Page 44

“Holy shit, there’s a fire!” someone yelled and Betty pulled away, looking toward the house, and then she saw the smoke rising, but it wasn’t coming from the house.

“I’ve already called 911,” Razor said.

Betty rushed off the porch and she rounded to where her kitchen studio was, and she stood in shock as flames engulfed her work. The kitchen, carefully designed by her aunt, the cameras, the equipment, all of it, taken in a burst of heat and flame.

She didn’t even realize she had rushed toward the building, until Grim held her back.

“Don’t do it.”

“That’s my job,” she said. “That’s my work!”

Chaos Monsters MC gathered around, and she heard the fire brigade siren, and they were all pushed back as the firemen got to work on her studio.

Grim pulled her away, and Aunt Martha was there. “Hold her,” Grim said.

Aunt Martha pulled her into her arms.

“What am I going to do?” she asked. “It’s all in there. My recipes. My cookbooks. Everything.” All of her work, notes, plans, even her laptops were all in there. She rarely ever took her work out of the studio. Her aunt always told her to have a work-to-life balance, and that was what she’d been attempting, and now it was all gone.

Maeve came toward her, pulling her into her arms. “It is going to be okay.”

“I don’t get it,” Betty said. “We had dinner. Grim turned off the ovens and the stove. It was all turned off.”

“He did,” Mac said, coming over. “Son of a bitch made me wait until he’d done it as well.”

She didn’t get it.

“It was all turned off?” Aunt Martha asked.

“Yes, everything was turned off. There was no reason for it to set alight.”

“They’ll figure it out, honey. I promise.”

“What do I do?” Betty asked.

She didn’t have a job. That was her job. That was her work, and it was so damn important, and now it was gone. What did she do now?

“We’ll figure it out.”

Eden came toward her and promised her website was fine, and that she’d be able to access it and help when she got a new laptop.

The fire only took a few minutes to put out, but she saw the fireman as he came toward her, and she knew there was no way she was going to recover anything.

It was all gone.

Chapter Thirteen

Grim looked down at a sleeping Betty, and he got up from the bed and made his way downstairs. All but Maeve, Doc, and Nancy had left.

Aunt Martha was in the sitting room. The fireman had cordoned off the garage, and they had said the main house was safe, but no one was to go into the kitchen studio.

“How is she?” Maeve asked the moment he entered.

“She’s upset.”

“Look, I was talking with Doc, and I use my camera and equipment sparingly, so if she needs anything, consider it hers.”

“Also, the guys would love to have her film her stuff at the club. They’ve all watched her videos, and let’s be honest, they’re all greedy bastards, so we can get a space set up for her,” Doc said.