Page 10 of Ice Cold Liar (Ice Breaker Cold Case #14)

He could. If he trusted the people there completely.

He did not. “If Hudson went off the rails at any point, and they covered it up…” Sadistic.

Twisted. “Then they aren’t going to confess that to me.

He would be a problem that they just wanted eliminated.

” And wasn’t that an option he had not considered until this moment?

If Hudson did something wrong on a mission, the CIA would need to cover up the mess.

They would need to make the problem totally vanish.

Surely…surely, the CIA would not kill one of its own agents.

But they’ve done it before.

Fuck. The web was getting more tangled by the moment. Eb also knew that he was searching for other options because he just didn’t want Naomi to be a cold-blooded killer. He wanted her to be innocent.

He wanted her.

Lust is fogging my brain. Hunter is right. I’m thinking with my dick on day one. Eb knew better than to let his emotions cloud his judgment.

“You worked closely with Hudson.” Hunter’s musing voice pulled Eb back to the conversation. “You ever see any signs that he might go off the deep end?”

“No.” No, he hadn’t. But then again…

No one knows just how dangerous I really am, either.

“Okay, I’ll dig for you. Felonies for friends and what-not. But you are going to have to pay me back, and I mean a major payback. I don’t even know what I want yet, but believe me when I say it’s gonna be big. Giant.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. I have to go.”

“You have to go and get back in bed with the prey. Gotcha.”

His teeth snapped together. “I’m not in bed with her. I’m in the bedroom next door to her.” Dick.

“Ah, but where do you want to be?”

In bed with her.

When he didn’t immediately reply, Hunter’s laughter boomed over the line.

Eb hung up on him. He blew out a long breath and turned for the stairs. But he paused before advancing. Just stared up at that darkness. So much could wait in the darkness.

Sadistic. Twisted.

He grabbed the travel bag that he’d brought in earlier and slung the strap over his shoulder. Taking his time, Eb began to climb the stairs. He skipped stair four. And stair nine.

He walked right past the room she’d indicated would be his. Instead, Eb stopped in front of her door. Her closed bedroom door. He reached for the knob.

Hunter—the laughing bastard—had been right. Eb did want to be in her bed. Even better, he wanted to be in her.

He lusted for the woman who might have killed his friend.

How screwed up was that?

How screwed up am I?

A dog was barking. Sleep and confusion pulled at Naomi as her eyes fluttered open.

The barks came again. Louder. Sharper.

She surged upright. The past and present tangled all together for her as she struggled to see in the darkness. Shadows were everywhere. Covers weighed her down and?—

Something moved. Someone. Her eyes adjusted to the dark, and she saw the powerful form of a man coming toward her. Her hands flew up. “Don’t hurt me!” A desperate cry.

The dog barked again. Henry. Henry was barking. He was?—

“I’m trying to save you, not hurt you.” Eb’s disgruntled voice. “Can you tell the dog to stop barking? We all have to get out, now.”

What?

Naomi shook her head, frantic. Her heart raced in her chest, and the ghost from her past kept pulling her under. “Where’s the knife?” She had to protect herself.

“Fuck if I know.” He threw the covers back. “Cops never found it, remember?”

Henry kept barking.

“I’ve got her, okay?” Eb snapped to the dog. And he did have her. He scooped Naomi right into his arms.

The last of her confusion vanished when he hauled her up against him.

Eb. Eb is taking me out of the bedroom. He’s…saving me?

She didn’t need saving.

Did she?

“Let me go!” Naomi shoved against him.

His grip tightened on her. One hand pressed hard to her thigh because, yep, her legs were bare. She wore an oversized shirt. Panties. And that was it. Not like she’d been planning to entertain in the middle of the night.

“Do you smell the smoke?” Eb gritted as he turned for the door.

Henry barked and bounded toward the open door.

“Your house is on fire. I’m getting you and your precious dog out of here so you can both keep living.”

“Fire?” Naomi repeated as her eyes widened. An old, never-forgotten terror clawed at her insides.

They were in the hallway. Then rushing for the stairs. And, yes, she could smell the smoke. He’d flipped on one of the hallway lights and she could even see the smoke drifting lazily in the air. Not too strong, not yet.

