Silent Echoes Part 42

"You want to go home?" Ian cringed as soon as he asked. "I mean, to-"

She nodded. "I know what you mean."

"Should we tell your folks?"

"Mama likes her beauty sleep."

He carried Taylor to the truck, lifted her into the cab and ran a hand along her arm, noting the singed hairs. Watching the woman he loved stand in the middle of a raging inferno couldn't have been scarier. His heart hadn't stopped racing until the moment she'd run out, and he'd splayed his hands along her functioning and very alive body.

Around to the driver's seat, he began the trek to take her away from her nightmare.

She leaned into him, his arm wrapped around her. "I tried to save-I could have-I just-I failed."

He took her slowed speech to be a reflection of using the wind so heavily. "Are you kidding me?" He drove onto Tripp and Lexi's road. "This isn't on you. This is on a f.u.c.king maniac of a Greek G.o.d. Running us off track with varying stories, no consistency and no way to prepare. The whole situation has Zeus written all over it."

A jerk of her shoulders came as she said, "He didn't know everything, either, Ian. How is this fair to him?"

Ian drove them into Lexi and Tripp's driveway and stopped the engine. He turned to her and stared into her eyes. "Why do you care about him?"

She closed her lids but reopened them. "Because it's not right, and I think it's all my fault. I'm the only one with the tattoo. I did give myself to him. And, as Mama is my witness, that ties me to him. I should have-"

Ian palmed his forehead. "I can't believe this. The guy tries to kill you, and you think it's your fault. I'm going to need therapy."

A small laugh-cry escaped Taylor.

Ian's lips curved. "What?"

"I'm the one with issues, and you need therapy?"

"Yes. It's going to take years for me to learn how to make you not believe this is your fault." Ian held out a finger. "He did this, not you. Not me. Not you to me. Not you to him. He killed you three times. And ... do you realize what happened to him tonight is everything that happened to you at once? He died in a fire, crushed under wood, and if you add in the water from the fire trucks ... he kinda drowned, too."

"I tried to get him to come out with me." Her lids fell again. "I tried to make him understand." Taylor blinked gla.s.sy eyes at Ian.

He leaned his forehead to hers, took her hands in his and scratched at his ring finger. "I know, babe, but there's nothing you could have done to convince him."

"Why would Zeus torture people like this?"

"Have you ever read about the stuff he did? Or any of the Greek G.o.ds for that matter? Lexi and Tripp got off easy." Ian laid his lips against the top of Taylor's head and heaved a sigh. "All the good Greek stories are tragedies."

"And ours? Are we a tragedy?"

"You asked me before if I thought the game was over, and I didn't, but now I do. It makes sense to have three people-a triangle." He tapped his own temple. "That's a game. One that crosses the ages, too. And in them, two people usually win. But no matter what, one always loses."

"But, he didn't have to die!" Tears fell in great sobs.

Ian wrapped his arms around her. "I know, but in all good Greek tragedies, someone dies. It's like fulfillment for the players and ... the creators."

"What do you mean?"

Ian heaved a sigh. "In all the research I did about Tripp's gift, I learned a lot about Greek tragedies. This, now that we know there are three, is like the perfect match to history. The timing is consistent with the performance dates. The plays were actually compet.i.tions between three playwrights, which at one point all had linked stories. And ..." Ian chuckled at the memory of what he'd found so long ago. "They were always performed in the open air. Like tonight. What a coincidence, right?"

Taylor scratched at her finger. "I guess. I just hate that he-"

"I know, but, Taylor? We won. We won."

She pressed the b.u.t.ton on the overhead map light and held her finger up into it.

"What's wrong-oh-wow!" Ian brought his into the same stream of illumination.

"Double wow," Taylor said.

The blue of their tattoo-like rings darkened, the last connector etching itself into their skin.

Both of theirs.

"You know what?" Ian asked. "I'm just going to go with this and pretend it's as normal as a sunrise on a cloudless day. Are you with me?"

Taylor's gaze never faltered as she said, "Always."

34.

In the bright, early morning suns.h.i.+ne, the yellow caution tape surrounding the exterior of Taylor's house gleamed. Ian stood at the edge of the makes.h.i.+ft barricade, staring at what used to be the floor. The outer siding had melted and curled onto itself, falling to the ground and shriveling up.

He'd been ogling the nearly flat structure for at least ten minutes while the Chief of Rune Fire walked Taylor and Riley around, confirming, with finger pointing, where the blaze started, how it spread and squas.h.i.+ng eruptions they'd thought snuffed but relit like a set of joke birthday candles.

"Well, I think that's it." Greg held out his hand. "Except for this."

Ian peered over Taylor's shoulder. A simple square of velvet lay in his palm.

"It was in the middle of the kitchen." He pressed fingers to his eyes. "I know you said your friend was in here, Taylor, but we find no evidence of him at all. Not even a bone fragment. There's nothing, yet this little piece of fabric survived."

"Isn't that kinda odd?" Ian's mind whirled with possibilities.

"May I keep it?" Taylor asked.

Greg dropped it onto her palm. "That's the thing about fires. They take what they want. They don't always take what you expect."

Ian couldn't have said it better.

"I a.s.sume you have arrangements to stay elsewhere?"

"I do, yes. Thanks," Taylor said.

