Trial by Fire (Southern Heat Book 4)

by Jamie Garrett

  She was still struggling to believe that the gorgeous, brave-as-hell firefighter would be interested in her, and then he’d gone and touched her again. Holding her hand, the brush against the length of his body when she’d passed by him at the cafe door, the touch of his hand lingering on her cheek. She couldn’t be imagining all of it, could she?

  It didn’t seem to matter now. Seth was all back to business, a hard look on his face as he pulled out his cell phone. “Liam, hey, Man.” A pause. “Yeah, we’re fine. Listen, I had a couple of questions.” Quiet again, then Seth frowned. “That too, but something’s come up. Something I don’t like.” He glanced her way, his features softening, but the hardness still in his eyes. “Do you mind if we stop by again? Right, ten minutes, then.” Seth pushed to end the call and then slid the phone in his pocket. He held out his hand, but Maya just stared at it. What the hell was going on? “Is it okay if we go talk to Liam again?” he asked her. She nodded, still not understanding. Seth picked up her hand and drew her out of her chair, then took out his wallet and threw a few bills on the table. “He’s got contacts I don’t, and I want to make sure before we take this further.”

  Something warmed in Maya’s heart. Before we take this further. Somehow, after struggling on her own for months, she’d found someone willing to help. God, Seth was so much more than that. Why he was going the extra mile for her still made no sense, but she was done questioning it. Help was help, and even if his hunch went nowhere, spending time with him still gave her something. Something she hadn’t felt in months. Hope.

  When they got to Promise House, Meg answered the door, barely pausing to swing it open before running off again. “Sorry! I’ll be back in a moment. Seth, Liam’s in the office.” Seth called out his thanks, but Meg had already whirled on. He took her hand again, a warmth coalescing where their skin touched, small sparks flying across the surface. He led her down a hall, veering off at the door to the large commercial kitchen Meg had told her was installed after the fire, and down the hall to a room toward the back of the house. “If you ask me, Meg put her office right at the back on purpose,” he said, smiling. “She likes to hide out sometimes.”

  “Meg? Really?” Maya said. “She seems like the life of the party to me.”

  “Everyone needs their downtime,” Seth said. He grinned. “Besides, sometimes Liam likes to hide out there with her.” He chuckled. “And they think they’re being so discreet.”

  Maya’s eyes widened as her cheeks heated. Seriously, why did she keep blushing around Seth? She was in her mid-twenties and she was acting like a school girl. Then again, it wasn’t hard to turn into a gibbering mess around Seth, around any of the men she’d met the other day. What the hell was in the water in Monroe? She blushed deeper and dropped her head, pretending to be fascinated by Meg’s carpet choice. If Seth hadn’t paused outside the office door, she would have run headfirst into it.

  “Liam, now good?”

  Maya took a deep breath, forcing her gaze up and the thoughts currently running through her mind out. Seth had made it clear in the diner that this was a business trip. It was something she’d asked for, and so it was time to get her head back in the game. She could fantasize about firefighters and their hoses later, tucked up in her motel room. Unless she got any more nocturnal visitors. A shiver ran through her body and this time, Seth wrapped an arm around her shoulders, guiding her to a chair. A look of concern covered his face, one that Liam was quickly copying as he caught sight of them.

  “Maya? You okay?” He shot a sharp look at Seth. “What’s going on?”

  Seth gave her another look of concern and she nodded. “I’m okay.” He raised one eyebrow, but when she turned her gaze back to Liam, he squeezed her shoulder and then moved to the other chair in front of the desk, perching on the arm. He slid his phone out of his pocket again. “I went back to the scene again, after I dropped Maya off last night.” He thumbed at the phone screen.

  “And?” Liam said. He looked over to Maya, sending her a smile. “As much as I enjoyed getting to know you better yesterday, Maya, I’m guessing this isn’t a social call?”

