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A loud siren wakes me, and before I can process anything, Alaric has already pulled me from the bed. My mind fights to wake up fully, and he pulls me towards the door that leaves the bedroom.
“Alaric, I’m naked!” What the fuck. He releases me and grabs a robe before wrapping it around my body, just to go back to dragging me out of the room. “What is that noise?” I feel him pulling me down, and Jake rushes past. Why did I need dragging out of the room?
“It’s the fire alarm. You need to get outside.” My eyes roll. It’s likely a glitch as I think that we reach the bottom of the stairs and I smell burning. So something is on fire?
He pulls me out and sits me on a bench. I want to help, but I have a feeling if I try to step foot inside again, he will shout at me. The sound of sirens has me turn, and I see the gate opening, and the fire trucks pulling in.
Is this really happening? I hear the garage shutter open and see smoke. Standing, I walk towards it and see Jake trying to put out the fire. Alaric rushes through and pulls him back.
“Don’t risk it,” Alaric speaks and pulls us away as the firemen rush towards it. “I forgot to turn on the damn alarm.” Alaric
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shakes his head. It’s my fault. I tried to taunt him after eating. Had we done through the other way, he would have
remembered to put on the alarm then we would have heard if anyone came in.
I look at the cars, and I want to cry even though they aren’t mine. Alaric stares at them in shock. Shit, why his cars?
The fire is put out a guy walks over to us.
“We found this between the two cars.” He holds up a lighter. Why do I feel this is Max? It’s caused by me again. The guy looks from Alaric to the cars. “You’re lucky your system is linked to signal us otherwise you would have lost more than two cars.”
Is he lucky? Lucky is not having any of his cars burnt. Lucky would be for this to not be happening.
“There’s a note.” The guy points towards the garage, and I watch Alaric follow him to it. Jake walks in and looks across the burnt cars. I won’t go near, if I tried I’m sure Alaric would order me to stay out of there anyway.
Who would do this? Of course Max would, and maybe even Beatrix, but why? I don’t understand what they gain from setting his cars on fire.
“Some beautiful cars.” I turn to the guy, and he smiles, pointing at them. They are, or at least those two were. Now they are
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burnt and destroyed. “You were lucky. If you didn’t have alarms, that amount of cars, no one would have survived when they went up, and the house would have as well.” He explains, but that makes me uneasy.
“Thanks.” What am I meant to say to that? Even I know that if one of those cars exploded, we were dead.
“Sorry, I’m just having a conversation while they finish up the investigation. Plus, I needed to ask you some questions. Did you hear or see anything unusual tonight?”
“No. I was asleep.” We all were. I don’t even know what time it is. “How bad is the damage to the garage itself?” I turn and look at him.
“The roof will need replacing, more for safety reasons.”
My head nods. “So what happens now?” I don’t know.
“Well, the cars will need to be removed, and once the area is clear, someone will need to fully investigate the damage and ensure nothing was missed. An investigation will happen as it wasn’t accidental.”
Of course, it wasn’t.
“I’m Stephan.” He holds out his hand, and I shake it.
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“Ruby,” I reply while watching Alaric speak to someone. The guy is not in uniform, so maybe he’s investigating it.
“So, any plans today?” Stephan’s words have me turn to him.
“Just getting some of my dissertation done, you?” I reply, wondering how long this will take?
“No plans yet. If you have time, would you like to make plans. with me?” He smiles, and I laugh.
“I’m good, thanks.” I refuse his offer and look towards the house.
“Are you sure?” Stephan nudges me.
“I’m spoken for. I’m in a relationship,” I explain, and his eyes go to Jake, and I watch Alaric walk to him and speak.
“How serious is it?” Stephan’s words have me turn to look at him.
“Very. Thank you again for the offer, Stephan, but the answer is no.” I mean, sure, a sexy fireman is most women’s dream, but I have Alaric.
“Baby girl.” I smile when I hear Alaric and turn to face him. “Jake is finishing up. He knows what he is doing. You need to sleep.”
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His arms wrap around me, and he lifts my body.
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I anchor my legs around him, and he kisses me. He turns and walks with my body wrapped around his. I see Stephan standing with his mouth open, clearly in shock. My head shakes, and I laugh.
“Why are you laughing, baby girl?” Alaric looks at me as he walks upstairs.
“Oh, because Stephan, the fireman was talking to me and asked me out. I told him I was taken, and he assumed it was Jake, his face was epic when he realsied.”
Alaric laughs at my words, his hands stroke across the globe of my ass and squeeze. “You’re mine, baby girl.” He bites at my neck and smiles.
“Which is what I want Daddy.” as I’m replying, he sets me down and removes the robe before pulling me to the bed. I wrap my body around his and fall asleep far too quickly tonights events still lingering in my mind as I do.