Page 115 of Fire Fight

“We’ve got accelerant. Smells like diesel.”

A string of colorful curses flew from my mouth.

Always the level head in any situation, Chief settled a hand on my shoulder and said, “Take a walk, kid. Get your shit together, then come back and lead your men.”

Before he’d finished speaking, I was pacing away, peeling off my gloves. When I reached the truck, I grabbed my phone off the dash and called my girl.

“Crew?” Aspen said sleepily when she answered.

“Hi, baby.”

“Are you okay?” she asked. Sheets rustled on her end, and if I closed my eyes, I could see her sitting up in bed—mybed—brushing her hair behind her ears and rubbing her eyes. “You never call me from work. And it’s the middle of the night.”

No, I didn’t. But I needed to talk to her, both to calm myself down and to remind myself that she was safe at home.

“I’m sorry for scaring you,” I said. “But I’m fine. Just on a call and wanted to hear your voice.”

Shit. That had been the wrong thing to say. The last thing I wanted to do was worry her, but I was freaking the fuck out, and my mind to mouth filter was busted.

“What’s going on?” she asked, completely alert now.

With a resigned sigh, I said, “We got called out to a residential fire.”

“Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, everyone is fine. Engine knocked it down, and we did an interior sweep to make sure it was empty.”

“Okay…”

“The house, Aspen.” Fuck, I really didn’t want to tell her, but I ripped of the bandage. “It belongs to the Lees.”

Aspen gasped loudly, the sound followed by a gentle thud.

“Aspen?” I asked. “You okay?”

When she answered, her voice sounded far away and small, and I decided she must have dropped her phone. “That family has been through enough, Crew.”

“I know, baby. The upside is they weren’t here, so no one got hurt.”

“I fucking hate this guy,” she choked out, her tone watery, like she was on the verge of tears.

God, I wished I could hold her. I wanted to comfort her, to wrap her in my arms and assure us both that everything was going to be alright—even if I didn’t entirely believe it at the moment.

“We’re going to get him,” I vowed. I didn’t know how, but I knew I wouldn’t stop until this fucker was dead or behind bars. Honestly, I didn’t have a preference, and I doubted Aspen or anyone else in this town did either.

Aspen sniffed and said, “Okay. Be safe, hotshot. Come home to me.”

“I will,” I promised.

We hung up a short while later, and I walked back to Chief and my brother.

“You good?” Lane asked.

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t. None of us were. But I had a job to do.

“I’m going to send some deps out on interviews with the other families that are still local,” Lane said. “And I’ll be putting in calls to the rest.”