Emma said *everyone in town knows everything'. As soon as Taylor's house burned, people from multiple neighborhoods came out, offering their help and consolation. Food arrived on platters, yet with nowhere to store it and Lexi's weak stomach, it went to the downtown food kitchen as a donation.

"All righty then." Greg tipped his hat. "Once the heat is gone, we'll do a more thorough inspection, but I'm pretty sure we all already know what happened." He laid his hand on Taylor's shoulder. "Sorry you had to witness that, Taylor. Some people, though ... you know, they just aren't right in the mind, and their pain leeches into others in ways we think unspeakable." He patted her again. "You'll rebuild, right? We don't want you to leave."

The smallest of smiles breached Taylor's serious expression. "Probably." She shrugged, but her hand clenched.

Greg walked away.

Taylor and Ian stood, staring at the plot of land before them. Taylor heaved a sigh before she turned to Ian; her arms enveloped him and squeezed. "You were right."

"Of course I was."

She chuckled against him. "I couldn't sleep last night."

"I know. I was right next to you. Dreams again?"

She shook her head. "This time was because ... well ... I don't want to rebuild here. I-I was actually thinking this ground should be sacred. It's tied to too much out of this weird stuff, but how would I justify that to Mama and Daddy when they helped me with the down payment and-"

Ian's lips stopped her flow. When their kiss slowed, he said, "You want a new house? I know just the person to ask."

a a a Taylor stared out the window as Ian drove them back to Lexi and Tripp's. With their super-late arrival and super-early departure again, they hadn't seen each other.

Lexi ran out, her arms encircling Taylor as she and Ian walked from the truck. "Oh, holy s.h.i.+t, Zeus needs to be smacked on his a.s.s and put in a time out."

"You're not going to talk to your kid like that, are you?" Ian asked, a slight chuckle in his voice.

Lexi continued to hug Taylor as Tripp joined them on the porch. "Don't ask her anything. She'll either bite your head off or hug and kiss you." His hands went to his crotch, covering it as if he'd learned his lesson the wrong way.

"That's what pregnancy will do, right?" Ian asked.

"That's what twins will do." Emma plopped into one of the rocking chairs.

"Twins?" Taylor and Ian said at the same time.

Lexi jumped and hugged Taylor again as Ian slapped Tripp's back with his palm. "Well, d.a.m.n. You must be good."

Tripp's shoulders lifted and fell. "Must be." A giant grin took hold of his face. "Makes even more sense now why her mood swings are so rampant."

Lexi let go and turned back to Tripp, one hand on the slight bulge in her midsection.

"So, do you know what you're having?" Taylor snuggled into the crook of Ian's arm.

"Nope. Not going to find out, either," Lexi said.

"Much to her sister and very best friend's heartache." Emma rocked back and forth. "How am I going to shop for a s.e.xless baby? Worse, how am I going to shop for two of them?"

The crunch of gravel took all their attentions as Riley's car joined Taylor's truck in the driveway. Taylor caught the slight adjustment in Emma's posture, the quick finger under the nose and over her hair.

"Mornin', ya'll," he said as he came forward.

Taylor moved to him, put her hands on his cheeks and kissed him smack on the lips. "He's dead, Riley."

"I know." Riley wiped the kiss off as if he were ten and not thirty-three. "Dammit, Tay. I do not need your cooties." The group behind her laughed as Ian took her hand and brought her back into the fold of his arms. "Actually, I came to see how you were doing."

"I'll survive," she said.

He toed the ground with his work boot, though the jeans and red c.o.ke T-s.h.i.+rt said *off-duty'. "Good, good. I'm glad you ... made it. The both of ya."

Tripp and Ian both held their fists out. Riley b.u.mped them both.

"You have something to say, don't you, Riley?" Taylor asked.

Riley gave them a small nod. "Um ... I found out how the search warrant came through two days before you found the bones."

The entire group turned to him.

Riley scratched at the side of his nose. "I hate to say it, but it seems Jeremy Faine's been ... well ... taking some bribes. He's been under investigation for some stuff I can't say about ... and I did some of my own investigation. Seems someone else had put two and two together before me. Saw the report this morning."

"That must have been why he came after me so hard," Taylor said. "So, what's up with him?"

"Ah ..." Riley ran a hand through his hair. "I can't say. I'm sure the news will get wind, though. Maybe just wait for that. He won't be any trouble from now on, though." Riley bundled Taylor in another hug. "I'm just so glad this is over. Forever."

A sense of peace washed over Taylor. It is over. All of it.

"Call me if you need me, Tay." Riley saluted as he went back to his car.

"Riley, wait." Ian drew himself away from Taylor, stepped to Riley and took him away from the porch, their heads bent close to each other.

Riley stopped. He made no move forward or back. A second later, he pulled Ian into a great big bear hug, turned toward Taylor and smiled.

"Looks like the cat and the mouse are eating together," Lexi said.

"No doubt," Emma said.

Ian sauntered back toward the group as Riley continued on to his car.

"What gives, Yankee boy?" Emma asked, a smirk in her tone.

Ian stuffed his hand in his pocket. "Just a word of thanks."

Lexi tugged at Taylor's sleeve. "So, I'm sure you're tired and-"

Taylor shook her head. "Actually, I want to work. I need to. I owe my crew pay checks and tiles and-"

Ian draped his arm across her shoulders. "My kind of girl."

Finally.