Sam nodded as she picked up the folder and turned away. She was happy her grandmother had so much faith in her. She just wished she was that confident.
Derek Pierce put his car into park outside the charred remains of the suburban home. Neighborhoods like this always gave him the creeps. Not the burnt-out house part. He was used to gruesome sights like that. But the long row of houses, one right after another, each one blending into the next.
It was his job to understand people, but he just didn’t get the appeal of dropping a thirty-year mortgage on something so... cookie-cutter. He was willing to bet the HOA would have this black char of a mess cleaned up in no time. Derek stepped out of the car and adjusted his jacket as he preemptively reached for his badge. There was still a collection of cars out front and a few neighbors standing around to survey the damage.
He glanced around at everyone visible as he made his way into the remnants of the home. As soon as he stepped in, one of the uniformed officers turned to him and started to protest, but Derek flashed his badge before he could vocalize the objection. “Detective Pierce, NYPD. I was hoping I could get a look around. I’m trying to determine if this has any relation to a case I’m working.”
The young officer’s face immediately relaxed. “Come on in.” He smiled.
Derek didn’t know whether he’d been working in the city for too long or what, but he immediately disliked the man. You didn’t just let anyone walk into a crime scene and take their word for it when they claimed to be a detective. It was all these crime shows on TV these days. Made people revere detectives, even the officers they worked with. As much as Derek liked the idea of being revered, it was a cop’s job to remain skeptical. The sooner this officer learned that, the further he’d go.
Pushing his snap judgment aside, Derek walked farther into the house. It looked as though the front of the building had gotten the brunt of the flame. Probably why most of the family was able to get outside before the smoke took over. The black and gray walls were all damp from the rush of water delivered by the fire hoses. Anything that wasn’t destroyed by the smoke was now water damaged.
The smell of the smoke and char was overwhelming. Derek winced as he glanced around at everyone around him, trying to figure out whether he should be wearing a protective mask. But the officer and the two fire department officials were mask free, so he took that as a good sign.
“I’m Officer Sanders.” The young guy held out his hand.
Derek met the handshake. “Nice to meet you, Sanders. What happened here?”
“That’s what we’re working to determine. The fire and safety investigators are taking a look around.”
“Have they found anything interesting yet?”
“They’re not saying much,” said Sanders. “They’re ruling out possible points of origin.” Sanders turned and motioned to the front wall, where the door and windows used to stand. Now there was a charred wall that looked as if it were going to give out any minute now. Once again, Derek assumed from the fact that the guys inside were comfortable that it was safe for the moment.
“Just from looking at burn patterns, this is where the bulk of the flames were.”
Also where the bulk of the firefighting was, judging from the black ooze pooled on the floor next to the wall. A mixture of leftover water and soot, he guessed. “Do they think it was a curling iron or stove fire?” asked Derek.
Sanders shook his head. “Nope. The bathrooms were barely touched by the flames, and the kitchen is on that side of the house.” Sanders pointed behind them. “The dryer is in the basement, but I was warned not to go down there. The flames could’ve traveled up, though.”
Derek looked skeptically at the floor below him and shifted his weight. “So what are your thoughts? Arson? Accident?”
Sanders glanced around as though to see whether anyone was watching. “I’ve been here since the fire department arrived on scene. I’ve seen a few fires, and this family was scared as hell.”
Derek didn’t know how much stock to put in that. In general, people were scared as hell after house fires. Especially ones as serious as this. From what he’d heard before he got here, the mother had been burned and was rushed to the hospital. “Did the family say anything to you?”
“They didn’t say anything, but the guy, the father, kept looking around. Like he was looking for someone.”
“Like he was looking for whoever set the fire?” clarified Derek.
Sanders shrugged. “No way to say for certain.”
“You didn’t get a chance to talk to him?”
“I’m just here to help coordinate. I didn’t talk to any of the family.”
Just as well. The guy probably wouldn’t have said anything helpful anyway. Not if he was really a witch, like Derek suspected.
“So what brings you out here? You said it was a case?”
Derek nodded. It wasn’t a complete lie. It was a case. Just not one that was assigned to him by the city of New York. “Do you have the name of the fire marshal here? So I can contact him with questions after he’s done taking a look.”
“Yeah. I put the documents with his name back in the cruiser. Let me grab that for you.”
Derek stayed where he was as Sanders walked out to his car. The fire department guys were out of sight, either in the basement or off in some other room that could collapse at any minute. Derek was happy to just stay there, though.
He looked at the marks on the wall, but it was hard to tell which direction the flames had come from. Did they emerge from the basement?
He bent down to get a better look at the bottom corner of the room. The arson investigators he knew could take one look at a place and usually knew the point of origin in seconds. He was no arson investigator. He started to stand when the puddle of black ooze shook and he grimaced at the sight.
Footsteps sounded behind him and he stood. “Thought you got lost out there, Sand—” He finally looked around and realized it wasn’t Sanders in the room. The guy walking in was almost the opposite of the helpful officer.
