Into the Fire (8 page)

“
Too bad. That would have
simplified our case. So what are you looking at?”

Her expression went sharp as she
focused on the pictures scattered across her desk. “Pics from the
video store. Looking for a pattern.”

He studied the pictures even though
they were upside down. “When you shoot the scene, do you go in a
particular order? It seems like it.”

“
Oh yeah,” she replied. Her
face lit up in animation; she clearly loved the topic. “It’s like a
puzzle ... you work your way from the outer edges to the
interior.”

Nate smiled inwardly at her words. She
could be describing herself. He watched as she gestured to each
photo and explained what they were seeing, in her element. In that
moment, he vowed he would discover who had tried to intimidate her
into quitting, who had dared to try to put out her inner fire.
Chief Ryan just might hold the information, and Nate was going to
get it.

He waited until she was finished and
then settled against the back of the hard wooden chair. “So where
do you go from here?” He very carefully left himself out of the
picture. In this world, she was in charge. He might never cede
power in the bedroom, but out in the world, he was just fine with
her running the show.

“
They’ve assigned me another
detective to work this; I need the additional body to do legwork.
If someone dies, then it’s a whole different ballgame. Homicide
will take over, with me assisting, but for now we’re on our
own.”

“
Can I
help?” he asked, carefully keeping his voice and body positioning
neutral. “I’m off shift for the next three days and don’t have
anything planned.” 
Except
tying you down and teasing you until you scream.

“
It’s mostly grunt work,”
she conceded. “Running down any tips we’ve received, which are
usually worthless. Following up on the accelerant is hopeless, so
we’re skipping that. Without a container that might link to where
it’d been bought, it’s a waste of manpower.” She sat for a long
moment, regarding him as she thrummed her fingertips against her
lips. “If you don’t mind, you could ride along with me. Having a
man along helps sometimes, especially when they look like you
do.”

His heart sang in victory.

*

Charly wished the words back the
moment she uttered them. They’d been offered in a moment of true
impulse. Hadn’t she reminded herself just last night that she
needed distance from him? That her resolve to keep it light and fun
was weakening every moment she spent with him?

He sat there so calmly,
even as sex practically oozed out of his pores. She was ready to
take him down to her car and show him how far the
seats 
really
 reclined.

Marie Wilkins, last night’s victim,
chose exactly the right moment to make an opportune appearance
outside the bullpen window. Breathing a sigh of relief she didn’t
really feel, Charly stood and nodded for the desk sergeant to buzz
the woman through.

“
This is one thing you can’t
be in on, for legal reasons,” she said to Nate. “Meet me back here
in two hours if you really want to ride along on the leads.” Unlike
the “official” interview with Marie Wilkins, following up leads was
just what she’d called it, grunt work, and nothing precluded Nate
from helping out.

“
I’ll be here,” he answered,
as he stood as well and flashed a commiserating smile at Marie. The
woman wanly returned the gesture and followed Charly down the hall
to Interrogation One.

The questions barely lasted twenty
minutes. Marie Wilkins had brought all of her insurance paperwork
along, and everything looked in order. The woman stood to cover her
losses, no more. The last code inspection had checked out as fine,
and Charly knew the inspector to be an upstanding guy; he wouldn’t
collude with an owner to cover a building that was old, decrepit or
ready to fall over. No, this was exactly what it had seemed, their
torch’s next target.

Charly dismissed Marie and sat in the
interview room, elbows the table, fingertips massaging her temples.
A monster of a headache lurked behind her eyes, and she had the
feeling this situation was going to get worse long before it got
better.

What was she missing? None of the
businesses had anything in common. Each had been up to code. None
had cameras installed, which meant the perp had scouted out the
location prior to setting the fire. Neither the storeowners nor
their employees remembered anyone remarkable, anyone who’d
expressed too much interest ... or too little.

Whoever this fucker was, she was going
to get him.

Chapter Seven

Nate stood at parade rest in his
chief’s office for the second time in one day, and wondered if the
boss would be as forthcoming now as he’d been earlier this
morning.

“
Andrews, you’re quickly
becoming a pain in my ass,” Ryan complained. “Now what’s so
all-fired important you have to say it behind closed
doors?”

“
Charly, sir.” Nate had
mulled over his words and opted for direct and brief. “You’d heard
the rumors about her personal life. I’d like to know who started
them.”

Ryan stared him down for a long moment
before letting out a gusty sigh. “Why, son? She’s doing just fine
where she’s at, at least when it comes to the job. She was a great
firefighter, and she’s an even better cop. You start poking around
where you don’t belong, and you’re gonna stir up a hornet’s nest.
She doesn’t need it, and neither do you.”

“
I’m
worried this arsonist is making it personal,” Nate answered
candidly. “We both know Charly doesn’t have a personal life, at
least not that anyone in the company knows about. They’re all hens,
so if she
was
 in a relationship, they’d be all over it like stink on
shit.”

“
And this ties into the
arsonist, how?”

“
Because of who she is. As
much as she might hate it, the press has latched onto her over the
years. I spent hours reading through past articles. The Ledger had
two full pages about her this month alone.” Nate rubbed at his
forehead. “It just feels right in my gut. Like someone’s
deliberately baiting her.”

Ryan scratched his chin. “And now
you’re what ... going to protect her from innuendo in the ‘house
and at her precinct to catch the arsonist, who’s somehow tied in? I
don’t think so. They’re two separate incidents. Charly’s got a
nutjob on her docket, one she’ll have to deal with whether you’re
riding shotgun or not. As for the rumors, if Charly wants to know,
I’ll tell her, and no one else. It’s none of your business.” He
paused, waiting for Nate to contradict him, and raised a brow when
there was no protest. “What?”

