Page 79 of Fire Fight

“Yes!”

With a grin and a flourish, he twisted the knob and pushed, then reached in to flick the light on.

At first, I couldn’t make sense of what I was seeing.

The far wall, which had once been home to the maps of the city and a corkboard, was now lined with paper. Stepping closer, my hand flew to my mouth as I gasped.

“You got the case file,” I breathed.

“Lane gave it to me the other night.”

I turned and smacked him. “Gym equipment, my ass. Why did you lie to me?”

“I wanted to look it over first—and I wanted to do this.”

“My very own murder board.” I grinned at him, ire over his untruth instantly soothed.

He remained silent, allowing me the opportunity to study the spread. It would take me a few days to read all the reports and interview transcripts, but the same thing that had jumped out at me at the library was even more obvious now.

As though he sensed the wheels in my mind turning, Crew moved closer, the heat of his body and his intoxicating scent wrapping around me.

“What do you see?” Crew asked quietly.

I fingered the dark strands of my hair. I wasn’t entirely surprised by the discovery, but to see it laid out so plainly like this…my heart raced faster with the knowledge.

That while I’d obviously been targeted for my desire to solve this case, there was more to it than that.

“I see an awful lot of brunettes.”

twenty-three

. . .

CREW

I seean awful lot of brunettes.

My fist slammed harder into the bag, sending it careening toward the concrete wall of my basement workout space.

Once Aspen had uttered those words, I’d needed to collect myself. I managed to sit still and keep my cool while we ate pizza and chatted about nothing, but the second the plates were cleared and the leftovers were in the fridge, I bolted downstairs.

Obviously, she’d been targeted because she was working the case and hoping to find the piece of shit tormenting my town, but to see all the victim’s faces lined up side by side, to recognize she’d also happened to fit the physical profile?

The realization had something ugly twisting in my chest, the constant desire toprotect, protect, protectmorphing into something far more dangerous.

I’d burn the fucking world down for Aspen McKay, destroy anyone who tried to hurt her, and that scared me more than anything.

Did she feel the same? Would she give her life to protect mine in the same way I felt compelled to do for her? Not that I’d everask that of her. I’d do everything in my power to ensure she never had to. But we’d had a moment in the kitchen. Before we’d been saved—or maybe damned, if the way my cock still refused to soften was any indication—by the oven signal, I’d been centimeters away from kissing her like she deserved, not that weak ass, glancing touch I’d given her. Like a planet helpless to resist the gravitational pull of the sun, I’d been drawn into her orbit, and I didn’t see a way out.

Hell, I didn’twanta way out.

I’d never really been in arealrelationship. I’d had a high school girlfriend before the accident that sent me into a tailspin, and once I got my shit together, I was too busy moving across the country, then with the fire academy and starting my career, to worry about also keeping a woman happy. Sure, I’d had flings; I was a red-blooded male. I scratched the itch when needed. But there’d never been a woman I could see myself with long term.

And then Aspen McKay blazed into town, setting my entire world on fire, and suddenly, I was picturing forever with a woman who, in the grand scheme of things, I hardly knew.

But I wanted to change that. I wanted her to become someone I knew better than anyone, wanted the kind of relationship I remembered my parents having—where we could exchange whole conversations with a simple look. Where we woke up together every morning, and fell asleep curled around each other every night.

Fuck, I wanted to get married and fill this house with babies.