by Hagen, Casey
“It’s a weird pattern. The chief really doesn’t have a wide area, does he?” Slyder said as he scanned the points.
“No, not at all. It’s so heavily populated, they have to break it up this way.” Evan took the black marker and put a dot where the chief lived. Then where Blair lived. He filled in important addresses: the firehouse, the elementary school, and her gym.
“I’m not seeing anything.”
“Nah, me either,” Mozart said from over his shoulder.
“I’m going to grab some food,” Evan said, tossing the marker on the end table.
He filled his plate with pulled pork, creamed spinach, and roasted potatoes. He snagged a piece of the California roll, but sailed right past the cookie dough.
Some things just didn’t belong tangled in the human stomach.
He took a seat on the floor next to Blair. The decision didn’t go unnoticed if the looks passed between the women were any indication.
“Did you get any word on Blair’s car?”
“Not yet. He has it on the rack as we speak. He said he’d call tonight,” Dylan said.
“Did anyone stand out in the background checks?” Dude asked before stuffing a chicken leg in his mouth.
“I want to check out Luke, but other than him, no,” Evan said, earning a sharp glance from Blair.
“Blair gave me a list of guys from the department who helped with renovations here, but I doubt we’ll find anything there. The only other guy was the chief’s good friend, Rand. He had one of his electricians come in and fix some wiring.”
“What’s his deal?” Mozart asked.
“No real deal. He lost a wife and never had kids so he’s a bit of an overeager, secondary father figure.”
Mozart tipped back his beer and took a quick gulp. “What about the places this guy’s burned down?”
“Lu-Lu’s Ice Cream, Airbenders, Carmine’s Seafood Shack, Crusier’s Roller Rink, Game Palace, The Stilt and Crane, and Shepherd’s Petting Zoo,” Evan read from his pad.
Blair whimpered.
His gaze snapped to hers where he found her eyes glossy with tears. One tipped over the bottom lid and blazed a trail down her pale cheek.
“Shit.” He handed his plate to Dude, crossed to her, and pulled her out of the chair. “Hey, look at me,” he said, tipping her chin up.
“I’m sorry. I never asked. I guess I was afraid to know,” she stammered before blowing out a breath.
Her chin wobbled, and another tear fell.
Their guests’ hushed voices filled the silence, giving them a moment of privacy.
“I should have been more careful about how I said it. I’m used to maintaining distance so I didn’t think about—”
“It’s not your fault, Evan. It hurts, but I’ll let it, then it will run its course, and I’ll get past it.” She shrugged. “It’s what we humans do.”
It’s what most humans do.
Not him.
Because if he welcomed the pain, a part of him feared it would never end.
He grazed the tear from her cheek with his thumb and kissed the moisture away. “You ready to keep going?”
She nodded. “I’m good, really.” She dropped back into her chair and glanced around. “Sorry, guys. That’s what I get for not paying attention to the news. Might have hurt less one piece at a time.”
“No apologies. Someone’s attacking your memories. You have a right to be upset,” Nebraska said, reaching out to lay her hand over Blair’s.
“Thanks,” Blair said with a smile.
“Besides, we’ve all been there in one way or another,” Nebraska pointed out. “Harlow and I were both betrayed by our brothers. Josie, well, some psycho went after her best friend. Blew up his house and everything.”
“You say that like it’s normal,” Blair said.
“In a way, it is. We’re all with men who had dangerous pasts and presents. It’s bound to spill over. Personally, I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Harlow interjected. “Hell, Josie joined them. She’s cut from the same cloth and just as apt to be running around with her gun drawn as the rest of them.”
“I hate to interrupt, but we have incoming from Tex. School surveillance video,” Dylan said as he carried his laptop over to the flat screen.
After hooking up a couple of cords, he brought up the video, narrowed down to about ten minutes in time.
“This damn video looks like it was shot through a screen caked with dirt. What the hell?” Evan said.
“The cameras get coated with salt and debris over time. They get scoured every summer before the new school year,” Blair said as she squinted at the TV.
“Looks like they missed one,” Cole muttered.
“Or they meant to miss this one. You ever park in any of the other lots?” Slyder asked.
Blair tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. “No, I don’t.”
“Incoming,” Mozart said with a low whistle.
All eyes turned to the screen as a truck pulled in next to Blair’s RAV. A guy slid out from behind the wheel and glanced around. The buildup on the camera obscured everything: the license plate, the color of the truck, and the man’s face.
He bent down, almost exactly the same way Evan had when he pretended to be checking out his car, but then lay on the concrete and worked his way under the RAV.
If the chief hadn’t come to him that day, if he hadn’t gotten to the school in time—
Blair reached over and slid her hand in his.
He raised their joined hands and kissed her knuckles before dropping them back onto his thigh.
Knowing someone wanted to take her life was one thing. Seeing it? Watching them sabotage her, not caring that she might have burned to death, screaming.
It ended here. Now.
“I want Tex to go over this with a fine-tooth comb. If there’s even a fraction of a second where the camera caught anything, I want it examined. I want the license plate, make, and model. I want him identified.”
