by Burton, Mary
He rubbed his hand up her arm. “Be careful. If Nero knows you are with me, you are in danger.”
She hadn’t considered that angle. “I can take care of myself.”
“That’s what my ex-wife said.” His jaw tensed as he relived the memories. “She worked in a clothing store. One afternoon, the Dumpster behind the store caught fire. The smoke was thick and poured into the store. Amy was overcome by smoke. Two patrons were taken to the hospital with smoke inhalation problems. The fire was ruled an accident but Amy and I both knew it was Nero.”
“I’m sorry.”
“That fire was her breaking point. She’d endured months of me working long hours and when I was home, I was always in a foul mood. She couldn’t take it anymore. She left the next day.”
“I’m sorry. But I’m not running. I’m not afraid.”
“You should be.”
Chapter 13
It was after 2:00 a.m. when Darcy woke, unexpectedly. She lay in Gannon’s bed. He lay on his side, his body spooned against her, his arm draped over her waist. For a moment, she laid perfectly still, listening to his deep breathing, savoring his scent.
But a restlessness took root and she found she had to get up. Gingerly, she moved his arm off her and slid out of the bed. She grabbed a blanket from the edge of the bed and went to the window.
Darcy stared out at the full moon. Endless stars winked in the night sky. She hated it when she couldn’t sleep. In the quiet of the night, worries and doubts had a tendency to come to life.
She rested her head against the pane of glass. Tonight her worries were not over family or deadlines but over Gannon. She’d known the man only a few days and she’d not only been to bed with him twice, but she was falling for him. Hard.
Her actions were not those of the analytical woman who guarded her trust and love so closely.
She heard Gannon’s footsteps and despite her misgivings smiled as he wrapped his strong arms around her waist and pulled her against his hard chest.
Bolts of desire shot through her. She swallowed, praying she didn’t just melt right here in front of him. “I thought you were asleep.”
“I was. Then I realized you were gone and I wanted to find you.”
“I’m glad you did.”
“You have the most beautiful skin,” he said. “I never get tired of touching you.”
Words failed her. Closing her eyes, she savored the feel of his fingertips. Outside, the moon glistened bright.
He tugged her closer, molding their bodies together. He kissed her on the soft skin below her jaw. The dark stubble of his beard teased her senses. Breathing suddenly seemed difficult as if the air had vanished from the room.
“You are trouble, Gannon,” she whispered as she faced him.
He laughed as his hands entwined in her hair, he guided her head back so that her lips tipped up to his. He kissed her hard, communicating all the desire and passion in his body.
She could have sworn the floor shifted under her feet as she savored the kiss.
“Lose the blanket,” he murmured. “I want to see you.”
She let go of the blanket and it fell from her shoulders and pooled at her feet. He cupped her breasts and coaxed her nipples into hard peaks.
“Gannon, you drive me crazy,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“Good.” He led her back to the bed.
As she leaned back on the bed, she expected explosive passion as they’d shared earlier this evening. In fact, she welcomed it. She liked losing herself in desire. But when Gannon covered her body with his, he was in no rush. He kissed her shoulder, her collarbone and then her lips. The tenderness caught her by surprise.
Her hands skimmed his muscled back as he kissed her on the lips. He rose up and moved down to kiss her nipples. She sucked in a breath when he kissed her flat belly.
When she lay naked before him he straddled her hips. He stared down at her, his eyes alight with passion. Then he leaned forward and began to kiss her breasts, taking his time as he suckled each.
Darcy arched her back. She wanted him to hurry, wanted the release he’d given her earlier. But Gannon was in no rush this time.
He kissed the hollow of her neck and then captured her lips again. He continued to fondle and kiss her until she thought she’d go out of her mind. “Gannon, if you don’t do something now, I’m going to lose my mind.”
He chuckled, then pressed his naked body against hers. She was so ready for him. She opened her legs wide. She wasn’t one for begging but she was on the verge when he slid inside her. Slowly he began to move inside of her, savoring every thrust.
