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But Lucy stood firm. “Evidence,” she yelled back over the rush of flames, coughing into the crook of her arm. He didn’t have time to argue with her. Squeezing the fire extinguisher’s handle, he released the extinguishing agent, hoping like hell it would slow the fire down at least a little. Chemicals collided with the smoke to deliver a punch right to his trachea, but he refused to let it slow him down. Squinting through the haze, Sam swept the handle from side to side, trying to smother the flames. But the extinguisher was one of those small deals, made to put out little engine flare-ups rather than full-blown blazes, and it was empty in ten seconds. The fire sputtered slightly, then flared right back to full steam as if nothing had even happened, and if they didn’t get back, they could both be in very deep shit, very soon.
“Lucy,” he growled, unease like a lead weight in his gut. “We need to move.”
The wail of sirens mixed in with the whoosh of the flames. Sam dropped the spent extinguisher, reaching out for her arm.
Lucy shook her head. “Look at the fire.Look.”
Sam swung back toward the SUV. Shock twisted inside of him at the sight of the flames, the familiar way they had spread quickly to consume everything in their reach, unstoppable, and oh, God.
This fire was no accident.
“Lucy,” he urged again. Heat rolled from the vehicle in a solid wall, the flames dangerously close to the SUV’s gas tank. Instinct screamed at him to get her out of harm’s way, just as it told him in no uncertain terms that she’d stand her ground.
Sam had taken two steps before his brain even registered the reality that he’d move. Scooping Lucy’s phone from her hand, he kept the camera pointed at the fire as he angled her behind him to shield her from the flames. She made a noise of protest, but it was quickly cut short by a sudden burst of heat and flame blasting up, toward the sky.
“Shit.”Sam stumbled backward, averting his eyes from the overbright burst of the flare. Heat slammed into him a millisecond later, the force of it knocking him off balance and sending Lucy’s phone clattering to the ground. Red and white lights cut through the darkness, sirens and the diesel-fueled roar of a fire engine filling his ears, and he grabbed Lucy’s hand, pulling her toward safety.
“Faurier? de Costa?” Gamble said, his eyes wide with shock as he met them halfway between Engine Seventeen and Lucy’s SUV. “What the hell?”
Under normal circumstances, Sam would place more value on his life than to order an oak tree of a guy like Gamble around. This, however? Wasnotfucking normal.
“The fire’s going to reach the gas tank and explode any second now. Go.”
Gamble didn’t need to be told twice. Barking out orders, he hauled a fire extinguisher from the engine, Shae mirroring his movements while Kellan readied the hose. Lucy turned toward the engine, yanking open a storage compartment and grabbing a backup coat, but oh, no. Hell, no.
Sam caught her by the wrist. “Lucy, stop. You’re not in full gear. This isn’t safe.”
She shook her head, still trying to slide into the coat. “I need to help.”
“Gamble and Shae have this,” he insisted, but she whirled around to face him.
“My car is about thirty seconds away fromexploding,Sam. I can’t just sit here. I need to dosomething.”
Vulnerability flashed beneath the fierceness in her stare, and it ripped through Sam’s chest. He moved again without thinking, this time to step in close and capture her gaze with his.
“I get it. I do.” He reached out, wrapping his hands around her upper arms. “But you have to stay safe. Let them put the fire out.”
She kept her eyes fixed on his for a single beat before relenting with a small nod. Sam didn’t let go of her, and even though a part of him had screamed to grab some gear and a fire extinguisher and jump into the fray, too, a bigger part of him kept his feet rooted in front of Lucy. She squeezed her eyes closed, her hands curling around the fabric covering his forearms and clutching tight, and in that moment, no force on heaven or earth would have made him let her go. He registered the sound of movement behind them, Gamble’s voice calling out directives, Shae and Kellan’s responses over the hiss of fire extinguishers and the rush of the hose. Finally, both went quiet, and Lucy let go of him, blinking as if a spell had been broken.
“Okay,” she said. Loosening her fingers from his jacket, she took a step back, and only then did Sam turn to look at the scene behind him. Shock punched his solar plexus as he took in the bare metal frame and smashed windows of the SUV, now starkly illuminated by the fire engine’s harsh spotlights. Black scorch marks covered most of the vehicle’s exterior, giving way to heat-blistered bubbles of red paint in only a few places. They’d been able to stop the fire before it had ignited an explosion, thank Christ, but only just. The SUV was clearly unsalvageable, the piles of smoldering ash that had been the vehicle’s interior less than thirty minutes ago now turning the pooling water sludgy and gray on the pavement.
Someone had set Lucy’s car on fire. On purpose.
Sam was going todismantlethis son of a bitch.
“What the hell is going on?” Gamble’s gruff voice dumped Sam back to the moment just in time to register the big guy pulling off his helmet and striding over to the spot where Sam and Lucy stood.
Shae and Kellan joined them, too, their faces both etched with concern. “Are you hurt?” Shae asked. “Squad and ambo are on another call, but we can radio dispatch for paramedics if you—”
“No,” Lucy said, her head shake adamant. “I’m fine.”
Her eyes told a different story, and anger kicked Sam’s mouth into motion.
“This fire was no accident. We need to get Intelligence here.Now.”
For just a breath, no one spoke. But they were a bunch of firefighters, highly trained to react calmly when the shit hit the fan.
Thankfully, they were also highly protective of their own. “I’ll call Isabella,” Kellan said, already moving toward the engine.
