40

Burning Down the House

Ariana hung up the phone with her husband and felt the slightest tinge of regret. She did care about Howie, although maybe not at first. At first it was all just a game plan. Dating him was an act of revenge, but over the years she had grown to love and care about him. She felt bad knowing she’d never see him again, but that’s how it went.

She placed the matches in her pocket, “Okay, we have work to do.” She said to AJ.

“How could you do that to Howie? He loves you!” AJ was disgusted. You could see it on every pore of his face.

“That’s none of your concern. Let’s get moving.” She threw the can of lighter fluid at him and aimed the gun at his chest.

Together they walked into the living room and set to work throwing the fluid all over the couches and curtains. Ariana grabbed another can of the fluid and poured it all over the carpets and pillows. “I’m not getting out of here alive am I?” AJ said as he continued to douse the room.

She didn’t answer him at first, “It’s doubtful.” She finally admitted.

“But Nicky?”

“Will be fine, I can assure you. I will take good care of him. You have my word.” She looked her brother straight in the eyes when she said it.

“Things could have been so different if you had only gone about this the right way.” He said as he squished out the last of the fluid from his can.

“I suppose you may be right but, it’s too late for that now.”

“It doesn’t have to be.” He answered. “You still have the chance to make things right.”

“Oh, do I? And how do I do that? Sorry about the terrorizing you for years and the killing of your mother/wife. How about we start over and call it even?”

“You killed our mother?” AJ asked, now horrified.

“Yes. And you want to know the worse part? I actually loved her!” She almost cried when she said that. “She was a great lady but your stupid father…I mean OUR stupid father made me do it!!”

“She loved you like a daughter.” He whispered, beyond any kind of emotion at that point.

Ariana ignored his last statement and finished emptying her third can of fluid onto the floor. “Okay, looks like we’re done. What about upstairs?”

“There’s no need. This will travel up there pretty quickly.”

She nodded and pulled out an acetylene torch from behind the couch. “Before you do that, I want Nick out of this house!” AJ demanded. “He has that stuff all over him and once you light this place up, he’s bound to catch fire.”

She thought about this for a few seconds, “And what am I supposed to do with him? Tell him to just wait here for a few minutes while I kill his brother and set the house on fire?”

“You both go, I’ll do it.”

She let out a huge laugh, “You’ve gotta be joking!”

But his face was as serious as a heart attack. “You know, I wasn’t going to say it at first but, you have that lighter fluid all over you too. When you fell it’s all over your clothes.” He pointed down to her pants and shirt and sure enough there was a wet line going all the way up and even into her hair. She had been so busy with trying to kill him that she hadn’t noticed she would potentially be killing herself. “I had every intention of letting you burn, but I can’t do it. I’m not that kind of person.” He said looking down at he ground.

She seemed shocked and even a little grateful. “Thanks” was all she said.

“So, take Nick out to the car and when you guys are a safe distance away, I’ll start the fire.”

“And then what? You’ll just stay in here and burn to death?”

“I’d rather that than be shot, personally. The smoke will kill me long before the fire does. I’ll make sure of that.”

“Before we do that, we’re going to barricade the back door. There’s no way I’m just letting you walk out of here.”

“Fine.” He said, trying to make himself sound brave even though in his head, thoughts were racing a mile a minute.

~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

Nick sat helpless in the chair and kept struggling against the chains of the cuffs. He wanted to help so badly but he couldn’t. He heard them talking in the other room and heard her admit to killing their mother. He also heard what AJ was saying. There was no way he was about to let AJ sacrifice himself, no way. He heard them walk to the back and start hammering away at the door. He was running out of time. Looking around the room he noticed a pack of matches still lying untouched on the ground only inches away from him. If he could make his way over to them, there was a way he could maybe set her ass on fire. Sure he would go up too, but he was willing to take that risk if it meant saving his brother’s life.  