The black suit was a specific cut and type that he recognized immediately. “Fuck,” breathed Derek. He moved his hands toward his Glock holster on his hip as the witch approached him.
“You don’t need to worry,” said the man. “Your investigation is over. You realized the fire started from natural causes and there is nothing to worry about.”
Derek raised a brow. “Is that right?”
The man had momentary confusion cross his face and he tried again. “You can stop your investigation.”
Derek rolled his eyes. “Your mind control mumbo jumbo doesn’t work on me.” He moved past the lug, his shoulder hitting the man’s as he passed. He had questions, but first he needed to make sure Sanders wasn’t out there bleeding out on the sidewalk. But he made it outside right as the patrol car was backing up and leaving the scene. No violence; just mind control. Fucking mind control.
“Hey!” called the big guy.
“If you try that mind trick on me one more—” He broke off as he saw the new car at the scene. The one with a very familiar face in the driver’s seat. He knew the second she realized it was him because her eyes widened as her mouth opened in shock.
No. Fuck no. Sam got out of the car, and he shook his head when he saw what she was wearing. “Tell me you’re not one of them now.” He walked across the yard until he was a few feet away from the curb where she stood.
Everything about her seemed wrong. Some nondescript car instead of her BMW. She’d traded her normal punk and goth outfit for one of those damned suits, except this one was obviously cut for a woman.
“We’ve got this,” she said before he could even start in on all the things wrong with this situation. “You should go.”
Derek clenched and unclenched his fists as he tried to bite back the litany of curses he wanted to unleash. “So you’re one of them now?”
Her jaw tightened. “One of them? I’ve always been one of them, Derek.”
“Sam,” said the guy behind him as he approached. “Do we have a problem?”
This time Derek’s hand rested on his gun. “No. We’re having a pleasant fucking conversation.” He turned back to Sam. “Who’s the muscle?”
“That muscle is my partner, Bastian.” She craned her neck to get a better look at her partner. “It’s okay. I know this guy. I’ll get rid of him.”
He tried to ignore the bit about “getting rid of him,” but he turned to give the guy a good get the fuck away from me glare before Sam grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the burned remains of the house. “I’m not going anywhere,” he warned her.
“Yes you are,” she hissed as she let go of his arm as quickly as she’d grabbed it. “We’re here and we’re going to take care of this.”
“I’m not going anywhere. This is my turf and not yours.”
“The only reason that guy back there didn’t force you out is because of that lucky charm I gave you,” she snapped. “So do me a favor and make my job easier.”
“Your job? This is what you do now? Mess with people’s minds?” Her gaze shot down for a second and he knew he hit a nerve. “Besides. Looking into this is my job too, remember?”
That got her attention and she met his gaze once more. “You’re pretty far out of the city, Derek. And last I checked, no one died. So what is a homicide detective doing all the way out in the burbs looking into an arson?” Before he could lie, she continued. “I know this isn’t your case, and don’t think I won’t go over your head to get you off of this. I don’t need mind control to win this fight.”
“Goddamn it, Sam. You know what I’m doing here.”
“Yes. You’re conducting a literal witch hunt. I hate to break it to you, but the only people getting hurt now are my people. I’d think that would make you happy, not opening up an investigation. Or are you only trying to find the son of a bitch so you can give him a personal thank-you?”
“How many fires is it going to take before someone gets hurt?”
“Someone’s already hurt,” she pointed out.
“You know what I mean. I said I was going to go after shit like this and I’m not backing down.”
Sam shook her head as her lip curled. “What do you think I’m doing here? I’m helping, Derek. When you walk into that hospital room to talk to Nathan and Rose, what do you think they’re going to say to you, a run-of-the-mill detective who wasn’t even assigned to this case? Nothing. But when Bastian and I walk in there, we’ll find out everything we need to know. If you really want to help, you’ll stay out of our way.”
Derek clenched his jaw so tightly, his skull started to ache, but he didn’t like feeling put in his place and he damn well didn’t like feeling backed in a corner. “That’s what you want?”
He saw the slightest hesitation in her expression, but she didn’t deny it. “That’s what I want.” She took a deep swallow and started to walk away but stopped only a few steps away. “One more thing, Derek.”
He looked up hopefully. She had to know that he would be a benefit on this case. Magic or not, she and her new guard dog couldn’t go around playing detective. “Yeah?”
“Don’t ask Claire about me anymore. She has... ideas about our relationship and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t encourage her.”
Derek ran a hand over his temples and through his hair. “You moved out all the sudden and I’m not allowed to worry about your well-being?”
“No. When you turn someone down, you forfeit the right to worry. Can I trust you to leave Claire alone?”
“No. You gave her your apartment and I can treat my neighbor however I want.”
“Considering that you’re the one who broke things off, you’re making this surprisingly complicated.”
Derek stepped in closer and leaned in, making sure the guard dog wasn’t listening. “I’m going to give you this one, but I’m not giving up, Sam. And the next time you see me, I won’t be so easy to deal with.”
She raised a brow. “This is easy?”