When his fingers touched her moist center, she couldn’t hold back anymore. Desire and release exploded as she called out his name. Her climax was too much for Gannon and he began to move faster and faster inside her. Within seconds, he tumbled over into the sweet abyss with her.
Darcy was quite certain every bone in her body had melted. She couldn’t have moved now if she’d tried.
Gannon rolled toward her on his side and pulled her into a tight embrace. He kissed her on the side of the neck and fell into a deep sleep.
As Darcy drifted closer to sleep, she wondered what she was going to do with this complicated man she was rapidly falling in love with.
Across town, Nero whistled as he sprinkled gasoline around the messy apartment. He inhaled, savoring the scents.
He felt almost like a parent welcoming a new offspring into the world as he dumped the last of the gas on the couch and set the can down. He surveyed the high ceilings and the detailed crown molding. He loved the older buildings like this one. They had such style, such beauty and they burned so easily.
Nero reached in his pocket for a pack of Rome matches. He struck the match and watched the flame dance on the end of the stick before tossing it onto the floor. Immediately, the place was ablaze. The fire snaked across the floor engulfing the couch and the wall behind it.
Nero took a step back, pleased by the way the fire danced up the wall and to the ceiling. The oxygen grew thin as the fire sucked it all in.
Soon his child would consume the building. Soon, it would all be destroyed.
The phone rang in Gannon’s apartment at two forty-two in the morning. He woke with a start. Darcy lay on her side facing him, her arm tossed recklessly over his chest. He patted her arm as he snatched up the phone. “Yeah.”
“It’s Chief Wheeler. We just got a call on another fire. I’m headed there now.”
Gannon shrugged off the sleep coating his brain. “A church?”
Darcy woke, lifting her head. Sleep dulled her gaze. She switched on the bedside light on her side.
“No, an apartment.”
The tone of Gannon’s voice had Darcy’s attention. She sat up, clutching the sheets to her breasts.
Gannon ran his fingers through his hair. “This doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s Trevor Sampson’s place.”
He glanced at Darcy. She’d rubbed the sleep from her eyes and looked completely alert. “Damn.”
“You know what this means?” In the background, the fire truck’s siren blared.
“What does it mean?”
“Trevor Sampson is Nero, or at least a poor copycat.”
Gannon’s stomach tightened. “None of this makes sense, Chief.”
“Makes perfect sense to me,” the chief said.
Trevor reminded Gannon less of Nero and more of Raymond Mason, the man Nero had set up last year. “I’ll be right over.” He hung up the phone.
Darcy frowned. “What happened?”
A year ago, he’d have sprung out of bed and dashed to the fire without a moment’s hesitation or a thought to what he was leaving behind. Then the chase had been everything. Now he resented it. He didn’t want to leave Darcy.
“There’s been another fire. It was just called in.” With an effort, he switched on a light, rose and collected his pants from the floor.
She scrambled out of bed and starte
d to search for her clothes. She found her jeans tossed casually over a chair next to his shirt. “I’m coming with you.”
He pulled on his pants and zipped them up. “It’s Trevor’s apartment.”
“What?” She stood naked, her clothes gathered in her hands.
She dumped the clothes on the bed and pulled her shirt over her head. “Where’s Trevor?”
“No one knows.”
She slid her jeans on. “Do you think Trevor is Nero?”
He crossed the room toward her and knelt in front of her. “No. But that doesn’t mean he didn’t set fire to his apartment. Profit is the number one motive for arson.”
She shook her head. “None of this makes sense.”
He didn’t like what he was going to have to say. “It does to the chief. I can already tell you what he’s going to say. Trevor has got a drug problem, his tavern is in trouble and with me in town, it would make sense to resurrect Nero.”
“No. Trevor can be an idiot but he’s not an arsonist.”
“Drugs and booze change people. He would have slugged you the other night if I hadn’t been there to stop him.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “He didn’t mean it.”
