Chapter 46 The Glow on the Horizon
Aria POV
I kept my eyes fixed on the grainiest monitor while Jax adjusted the copper wiring we had just spliced, and for a few minutes, the only sound in the room was the hum of the cooling fans and the distant, muffled sound of a dog barking somewhere far away in the woods.
The traffic camera feed was choppy and kept cutting to black every few seconds, but I could still see the empty intersections of the downtown district where the streetlights were flickering in the wind. I leaned closer to the screen because I noticed something shifting in the top corner of the frame, and at first I thought it was just a smudge on the lens or a bit of fog rolling in from the river, but then the color started to change from a dull gray to a bright, pulsing orange.
"Jax, look at the sky on the fourth monitor, because that doesn't look like the moon or the city lights to me," I said, pointing toward the screen where the clouds were starting to catch a weird, flickering glow that looked way too bright for that time of night.
Jax stopped what he was doing and leaned over my shoulder, squinting at the display while he tapped a few keys to try and sharpen the resolution, and he let out a low hiss between his teeth as he realized what he was looking at.
"That's a major fire, and it’s coming from the center of the commercial district, but I can't tell exactly which block it is because the camera angle is too low and the buildings are blocking the direct view."
He grabbed a handheld radio from the desk and started frantically turning the dial to find a frequency that wasn't completely jammed by the Iron Fang tech, and after several minutes of loud static and screeching noises, a voice finally broke through the interference.
The voice was garbled and sounded like it was coming from a mile underwater, but I could hear the sound of sirens and shouting in the background of the transmission, and I felt a cold chill wash over me as the scout started to report his location.
"This is Miller, I'm... block north of the... center, and we've got a massive structure fire at the corner of 4th and Main," the voice crackled, and then the signal cut out again into a wall of white noise that made Jax slam his fist against the table.
I felt my stomach drop like I was falling down a flight of stairs, because 4th and Main wasn't just a random street corner in a city of thousands, it was the exact location of the bakery where I had worked every single day for the last three years.
I stared at the orange glow on the screen and I felt like I couldn't breathe, because I kept telling myself that it had to be a mistake or a different building, since there were plenty of shops on that block that were more valuable than a small family bread shop
"They wouldn't go after a bread shop, Jax, it doesn't make any sense for them to waste their time firebombing a place that sells cupcakes and sourdough," I said, looking at him and hoping he would tell me that I was being paranoid or that Miller had gotten the street names mixed up.
"The Iron Fangs are at war with Grayson over millions of dollars and territory, so why would they care about a human business that has nothing to do with the pack or the Syndicate?"
Jax didn't look at me right away, and instead he just stared at the flickering monitor with an expression of pity that made me want to scream, because he looked like a man who had seen this happen a dozen times before.
"They aren't doing it because they want the building, Aria, they're doing it because they know it’s the only place you had left that felt safe, and they want to show Grayson that they can touch anything and anyone he tries to protect."
"But that's my life, and Mr. Henderson is probably in there trying to save his equipment, or he could be hurt because he always stays late to prep the dough for the morning rush," I shouted, grabbing my phone again even though I knew the bars were still at zero.
I tried to dial the bakery's landline and then Mr. Henderson's private cell, but the phone just sat there with the "calling" screen frozen until it eventually timed out and went back to the home screen.
"I have to go there, Jax, you have to let me out of here so I can see if he’s okay and help him put out the fire," I pleaded, standing up and heading toward the door, but Jax jumped up and blocked my path before I could even reach the handle.
"You aren't going anywhere, because the streets are crawling with Iron Fang patrols and you’d be dead before you even got across the bridge," he told me, holding me by the shoulders to keep me from running out into the hallway.
"Grayson gave me strict orders to keep you inside this building, and if I let you go out there and you get caught, then everything he’s doing at that meeting will be for nothing because they’ll have you as a hostage."
"So I'm just supposed to sit here and watch my world burn on a tiny television screen?" I asked, and I felt the first hot tears start to sting my eyes as the orange glow on the monitor got even brighter and more intense.
I walked back to the chair and slumped down, feeling a level of helplessness that was even worse than when the black car was following us, because at least then I had a goal and a place to run to.
Now, I realized that the Iron Fangs weren't just trying to kill Grayson, they were systematically erasing every single piece of the girl I used to be, and they were doing it while I was trapped in a stone cellar like a prisoner. I kept trying the phone every few seconds, hoping that for just one moment the jamming would stop and I could hear Mr. Henderson’s voice telling me that everything was fine, but the only thing I got was the steady, silent glow of the city burning in the distance.
The weight of it started to sink in that I was losing my job, my income, and the only place where people knew me as Aria the baker instead of Aria the human girl who was causing trouble for the Harts. I looked at my hands and realized they were still stained with the grease from the motorcycle I had been fixing, and I wondered if I would ever go back to smelling like flour and sugar again, or if this was just the beginning of a life where everything I touched ended up in ashes.