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Maybe it already had.
“I’m not overreacting. It’s dark inside the house,” Charlie said. “And I found blood. Lots of blood. Like there was a body that was moved. No sign of Haley or Seth, but her car is still here. Her phone goes straight to voice mail.”
Rocco swore. “You broke into the house?”
“The door was open.”
More curses from him stung her ear. “This is bad.”
Squeezing her eyes shut, she nodded to herself. “I know.”
“You’re always up to your neck in trouble,” he said, and she didn’t bother trying to deny it since it was true. “You’ve got to call 911.”
“No way.” She shook her head, a reflex even though he couldn’t see her. “If you were here, Imightconsider it. Otherwise—”
“I can’t come. I’m sort of stuck in a situation outside of Laramie.” Rocco sighed. “But I can send someone else.”
There was no one else she trusted. No one who would give her the benefit of the doubt. No one who would take her at her word. Not like Rocco. And he was out of town. “Who could you possibly send?”
“Someone who’d be on your side. That’s what you need.”
She groaned at the lack of a name. “I need to know.”
“Bradshaw,” he gritted out.
“What? Is this a sick joke?” Brian Bradshaw was one of them. “He’s a cop.” Which made him the last person she wanted getting involved. Better for her to hightail it out of there right now.
“He’s a friend. With a badge. He can look out for you. Act as a buffer between you and the rest of the Laramie PD.”
Technically, his friend was on loan from the police department, currently assigned to the same joint task force as her cousin. During the time they had worked together, she was painfully aware that the two guys had grown close. Hung out. Had dinner. Watched football games. She often teased Rocco about their bromance, but that did not mean she trusted their mutual acquaintance to protect her back.
Clutching the phone tighter, she hated the idea for more reasons than she was able to count. She would do anything to avoid that man.
Brian Bradshaw had an insidious way of staying so warm and upbeat, regardless of how icy and rude she was to him on purpose. His unflappable congeniality rankled her senseless. No one was that nice. All the time. He was hiding something behind his saccharine facade and annoyingly handsome face. One she admittedly enjoyed looking at too much. Even though no man would ever make her go weak in the knees or soft in the head, no matter how attractive he was. But Brian was simply too much...of everything. Too talkative. Too ingratiating. Too persistent.
Not that any of it mattered because everything boiled down to one insurmountable fact.
He was a cop.
Just like her father.
It was bad enough her cousin was an ATF agent. Although she had grown up with Rocco, trusted him with her life, she even kept him at a distance. Never letting him get too close. She made sure that he didn’t know anything about her illicit activities. He was smart enough not to ask her questions he didn’t want answers to. The secrets she harbored remained off his radar. She planned on keeping it that way.
For her sake as well as his.
On the breeze, she caught a smell in the air. Her stomach flip-flopped as she put a name to the distinct scent.
Smoke.
Charlie spun around. Flames were visible through the windows of the house. Flickering. Spreading. Very, very, fast.
“The house...” She swallowed, staring in disbelief. “The house is on fire,” she muttered, half to herself.
“What? I don’t understand,” he said, and neither did she. “Didn’t you say the place was empty?”
Charlie started walking toward the cabin, mind scrambling to make sense of it, every nerve ending alight and crackling like a fuse.
This was the epitome of bad.