He brushed away a tear falling down her face. “I didn’t say I believed this. But the chief will. And if Glass gets ahold of the story, he’s going to run with it.”
“Oh, God.”
“Let’s get over to Trevor’s.”
“Okay.”
Minutes later, they were on Gannon’s bike speeding through the night. The air was cool, the sky clear and bright. A thousand stars winked above. Darcy’s warm body pressed against his. Any other night, he’d have enjoyed the ride.
They arrived at Trevor’s apartment within minutes. The building was engulfed in flames. Three fire trucks were at the scene, hoses extended, water shooting at full blast. Smoke poured from ventilation holes made by breaking the basement apartment windows.
One glance and he knew the building would be a total loss. The fire had eaten through the structure, destroying everything it touched.
According to Darcy, the building was Victorian and had been converted into apartments years ago. Trevor’s place was in the basement. A basement fire was one of the hottest fire situations. For the firefighters, it would be like maneuvering down a chimney into a roaring fire.
On the street across from the burning building, three families stood in their pajamas. One woman, wearing a blue bathrobe, sobbed openly. All stared in shock at the blaze as everything they owned was consumed.
“My God,” Darcy murmured.
Chief Wheeler, wearing his fire gear, strode toward them. He glanced at Darcy and then at Gannon. He was clearly surprised by her presence.
Gannon’s jaw tightened. Darcy was staying and if the chief wanted a fight, he’d give it to him.
The chief looked exhausted as he shook Gannon’s hand. “Darcy, do you know where your brother is?”
She shook her head. “No.”
He frowned. “The police have put out an APB on him.”
“Chief!” one of the firefighters shouted as he ran toward him. “We’ve got two people still unaccounted for. An elderly woman on the second floor.”
The chief stared at the blaze as two firefighters stepped forward. They wore full gear, self-contained breathing apparatuses. “Make it quick.”
The firefighters nodded and disappeared into the blazing front door of the building. The heat from the inferno burned Gannon’s nostrils and warmed his skin.
An explosion echoed from the basement. Several people screamed and stepped back.
Gannon stood rigid. Nero had nearly killed two firefighters in D.C. He prayed these two men wouldn’t die tonight.
Darcy clung to his arm, her body as rigid as wood. Tense seconds passed.
The firefighters came out of the front door of the building. One carried the old woman over his shoulder. The paramedics met the firefighters and took the woman whose white nightgown was covered in soot.
One of the firefighters staggered, clearly overcome by the heat.
The paramedics looked down at the woman. They started to work on her immediately, opening her airway and checking for a pulse. They loaded her into the back of the ambulance as one paramedic started CPR. The doors to the ambulance closed, its lights started flashing and it took off toward the hospital.
“Trevor didn’t do this,” Darcy whispered. “He’s got his problems, but he wouldn’t do something like this.”
Gannon stared down at her. “We don’t know that for certain.”
Darcy hugged her arms around her chest. “I know. He wouldn’t do this.” Tears filled her eyes. “Do you think he got trapped in the fire?”
“I don’t know.”
“My mother is going to be devastated. She’s barely holding it together as it is.”
“It’s going to be hours before the building cools enough for the firefighters to investigate.”
“This is a nightmare.”
Gannon laid his hand on her shoulder. “Let me take you home.”
Helpless to do anything else, she nodded.
When Darcy finally got out of bed, it was past ten o’clock the next morning. Her head felt as if it were going to explode and her body was stiff. Gannon had dropped her off at 4:00 a.m. She’d then been faced with the grim task of telling her mother what had happened. She’d been up most of the night with her mother, trying to calm her.
Dressed in jogging pants and a T-shirt, she came downstairs, her running shoes still in hand. She went to the phone in the kitchen while she started a pot of coffee.
As the machine started to brew, she called the chief. His secretary put her through. “Darcy.” His voice was terse and he sounded tired.
