Hands grabbed at them and in a panic, she hit back with all the ferocity her brothers had ever taught her. “Leave him alone!”
But Jay caught her flailing fists. “They’re security, Bella. It’s okay.”
“Nothing about this is okay.” She wrapped her arms around him, glaring at the guards who seemed perfectly useless considering the state of things. “We need to get you somewhere safe.” They were farther away from the flames now, but the heat was still searing.
“Ah, Bella.” She felt his lips against her ear. “You’re my somewhere safe. Come on. We’re almost at the steps.” His lips moved away. “Devane,” he yelled. “Where’s the crew?”
“Safe.” The slim man in black appeared, the sweat on his face shining. “Everyone’s off the stage except you. Nobody’s been hurt. The audience is being pushed back.” He was shining a flashlight on the stage floor. Arabella barely spotted the steep steps before the security guards surrounding them hustled them down them and well away from the stage.
From the other side—the audience side—Arabella could only stare in horror at the tableau.
The images of horses and rolling waves on the big screens were still playing, accompanied now by the sounds of the retreating crowd and the hungry flames hissing and popping.
Jay’s arm kept her close to his side. “I told you no pyrotechnics.”
Devane lifted his hands. “And there weren’t any. This isn’t our doing. I already told the cop there, that.”
Arabella realized he meant Detective Teas, who was pacing back and forth some distance away, a cell phone at his ear.
Several guards were wielding fire extinguishers which didn’t seem to be having any effect. The wall of flames just kept flowing up and over the metal framework of the stage, long fingers flicking back and forth into the sky, neither growing nor shrinking.
If it weren’t so shocking and horrible, it would have been almost mesmerizing.
She obviously wasn’t the only one who thought so, Arabella realized when she spotted Jason on the other side of the chairs. He was staring at the fire in much the same way she’d been.
She squeezed Jay’s hand. “I’ll be right back.”
He frowned slightly, but when he followed her gaze toward the young man, he nodded and let go of her.
Giving the first dozen rows of chairs a wide berth, she crossed over to him and realized his shoulders were shaking from sobs even before she reached him. “Jason.” She slid her arm around him. “It’s okay. Nobody’s hurt. Listen. You can hear the sirens already. The fire department will put out the fire.”
His shoulders heaved even harder. “My grandpa’s under the stage.”
She stiffened. “Norman? Your grandpa Norman?” She looked back toward Jay and as if he sensed it, he separated from the cluster of people around him. Dragging Jason with her, she dashed toward him and met him halfway. “Jason says that Norman is under the stage.”
He swore and gestured to the guards. In seconds, they’d fanned out and were approaching the stage once again from the sides not engulfed in flame.
“It’s my fault,” Jason was moaning where he’d collapsed in a chair.
She sat beside him and covered his fisted hands with hers. “Of course it isn’t,” she soothed the same way she would have soothed Tyler or Toby. She knew the young man was close to his grandfather.
“He said he just wanted to see how it was all set up. He’s always interested in how things are built. How they work. So I got him backstage.”
“Backstage doesn’t mean under it,” Jay reasoned.
Arabella nodded. “Jay’s right.” Despite the height of the stage, it was still difficult imagining the gray-haired man clambering beneath the metal framework. But even if he had, the flames hadn’t gotten beneath the stage. Hadn’t surrounded it or engulfed it. She was nevertheless grateful to see the fire engine creeping through the congested parking lot. “I’m sure your grandpa’s fine. There’re a lot of people here for the concert. He’ll turn up.”
“You don’t understand. When he was in the army, he used to blow things up.”
Her mouth dried and her eyes met Jay’s. Because she suddenly realized that Jason wasn’t concerned because his grandfather was a curious man in danger. “You think he has something to do with the fire? Why would he want to hurt Jay?”
“I don’t think it’s him he wants to hurt.” Jason swiped his face with his arm and held out his hand, opening his fist to reveal his hotel name badge. “I found this in my grandpa’s car tonight.”
Jay plucked the badge from the young man’s palm. “Did you forget it there?”
The firelight danced over Jason’s pale face. “I lost that one the first week I started working at the hotel. Before they even opened up in January.” He turned slightly and she saw an identical badge already pinned to his chest. “He’s had it and he never told me. He could get anywhere in the hotel.”
Because the badge was an access key.
Jay grabbed Jason’s arm and hauled him to his feet. “You need to tell this to the police.”
“Aunt Petunia’s gonna lock him away if she finds out.”
“He’ll be lucky if that’s all that happens,” Jay muttered. He was aiming toward Teas but Devane caught up to them first.
“Nobody’s under the stage,” he reported.
Feeling shaky, Arabella didn’t know whether to be relieved or not.
“Find Callum and fill him in,” Jay told him and the man set off again.
The fire engine had made it through the parking lot, and in practiced choreography, firefighters in full gear began dragging hoses from the truck.
Jason had barely finished stammering out his story for Detective Teas when the crews conquered the fire. The cessation of heat was immediate.
“Jason.” Arabella suddenly turned back to him. “You said before that you didn’t think it was Jay your grandpa wants to hurt. Why?”
Jason looked more miserable than ever. “When I first started working at the hotel, I was on the cleaning crew at night. I found him sleeping inside the kitchen at Roja. It