“He’s already on it,” Dylan said.
“Mozart, I need you to study the arsons. Find connections, if there are any. Dude, I want this place searched for explosives, detonators, anything that looks out of the ordinary, starting with the electrical in the kitchen,” Evan said.
“Right there with you, brother. I brought all of my gear, and I can get on it tonight.”
“Josie, any chance your dad can get a few patrol officers stationed at the school? Blair has two more days this week, and we’re shorthanded to cover all of our bases.”
“If I know my dad, he’ll make it work. I’ll call him right now.” Josie stepped away with her cell phone already to her ear.
“What are you thinking?” Slyder asked, his eyes narrowed on Evan.
“He’s escalating. Until messing with Blair’s car, he’s been toying with them, trying to send a message. Problem was, Blair had no idea since she avoids the news. If he’s watching, he’s not getting the reaction he’d hoped for, and that will only make him mad. He’ll get sloppy.”
“Or more aggressive,” Mozart said, staring at the map. He took out his cell and snapped a photo before sliding it back into his pocket.
“I hate to point this out, but I’m feeling a whole lot shorthanded in this right now. We’re spreading ourselves really thin,” Cole said. “I’ll do the legwork with the evidence we’ve pulled so far, but we need eyes on this condo at all times. Eyes on the school. Someone to transport Blair in between the two.”
“I’ll be with Blair. Everywhere,” Evan said.
Dylan gave him a curt nod. “Good. And this is what I wanted to talk to you all about. I think it’s time to expand. Bring in more guys, but only if everyone is okay with that. So think about it and when this case is solved, we’ll decide.”
Blair stood, wringing her hands again. “I know I have no right to ask this, I’m not the one who hired you, but someone needs to stay with my dad. Please,” she said, her sweet voice cracking on her plea. “If whoever is doing
this can’t get to me, they might get frustrated enough to go for my dad to hurt me. I can’t…” She shook her head as the words faded away.
Evan took Blair’s chin in his hand and turned her face up to his. “I protect what’s mine. You, him. It’s all the same thing. We’ll put someone on him.”
He’d gone and done it. He’d jumped right off the edge of resistance and claimed her. He’d never been so selfish, and he’d surely go to hell, but everything was screaming at him that he couldn’t run from this.
From her.
He prayed she burned bright enough for the both of them so his shadows didn’t consume them both.
Chapter 7
Blair closed the door as the last of Evan’s team slipped out. Leaning her forehead against the wood, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
Information swirled in her head until it turned into one jumbled mess, like a favorite necklace with a delicate chain that you toss in a case when you travel, then when you go to wear it, you’re hopeless to sort out the knots.
She’d leave the investigating to the professionals and just answer the questions, thank you.
Maybe it was all the years as a kindergarten teacher. Kids kept things simple. Their needs, their requests, were mostly easy to fulfill, and she walked away at the end of the day feeling like a superhero because she managed to keep Melissa from getting glue in her hair, or Logan from pinching his fingers in the art cabinet.
Not that Evan and his team made their jobs look any harder.
Evan’s friend, Dude, had just combed over her place for explosives while popping cornbread bites, performing each task with the same ease by which her father perused his Sunday paper from his easy chair.
“You okay?” Evan asked, his hands sliding over her shoulders and squeezing the knotted muscles there.
“I’m alive. I’m beginning to think that’s the very definition of okay,” she said. The throb in her skull that she’d almost vanquished earlier returned with the hot tears that had streaked down her face. “I don’t know how you keep all of that information straight. There are so many tangents. God, it’s exhausting.”
His hands roamed along the sides of her neck. “The team is just as crucial during the investigation as they are in action. Maybe more so. We’ll each put together pieces of our section of the puzzle, and hopefully, we’ll find a way to connect all the parts.”
Her shoulders relaxed from where they had seized and bunched below her ears. “Thank you. I don’t think I’ve said it yet, but I’m grateful you’re here, even if you didn’t want to be.” Pieces of the night flashed through her mind. Embarrassment coursed through her. They’d all been so professional and kind.
She’d stared in wonder at all of them, feeling a whole lot like she’d wandered onto the set of an Avengers movie.
And then she’d lost her cool in front of everyone. “They must think I’m such a cry baby.”
“I knocked you for a loop. Anyone would have been upset,” he whispered as he pressed a kiss to her hair.
“But—”
He stepped up to her, pressing into her, and ran his palms over her shoulders and arms before returning to her neck. “Hey, we’ve all seen each of those women cry. Nebraska is a badass by nature, but when she’s angry, the tears flow, and nothing pissed her off more than being trapped in her own house while being stalked.”
Blair smiled. “I’ve always thought she had to be fiery in person. She’s my favorite actress. I’ve always wanted to be strong like her,” she said.
“Strength comes in lots of different packages. You are that strong, but not nearly as abrasive,” he said, his low voice rolling over her, soothing her just as much as his hands.
“What happened to Harlow?”
“Her daughter, Ashton, was kidnapped. Twice. Dylan didn’t know he had a daughter until Harlow went to him, to us, asking for help to find her.”
