Blue Smoke

that consumed his face.
    Somehow he walked toward her. One step, then two, toward the doorway.
    Then he fell, with fire rolling over him like a molten sea.
    They were coming. Cops battering down the door. Sirens would be close behind. The trucks, the hoses, the heroes in turnout suits.
    She braced her back against the wall and watched the burn.
    “Put him out,” she murmured when Bo rushed back. “For God’s pity, put him out.”

EPILOGUE
    She sat at her mother’s kitchen table, sipping chilled wine with a blanket over her shoulders. She didn’t need her brother the doctor to tell her she was shocky. She didn’t want the ER, or sedatives.
    She needed to be here, to just be.
    The salve An dabbed on the burns was like heaven.
    “Ribs are bruised, nothing broken that I can tell.” Xander frowned at her battered face. “You need X-rays, damn it, Reena.”
    “Later, Doc.”
    “Second degree.” An gently bandaged her ankles. “You’re lucky.”
    “I know.” She reached behind her for Bo’s hand, smiled at her father. “I know it.”
    “She’s going to eat, and she’s going to rest. She’s not going to do cop work right now.” Bianca spoke straight to Younger.
    “No, ma’am. We’ll deal with it in the morning,” he said to Reena.
    “When we go through the layers, we’ll find the timers. I don’t think he meant to die, not until the end. He just . . . he couldn’t be humiliated. Beaten, like his father. He couldn’t face it, or the idea of a slow death. So he chose.”
    “You’re going to eat. I’m going to fix eggs, and everyone’s going to eat.” Bianca yanked open the refrigerator, then just covered her face with her hands and began to sob.

    Gib moved to her, but Reena patted his arm, shook her head. “Let me.”
    Her breath caught on a shock of pain as she got to her feet, but she went to her mother, slid her arms around her. “Mama. It’s okay. We’re all okay.”
    “My baby. My baby girl. Bella bambina .”
    “ Ti amo, Mama. And I’m fine. But I’m hungry.”
    “ Va bene . Okay.” She mopped at her cheeks with her hands, then kissed Reena’s. “Sit down. I’ll cook.”
    “I’ll help you, Mama.” Bella blinked at her own tears when Bianca raised eyebrows at her. “I still remember how to make breakfast.”
    Yes, this is what she needed, Reena thought. The noise, the movement, the sounds and scents of her mother’s kitchen. She ate what was put in front of her with an appetite that surprised and pleased her.
    Later, she found her father and John sitting on the front steps, sipping coffee. Dawn broke over the neighborhood, a pearly haze that promised another day of drenching heat.
    She was sure she’d never seen anything more beautiful.
    “Been a long time since we first sat out here,” John said.
    “It was beer then.”
    “Will be again sometime.”
    “I was having myself a sulk. I’m not sure what I’m having this morning. You told me what a lucky man I was. Beautiful wife and kids. You were right. You said what a bright one I had in Reena. You were right about that, too. I almost lost her, John. I almost lost my little girl last night.”
    “You didn’t. And you’re still a lucky man.”
    “Room for one more out here?” Reena stepped out. “Going to be a hot one. I used to love hot summer days when I was a kid. They lasted forever, all the way into the night. I could lie in bed and listen to them. Fran coming in from a date, old Mr. Franco out walking his dog. Johnnie Russo driving by with those glasspack mufflers. You used to give him such a hard time about that, Dad.”
    She bent down, kissed the top of his head. “Mornings like this, people’ll start coming out early, before the heat hits. Walk down to thepark or the market, gab over the fence in the back, or across the front steps. Head off to work. Water their flowers, catch up on the news, if they have the day off. We’re all pretty lucky, if you ask me.”
    They sat for a while in silence, watching the light come into the morning, then John patted her gently on the knee. “Going to get on home, see what needs to be done.”
    “I’m sorry about your house, John.”
    “Sorry about yours, honey.”
    “We’ve got a lot of hands to help you put it back together,” she told him. “And I know a good carpenter.”
    Then he bent, kissed the top of her head. “Your partner would be proud of you. I’ll be in touch. You take care, Gib.”
    “Thanks, John. For everything.”
    Reena