“You have no idea,” he promised as he started past her. The guy, Bastian she’d called him, stared intently at him as though sizing up the enemy.
And Derek couldn’t let his past relationship with Sam cloud his perception of reality. Because he was the enemy, and his life might depend on remembering that.
Normally Sam didn’t mind silence, but the less Bastian said about what just happened, the more uneasy she got. She knew that if their roles were reversed, she’d have hundreds of questions about what had happened with Derek.
Who was he? Why didn’t mind control work? How did he know her? All questions she didn’t necessarily want to answer, but the fact that he wasn’t asking made her think even worse things. Like he had known about Derek already.... “Sorry about the confusion back there,” she said tentatively.
Bastian was driving his Dodge Charger toward the hospital where Rose Abbot was being treated for her injuries. He didn’t look away from the road as he answered, “I was aware that you and the cop had past contact.”
Sam blinked back her surprise. “Past contact?” That had to be the most sanitized way anyone could ever think of to express what she and Derek had.
Bastian glanced at her direction and back to the road. “I’m very good at getting information from people I question. I’m not here to get information from you.”
Sam was once again surprised by the sentry. So instead of being curious about why he wasn’t asking about her and Derek, she was just curious about him. “Why haven’t I seen you before?”
“What makes you think I’m not a new hire like you?”
“Don’t answer my questions with a question, please. And I am well aware of my abilities and my relations. Claudia wouldn’t send me off with barely any control and an untested partner. She did tell you I suck at being a witch, right?”
Bastian let out a small laugh, the first true emotion she’d seen him show. “I was briefed. Briefly briefed, but the basics were covered.”
Sam bit her lip as she worked up the courage to ask the next question. “And what did she brief you about Detective Pierce?”
“In the interest of full disclosure, I had heard about Pierce. About what happened at the solstice party with him and Jackson. And you.”
The part where her sister put a spell on him and, after beating the crap out of her ex-boyfriend, he’d pulled her off the dance floor so they could have dirty sex in the first room they could find? Yeah, that story probably wouldn’t die down in the next century. “That was—”
“Stranger things have happened at those parties.”
Aw... the big scary warlock was throwing her a bone. Maybe he wouldn’t be that bad of a partner. Now that he was talking, he was almost likable. “Did Claudia say anything about him specifically?”
“She said we should avoid him.”
Hmm. He hadn’t seemed too interested in getting her away from him when they were back at the Abbots’ house. “Then why did you let me talk with him?”
“I think if I told him to leave again, he would get angry. He listened to you.”
Sam snorted. Sure, eventually he’d left, but he’d definitely been angry. He wasn’t the type who was used to being told what to do, and she knew she was the last person he wanted to take orders from. In fact, she seemed to remember that he liked to give orders. Heat crept into her face as she remembered his commanding presence once they were alone together.
Sam studied Bastian and tried to get her mind off Derek. “You’re good at reading people, aren’t you?”
“It’s what I do. You know, crowd control.”
Sam had a feeling Bastian was severely understating his ability, but she figured she’d pushed him enough. He turned into the hospital parking lot and she tried to get her game face on. It was easy to look official when dealing with humans who had no idea who she was while being escorted by a sentry wit
h a master’s degree in mind control. Now she was going to talk with her own kind, and they would know exactly how inexperienced she was.
As they walked inside, she buttoned her jacket to make sure she looked the part. Bastian talked with the woman behind the desk who easily gave up the room number where Rose was being taken care of. Three right turns and an elevator ride later, they reached the burn unit. Except any hope of being cool and in control fled when Sam saw who stood in the hallway. At this point she wished it was Derek.
Bastian immediately recognized the woman in front of them; he stopped in his tracks and glanced over to Sam.
“Stay here,” she said. “I’ll take care of this.”
Abigail Harris had already spotted them and approached with a smile on her face. “Samantha. You look amazing.” She pulled Sam in for a hug and Sam couldn’t relax enough to return it.
“Hello, Mom. I wasn’t expecting you to be here. I didn’t realize you knew Nathan and Rose.”
Abigail pulled back, still smiling. “I didn’t think I’d ever get to see you dressed so nice.”
Nothing like having your mother show up your first day on the job. “You came to the hospital to see me?” asked Sam skeptically.
“No. Nathan’s father and I were classmates. I knew Nathan and John before they could even walk. I simply came by to pay my respects.”
Sam studied her mother and really wished she didn’t think her own family was lying to her. Unfortunately, she knew Abigail Harris was rarely motivated through friendship alone. And considering she didn’t remember ever hearing her mention the Abbots, she found it hard to believe that Abigail would be one of their first visitors.
“Samantha, I’m a public figure. I need to make sure everyone feels heard. Your grandmother knows I’m here.”
Okay, that had to at least be a half-truth. “If you knew I was coming, I would’ve appreciated a call.”
Abigail rolled her eyes and literally waved away Sam’s concerns. “I would’ve called, but my phone isn’t working. I had Garrett upload my entire address book into this thing and it hasn’t been working right ever since.”
Burning Gold (The Bewitching Hour Book 2) Page 2