Chapter Twenty-Four
Foul water will quench fire ~ English proverb
Standing next to Raven in the middle of the town square, surrounded by everyone he knew, a sense of pride fell over him. Here he was with the woman he loved, in the town he fought every day to keep alive.
He couldn’t think of a better place to be. When the band kicked on and he remembered why everyone was gathered there, he realized it could have been for a better reason.
He hadn’t known Rachelle all that well. Each time he’d inspected the resort before Raven had returned, he’d dealt with Colin. Glancing around, he wondered if her aunt and uncle were present tonight.
As the sun sank lower behind the hills, candles were lit along with the town’s string lights and the spotlights that lit up the gazebo.
If it wasn’t for the murder of a woman, the scene could be described as very romantic.
He held onto Raven’s hand with one hand and a candle someone had given them in his other while a bead of sweat rolled down his back.
As fire marshal, he wanted to warn everyone about extinguishing their candles properly, but he knew that the town square was doused every morning with sprinklers, so the grass wasn’t dry.
Besides, when he’d been informed a few days earlier of the event, he’d scheduled his guys to be there with the fire truck parked in plain sight, just in case.
Shortly after nine, the band stopped playing and the mayor got up and spoke for a few moments and then told everyone the event was over due to the town’s noise ordinance. The crowd started to leave.
“You okay?” he asked Raven as they walked back to her car, making their way through the crowd. She’d been quiet since the moment he’d helped her out of her car.
“Yes, I was just…” Suddenly, she jerked forward. Since the pathway was dark and there were a lot of people around him, he hadn’t seen what had happened. He didn’t know if she’d been pushed, or someone had bumped into her by accident.
“Watch it,” he called out and turned to help Raven.
“Bitch,” someone hissed, and this time he saw a young blonde woman lift her hands and shove Raven backwards. Thankfully, he was there to catch her. Immediately, he put his body between hers and the other woman.
“Kim,” Raven said calmly.
“You think you have it all figured out, don’t you?” Kim said, pushing her shorter and smaller frame towards them. She was trying to duck around him and get to Raven.
“It looks like you’re drunk,” Raven replied, holding onto his arm to steady herself as Kim swung her arms frantically around, trying to hit Raven.
“Who do you think you are?” Kim spat. “You think you’re hot shit and can come into town and fire everyone?”
“It’s within my rights as owner,” Raven said calmly.
He took a slap on the shoulder when Kim tried to get to Raven and another one on the opposite arm as the younger woman tried to maneuver around him.
“Cade, I can handle…” Raven started to say.
“Is there a problem here?” Sean stepped towards them.
Kim spun around and, after one look at his uncle in full uniform, she bolted down the street, laughing hysterically. Cade shrugged his shoulders at his uncle, who turned around and headed towards a group of loud people.
“That was fun,” Raven said dryly.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not the one with the bruises.” Cade rubbed at his shoulder.
“Oh.” Raven wrapped her arms around him. “Did the little girl hurt your big…”—her hands wrapped around his biceps— “hard”—she leaned closer to him— “muscles?” She squeezed his arm, and he completely forgot about Kim or the slight sting to his skin.
“Let’s go home,” he said, taking her arm and practically dragging her to his car.
“What about my car?” she asked with a giggle.
“We’ll get it tomorrow.” He opened his car door for her.
Before she could respond, he nudged her inside, ran around, and had the engine roaring. His place was only five minutes outside of town, but thanks to the crowd of people leaving at the same time, it was close to fifteen minutes before they finally pulled into his driveway.
He had yet to cool down and still wanted her just as badly as he had in the town square.
“Raven,” he said, opening her car door for her.
“No, don’t.” She placed a hand over his lips. “Let’s talk later.” She took his hand in his and pulled him towards the house. “After.”
He wasn’t stupid. You didn’t have to tell him something twice. Especially when it came to the possibility of having really great sex with the woman he’d grown to love.
The moment they stepped through the door to his place, she plastered her body against his.
He’d enjoyed the view of her in the little black dress she’d worn that evening. Even though it was extremely modest, he liked the look of her in it. Liked the soft sexy scent that surrounded her everywhere she went. The feeling of her skin against his own when he pulled the dress off of her.
He could no longer hold back his feelings, nor did he want to. With each article of clothing that he removed of hers, he took his time exploring her, savoring her, consuming her.
Somehow, they moved away from the front door and ended up in the kitchen, where he hoisted her naked body onto the bar top and stepped between her thighs. Their lips never left one another as he slowly entered her with her legs wrapped around his hips.
“Tell me,” she asked softly as she sucked his earlobe in between her teeth.
In the middle of the haze of lust, he somehow understood what she was asking.
“I love you.” The words burst from him as if she controlled every aspect of his physical being.
“I love you too,” she said just as he felt her tighten around him, forcing him to lose himself completely in her.
When he regained himself, he hoisted her up in his arms and carried her upstairs to the bedroom. There, they lay in each other’s arms, talking in hushed tones until he felt her drift off to sleep.
It seemed like he’d just fallen asleep himself when the doorbell rang and Blue barked, jolting him awake.
“What?” Raven pushed her hair out of her face and looked around as if she’d forgotten where she was.
“I’ve got this.” He pulled on a pair of sweats and headed downstairs. As he walked by, he grabbed his cell phone, which he’d left in his jeans pocket when he’d tossed them on his living room floor earlier.
Seeing the more than dozen texts and calls from his uncle, he knew automatically who was waking him up at three in the morning.
“Hey.” He answered the door and stood back as Sean walked in.
“Tell me Raven is here with you,” Sean said, stepping in and glancing around. His uncle’s eyes locked onto the sexy black dress she’d been wearing earlier, now draped over a barstool, and he relaxed.
“What’s up?” he asked, glancing towards the stairs.
“Didn’t you read my texts?” Sean asked.
“No, I left my phone downstairs,” Cade answered.
“Along with the rest of your clothes.” Sean pushed aside one of Raven’s heels, which was sitting in the middle of the entryway. “Kim McKinney was murdered.”