My body slams into his, and Logan’s arms wrap around me. “I thought you were inside. Oh my God. Julianne told me you were inside. I thought you were gone.” Tears spill from my eyes onto his shirt, soaking the cotton fabric.
“No. Jesus Christ, I thought you were in there. Scared the shit out of me.” He squeezes me so tight, I can barely breathe, and it’s the best feeling in the world.
“Thank God you’re okay.”
Julianne and Emmy come toward us, but I don’t care about anything except for the fact that Logan is alive and holding me.
He lifts his head and looks over my shoulder, presumably at Cody. “What the fuck happened?”
I turn sideways to see the cop’s face as he answers.
“I have no clue. But you need to stay back until they get this put out. Where the hell were you? Julianne said you were inside.”
“Rick forgot his wallet, so I took it over to Pints and Pins.”
Julianne punches Logan in the shoulder. “I didn’t see you leave, you dumbass. I thought you were in there! I told Banner you were!”
Logan grips me even tighter when another sob escapes my lips. “Well, I wasn’t.”
“Oh my God, I can’t believe you’re okay. We all thought—” Emmy’s voice breaks off.
Logan steps us around the edge of the post office so we can see what’s left of the building, and the others follow. Foam covers the walls that remain standing as the firemen continue to fight the blaze.
It’s a lost cause. No one has to announce that there will be nothing left, because it’s perfectly clear.
“What the hell happened?” he asks again, and this time, someone answers.
“Trying to figure that out right now. I got the call and came down. Fully involved structure fire. Chemical hazards.” Cody pauses. “I hate to have to ask you this, but you weren’t cooking meth inside, were you? Or one of your guys?”
“Hell no.” Logan spits out the words. “Fuck no,” he adds for extra emphasis.
“No cigarettes left burning? Any kind of torch?”
Logan shakes his head. “No one smokes in the shop. The torches were off. It doesn’t make any fucking sense.”
“Buildings don’t just blow up, Logan. I don’t have to tell you that.”
“No shit. But I don’t have a clue how it happened.”
“It’s lucky you weren’t inside. How long ago did you leave?” the cop asks.
“I don’t know, maybe fifteen, twenty minutes ago?”
“It’s also pretty damn convenient that the car you just restored wasn’t inside.”
There’s something in Cody’s tone that I don’t like, and apparently Logan doesn’t either.
“What the fuck are you trying to say? That somehow I made this happen?” Logan’s voice drops to a rough whisper. “Because there’s no fucking way I had a goddamned thing to do with this. That shop is my business. My future.”
“I’m just doing my job, and my training says money is always the best motive. And in this case, your insurance money.”
“I didn’t fucking have anything to do with it. I had two customers’ cars inside, and shit I’ll never be able to replace.”
“But you know you’re gonna have money coming in from insurance to cover it all for you.”
Logan drops his arm from around my shoulders. “I can’t fucking believe you’d bring that up right now. I didn’t have a damned thing to do with this.”
The fire chief breaks away from the men fighting the fire and strides toward us.