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But then he’d seen the way Sam looked at Lucy, with all that longing. Saw how much time they’d spent together.
And when he’d seen them leave her SUV here at the academy, then tracked them to the arson investigation office, where they’d stayed for hours on end, he’d realized they’d given him a golden opportunity to hurt them both.
Malachi turned his binoculars on Sam, unable to tamp down his satisfied smile. The firefighter’s normally arrogant expression had been wiped clean, replaced by seriousness and concern, his eyes moving to Lucy every so often as if to make sure she was still safe. Malachi had to admit, she had one hell of a game face. Although her initial terror as the fire had burned had made his whole body sing with pride, she’d banked it well as the firefighters had put out the blaze, and she had her mask firmly in place now that the police had arrived.
But oh, he could still see that fear, lurking beneath her stare. Her eyes darted every so often to the charred husk of her SUV, and his heart raced with pure, dark satisfaction as he admired his work. He’d used a safety hammer to quickly and quietly smash the glass in all four windows—readily available on the internet for less than ten bucks, how convenient—then soaked the interior with gasoline, connecting the trails of liquid together so they’d travel fast and burn hot. Timing had been on his side, late enough to go undetected so the fire would consume the SUV before anyone would notice. That Sam and Lucy had returned in time to see it had been a coincidence, and for a split second, Malachi had worried they’d interfere with the fire’s completion. But he’d done his job well. The fire had raged, moving and screaming in delight as it had swallowed the SUV, then spat it back out, ruined. The intense fear on Lucy’s face as she’d watched the flames, the helplessness on Sam’s face as he’d tried and failed to extinguish the flames—all of it had filled Malachi with an electric energy better than sex, drugs, or money could ever deliver.
He held all the power. He alone could create such pure destruction.
And this fire was only the beginning.
Until he could return to finish what he’d started at the warehouse, he’d just have to be content to burn their lives down instead.
17
Lucy had worked shifts at the fire house where they’d gone on more than a dozen calls in twenty-four hours. She’d fought massive blazes, done grueling training that had pushed her to her physical and emotional limit. But she’d never felt so raw, so tapped out and undone, as she did right now.
Someone had set fire to her SUV. Destroyed it beyond repair. Turned it into little more than ash and twisted steel while she’d had to stand by helplessly and watch.
And whoever had done it was still out there.
“Okay,” Isabella said, her dark hair in a messy bun on top of her head and her detective’s badge hanging around her neck. She and her partner, Liam Hollister, had arrived not long after Kellan had called, which hadn’t given Lucy any time to focus on feeling vulnerable, or any of the other dozen or so emotions winging around in her chest. But the investigation needed to be done, the facts relayed and sorted, as the rules dictated. Lucy had to stay strong and focus on protocol. She couldn’t crumble now.
No matter how badly she wanted to.
Isabella continued, bringing Lucy back to the parking lot. “We’ve got both of your statements, along with those from the firefighters at Seventeen. Our next step is to pull the security footage from the academy’s security cameras, which the team will do first thing in the morning, to see if we can get a look at whoever did this.”
“What about my phone?” Lucy asked, trying to push away the added pang at the memory of the video evidence that was very likely going to die in the ether.
Hollister gave her a small, reassuring smile. “It’s already on its way to the precinct. Capelli’s going to work his magic to try and bring it back to life, but even if he can’t, he feels fairly certain he can pull the video from the cloud.”
“Fairly certain,” Sam echoed from his spot beside Lucy, and Hollister huffed out a soft laugh.
“I’ll spare you the long version involving his tutorial on bandwidth and upload speeds. But he did say the likelihood the video had uploaded to the cloud within a minute was ninety-four percent, plus or minus two for how big the file is. And, if that’s the case, he can access it even without the phone, although he’s going to try to restore the device regardless. I think he’s taking it as a personal challenge.”
Under any other circumstances, Lucy would have laughed at how very “Capelli” that was, or at least let herself feel a thread of hope. But right now, she just couldn’t muster either. “Okay. So, what happens to my SUV after the crime scene techs are done?”
Isabella darted a glance at what was left of the vehicle, although, God, it wasn’t much. Engine Seventeen had finished their post-fire protocol, making sure the flames had been completely extinguished and that there was no danger of hot spots that could flare back up. Although they’d turned the scene over to Isabella, Hollister, and the CSU the detectives had called in, her engine-mates stuck close to the taped-off perimeter, the spotlights from Engine Seventeen still illuminating the fire site brightly enough that the technicians wouldn’t miss even the smallest of details.
“The techs will finish photographing it and collecting evidence from the area. Then they’ll take it to the precinct for more thorough processing,” Isabella said.
Hollister added, “We’ll provide whatever paperwork your insurance company needs in order to push a claim through quickly. But the techs are going to need some time to do all the forensic testing.”
“You’re looping Nat in, though, right?” Sam asked, sending a brows-up stare from Isabella to Hollister. “Since this was obviously arson.”
The look the two detectives shared lasted for less than a second, yet still managed to make Lucy’s stomach pinch. “We’ll update her for situational awareness. Of course,” Isabella said.
“But?” Lucy asked, and Isabella held up her hands in concession.
“But,as you already know from our meeting today, Nat’s entire unit is slammed.”
“Someone set fire to Lucy’s SUV,” Sam said between his teeth.
Unsurprisingly, Isabella didn’t so much as blink at the edge in his tone. “I get it, Faurier. But Nat had to call you two in to assist on an incident as big as the warehouse fire. She’s not going to be able to put eyes on this. Plus, the RPD has had these vandalism cases on our radar for a few weeks. It’s perfectly within our jurisdiction to handle this without her for now.”
Also unsurprisingly, Sam didn’t back down. “Okay, but we need to find whoever did thisnow.A fire like this could’ve hurt a lot of people. Including Lucy.”
Hollister’s brows lifted toward the edge of his black knit beanie, but he kept his trademark cool. “Believe me, we’re not taking that lightly. We’ll pull footage from the academy’s security cameras like Isabella promised, along with working to retrieve the video you took in the hope that we can analyze it and maybe find some leads. We’ll do everything we can to find whoever did this. That said, we also want to manage expectations.”