He started rocking himself back and forth until the chair fell to the ground. He let out a cry of pain when he landed on his left arm. The hammering outside stopped which made him try to speed up the process. He was just about to reach the matches with his mouth when they re-entered the house.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ariana walked into the kitchen and laughed, “Well what have we here? Were we struggling a little too much Nickolas?” She asked as she bent down to his level. “Help me get him up AJ.” She said as they both walked over and righted the chair. She then went for the handcuffs, “It’s time for us to go sweetie.” She unlocked the cuffs from the chair but didn’t free his hands. “Say goodbye to your big brother.”

AJ stood in front of Nick and smiled at him before pulling him into an embrace, “I love you Nick.” He said.

“AJ, you can’t let this happen.” Nick was panicking, his voice escalating, “You can’t do this!”

AJ was still holding his brother close and whispered into his ear, “I’m totally pulling a Houdini kiddo, no matter what I’ll be okay and I’m coming after you. Just pretend your grief stricken.” When he pulled Nick away from him he gave a wink and a smile.

“AJ…” Nick pleaded, but this time it was an act. Nick knew AJ was going to be all right.

“We don’t have any time. We need to go!” Ariana said forcefully grabbing Nick’s arm.

AJ took his eyes away from his brother and landed them on his half sister, “Make sure you bring him to a doctor for that ankle.”

“If you try to run, you know I’ll kill him.” Ariana warned, “But for what it’s worth…I love you.”

Those words together sounded so twisted that even while facing his own death, AJ couldn’t help but laugh. Nick tried his best to turn his body to face AJ as they walked out the door but Ariana wouldn’t allow him to look back.

AJ watched by the front door as the two of them got into the car and sat there. She wasn’t going anywhere until she saw that the house was up in flames and he was still in it. So, he took a few deep breaths, said a silent prayer and lit the torch.

~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~

Once the ambulance arrived and started to work on Patty, Kevin grabbed the cell and dialed his brother.

Brian answered with authority in his voice. “Detective Richardson.”

“Brian, it’s me.”

“Kevin, are you okay? We were worried. This isn’t your phone.”

“I know I’m on Jack Robert’s phone. Look I don’t have much time to talk, Ariana…”

“We know. She has both AJ and Nick and we have a location.”

Kevin quickly scrambled to his car as he jotted down the address his brother gave him. “Does Howie know?”

“Yes, he’s with me.”

“How’s he holding up?”

“Not good.”

Kevin closed his eyes and nodded briefly before starting up the car, “I’m about 15 miles away from the location. I killed Roberts, he was in on it. He killed Patty’s boyfriend Charlie and it’s not looking good for Patty.”

“Jesus…” Brian’s voice was breaking up. “We need to hurry. You might get there before we do. Be careful!” he warned knowing how Kevin could be when it came to protecting his family.

“I will, see you there!” He hung up the phone and was surprised when it rang again.

“Hello?”

There was a slight pause, “Jack?” Ariana’s voice made Kevin scowl.

“I’m sorry he can’t come to the phone right now but I’ll gladly take a message.”

There was another pause this time a little longer, “Kevin? That’s you isn’t it?”

“Hi Ariana, how’s it going?”

“Where’s Jack?”

“I’ll tell you that after you tell me where AJ and Nick are.”

“KEVIN you have to help you…” He heard Nick briefly then what sounded like a slap.

“Leave him alone.” Kevin warned.

She laughed in reply, “I want to speak to Jack.”

“And I want my brothers back home safely.”

“I guess that leaves us at an impasse.”

“You know, you’re not getting away with this, right? You were sloppy and you’re going to prison for a very long time.”

“You have to catch me first.”

Kevin ran right through a red light just as Ariana said those words. He knew he could make it to his destination in about 20 minutes or less as long as he didn’t encounter huge amounts of traffic. He had to just keep her occupied on that phone so this way he would buy more time for his brothers. “I’m a pretty good detective.”

“Are you Kevin? Is that why I was able to live under your nose undetected for all this time? Why it took a friggin’ teenager to finally expose me? I don’t think you’re a very good detective at all.”

“I let my personal feelings about you interfere with my instincts.”

“Well don’t I feel all warm and fuzzy.”

“I want to speak to AJ or Nick.” He zoomed passed three cars on the freeway and headed towards the exit ramp.

