Page 140 of Fire Fight

“What happened?” I pressed gently when she was silent for a few minutes.

“Turned out, the CEO had a number of vices. The bulk of his money went up his nose, down the drain at illegal poker games, or to high priced call girls. He found himself with some bad debts across the three extracurriculars and needed to raise money fast.”

“So he started stealing from his clients,” Lane supplied. I cut him a confused glance and he added, “I looked into Aspen. Read her articles.” He met her eyes in the mirror again. “You’re very talented.”

“Thank you.”

“So what happened?” I asked her. “Seems like you got the scoop.”

“I was also beaten within an inch of my life to drop it and forget everything I knew too.”

“Fucking hell, Aspen.”

This woman—she was stronger than even I knew.

“I was followed home from the office one day,” she continued, tone even and emotionless, like she couldn’t allow herself to get worked up. The detachment was necessary for the sake of hermental health, a tactic I understood well. “These two goons shoved their way into my apartment and beat the shit out of me. Four broken ribs, collapsed lung, severe concussion, bruises all over my body. I only survived because they left my phone. Theyletme call for help.” She lifted her hand to her forehead, trailing her pointer finger along the silvery scar that cut across the skin at her hairline “My souvenir.”

“But you wrote the story anyway.”

She nodded, swallowing hard. “My editor forced me to. He sat at my bedside while I recovered, typing the words I dictated to him when the pounding in my head became too much to stare at the screen any longer. He was fucking relentless, so leaving it all behind was pretty effortless. How could I keep working for a man who valued getting the story over my health?”

“You did the right thing,” Lane murmured. “And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry I tried to drive you out of town when you got out of the hospital. Unlike that guy, I actually was looking out for your wellbeing.”

Aspen gave him a small smile. “I know. You’re not a total asshole.”

“Only kind of,” I teased.

The joking eased the somber mood in the cab of the SUV considerably, but still my mind spun. Aspen had been through so much, way more than I’d known about, and the fresh information only made me fall that much harder for her.

She was so fucking strong, so brave in the face of all she’d endured, never balking from the fight to find this killer despite the fact that she was one of his victims.

Aspen McKay was magnificent, and I was goddamn lucky to call her mine.

Silence blanketed the car as we all turned our attention inward. I replayed the interview, still having difficulty wrapping my mind around it all. Even considering Ward Saunders as a suspect was, to me, farfetched. I didn’t care if circumstances andfucking body type made him look good for it. I’d known that man and his family my entire life. Mrs. Saunders had been Owen and Trey’s teacher, then my, Lane, the twins, and Aria’s principal. She’d worked for the school for as long as I’d been alive.

Wyatt used to run around the ranch with us, she and Trey as thick as thieves, always getting up to mischief. Secretly, or maybe not so secretly, my entire family thought they’d end up together, married with a few babies by now. But they shocked the hell out of us by going their separate ways after high school. I knew they were still close, but we all had to accept—Mama most of all—that they were merely friends.

The point was, the family was as well respected in this town as any other. There was no fucking way Ward Saunders was responsible for hurting my girl and killing all those others.

“Uhh, Crew?” my brother asked, penetrating the haze of my swirling thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“Your phone, baby,” Aspen said from the backseat.

The incessant beeping of a security alarm registered then, and I slipped my phone out of my pocket to find the screen blazing red with alerts.

Before I could make sense of them, it rang with an incoming call from Trey.

“You good?” he asked when I answered.

“We’re just leaving the Saunders’. What the fuck is going on?”

“Looks like the system was breached. I’m headed over there right now.”

“We’ll meet you there,” I said, then hung up. To Lane, I added, “Lights and sirens, Sheriff. Let’s go.”

Lane didn’t have to be told twice.