Page 73 of Burn For Me

I wiggled in my seat as I pulled up in front of the first target—what looked to be as rat-laden of a bar like the one I’d just left. I was getting excited. There was no way around it, as thoughts of what this place would look like burning made my cock stand straight.

I didn’t have time for a little rub down—that would have to wait until after I was finished. Chase had mentioned that he needed this done as quickly as possible. The fucker didn’t ask for much. There were seventeen locations to hit. He either thought I was some sort of super villain with a fire ability, or I’d talked myself up a little too much the other night.

The next target was not far down the road from a college campus. Go figure. Not where I would’ve looked for a motorcycle club, but then again, that was probably the point. I was marking down the size of the building when movement in the rearview mirror caught my attention. I glanced up, away, and then immediately back again as I wondered what in the ever-loving fuck was happening.

A tiny blonde was running down the street in my direction. That in and of itself was not the issue—it was the giant Care Bear on the apron she was wearing, making it look like the bear was skipping down the street, and the metal strainer she was wearing on her head that was the issue. The girl was being closely followed by a guy that was leaping into the air while grabbing at nothing.

My window was down, and as they closed in on the truck’s location, I could understand what they were yelling.

“Stop! Gimme back the cookies,” the girl yelled, swatting wildly at the air with a spatula.

The guy was right on her heels.

“You bitch, Tinkerbell! I fucking see you, and I’m not wearing that fucking dress.” He leaped in the air, and I watched out of morbid curiosity as the guy landed, tripped, rolled, and jumped back up to continue running like nothing had happened.

I glanced around at the buildings again.

“What the fuck do they put in the water around here?” I looked at the bottle of water I’d purchased at the convenience store down the road and tossed the closed bottle on the floor. “Nope. Already had enough of not knowing what the fuck was going on for the year,” I mumbled, pulling away from the curb as the pair turned and came running back up the sidewalk toward me.

“And they fucking locked my ass up.” I shook my head in wonder.

Each target was given a code that told me what I needed to accomplish the task. Most were going to be easy, but two were more challenging due to the number of cameras and people in the area.

I smirked as I jotted down my notes for the last location and decided that I was going to make good use of the C4, the electrical panels, and a few burner phones. I felt like a kid at Halloween, or at least like a normal kid at Halloween. I’d never had a normal Halloween unless it was considered normal to hide all night like the monster lived in your home—because in my house, the monster was real and he didn’t wear a costume other than the face of my father.

On Halloween, my brother and I had sometimes eaten dinner in an eerie silence before being forced to listen to our parents have sex until my father passed out. Candy, costumes, laughter, family parties, or seeing friends was out of the question. Sometimes, I’d steal a small toy or handful of candy from one of the kids at school that had so much they never noticed the loss and give it to Asher. His face would light up and he’d hug me hard.

I love you, Derek.

I love you too, Ash.

As my phone vibrated, I got pulled out of the old memory. Picking it up, I smiled at the message.

Money transferred to the account I set up for you as payment. If you need anything else for the chickens, let me know. I have cooking supplies.

Righty-ho. I’ll send you a list of what I need and a local for where to leave the barbecue items.

There was a long pause where the little typing bubble appeared and disappeared several times.

Righty-ho? WTF Man?

I couldn’t contain the snort of laughter as I pulled away from the last location and made my way out of town to do a little shopping. Was it sad that my only amusement was seeing if I could freak Chase out? I was going to owe him a beer at some point for getting me out of the house. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed this until this moment.

It had taken forty-eight hours to get everything I needed in place. It also took a few phone calls and favors from Chase to make sure the targets were distracted enough that I could sneak inside and set the rat traps. He hadn’t been joking when he said this was an extermination. If the fires took out everyone they should, it would reach the high double digits for sure, and more if others were inside.

It was finally time, and an insatiable eagerness rushed through my body. I cracked my neck and rolled out my shoulders as I got ready for the show.

The first explosion was smaller. It was meant to maim and trap—it was the other explosions that were intended to kill. As the secondary explosions started, they sent a shockwave through the streets, and I was mesmerized as the nearby store windows shattered, the glass becoming miniature projectiles. I smiled as a black cloud of smoke, and orange flames rose into the night sky. I would never grow tired of staring at the beauty of a blaze when it was in its full glory.

“Our God comes and will not be silent; a fire devours before Him, and around Him a tempest rages,” I whispered the bible verse as I stared at the third building bursting into flames in the rearview mirror. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

I had to wonder if John meant that God would forgive and absolve me of my sins? I doubted any kind of god could see past what I’d become.

According to Chase, this was the best time of day to hit to make sure that as many people were inside drunk and passed out as possible. It was a lull in the morning where everything was blissfully quiet, like everything in the world had pushed pause at the same time. As I passed the closed stores and dark windows of homes, I realized that this was my favorite time of day. This was when I was at my most peaceful.

I glanced at the timer on my wrist. Each target had an hour interval, but a few locations were being taken out at the same time since they were on the same street. This made it very difficult for the firefighters to get control of the burns, and the police would be thinned as more fires started and more roads became closed and blocked off.

The second target was two stores sitting side by side that looked like a simple pawn shop and a dry cleaner’s shop. I held the burner phone out like a television remote and pressed the detonation button. The explosion was instantaneous, and the truck vibrated and shook from the shockwave as the buildings erupted. There was nothing sweeter than the sound of the rumble and roar of a fire coming to life.