“After I get to speak to Jack”

“He’s being questioned right now. You’ll have your chance when Howie is done with him.”

She smiled, “So he does know huh? I thought he did when he called. He sounded much too calm. Guess that means you guys know where we are then?”

“It’s too late to run Ariana.”

“Oh, no it’s not really. But you don’t have much time. See, your brother is in the house right now and it’s on fire as we speak. If you don’t get here soon, there won’t be anything left of the fireman but his teeth.”

Kevin’s pulse quickened as he pushed on the gas pedal. “I swear to God…”

“Time’s ticking Kevin…tick…tick…tick…” And then she disconnected the line.

Kevin quickly dialed 911 to report a fire at the address and then dialed Brian’s number again, before he even had a chance to say hello Kevin cut him off, “We have to hurry. She set the house on fire with AJ inside!”

“How far away are you?” Brian asked with concern etched in his voice.

“I just got off the exit so about 7 minutes maybe?”

“We’re about 15 minutes out.”

“Damn!”

Kevin put his foot on the gas pedal and went as fast as possible, before it was too late.

~*~*~*~*~

AJ knew he only had one shot at getting this right. As she was babbling on and on about fires he was looking around for escape routes. He knew she planned on killing him with a bullet, but he knew he had to convince her otherwise. Getting her to believe he would be willing to kill himself in the house was the only shot he had at getting himself and Nick out of this mess. So, he put on his brave front, sold his case and won.

He started in the living room, making sure to set the couches on fire first because they would draw the highest flames and make it seem like the whole place was burning up faster than it actually was. Then he lit the curtains up and just like he knew would happen, they went up really quickly.

Once that happened he moved to the kitchen sink, turned on the small sprinkler in the faucet and doused himself from head to foot with water. The fire was gradually moving towards the kitchen now so he knew he had little time left to make his move. With the back door nailed shut he knew his only shot was to get down to the basement. There were windows that led to the backyard but it was a gamble because he hadn’t checked to see what their condition was.

The fire made its way into the kitchen by way of the carpet. AJ took a leap over the flames, opened the basement door and quickly closed it shut behind him. Running down the steps he headed straight for the two small windows and did a quick sigh of relief when he saw there was only a small latch there that he had to lift to make his escape. The only problem was that they were very small windows so he wasn’t quite sure if he would be able to fit.

He found a crate to stand on, lifted the latch and said a silent prayer as he successfully lifted himself out of the window and into the backyard. Once he stood up he saw flames shoot out the back kitchen window.

He was afraid to look around the corner to see if the car was still there. He couldn’t take the chance of being seen but he also knew he had to do something. He ventured slowly around the corner of the house, careful not to be seen by anyone as he did it.

~*~*~*~*~*~

When Ariana heard a random explosion come from inside the house and saw flames shooting out of pretty much every window of the place, she felt it a safe bet to drive away. She turned towards Nick and placed his seatbelt around his waste. “We better get going before the fire trucks and police get here!”

“Go to hell!”

She shook her head and she slowly drove away, passing two fire trucks . “I’m sure he went quickly.”

Nick ignored her and turned his head towards the window. Hoping his brother did make it out of the house alive.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Kevin heard the fire trucks and saw the flames as he turned into the street. “Jesus Christ!” He whispered as he slowly got out of the car. Not even thinking about it, he ran towards the house pushing past police and firemen, “My brother is in there!” He screamed as he was being held back.

“I’m okay!” AJ said coming from the back of an ambulance. “I got out in time. Ariana has Nicky.” He said with a mixture of anger and sadness in his voice. “I wanted to get to them before they left, but I was too late.”

Kevin’s head was spinning. “How long ago did she leave?”

“I’m not sure but couldn’t have been too long.”

Kevin nodded, “Tell Brian and dad I’m going after her!”

“No! I’m coming with you!” AJ said walking after Kevin who was now running back to his car.

“It’s too dangerous. Stay here!”

“NO! That bitch kidnapped me, tried to blow me the hell up and took Nick! I’m coming!!”

Kevin sighed, realizing the longer he stood there and argued the further away Ariana and Nick were getting. “Fine.”

They both got in the car and drove away.