She turned and looked at him. “It’s the same thing I wear every day.”
“I don’t mean your clothes, you weirdo.” He laughed. “I meant you’ve been more relaxed the last couple of days. Not as uptight.”
“Uptight?” Was that how everyone saw her?
“Don’t take it the wrong way. It’s why we love you. You’re always in control of your emotions, and even though you joke along with us, you don’t let yourself fully go.” He stared into her eyes. “You’ve been so focused on being Samantha Williams the firewoman, and Samantha Williams, Bella’s big sister and mother figure, that you haven’t been just Sam. I feel like maybe this marshal is helping you realize you’re more than just those titles you’ve given yourself and the responsibilities you’ve shouldered.”
She opened her mouth to say something, but there were no words, because he was right.
“I’ll leave it alone for now.” He patted her shoulder. “I asked if you’ve already done the inventory on the medical closet. I need to pull some supplies.”
“Oh, not yet. That’s next on my list.”
“Good. I’ll stock the medical bags before you do that, so it won’t throw off inventory.” He wandered off.
Greer had given her a lot to think about. Most of her life had just been surviving from one day to the next. Was it time she started living? Liam couldn’t be a part of that equation, no matter what her feelings were telling her. Once the danger passed, he would be out of her life, no longer her case officer. He’d go back to his job protecting the courthouse. On to the nextassignment, the next witness. Leaving her behind, holding the pieces of her heart she hadn’t realized he’d been chipping away.
Maybe she’d text Liam and ask him to pick her up later, and she’d get a good run on the treadmill. Clear her head. Her workouts had floundered since the fire destroyed her house.
The station alarm blared.
“Truck 4, Engine 4. EMS. Structure fire at Fourth and Main.”
Adrenaline kicked in. She jogged to the engine bay and joined her colleagues. They donned their turnout gear and climbed into the engine. As the sirens wailed, she continued gearing up, listening for the report from Lieutenant Fischer.
“Commercial fire at an abandoned building.”
Murph staged the engine while the ladder truck pulled up behind them.
Sam jumped down, grabbed the line, and started running it toward the structure like she’d done a hundred times before. She was first on the hose—her job was to advance the line inside.
Captain Bennett gave his three-sixty report and doled out instructions.
The ladder crew forced entry, cleared the building, then worked on ventilation. Sam entered the building behind them, heat slamming into her as she stepped through the doorway.
She crouched low and aimed the stream at the base of the nearest flames, moving methodically as she pushed forward.
The building was thick with smoke, the kind that clung to the lungs and made the eyes water, even with the SCBA. Pockets of smaller fires had been set throughout the space, but in the middle of the expansive open area just ahead, one massive blaze roared with a fury that her gut said wasn’t accidental.
She dropped into a textbook defensive firefighting stance, crouched low and balanced, her body angled behind the nozzle as she aimed the water at the smaller fire in front of her. Sheneeded to put out these flames before moving on to the inferno ahead.
The fire hissed and snapped. A sharp crack from above cut through the roar of the fire. Something heavy gave way somewhere.
Pain exploded across the top of her head, and an unbearable weight piled on top of her. The hose slipped from her hands as her knees buckled and she pitched forward, the world going dark.
Liam had spent the last hour with Glover, going over the LLCs and financials of Dr. Torres. “Dr. Torres’s membership in the LLCs is the only connection to the arsons. The LLCs don’t share any other members or managers. The properties aren’t next door to each other or connected in any other way.”
Glover leaned back in her chair. “You think Dr. Torres paid someone to set these buildings on fire to collect the insurance money? We’ll need to subpoena the insurance companies to determine the scope of the policies.”
Liam nodded. “I think something happened between Dr. Torres and whoever he hired. Maybe he decided not to pay out, or maybe their arsonist found out he was going to disappear, but for whatever reason, he or she lured Dr. Torres to Sam’s house and killed him, then set the house on fire.”
“Without more evidence, we won’t know for certain, but it’s definitely an angle we need to investigate. The fact that he was killed in Sam’s house and that Sam’s sister had been involved with the firebugs could all be a coincidence.”
He needed to talk to Samantha about all of this. Maybe she could shine some light on it. She’d admitted she’d not had muchcontact with Torres, but the smallest thing could be what he was looking for.
He pulled his phone from his pocket and called her. The phone rang until voicemail picked up. She was probably out on a call. He’d wait for her to call back. In the meantime, he’d look into the known associates of Dr. Torres. His death proved that whoever was in charge was trying to clean up a mess. Thatmessincluded Samantha, Isabella, and his niece.
His phone rang, Sam’s name filling the screen. “Hey, Sam.”