“It looks like it worked out all for the best,” Blair murmured, the image of Harlow’s round belly, and the way Dylan would occasionally run his hand over the bump, teasing her mind.
She’d tried not to stare. The longing to be a mother loomed in her heart despite the repeated warnings from doctors over the years that it might never happen.
None of the men she had dated forced her to take a hard look at her limitations where having a family was concerned.
Not until Evan. The single most reluctant man she’d ever met.
“It did, but not before she had to kill her own brother,” Evan said.
She froze.
“Hey, don’t tense up,” he whispered in her ear as he worked the muscles harder.
She craned her neck to glance at him. “But—”
“Shhh, or I won’t tell you more.”
She snapped her lips shut and leaned against the door again.
“Harlow’s brother snatched Ashton at a family event and took her out onto the trails around the family property. In a showdown between Dylan and the brother, Dylan was shot, leaving Harlow the only one to stop him.”
“Oh my God.” She couldn’t imagine having to face down her own blood, someone she played alongside, grew up with, trusted, and loved, and in the end, being forced to pull the trigger.
“Then there’s Josie. Her best friend’s house was blown to bits. Actually, your dad worked the case. And in the end, her father was held and pistol-whipped leaving her to face down the assailant.”
“So what I’m getting is that you guys keep arriving late,” she said, trying to lighten the mood because as much as hearing what these woman had to face bolstered her courage, it also left her wondering what would happen if it came down to her and whoever wanted to harm her.
“Josie left without saying anything, as she was instructed. Her dad’s life hung in the balance, but the woman is smart. She grabbed her earpiece from earlier that day, and Cole figured it out when he saw it missing. The minute we all knew what was up, we got the system online and could hear everything and reassure her we were on the way.”
“Evan, I’ve never even held a gun,” she said over her shoulder. “Do me a favor…don’t be late.”
“The plan is for us to be together the entire time,” he reassured her.
“I won’t hold you to what you said in front of them. I know there’s something that’s holding you back. I don’t want to feel like you were forced into this—connection with me,” she whispered, grateful to be facing the door once again. Where he couldn’t see what the words cost her.
Coward.
“You didn’t force me. I’ve been reluctant. And for good reason,” his voice dropped as though he choked the words past old memories that lodged in his throat.
“And now you’re not?” she asked.
“Oh, I still am. I don’t want my past to touch you, Blair. I’ve never met anyone like you and I’m…” his words trailed off.
No. No more avoiding the chasm between them. She turned under his arms and searched his face. “What?”
“It’s nothing,” he muttered, his gaze tracing over her shoulders.
She ducked her head and forced him to meet her eyes. “Stop hiding from me, Evan. I’ve been laid bare here. Your whole team has been picking apart my life, memory by memory. It’s just the two of us now. The least you can do is be honest with me.”
“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and leading her over to the couch. “Your head hurts, doesn’t it?”
The little bit of headway she might have been making slipped away, and she sighed. “Yes.”
He dropped onto the couch, tossing her frilly pillows aside, and patted his thigh. “Bring it here.”
No level of pain pounding in her head was enough to keep her from thinking about how close her head would be to his—
“Blair?” he asked, his eyebrow raised in question as his lip twitched. “Where did you go just now?”
His expression said he knew exactly where she went. She forced a smile. “Nowhere.” Laying her head on his thigh, her back sinking
into the couch cushions next to him, she closed her eyes.
Tangling his fingers in her curls, he applied just the right amount of pressure as he worked the tips in small circles from the crown of her hair, over her temples, and to the base where her skull rested against his thigh.
She bit her lip, struggling not to moan as goosebumps started on her scalp, shooting down her neck, and onward to her feet.
She shivered as he continued back and forth, reality slipping into fantasy as she pictured him slipping her dress from her shoulders and giving the same lavish attention to her breasts.
Her nipples pebbled against the fabric, and her skin flushed. God, she hadn’t been touched in so long.
Her skin heated, flushed, but she kept her eyes closed and held on to the fantasy. If Evan noticed her body’s response, he ignored it and continued to work his fingers through her hair, giving her more time to indulge in the dream.
The ache behind her eyes faded, and her muscles loosened as she imagined him popping one button after another and dragging his shirt out from where he kept it neatly tucked in his pants.
Strong, thick fingers went to his belt buckle, a lust-filled smile breaking out on his lips as his gaze roamed over her.
The sound of his zipper echoing in the quiet declared his intent. With a swift yank, he whisked away his pants and underwear, and stood before her thick and hard.
She crooked a finger at him. There, without shadows, fears banished, just two people drawn to each other, needing relief. He nestled himself between her thighs—
Her eyes flew open as his fingers traveled from her scalp to the sensitive skin of her neck.
Hot liquid amber eyes scorched her skin as they followed the path of his fingers over her collarbone.
Her lips parted, and air stuttered out of her lungs, the heart of her going damp at the delicate touch.
From the look in his eyes, he’d disappeared, maybe into a fantasy of his own. She didn’t dare speak for risk of snapping him out of the lustful haze.
If he drew his hand away from her skin right now, she might just die of longing.