Page 132 of Fire Fight

Though as soon as I asked, the reason occurred to me.

“She’s the one that got away,” Lane said, taking the words right out of my head. “This guy never had a vic survive until her. So it’s become a fixation. He’s taunting her, and taunting us because we still can’t nail him down, even with a survivor.”

“The fire at the Lees’ is an escalation though, right?”

Trey nodded. “He’s getting bolder. The spiral out of control is coming, and when it does, we have to be ready.”

“She doesn’t leave my sight when I’m off shift,” I said. “But…I’m gonna need help when I’m working. Or maybe I can take some furlough. Chief Madden will understand…”

I trailed off, mind whirring with a to-do list to square the firehouse away for me to take some time off, but Lane held up his hand.

“Not happening, baby brother.”

“Why not? She needs protection.”

“And I’m not disputing that. But you can’t take time off. We need to act like it’s business as usual or this guy will spook and we’ll never catch him.”

“Okay, fair enough. So what do you propose?”

My brothers shared a look, something unspoken passing between them, and when Trey turned to me with a shit-eating grin, I’d already opened my mouth to protest.

“She can stay at the ranch.”

I blinked in surprise. “Oh. That wasn’t what I thought you were going to say.”

Trey scoffed. “You thought I was going to suggest she bunk with me? Fuck no.” He held his hands up in surrender. “Learned my lesson, brother. She’s all yours.”

“You’re damn right.”

We all whirled on Aspen, who stood at the mouth of the hall, a sheaf of papers in her hand.

“My girl,” I grinned.

“I’m not opposed to staying at the ranch though,” she said,looking at me, and I breathed a sigh of relief that this wasn’t going to be a fight. “So long as you come with me.”

I groaned, and my brothers laughed, Lane slapping a hand down on my shoulder.

“Have fun with that,” he said, then accepted the stack of emails from Aspen, shuffling through them. There were more than I expected. “God, this fucker is sick.”

“Do I want to know?”

Aspen shook her head. “There’s one in there that came from a different email address than the rest. Could be from someone other than the killer.”

Lane’s brows pinched. “What do you mean?”

She moved to his side and took the papers, flipping through until she came to the one she wanted and pulled it from the stack, holding it out to him.

I joined Lane, and Trey stood to read over his shoulder.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]

SUBJECT: Can you help her?

The first is the key

Crowned the prom queen