Page 31 of Fire Fight

“The gag and restraints I removed from Aspen when I found her.”

“And where have they been since?”

“My turnout coat pocket.”

“Crew…” my brother began, his face turning red as his blood pressure obviously rose.

“If you’re worried about chain of custody,” I started beforehe could lay into me, “I literally took them off her and stuffed it in my pocket, where it remained until about a minute ago.”

“You’re a real fucking pain in my ass.”

“Could’ve been worse. They could’ve been left here,” I argued, gesturing to the destroyed building. “At least now you might be able to get DNA not belonging to Aspen off them.”

Lane eyed me warily. “You really haven’t touched them with your bare hand?”

“Nope,” I said proudly, dangling them in his face, and my guys choked on their laughter.

Finally, he stomped to his SUV and came back with an evidence bag. I slid the cloth and plastic inside, and he sealed it.

“Now, back to business,” he said. “Did you notice anything unusual at the time?”

Tuck and I shared a glance, remembering that distinct smell that had lingered in the air.

“The scent of diesel hung in the air like a cloud.”

“Could’ve been lingering from the shop,” Lane pointed out.

“I said the same thing,” Tuck supplied. “But it was pretty obvious that wasn’t the case.”

“How do you know?”

“There was a trail,” I told him. “The entire structure was burning, of course. Once it climbed the walls and entered the trusses, there was really no saving it. It wasn’t a matter ofifit would come down, butwhen. But there was an obvious path, scorch marks, that led us from the exterior door”—I pointed toward where we’d breached—”to the entrance of the offices. I bet it’d still be visible if we cleared the rubble.”

“So you followed it back here?” Lane asked, his jaw clenched in anger over my recklessness.

The instinct to protect ran deep and true in me and my brothers, and even though I’d only been doing my job, Lane clearly hated that I’d put myself in danger.

“Yes.”

My voice didn’t waver. And put in that situation again, I’d make the same choice—over and over and over.

Big brother didn’t get to tell me how to do my job simply because he was older and supposedly wiser. I’d been a firefighter longer than he’d been a cop; he knew I knew what I was doing.

“Why?”

“There was an obvious fucking trail,Sheriff,” I gritted out. “Like hell I wasn’t going to follow it.”

“He had backup,” Tuck quipped, shrugging when my brother cut him a glare. “I followed him in, Sheriff.”

“Then you’re both idiots,” Lane muttered, moving back around to the front.

Tuck and I wordlessly followed.

“Anybody got a diagram of this place?” he asked when we reached him. “Like, do you have schematics of the buildings in town?”

I shook my head. “Only the ones we deem extremely dangerous and high-risk. But the city planning office would have them.”

Lane withdrew his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen a few times, then held it to his ear.