hour until dawn and you should get some sleep. We have a hell of a lot to do once the sun is up.”
She raised her eyebrow at his use of ‘we’, but didn’t comment. Now wasn’t the time. There was one thing she wanted to know, though. “These clothes. How did I get into them?”
“You want to know if I stripped you and took advantage?” Griff raised an eyebrow. He sat back on the chair and she missed the warmth of his hand against her hip.
“I’m sorry. I was just wondering…”
He smiled. “It’s okay. Lydia helped you get into the shower. Those leggings are hers. I gave her the t-shirt so you’d have some modesty when you were in bed. I figured you wouldn’t want to wake up in here naked.”
She remembered the way she’d woken up naked yesterday morning, his lips dragging against her skin. Before any of this happened. The thought made her heart ache a little more. She wrapped her arms around her abdomen, but it wasn’t enough to stop another shiver wrack down her spine.
“You’re cold. Get back under the covers and get some sleep.” He nodded at the door. “I’ll let your family know you’re okay.”
“But you’re coming back, right?”
“I got nowhere else to go.” He shrugged as he headed out. “Lydia called the sofa, and your dad’s made his home on the love seat.
She could have pointed out that he had a spare room, one that still had Lydia’s things lined up neatly next to the bed. But she didn’t want to, because the thought of being alone made her breath catch in her throat.
He was back within a minute. “They’re both half asleep. I told them you’re okay, but going to try to get some more rest.”
“Thank you.”
He flashed her a half-smile. “No worries.” He sat back down on the dining chair. His body made it look like a piece of dollhouse furniture.
“That looks uncomfortable.”
“I’ve slept in worse.”
She licked her dry lips, trying to find the right words. “You could sleep in here if you like? The bed’s big enough.”
His wary eyes met hers. “It’s okay.”
No, it wasn’t. It felt far from okay. “I want you to sleep here,” she admitted. “Please.”
His brows lifted. “You sure?”
She nodded. “I want you for your body warmth.”
This time his smile was full on. “Why didn’t you say so?” he asked, climbing into bed beside her. She felt the mattress dip under his weight, then his arms slid around her as his chest pressed against her back.
“This okay?” he asked softly.
“Yeah,” she breathed. It was more than okay. She opened her mouth to say more, but a combination of his warmth and his protection made her feel tired again, and she felt exhaustion over take her.
They’d talk later in the morning. Hopefully things would be clearer then.
For now, she’d just escape into the blackness.