Page 76 of Fire Fight

“You run along, dear,” she said, gently halting my rambling. “I can tell you’re fired up about something.”

I gave her a quick hug and sprinted for the door.

Once safely behind the wheel of Black Betty and punching the doors locked, I checked my phone for the first time in hours to several texts from Crew.

HOTSHOT

Pizza sounds amazing. You don’t mind, do you?

Aspen?

Goddamnit, Aspen, text me back.

We’ve been over this.

If you don’t respond in the next two minutes, I’m coming to find you.

And you won’t like what I have to say when I do.

The last two came in as I was reading the first ones, so I quickly tapped out a response.

ME

Promises, promises

HOTSHOT

You are a goddamn pain in my ass.

ME

You love it.

HOTSHOT

Please tell me you got caught up at the library again and aren’t being held somewhere against your will

ME

…again

HOTSHOT

ASPEN

Cackling, I told him I was fine, that I was going to grab pizza and head home, then dropped my phone in the cupholder and set off. There was only one pizza joint in town, and luckily, they had take-and-bake pizzas with a variety of topping combinations, so I picked out a classic pepperoni and a loaded supreme, paid, and headed back onto the street.

At this time of day, when people were getting off work and running errands before heading home, downtown Dusk Valley bustled with people, the bulk of parking spaces along the street full. I’d managed to slide Black Betty into one a few blocks up, so with an extra pep in my step, I started that way. When I reached the first street corner, I paused for traffic, but as I was about to step into the crosswalk, the hair on the back of my neck rose.

In my line of work, I’d long since honed my sixth sense, and the ability to know when someone was watching me had become second nature, easy as breathing.

As if on cue, keeping in time with that creepy-crawly feeling sliding down my spine, my phone pinged with an email.

My hands shook as I withdrew it from my pocket.

FROM: [email protected]

TO: [email protected]