  “Not on your life,” Seth said, his expression sharp. “I’m emailing you some photos I took. There was something bothering me yesterday and I think I found something to confirm it, but I wanted your opinion.”

  Liam’s eyebrows rose in question and he made his way back behind the desk, opening up his laptop. “They’re coming in now. Anything in particular you want tell me?”

  “The pour patterns,” Seth said. “I think you were right.” He moved to stand behind Liam, indicating the screen. “See that? That’s the last origin point. Has to be, right?”

  Liam leaned over, squinting, and then clicked the mouse. Maya stayed where she was. Going through that house yesterday was enough. She never wanted to go back there again. Who knew what the photos were that Seth had taken? She didn’t need to see. The entire trip was already burned into her mind forever. Burned. She shivered again, growing cold. Was she ever going to get through even a single day without multiple reminders?

  The room was silent, save for Liam’s mouse clicking. Several long minutes passed, until Liam whispered. “You’re right. Seth, you’re fucking right.”

  What the hell was he right about? The multiple points of origin, she got. If the fire was an accident, it was highly unlikely there’d be more than one ignition point. That much made sense. By why did it matter which was first or not? “I asked Maya if Jesse was injured,” Seth’s voice broke through her thoughts. “But she doesn’t know.”

  Liam shut the laptop and sat back in his chair, wiping a hand over his face. “We can find that out, though. There’s gotta be something in the news, or another paper trail somewhere.”

  Seth shook his head. “Not that Maya’s ever found. How the hell is there no autopsy?”

  “Hell if I know,” Liam said, moving to open the laptop again. “But I’ll find out.”

  Maya closed her eyes, a rushing in her ears. What the hell was going on? Maybe she should go over and see what Seth and Liam were staring at on the screen. She opened her eyes and tried to move, but her legs wouldn’t listen to her, her knees wobbling even as she tried to stand. She huffed out a breath and grabbed at the chair’s arm even as Seth raced around the desk.

  “Maya! Please, sit back down before you fall down.”

  She forced her knees to lock and stared up at Seth. “Not until you tell me what the fuck is going on. Right now.”

  Seth’s face was still grim, but he smiled for her. “It’s okay, Sweetheart. Everything’s alright. Please, sit down and I’ll explain.”

  She dropped back in the chair, what little strength she’d mustered fading. Seth kneeled in front of her so his eyes were level with hers. “Maya, there’s no way an autopsy wasn’t done. But more than that, Liam just confirmed that I was reading the signs I saw last night correctly. The fire at the front door was the last to be set.” He took a deep breath. “It would have been very difficult, if not impossible, for Jesse to make it back up the stairs after he’d set it. Fuck, the whole room would have been primed for flashover by that point.” Seth’s gaze burned into hers. “Maya, I don’t think Seth was anywhere near that door when the fire was lit. I think he was already upstairs. Whether or not he had other injuries. That’s what the non-existent autopsy would tell us.”

  The blood drained from her face and Maya slumped in the chair. She heard a strange whimpering noise, but she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Something warm settled on her shoulders while something else warm squeezed her hand. Jesse hadn’t been the one to set the fire? A weight sat on her chest and her lungs burned.

  “Breathe, Sweetheart. Can you take a deep breath, for me?”

  Seth.

  He’d figured it out, and he was still there with her.

  They’d done it.

  Jesse hadn’t set the fire.

  Her vision wavered, the room wobbling dangerously.

  So who the hell had?


