Page 62 of Fighting Fire

“You let me handle Dempsey, Bryant. You do your job.”

“Yes, sir.”

They exited the captain’s office and Bryant turned to her.

“You think you can stick your nose into my job and get away scot-free? If I find out that you’re investigating again, I’ll go above Troy’s head. I don’t give a damn what he says.”

Lana faced him. She pulled the picture out of his hands. “You see this? There is someone out of frame that he’s talking to. Do you have the negative?”

“Yes, I have the negative.”

“Maybe there’s a lead there.”

“Maybe,” he said grudgingly.

“And maybe there's something to my assertions that these arsons are connected.”

“Maybe.”

“That’s all I wanted in the first place, Lieutenant Bryant, was to make sure that this got investigated properly.”

“So maybeIwas a little off base.”

“Why don’t you send the negative over to the police lab? Kate can blow up the picture and see who this guy is talking to, then if there’s nothing there, I’ll stop pushing.”

“I’ll get the negative to Ms. Quinn. You can stop your pushing, because I tell you there’s nothing there.”

Bryant turned to go. “Why are you so interested in this investigation?”

“I told you. Lives are at stake, not just civilian lives, but firefighters, too. I felt obligated to do something about it because you weren’t.”

“Are you sure you’re not after my job?”

Without waiting for an answer, he walked away, passing Sean on his way out.

Sean came up to her. “What was that about?”

“Bryant is finally listening to reason. I think he’s going to give this investigation his full attention.”

“What was that he said about you being after his job?”

“An offhand remark. I’m not after his job.”

He narrowed the distance between them until his mouth was dangerously close to hers. Dangerously tempting. Her lungs knotted with the inviting scent of him.

“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with that, Lana, if you were,” he said quietly.

“I’m not!”

“Okay. Okay. I’m just saying that with you, I think the sky is the limit. No need to get testy.”

“I’m not,” she said a little softer.

“You need to be careful.” Sean took her hand in his.

The fact that every scrambled nerve in her body leaped at his touch had Lana attempting to pull away. His hand tightened around hers, held on as his eyes darkened. “Something tells me we both need to be careful,” he added.

Her heart pounded in her head, masking the sounds of their squad members in the kitchen. Its fast, demanding beat muffled the warning that struggled to sound in the far corner of her brain. She needed to step back, get away from this man who made her forget how to breathe.