“Blaise?” Mel clarified.
The look Janie gave her said duh more clearly than words.
“What could he have done to deserve what you did?” Mel asked.
“He was just like the others, telling tales to Elise about everyone in the Palms,” Janie said. “Elise would meet up with her little spies all over town in trendy bars and restaurants, and they’d tell her everyone’s dirty little secrets. Well, I knew secrets, too, loads of them. Do you think they ever included me? Do you think they ever invited me to join them?”
Mel said nothing, knowing there was no right answer here.
“They never even noticed me.”
“I notice you,” Mel said.
Janie blinked at her and then she let out a belly laugh. An actual laugh of amusement that shook her slight frame. It was genuine humor, which made it all the more disturbing.
“You notice me because I am not taking it anymore,” she said. “You notice me because I am making everyone who slighted me, who left me out, suffer for it.”
Mel saw Cassie struggling to get free. Maybe if she could overpower Janie she could get to Cassie and get them both out of here before Janie torched the place. She took a step towards the tiny woman, but Janie lifted up her other hand. In it was a lighter. She flicked it on and held the match over it.
Mel raised her hands in the air as if Janie had a gun on her. She wondered if she blew hard enough if she could put the lighter out. She didn’t want to risk it. What if she blew the flame right onto the match? The fumes in here alone might be flammable and the next thing she knew they’d all go up in a big fireball. Not how she’d ever thought she’d go. Frosting overdose? Sure. Human torch? Not so much.
“Can we talk about this, Janie?”
“No.”
Mel saw Cassie frantically wriggling. She must have suspected that Janie was at her breaking point. Mel knew they were out of time. She knew she only had one shot.
“What’s that?” She pointed with her left hand over Janie’s shoulder. It was the oldest misdirection in the book, probably because it worked. When Janie whipped her head in that direction, Mel snatched the lighter out of Janie’s hand, squashing the flame with her palm.
“Yeow!” Mel shouted. The lighter’s hot metal top seared her hand, and she flung it across the bookstore.
“Hey!” Janie shouted and ran for the lighter.
Mel chased after her. She figured it was more important to keep Janie from the lighter than to untie Cassie. Janie dropped to the floor and was scrabbling after the lighter when Mel grabbed her by one foot. Janie used her other foot to kick at Mel, but she refused to let go, knowing if Janie got the lighter she would torch the place in an instant.
Panic made her heart pound in her chest. She’d been trapped in a fire once before. She’d seen what a fire could do to a person and she remembered well the burn of smoke in her lungs. There was no way in hell she was living through that again.
“Let me go!” Janie whipped around and took a swing at Mel. Her fist just missed Mel’s nose.
“Stop, Janie!” Mel yelled. “It’s over.”
“No!” Janie cried. She renewed her efforts to kick Mel and her free foot came within a hair of smashing Mel in the temple.
A hand appeared between Mel’s face and Janie’s shoe and she glanced up to see Tara Martinez, who wasted no time but dropped to the ground, lodging her knee into Janie’s back.
“Looks like you owe me one, Cooper,” Tara said. Then she grabbed a pair of handcuffs off of her belt and wrestled them onto Janie.
Mel let go of Janie’s foot and slumped to the ground. Thank god. Janie might be petite, but the tiny birdlike woman fought like a hellcat. No wonder she’d managed to bind up Cassie.
Cassie!
Mel rolled onto her side and pushed up to her feet. She raced for the office, but Uncle Stan was already there, untying Cassie and helping her to her feet. He’d removed the gag from her mouth and Cassie was sucking in great gulps of air.
“Mel!” Cassie cried her name and then staggered towards her.
Mel hugged her close and then leaned back to study her face. “Let’s get you some fresh air, okay?”
Uncle Stan led the way, scouting the area outside the back door before he nodded that they could sit. He hugged Mel close in one of his big bear hugs and cupped her face.
“You just have to scare the snot out of me to keep me on my toes, don’t you?”
“Sorry,” Mel said. “I had no idea—just a hunch. But at least I had Oz call you.”
Uncle Stan kissed her forehead. “Yeah, that was a good play. You should brace yourself, though. I called Joe and he’s on his way.”
“Oh, boy,” Mel said. “Scale of one to ten, how mad did he seem?”
“Eleven. I’ll be back out to get your statements,” he said. “I just want to make sure that Tara has that woman subdued.”
Both Mel and Cassie nodded. Cassie bent over and rested her head on her knees.
“How are you doing?” Mel asked.
“Trying really hard not to throw up,” Cassie said. “You saved my life. If you hadn’t shown up when you did I’d have been a human torch.”
“I do try to extinguish myself,” Mel joked. Cassie gave her a look. “Sorry, we’ll just blame that on my nerves.”
They sat quietly, breathing in the clean air free of the stench of the accelerant Janie had used. Mel closed her eyes and took a second to just be grateful that she’d arrived