  14

  Seth

  Seth hefted his duffle bag over one shoulder, striding out the large roller doors of the firehouse. Smoke still clung to him, despite a shower. The shift had been long, starting with card games and chili for lunch until someone had uttered the forbidden word—slow—and within minutes, he’d been dressed in full gear and hauling ass to a fire in an abandoned warehouse. The acrid chemical smell combined with smoke wasn’t going to go away without a decent shower with better crap than he kept in his locker at the station. He’d taken only minutes at the end of shift to quickly soap up and rinse off, throwing on his street clothes. Maybe the acrid smell was wafting from the contents of his duffle. He hadn’t wanted to wait around long enough to put on his washing, again. He would have left his uniform behind and begged one of the others to throw it in with their load later, if he wasn’t scared of what Jeremy would do to it. Seth had been the butt of the perpetual joker’s pranks enough times. Of course, when they were directed at someone else, they were fucking hilarious. Seth’s personal favorite was when Jeremy had installed a wireless doorbell in the ceiling of the chief’s room with the button placed just so against the wall of the toilet. Any time someone pushed the stall door open all the way, the doorbell would sound, night or day. It had taken Alex over a week to finally track it down.

  The morning was brisk, but not too cold. Fortunately, he and the rest of the boys hadn’t frozen their asses off standing around waiting while Mason and Connor investigated a “smelled smoke” call. Usually vague, and often tracked down to a teen who wasn’t admitting to smoking anything or even shoes put in the oven to dry off that were subsequently forgotten, the definitive cause had to be found before they moved on so as to prevent a larger incident later. Seth was all for it, in theory, but standing around in full turnout gear at 3 a.m. for an hour could get tedious. And that day it had left him with way too much time for his mind to wander.

  Maya. He’d hated having to leave her to go on shift, but Meg had promised she’d keep a close eye on her. He was sure the firehouse wives and girlfriends would all form a protective barrier around her when he couldn’t be there. He smiled. Maya had more new friends than she knew. It was just all part of the family they’d built there. Seth wasn’t sure where any sort of relationship between them was going, but he knew that he wanted it. The rest was easy; he’d help her prove Jesse innocent because it was the proper thing to do. Despite Maya’s feeling that they were all sticking their necks out, that she owed them in some way, it wasn’t about that. Seth had been smitten from the beginning, but it had been her personality, her soft blue eyes, that had drawn him in. He’d help her prove her brother’s case because of who she was—it was that simple. The rest? Well, he was hoping that would come after Maya could finally do right by her brother in her mind.

  Of course, once Liam had seen the evidence he’d uncovered and they’d put two and two together and finally made four, then Liam was all in, too. Matt hadn’t hesitated when Seth had finally spilled to him, standing on the sidewalk at three in the morning. It hadn’t taken his best friend at the house long to notice Seth was in a funk.

  Even after Maya had come back to awareness when he’d dropped the bombshell on her the day before, she’d taken a long time to really come back to him. She hadn’t completely even as he drove her back to the motel.

  They’d spent few hours at Promise House, Meg pressing a hot cup of tea into Maya’s hands and gently guiding her out of the office and over to the plush armchair she had in the lounge room. It had been quiet at the house that day, which Seth was glad for. He didn’t think Maya would want to be surrounded by people. Her hands had shaken taking the cup of tea, a fine tremor that he wasn’t sure would be gone even today. Meg had sat close to Maya, a quiet conversation passing between them as Seth watched. After a few minutes, Meg had waved them away and he and Liam had given them some space, returning to the office.

  They’d spent the next hour or two combing over Seth’s photos, what official reports they could get their hands on, and Liam’s own notes that he unearthed from that night. It had gained them little else concrete, but had intensified the heaviness sitting in Seth’s gut. Jesse hadn’t lit that fire—Seth would bet money on it now.

  Seth looked up as his feet reached the curb and then he crossed the road to his truck, fishing his keys out of his jeans pocket. Liam had played devil’s advocate the day before, but he had a damn good point. While they were both sure Jesse hadn’t set the fire, that didn’t prove his innocence. He could have had an accomplice that had screwed him over at the last minute, or it could be as simple as something having gone incredibly wrong at the last moment and whoever had lit the last fire had taken off to save their own hide. It didn’t mean Jesse was one of the good guys, and it didn’t mean he hadn’t set the rest of the fires. He huffed out a breath, throwing his duffle in the back and sliding behind the wheel. Maya would throw that idea out in a second, and Seth was inclined to believe her. After all, she knew her brother better than anyone. But that didn’t get them anywhere. It was entirely too easy for anyone to argue that Maya’s view was biased, or that she was outright lying to protect her brother. Either was entirely possible when it came down to it. They were going to need hard proof if they were going to get anyone to listen. The problem was, that was proving almost impossible to find.

