AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stood firm. “I’m not breaking any more rules, especially not ones related to this fire.”
“We wouldn’t be breaking any rules at all,” he said, because he’d just(ish) gotten his assoutof trouble, and Bridges wouldn’t hesitate to go way bigger with the punishment if he jumped right back in. “I’m impulsive, not stupid. Look, it’s been five days since the fire, which means the fire marshal has probably been out to examine the scene and write up his report, right?”
“Unless he’s really backed up, yeah,” Lucy said slowly. “But the city usually fast-tracks any fires that don’t have super obvious causes. I’d be surprised if he hasn’t made a scene visit by now.”
Sam nodded, taking another bite of his breakfast—Christ, these pancakes should be illegal—before responding. “So, if that’s the case, then the next step is for arson investigation to review the report and possibly the scene, right?”
“Yeah,” Lucy said, her tone painting the word as a question. “So?”
“So, what if we went over to the arson investigation office and offered our expertise?”
A laugh popped past her lips. “You’re serious.”
“As a heart attack,” Sam confirmed. “But think about it.” He held up a hand to tick off the proof points on his fingers. “If the fire marshal has already been there and completed a report, we wouldn’t be messing with anything before it’s been documented. We’re trained to do a site visit and know the potential dangers involved in being in a fire-damaged structure. And with how slammed they probably are over there in arson investigation, we’d be doing them a massive favor. Think of it as paying it forward. Plus, we were the only two firefighters who were inside the warehouse when it was actively burning. We can offer a unique perspective to the investigation that no one else can.”
Lucy gave him an incredulous look. “Let me make sure I’ve got this right. You want to just walk into the arson investigation office and ask them if we can go check out a fire scene for grins?”
“Why not?” he asked. “We’re off today, so it’s not like we’d be skipping out on the academy for this. And, like I said, we’d ask for permission. But something was off about that fire, de Costa. Something big. I just have a gut feeling that it wasn’t an accident.”
“The last time I trusted your gut, it got me benched,” she said, but nope. No way. He couldn’t let this go.
“Then trust your own. You said this is driving you crazy, too. You said it looked like arson. What harm can it do to ask if we can go take a look at the scene? If we don’t find anything, I swear I’ll drop it and never mention it again. Scout’s honor.”
Lucy frowned, but instead of giving up a hard no, she said, “There you go, trying to convince me you’re a Boy Scout again.”
It was an in, and Sam took it. “Boy Scout or not, we can’t both be wrong about this.”
A beat passed, turning into two, then three before she crossed her arms and said, “We’d have to ask for permissionfirst, and if the request gets denied, that’s it. No arguing, no sneaking onto the scene. No exceptions.”
“No means no. Of course,” Sam said, unable to curb his smile.
“And we’re just going to look around. Nothing crazy, anddefinitelynothing against the rules.”
Sam’s smile became a full-on grin. “Cross my heart.”
“And if we don’t find anything that the arson unit finds unusual, that’s it. We turn everything back over to them and forget all about it.”
He nodded. “Absolutely.”
Lucy blew out a breath, and in that moment, he knew he had her. “Fine. But I’m doing this strictly to shut you up. The sooner we put this whole thing to bed, the sooner we can finish our penance at the academy and get back to normal.”
9
Lucy had lost her freaking mind. It was the only explanation for the fact that she’d even sat down with Faurier in the first place, let alone let him rope her into a crazy trip to the arson investigation office for some wild goose chase. Granted, he hadn’t been wrong about them having shared hundreds of breakfasts together on shift over the past three years, and she couldn’t stay mad at him forever. He really had paid attention this week at the academy, and she was going to have to get used to being around him without scowling or—worse—having another sex dream before they went back on shift together anyway. Maybe breakfast hadn’t beensucha bad idea (plus, those pancakes. Hello). But agreeing to go to the arson investigation office with him to see if investigators would green-light the two of them poking around the scene of a fire? And not just any fire, but the one that had gotten them both benched, all because it had looked—and this was a direct quote—wonky?
Yep. Lucy was officially off her rocker.
But something about that fireisoff, came a whisper from some place she couldn’t name, and she snapped to attention in the driver’s seat of her SUV. Okay, so the way the fire had spread so rapidly had been bugging her all week, and the fact that Faurier had noticed, too, was another red flag. But she’d meant what she’d said to Faurier in that diner. Gut feelings weren’t proof. Most of the time, they were either superstition or wishful thinking, and both had the potential to be dangerous if you relied on them rather than the cold, hard facts.
Facts she and Faurier weren’t likely to find in a pile of ash and rubble. And once the scene turned up a reasonable explanation for the cause of that warehouse fire, Faurier would have no choice but to let it go, and Lucy could get back to business.
All the more reason to get this insanity over with.
Straightening her shoulders, Lucy killed the ignition and grabbed her keys, sliding out of her SUV and into the midmorning sunshine. She’d added a couple of conditions to this little field trip of theirs, namely that they finish breakfast first and that she also go home to shower before they met up at the arson investigation office. Faurier—being Faurier—had upped the ante. While he’d agreed to both breakfast and the time she’d need to shower, he’d countered by insisting she meet him at his place so they could ride over to the arson investigation office together. “To come up with a persuasive argument on the way,” he’d said, giving her aGQsmile. Of course, she’d been too full of carbs and residual sex-dream endorphins to say no, so here she was. In front of Sam Faurier’s apartment building. About to do something crazy with him.
Again.
Lucy drew a deep breath and took in her surroundings, marshaling her pulse back in line. She’d been surprised to discover that Faurier lived in a fairly suburban part of the city less than ten minutes from her, with a middle school less than five minutes away and a nearby park that probably teemed with families in warmer weather. Her mind had placed him in a slick condo smack in the middle of the downtown bustle, within walking distance of the most popular nightclubs and hotspots, and he’d never mentioned exactly where he lived when they were at the fire house.
