Page 79 of Burning For You

The men were securing the building now, the inspector already there and ready to look around. Something like this, there was no waiting until morning. Not when there was a risk of so many trying to get back in.

As Ash headed back to his truck, Skye waved him over.

He looked around and jogged closer.

“You’re brave wanting to talk to me. I’m not happy right now.”

“So I can tell,” she said. “Get over it.”

He held his growl back. Barely.

“Why are you here? It’s not a car fire.”

“I know,” she said, her head dipping. “But you’re working and it sounded bad.”

He waited a second, searched her eyes, saw the concern and took a guess. “You were worried about me?”

“I’m not a horrible person, am I? Last I looked I wasn’t that selfish.”

“No,” he said. “You’re not.” He wanted to reach for her hand. To touch her for a second.

But people were looking on.

He was going to be questioned, he knew.

“I wanted to make sure you were all right more than anything. Then since I was here, I thought I’d get some information. I’ll write it up and send it on, but I’m sure it was a fire that got out of hand by those trying to keep warm inside.”

“Most likely,” he said. “That’s for the inspector to figure out.”

“I know you’re going to need to sleep tomorrow and I’m working, but maybe we can get together for dinner?”

“I’d like that. We should probably compare notes. Tate was playing coy.”

“Yeah, I know. I told him to cut the shit.”

“Ash, let’s go!”

After a glance at his team members, he turned back to her and said, “I’ll talk to you later. Go home and get some sleep.”

“You try to rest too,” she said.

He jogged back to the truck. “Who is that?” Bruce asked.

He didn’t hesitate to say, “My girlfriend. Though I wish she’d kept her butt home tonight.”

“Never wish that,” Bruce said. “It’s nice to see a comforting face when our asses are whipped. Though like you, I like when Trish keeps her ass home.”

“Now that was something,” he murmured, rubbing his hands together. Couldn’t be too loud. Couldn’t get too excited and alert everyone else who was sleeping in the house.

It was over too quickly though. Gone before he could savor it, but it was a beginning. A shift. Something different from the rest.

Something more exciting than a small car fire.

Slipping in through the back had been right. Setting the fire there should have given it time to grow, to breathe, to run freely through the building with what he’d set near enough to catch.

But as he ran off the property on the outskirts in the darkness, he saw flames already licking out the front. For a moment he wondered if someone else had shared the same impulse.

No.