“
Actually, it is my
business. Charly thought I was the one who started them,” Nate said
quietly, wondering if he’d gone too far by revealing his true
relationship with Charly all those years ago.

“
That would mean...” Ryan
trailed off as his brain caught up with his mouth. His lips thinned
mutinously. “Did you start them?”

“
Hell no. What we’ve got is
special.” Nate shifted uncomfortably. “I got scared and ran.
Apparently word got out about our ... preferences ... not too long
after.”

Ryan leaned back in his chair and
regarded Nate.

Nate could see his future in this
‘house being weighed with each ticking second. Finally, Ryan gave a
short, crisp nod.

“
Have a seat, son. You
aren’t gonna like what you have to hear.”

* * * *

Nate was going to fucking kill him.
All the same, he’d promised Ryan he wouldn’t do it in the ‘house,
wouldn’t let the other firefighters become part of it. Instead, he
invited the dickhead in question out for a beer this evening,
mentally cracking his knuckles for the punch that would obliterate
the man’s face.

First, however, he needed to level
with Charly. If he kept this from her, she’d never forgive him, and
he wasn’t about to give up the ground he’d gained because a
squad-mate had a big fucking mouth. The bigger question now was how
the dickhead had known about their tryst in the first
place.

So, Nate waited another hour, which
effectively killed the two-hour timeframe Charly had given him, and
then met her at the precinct, as he’d promised. Charly ushered him
to her department-issued sedan, and they drove in silence for a few
moments. He could see her casting surreptitious glances at him
every few minutes, before she finally caved.

“
What’s wrong?”

He’d vowed he wouldn’t tell her until
after they conducted their interviews. He didn’t want to throw her
off her game, cause her to miss something she’d have otherwise
caught. “I need to talk to you, but later, after we’re done.” He
thought she’d accept his explanation; she’d wonder about it, but
she’d accept it.

“
I’d rather know now,” she
replied, her tone sharp. “Is this about the case?”

He shook his head and turned to face
her. “No, it’s purely personal, okay? We can discuss it
after.”

She frowned, and he wondered if it was
because he was stalling, or because he’d mentioned it was a
personal matter. “Am I going to need a lot of alcohol to take this?
Because I can’t drink much with this torch on the
loose.”

Nate barked out a helpless laugh in
response. “Dammit, Charly. You surprise me, each and every time.
No, I think you’ll want to be clearheaded for this little
nugget.”

Her hands clenched on the steering
wheel, and then a grin pushed up the corner of her mouth. “Fine. I
can’t wait to hear what it is.”

Oh yeah, you can, Nate thought,
grimacing as he did.

*

He was wearing her down, bit by tiny
bit, until she knew she’d beg for his touch, just as she had all
those years ago. Only now, just a few days into their renewed
relationship, it didn’t seem like such a horrible thing. The
bantering, which they’d enjoyed so much back in the day, had
returned, as had their easy friendship. Still, whatever bombshell
he was going to drop seemed to bother him mightily.

She knew he’d worked hard to gain her
trust again; he’d fought to hold back his baser instinct to control
every situation. He thought he hid it, but she’d seen his jaw tense
when they were discussing the case, when he thought she might be in
danger. He was a protector at heart, and because of that, she knew
she would be damned hard pressed to refuse him when he pushed past
‘normal’ sex. Just the thought of it sent a thrum of heat through
her, lit her core on fire, and made her nipples ache for the bite
of the clamps. She’d never done anything similar with any other
man, and she missed it badly.

She shuddered and pulled her attention
back to the road, realizing they’d reached their
destination.

Just as with her interview with Marie
Wilkins, this was a dead end. The caller was a kindly older lady
who absolutely doted on Nate, which he took with a smile and a
faint blush. In the end, the only thing they got out of the
interview was cookies and lemonade.

They walked to the car in silence, and
as Charly slid behind the wheel, she glanced at her watch. It was
already four, which shocked the hell out of her. Time had flown
today, and part of that was due to Nate’s presence.

She would admit it to herself, if
nothing else, that she enjoyed having someone to talk to, to bounce
ideas off. She’d resisted partnering up on the rare occasions a
partner had been offered because letting anyone from work get too
close seemed like a really stupid idea.

The men she’d dated after
Nate had all been business types, white-collar guys who had no
freakin’ grip on what she did for a living, or that firemen and
beat cops regularly risked their lives protecting people they’d
probably never meet under any other circumstance. Oh, sure, her
past men had said they understood, but until they’d stood in a pair
of turnouts or slid their sidearm into its holster, there was no
way they could 
know
.

Nate did know, maybe more than anyone
she’d ever met. He’d not only been a firefighter, but he’d also
served in the military; he probably got shot at more in a six-month
rotation than street cops were in their entire careers. He
understood what it was like to watch helplessly as something ... or
someone ... slipped through his fingers.

She finally came to that realization
as she watched him interact with the elderly tipster. Because of
his new maturity, she decided she’d give him, them, more of a
chance than he had eight years ago.

“
So where to?” she asked,
putting the car in gear.

“
Mickey’s. We’re meeting
someone there, but only if you want to, after you hear what I have
to say.”

Charly’s stomach clenched. He said it
so ominously... Was there another woman? A child? He’d said no
earlier, but maybe it had just been a ruse to get in her
pants.

She clenched her hands around the
steering wheel, furious at herself, at the thoughts she’d just had
of giving their relationship a second chance. Jesus, she was
gullible. The biggest question was why he was still hanging around
when he’d accomplished his mission.