Page 40 of Her Silver Fox Firefighters

It might be worth the gamble.

“I’m not sure you’ll believe me,” I tell Carlos. “No one back home believed me.”

“Give it a try,” he replies. “You and I, Miss Fairchild, we haven’t crossed paths much outside the diner since you’ve been here, but even so, I can see you mean well. So when this arrest warrant came through, I thought twice before serving it.”

“If it came through to Ember Ridge, it means it was issued nationwide, right?”

“Right.”

“And you haven’t notified the authorities in Devon about me yet, have you?”

“Not yet.”

I take a deep breath. “There’s something you need to know about that place. It’s not what it seems. It’s… the arrest warrant itself, the charges, they’re bogus. I didn’t?—”

“You didn’t embezzle funds?”

“Short answer is yes, I did, but it wasn’t?—”

“You’re not helping yourself here, Miss Fairchild,” he shakes his head, almost disappointed.

“I didn’t want to do any of it, okay? I didn’t havea choice!”

The door swings open and Beck enters, a hard look on his face. I don’t know whether it’s dread or relief that I’m feeling. Carlos seems surprised.

“What are you doing here?” he asks Beck.

“She needs a lawyer.”

“Damn it, Beck, you should’ve let me finish the interview at least.”

“She’s not saying another word before she gets a lawyer,” Beck shoots back.

I don’t know what to make of any of this. He’s angry, that much is clear. He’s probably angry with me because he and the guys got slapped in the face with a whole chunk of my past that they didn’t even see coming because I kept it from them.

“What’s going on?” I ask.

“Listen. I could lose my badge for this, but I’m going to release you into Beck’s custody. Do yourself a favor and don’t leave Ember Ridge,” Carlos replies.

“Can you maybe not notify Devon?”

“Give us this one thing, Carlos. For old times’ sake. We’ll talk to Olivia. We’ll get the whole truth out of her, I promise. And if it tracks with what the Devon PD is saying, we’ll personally help you deliver her to them.”

I’m not sure what scares me more at this point: the prospect of getting sent back to Devon or having to tell my men the whole truth.My men. They deserve the whole truth. I put it off for as long as I could. What other choice have I got?

“I can’t give you much time,” Carlos tells Beck.

“I won’t need it,” Beck shoots back with a wry grin, then gives me a long, indecipherable look. “It seems we have a lot to talk about, don’t we, Olivia?”

The sound of fast approaching heels clicking in the hallway sends my pulse into overdrive. I hear her voice before I see her, and instantly, the fear and anxiety return with a vengeance.

“Where are they?” Jocelyn barks at one of the deputies on guard duty.

The blood drains from Beck’s face. “Fuck,” he mutters. “I wasn’t fast enough.”

“What? Why?” I ask him.

As soon as Jocelyn comes in, Carlos’s expression shifts from concern and curiosity to aggravation with a hint of anger. The way he looks at her speaks of a personal history, and that makes me look toward Beck for answers. I doubt this is the right time to explore the skeletons in their closet, seeing as mine came with an arrest warrant.