Page 43 of Fire Fight

“Your brother wants me to leave town—” I continued.

“You’re planning on staying?” he asked hopefully, cutting me off.

“Iwas…until the sheriff blacklisted me at every hotel, motel, and short-term rental in the county.”

Fuck, what was I going to tell Mrs. Lee?

Sorry, ma’am. I couldn’t find your daughter’s killer—the man who targeted me too—because the sheriff ran me out of town.

Crew placed his hands flat on the table and began to push to his feet, but I wrapped one of mine around his wrist and yanked him back down.

“I’ll kill him,” Crew seethed. “Who gave him the right?”

“To be fair, he is a cop, and I suppose in a fucked up, misguided way, he’s trying to look out for me.”

Crew scoffed. “You can look out for yourself.”

My heart expanded in my chest with some unnameable emotion.

How long had I been waiting for someone to say that to me? To remind me of that fact? To look at me and see someone who didn’t need to be babied and sheltered from the world?

“You’re right. And that starts with finding somewhere to stay. Maybe you can talk to Lane about lifting the ban? Convince him I’ll be okay?”

Crew’s murderous expression quickly shifted into one of mischief. “Actually, I’ve got a better idea.”

At this point, I was willing to accept all the help I could get, so I folded my fingers over my palm in anout with itgesture.

“You can stay with me.”

fourteen

. . .

CREW

“You can stay with me.”

Aspen’s fork clattered to the table, the guys around the table going silent like a gun had gone off.

She shook her head. “No, I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You’re not asking me to do anything,” I promised. “You need a place to stay, I have a spare room. I’m happily offering it up to a friend in need. We’re…friends, right?”

One of the guys snickered—likely Tuck—but I didn’t look away from Aspen’s face to glare at him. Having this conversation in front of my men wasn’t ideal, but Aspen moving in with me would become public knowledge quickly, spreading through town like wildfire.

“You’ve already saved my life, Crew,” she whispered. “You can’t do this for me too.”

“Saving your life was me doing my job. This I’m doing because I want to.Please.”

I wasn’t above begging, and I offered her what I hoped was a reassuring smile while I waited for her response.

My brother would surely shit a brick when he learned what I’d done, but there wasn’t a single cell in my body that gave afuck. There was something happening here with Aspen, some string in the loom of fate being tugged, and I knew I’d be a fucking moron to ignore it.

I couldn’t let her leave without giving us the chance to explore this thing that sparked to life and hummed beneath my skin whenever she was near.

“Are you sure?” she asked, eyes darting across my face as though searching for an indication that I was about to withdraw the invitation.

She wouldn’t find it.