Page 91 of Unruly

By the time Cross got to Zeke’s home, the place had been reduced to a pile of smoldering rubble. The beautiful, two-level detached home was flattened into nothing but blackened, smoking remains. Nothing was recognizable.

Nothing at all.

Wolf stood on the sidewalk with his arms flattened across his chest. The older man stared at the smoking pile across the street as Cross came to stand beside him. The enforcers who had trailed behind the boss didn’t bother coming closer than a few feet.

An illusion of privacy.

Everything in their life was an illusion.

Especially safety.

“They couldn’t save it?” Cross asked, referring to the firefighters that were rolling up hoses.

“Apparently not,” Wolf murmured.

Other than speaking, Wolf barely acknowledged Cross was even there. He understood why as events like this always came as a bit of a shock. Like an earthquake no one was expecting, and then the aftershocks that soon followed to shake a man up even more.

“She’s a lovely girl,” Wolf said quietly.

Cross looked to Zeke’s father, confused. “Who, Katya?”

Wolf nodded. “She’s quite lovely. I swore he was never going to settle down or find someone he cared enough about to just … relax a bit. And then he did, but look at it now. I can’t even enjoy the fact he’s found someone. I shouldn’t have to worry about these things now—it’s been years since I stepped away from the life.”

“I’m taking care of it,” Cross assured.

“I know you are, principe.”

Even as the Donati boss, a king finally sitting in his throne, his former mentor still called him a prince.

Cross didn’t mind.

Wolf was the only person he allowed that right.

“I heard the firefighters talking to one of the cops,” Wolf said, nodding in the direction of the officers down the street. A group of four stood in front of cruisers. The lights on top of the cruisers flashed, blinking red, blue, and white down the dark street. “I stayed back a bit so they wouldn’t notice me.”

“What did you hear?”

“I guess one of the neighbors heard glass breaking.”

“When?”

“About thirty minutes before the same neighbor smelled smoke, went looking, and then called nine-one-one.”

Cross considered that for a moment. “Do you think someone was inside the house?”

“According to the fire chief when he was discussing the fire with the cops over there, the fire burned too hot and too fast for them to do much to help or prevent further damage. He suspected an accelerant was used. Likely dumped all through the house.”

“But thirty minutes,” Cross said, “is too long to just dump some shit out and light it up.”

Wolf waved at the rubble. “Too late to look for something they might have took.”

Yeah.

Shit.

Less than ten seconds later, a familiar Mercedes pulled up. Zeke stepped out of the car, and grabbed onto the door so fiercely that his knuckles turned white. A lot like how the color drained from his face as he stared across the street to where his home once stood.

All of it.