Page 33 of Tempered By Flames

“The guy who paid me to do this.”

That gave Liam pause. For some reason, he’d thought the guy had set fire to the factory because he hated shifters. Maybe it was the way he’d thrown out the word monster earlier. Maybe it was because it was obvious that he hated Ethan. Or maybe he’d felt that way because of the way Ethan was manhandling him. This guy had to know that once Ethan was done, they would be calling the cops. He had to know that whatever he’d done, it was over. Apparently, he was willing and ready to throw his employer under the bus. Liam thought it was sad, but he was also relieved. They didn’t know who was behind all of this. Hopefully, that person would pay, too.

“Who’s that guy?” Ethan asked with a growl that was pretty impressive and sent a shiver down Liam’s spine.

Liam could’ve sworn that Ethan’s eyes flashed yellow and that for a second, scales appeared on his skin. He wanted to reach out and touch, but he knew better.

“I don’t know his name. He contacted me online and said that shifters needed to leave town and that he wanted help cleaning up the neighborhood. He paid me, and I didn’t have to do much, so I thought why not?”

Liam took out his phone. He could see that Ethan was getting angrier, and he didn’t want the situation to spiral. He quickly texted Taylor, knowing his captain would answer immediately. Sure enough, his phone vibrated just a few seconds later with a thumbs-up. Taylor was sending help.

Luckily, it only took a few minutes. Ethan tried to get more answers out of the guy, but Liam suspected that he really didn’t know much about the person who’d paid him. The guy was so scared of Ethan that he would’ve given him anything Ethan asked for. He just repeated the same answers again and again, no matter how frustrated Ethan became.

“What’s going on here?” a man asked.

Liam turned to see a couple of cops coming toward them. Luckily, he was still wearing his turnouts, and it was obvious he’d been involved in the fire. “My captain sent you. I warned him that we caught the guy who set the fire in the factory,” he explained.

The cop who’d spoken looked from Liam to Ethan and the arsonist. “This guy?”

Ethan finally pushed himself away from the man, who slid down the wall to the ground. Apparently, he was too scared of Ethan to try to get up, which was a good thing because Ethan looked like he was seconds away from slamming him against the wall again. The man’s cheek was scratched up badly, and there was blood dripping from one of the deeper cuts near his eye.

“I thought the way he was watching the fire was weird,” Ethan said, still staring at the man. “I was here because I was afraid for my boyfriend.”

Liam raised a hand. “That would be me.”

“I just wanted to make sure that Liam was okay with my own two eyes. I noticed the guy, but I didn’t do anything about it until he saw Liam coming toward me and ran. I think he thought that Liam was coming for him.”

“You thought it was a good idea to follow him and slam him against the wall?”

“He wouldn’t have confessed to getting paid to set the fire if I hadn’t caught him,” Ethan snapped. “Look,” he said after taking a deep breath. “I’m not trying to do your job here. I’m just telling you what happened. The guy confessed to me and Liam that he’d set the place on fire and that he’d been paid to do it. Believe it or not, but even if you don’t, at least talk to him.”

The cop stared at Ethan for a moment before nodding curtly. “Oh, don’t worry, we’ll interrogate him. First, though, he needs to go to the hospital.”

Liam could see that Ethan wanted to argue that, but what could he say? The arsonist was bleeding.

Liam stepped closer to Ethan and put a hand on his arm. Ethan frowned, but he took a step back from the man and allowed the cops to grab him. Together, Ethan and Liam watched the cops drag the guy out of the alley. The guy wasn’t saying much.

“It’s over now, right?” Ethan asked in a whisper.

Liam wished he could say yes, but he didn’t know.

Chapter Seven

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“ARE WE SURE ABOUT THIS?” Ethan asked.

Liam glanced sideways before turning his attention back to the road. “Why wouldn’t we be sure?”

“Because this is your family, and I’m a chimera shifter.”

“They know you’re a chimera shifter. I told them, remember?”

“I know.” Liam had told his family about Ethan a few months after they’d started dating, once Ethan had felt comfortable enough for him to. It wasn’t that Ethan hadn’t thought they would be together for a long time, but he’d wanted to feel like things were more settled before he got into it with Liam’s family. He was still uncomfortable with telling people what he was, but he hadn’t had to in this situation. Liam had told them for him. Ethan had wanted to be sure they knew what he was before he met them. That way, if they had something against him, he wouldn’t have to go through that.

But Liam had said that his family was excited to meet him. It felt like it was too good to be true, but Ethan’s boyfriend wasn’t a liar, and he wouldn’t want to hurt Ethan like that. If he said it was okay, then it would be, no matter how hard it was for Ethan to believe. Ethan just wasn’t used to it. In the relationships he’d had, he’d never gotten serious enough to meet the family. Most of the time, he hadn’t wanted to take the risk anyway.

But he did now. He’d told several people what he was recently, and everything had gone well. No one had rejected him. No one had told him that he was a weirdo or a monster. No one had run away from him and told him to stay away. If anything, everyone had welcomed him with open arms, including Liam’s team. Ethan had gone to a few cookouts organized by Taylor, and while Taylor had had a couple of questions, it wasn’t anything Ethan hadn’t expected. It also wasn’t anything outrageous. Taylor was just curious about Ethan’s chimera form, almost as much as Liam was.