Liam had said that Sophia had been caught with spray paint in her backpack.
Anxiety knotted her stomach. It was just a coincidence. Nothing to worry about. Besides, the girls were with him now. They couldn’t be involved in this fire. But still. “When was the last arson fire?”
Greer looked up and to the right, thinking. Then his face softened. “The one that was the same day as the fire at your house.”
“Was there graffiti there?” Please say no.
“Yeah. Around the block from the store.”
Sam was going to be sick. She tugged her phone from her duty pants under her turnout pants. No missed calls or text messages. Her thoughts flitted from the fire at her house to the arsons and the girls. Were they all connected?
Once the scene was cleaned up, everyone loaded into the engine, and Murph pointed it back to the station.
Sam nudged Greer with her elbow. “Do you know if they found graffiti around my house as well?” Her right leg bounced on the floorboard.
“I don’t think so. You think your house might be related to the others?” He tilted his head a little.
“I don’t know. I was just curious, I guess.”
“It’s always possible they could be related, but all the others have been commercial buildings, and no one died.”
He was right. The fires were probably unrelated. “Maybe it was a copycat.”
Murph pulled up in front of the station, and Sam and Greer hopped out to stop traffic so he could back the engine into the bay.
Sam’s phone chirped from her pocket as she reentered the bay. Once she had removed her turnout gear, she dug the phone from her bag. There was a text from Liam.
Liam
The girls are fine. Call me when you get off.
Sam
Thank you.
Everything was okay for now, but would it be once she told him about the spray paint at the scenes of the arsons?
She walked through the dayroom and into the kitchen, grabbed a bottle of water, and chugged it. She didn’t need another lecture about hydration.
“Hey, Sam.” Dean joined her in the kitchen area. “Are you fraternizing with the enemy now?” He grabbed his own bottle of water.
“Excuse me?”
“I’m not sure we can keep you on the team if you’re turning into a badge bunny.” The words may have been meant as a joke, but his tone suggested otherwise.
Sam scoffed. “What are you talking about?”
But she knew exactly what he was talking about. She just needed to deflect until she could think of an appropriate excuse. Her life and Bella’s life could hang in the balance. The truth wouldn’t work.
“Deputy Marshal Liam Roberts has been around the station couple of times. Is there something going on there?”
This wasn’t like the lighthearted teasing she would have expected from him. “What if there is?”
He shrugged. “Nothing. I just don’t want to see you get hurt, that’s all.”
Was that really all?
The alarm wailed again.
