The Shepherd (The Game 6)

To be honest, I needed more to do. One more sub to talk to, one more text to send. Anything that distracted me from looking at the house.

The smell was overpowering in places, depending where the wind swept through. And I knew that was why River and Reese took off with Shay as quickly as possible. Regardless of the responsibilities the brothers faced here, dealing with the firefighters and so on, Shay was in and out of panic, and he’d kept chanting about the smell. The smell of burning electrics. It was one of two smells you couldn’t forget. The other being the smell of burning flesh.

August, Ivy, and Ev left shortly after. With Ivy being pregnant, she needed safety—and clean air.

Kingsley and Tate arrived only to see if there was anything they could do, and what could we tell them? We didn’t know ourselves. The fire was out. The entire downstairs area of the house was damaged and drenched. We couldn’t enter if we wanted to. They had to launch an entire investigation to see what could be saved, and that wasn’t happening tonight.

“I can’t believe this.” Tate stared up at the house with tears in his eyes.

I didn’t follow his gaze. I kept my back to the house and watched Lucas wrap up a conversation with the EMTs. Looked like they were ready to move out.

“I don’t understand what could’ve caused this.” Tate shook his head, baffled.

Kingsley and I were perhaps less shocked, even though we were still…shocked.

“It’s an old house,” Kingsley said. And that said a lot.

“But we’re meticulous about safety!” Tate argued. “From boring fire drills to inspections. And didn’t we change the insulation, like, three years ago? I remember we couldn’t use the playrooms for two months.”

We had, but sometimes that wasn’t enough.

“Everything can be up to code and still go wrong.” I shrugged and scratched my jaw. “We’ll have to wait and see what the fire marshal says.”

“I’m betting on the electrics,” our former Navy technician said. These days, Kingsley installed and repaired elevators all over the DC area, but not too many years ago, he’d been in charge of hydraulics and other shit on board destroyers and aircraft carriers. “In an old house like this one, it’s always electrics.” He’d get no argument from me. I’d restored an old house. “This is gonna give River and Reese grays.”

Amen. The fire marshal could very well detect shitty work behind the walls, and all of a sudden, it’d be a case of the insurance company wanting a defunct business from the fifties to foot the bill.

“It’d be nice to not depend on the insurance money,” Tate said. “Let’s face it, it’s gonna take time. But we have over 150 members.”

I cocked my head.

“What’re you thinking?” Kingsley asked.

Tate shrugged. “We should get together and raise some money. We could do an auction, for instance. Proceeds going straight to the rebuild.”

I threw a reluctant glance over my shoulder, toward the house. And I sighed and turned back to Tate. “It’s an easy 100K, pet.”

“Minimum,” Kingsley added.

Tate was undeterred. “We gotta start somewhere. Maybe we’ll only raise half of it, or, fuck, 25%. It’ll still get us a 25% head start.”

Valid point.

It was something to consider—but not tonight.

“We’re hosting an extra munch on Sunday,” I told them. “We could discuss it then. Safe to say, next weekend’s Game is officially canceled. Or postponed.”

Kingsley nodded with a dip of his chin.

“So there’s nothing we can do now?” Tate wondered. “Who’s still around?”

I ran a hand through my hair, thinking, and made a face. I needed a shower.

“I assume Colt, Kit, and Lucas are staying the night,” I responded. “Kit was distraught at seeing Colt’s arm burned, so he brought Colt to their cabin for first aid. Corey’s in and out of distress too—but that’s an onion with a dozen layers. We’re bringing him home with us in a minute. They’re in my cabin now.” Who had I missed? Oh, right. “The KC/Lucian clan are here too. The rest, I think, have taken off.” I nodded toward the carport where the last cars were about to leave. “Penelope and Ella are off too.”

“River, Reese, and Shay?” Tate asked hesitantly. “I can’t imagine what they’re going through.”

Me either. “They left a while ago.”

Sloan, Archie, Corey, and I were hopefully next. Right now, I just wanted to go home. Shower. Sit up all night and stare at a wall, probably.

“We’ll be back in the morning, baby.” Kingsley draped an arm around Tate’s shoulders and kissed his temple. “We could bring breakfast and reach out to the Tenleys and see if there’s anything we can do.”

“Feel free to use my cabin if you wanna spend the night,” I offered. “I’m taking my brood home now.”

May the house still stand tomorrow.

For once in my life, I had no problems with absolute silence in the truck.