Page 81 of Fire Fight

I hated how badly I wanted to taste it.

“Please, Aspen.” Unbidden, my hand moved up to cup her face, thumb stroking her soft cheek. “I can’t be focused on my job if I’m worried about you. Please stay here where I know you’re safe.”

I was admitting a lot with the demand. I might as well have cut my heart out and laid it in her palm.

Bracing myself, I waited for her reaction.

At last, she softened, her shoulders dropping away from her ears, eyes fluttering closed as she leaned into my touch. “Okay,” she agreed.

All the tension bled from my own shoulders, and I shifted my palm to cup the back of her neck, pulling her in to press a kiss to her forehead. Aspen inhaled sharply at the contact, but her hand found the front of my shirt, grasping it and holding me there longer than was probably wise.

“Thank you,” I murmured against her skin.

She pulled away enough to look up at me, and god, with her mouthright there, I wanted to close the distance and finish what we’d started earlier.

But I wouldn’t—not like this.

When I finally made Aspen mine, it wouldn’t be as I was rushing out the door. She wasn’t the kind of woman you kissed and ran.

Aspen was the kind of woman you worshiped all night long.

“Be safe,” she whispered as I let her go.

I grinned. “Always am, little phoenix.”

The stars sparkled overheadas I pulled out of the garage and navigated down my long driveway. The days were getting longer, but at eight thirty at night in early May, the sun had already disappeared, leaving that spring chill in the air. I’d stowed the extra set of gear I kept at home in the backseat of my truck and pulled on a thick fleece jacket over my tee, legs still clad in the sweats I’d worked out in.

I drove pedal to the metal all the way to town, making what should’ve been a twenty minute drive in half the time. The scene was awash in red and blue emergency lights from a lone fire truck, Lane’s sheriff SUV, and a few patrol cars.

After a quick assessment, I noted the fire was already out, so I left my gear in the back and approached my brother.

“You really didn’t need to come down,” he said, not bothering to face me as he stood with his arms crossed, surveying the first responders clearing debris and taking photos.

“Too late now. Any idea what happened?”

“Likely a dumb kid causing trouble. As far as I can tell, there’s no connection to our guy. No one was injured.”

“What started it?”

“Smells like lighter fluid, Cap,” one of the third shift guys said from nearby.

“Not diesel fuel?”

He shook his head, then turned back to overhaul.

“So probably not connected,” I said, “but the timing is a little too convenient if you ask me.”

Lane hummed in agreement. “We’re kicking up dust bydigging into this thing, especially with Aspen around. For now, I’ll treat it as a one-off.”

“Well, in the interest of full disclosure, you should know Aspen was here earlier getting dinner. Might mean something, might not.”

Lane swore, rubbing his hand over his face. “We’ll check the cameras in the area and see if anything pops.”

“Do any cameras even face the alley?”

“Not the city-operated ones,” he said, pointedly glancing around at the light posts where such things would be mounted. “But we might be able to catch the perp arriving or high-tailing it out of here. And most of these businesses have private security systems.”

“Trey?”