“Have you found Trevor?”
“No. The police are still looking for him.”
“He didn’t do this.”
His answer was silence. “The arson crews, including Gannon, are at the apartment building now sifting through the remains of the building. We’ll see what they come up with.” His voice softened. “Hang in there, Darcy.”
“Thanks.” She hung up the phone.
The story that had started out so distant had turned very personal. A week ago, she’d pitied Raymond Mason’s sister as she’d sat in the coffee shop and pleaded with Darcy to clear her brother’s name. And now Darcy had become like Sara Highland, a woman desperate to prove her brother’s innocence.
As she poured herself a mug of coffee, she heard a knock at the door. She looked up to see Stephen coming through the kitchen door. In the lock were her keys.
Stephen pulled them out and tossed them in the air before holding them out to her. “Darcy, I see you’re still leaving your keys in the door. You’re going to get yourself in trouble one day if you don’t watch it. You never know who could come through that door.”
She took the keys. He was the last person she wanted to see right now. “Thanks. What can I do for you?”
Stephen grinned. “Oh, I think you know. I want to talk to your brother.”
“He’s not here.”
Stephen walked over to the coffee machine and poured himself a cup of coffee. “So baby brother thinks he’ll try his hand at arson? Makes sense. I mean he must have known I’d been reporting on Nero in D.C. He was full of questions the last time he visited us in D.C. My guess is that he probably figured it was his chance to grab some limelight.”
She knew Stephen’s tactics. He wanted to stoke her temper so she’d speak without thinking. But she wasn’t going to give him anything. “Take your coffee and leave, Stephen.”
He took a sip. “You always did make the best cup of coffee.” He glanced around the kitchen. “I can’t picture you working here. Now I know why you were so tight-lipped about where you grew up.”
“Leave, Stephen.”
He shook his head. “Come on, Darcy. Throw me a bone here. Why do you think your brother set the fires? Money, kicks? I’m hearing r
umors he had a drinking problem. Baby bro always could slam back the beers as I remember.”
Her temper rose. “I’m not talking to you.”
“Hey, I get that you think I’m on your turf. You came down here sniffing out a Nero lead. And Trevor is your brother. But we can share the glory, babe. Hey, with my contacts, I could get you a gig reporting at the television station.”
She moved to the alley door and opened it. “Get out of here now or I’m calling the cops.”
His smile faded. “No one knows if Trevor is the real Nero or just a cheap knockoff. Frankly, from what I’ve learned about him, I don’t think he has the brains to pull off what Nero did in D.C.” He leaned a fraction closer. “But Gannon does. Makes sense he’d set up a screwup like Trevor, just like he did that Mason guy in D.C.”
Her back was ramrod straight. “Get out or I call the cops.”
He set his cup down on the counter but made no move to leave. “What do both sets of fires have in common? Nero and Gannon. I’d bet my last dollar Gannon is Nero.”
Anger singed her veins. “You are so wrong.”
His eyes glistened. “The old lady they pulled out of the building died about an hour ago.”
Darcy took a step back. She felt as if she’d been punched in the stomach. “My God.”
Stephen closed the distance between them and laid his hands on her shoulders. “Whoever set that fire is a murderer. Come on, Darcy, work with me. Together we can solve this thing so that no one else dies.”
Tears pooled in her eyes. The image of the woman lying so helplessly on the stretcher haunted her. “Get out.”
“Darcy, please.”
“Go, Stephen, just go.”
“Darcy—”
“You heard the lady.” Nathan entered the back door from the alley. Frowning, he glared at Stephen. “Hit the road.”
Stephen didn’t budge. “And who the hell are you, pal?”
Nathan moved to stand beside Darcy. He pulled her behind him. “A friend. Now get out before I toss you out.”
Stephen could be obnoxious and pushy but he hated violence. Even the threat of it always had him backing down. He moved toward the door. “This isn’t over, Darcy. You know that. Let me help you.”