  Forgoing returning home, he turned the truck around and headed straight for Maya’s motel. Now that they had a better idea of what they were looking for, he could help her start looking for that smoking gun. He had two days before he had to return for another shift, and until then, Seth was determined to be glued to Maya’s side.

  No one knew what they’d figured out—yet—but it was all too easy for word to get out once they started digging around in official records, especially if they had to knock a few heads or make some noise with a FOIA request. If they were on the right track, or got anywhere near it, then there was no way he was leaving Maya unprotected. That left him with two days to either figure out what had happened that night or find her protection while he was on shift.

  He grinned. He’d have to also figure out a way to breach the subject to Maya without losing his balls. The idea that she needed someone to keep her safe would not go over well. Seth couldn’t blame her. She’d done amazingly to even get where she had all on her own, but she’d already ruffled more than one set of feathers. She’d shared with him the reaction of her brother’s immediate superiors, plus how she’d been stonewalled requesting any further documentation from the FBI.

  Now, she had him and by extension the entire house in her corner. Some of the people he knew had friends in high places and as a unit they wouldn’t be nearly as easy to dismiss as one grieving sister who had no governmental or law-enforcement connections. They were about to make some noise, and there was no way he was even risking putting Maya in the line of fire.

  He pulled into the parking lot of the motel, frowning at the run-down state. He’d been there several times so far, but the first had been right off shift, too, in the early morning. Add on the distraction of the chief’s request, and his preoccupation with the beautiful brunette he’d been assigned to assist, and he hadn’t paid much attention to the construction of the motel. The other times had been after sunset. Now in the harsh morning light, he was paying more attention. The place was every motel in every horror movie, come to life. A half-lit vacancy sign flashed near the entrance. He’d bet money the other half didn’t even work. It would have been a very long time since the motel had been full enough to turn away any drop-ins. Paint peeled on the corners of the building, with a pane of glass on the window of the reception held together with duct tape. Grass brushed against the curbs of the path from the parking lot and enough half-dead old plants and hedges to be considered a fire hazard littered the grounds. As he approached the reception’s door, a small sign advertising rooms to rent by the hour caught his eye. Yep, it was time to find Maya a better place to stay. Had anything come of his id
ea for Maya to help Meg out a bit around Promise House? He wasn’t sure if the women had discussed it between them, but he was sure there’d be room for her there.

  Or you could just invite her to stay at your place.

  Seth’s cock rising to the occasion at merely the thought highlighted what an epically bad idea that was. There were moments where he could barely keep his hands off her now. If he came across her in the kitchen in the middle of the night, wearing—what did Maya wear to bed? His semi became a raging hard-on at the thought. Nope. Seriously bad idea. He didn’t want his libido to get in the way of what was growing between them. He’d take it as slowly as Maya wanted. He’d just have to have patience. Patience Seth didn’t think he’d be able to hold on to bumping into Maya in little more than a sleep shirt and shorts in his home.

  A sense of satisfaction filled him at the idea of her feeling safe and comfortable at his house. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, if he could talk his dick down. His apartment was on the small side, but it was definitely in a safer neighborhood than the motel. Although that wasn’t hard. Practically the entirety of the town of Monroe was in a safer neighborhood than this dump. But it would be easier to keep the investigation moving if they had more time together, and it meant the others would know where to find her if he was on shift or if they wanted to just stop by. Pushing the reception’s door open, Seth’s mind was made up. He’d do it. Now he just had to convince Maya.