He flew down the stairs with her still cradled in his arms. She coughed because the smoke was so much thicker down there.

My home is on fire. Her home. The only thing she had left.

Her future. Her head whipped around as her hands suddenly clung tightly to his neck.

The flames were coming from her den. From the area where she’d had all her paint.

But the fire—it wasn’t too bad. Not yet.

Not as bad as it could be. Not as bad as she’d seen it before. “Stop!”

He didn’t. He barreled for her front door. Only when he got there, he had to put her down so he could unbolt the door, and she used that time to break away from him and run toward the den.

“Naomi!” He grabbed her from behind and hauled her back against him. “We don’t run toward fires. We are not firefighters. We get the hell away from them!”

“ We try to save our house!” She twisted and turned in his grip. “Get my dog out. Please! ”

“I’m getting you and the damn dog out!”

“He’s not a damn—” Naomi stopped. Sucked in a breath and tasted smoke. “I have a fire extinguisher in the closet.” How bad were the flames? Big and twisting, but… manageable. Still manageable. Hopefully.

They were wasting time. Every second was vital. And if he opened that front door, he’d introduce more oxygen to the scene. The flames would flare higher. “Let me go!”

“Naomi…”

She tore from his arms. Grabbed for the closet door. The one right near the entrance to the sprawling house. Her desperate fingers closed around the fire extinguisher. She grabbed it and rushed for the flames. “Get Henry out of here!” His barks haunted her.

The fire wasn’t too big yet, was it…?

The flames chased up the side of the wall. They ate at the couch.

Okay, yes, they were big. They were terrifying. They reminded her of the past she’d never escape.

She pulled the pin on the fire extinguisher.

Aimed the extinguisher at the bottom of those twisting, heaving flames.

She squeezed the handle. A white cloud shot from the fire extinguisher, and she yelled in surprise because Naomi hadn’t been expecting such a powerful burst. For a second, she almost lost her grip on the extinguisher, then she tightened her hold and swung it from side to side as she tried to hit all the flames.

And—

Another fire extinguisher began spraying.

“You don’t listen for shit,” Eb told her. He sprayed at the flames. Flames that were flickering and dying.

Where was her dog?

They sprayed. Kept battling until the fire extinguishers were empty. Until the flames sputtered away. When her extinguisher stopped shooting, she let it drop to the floor. Eb sprayed longer, hitting the flames that lingered on the edge of her curtains.

In the distance, she heard the shriek of a siren.

Smoke lingered in the air, and she coughed.

He dropped his extinguisher and immediately reached for her. “Now we’re getting the hell out.”

The fire had stopped, hadn’t it? Wearily, she nodded. Tension held her shoulders in a tight grip as Naomi stumbled for the door. She’d barely taken two steps when Eb scooped her into his arms.

This time, she didn’t fight him.

They made it outside. She sucked in fresh air. Henry wasn’t barking, but he was right with them. The stars glittered overhead.

Eb lowered her onto the grass. Henry licked her face, and she put a hand on his head. “I’m okay,” she told him.

“No, you’ve got a fucking death wish,” Eb fumed. “That is not okay. Not in any world.”

She looked up at him. Way up because he was still standing.

That siren shrieked again in the distance. “You called for help.” Had thunder just rumbled, too?

“Not like I’m just going to let you burn.” His hands fisted at his sides. “Next time, don’t you dare run to the fire.”

“But I put it out, I?—”

“ You could have died. Right in front of me. What the fuck?”

“The flames weren’t that big. There was still time.” She felt what could have been a raindrop hit her cheek.

“Oh, right, because you’re some fire expert and you know. You know that there is still time when?—”

“It was nothing like the fire that took my parents.” She hadn’t meant to say those words.

She hadn’t. Because she didn’t talk about that time.

Not to anyone. So why did she pull Henry closer and tell Eb, “This one was smaller. There was still time to stop it. The flames weren’t rolling up the wall and onto the ceiling.

The smoke wasn’t so thick that you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face.

The heat didn’t lance your skin and make every single breath hurt. ”

He dropped to his knees right in front of her. “Naomi?”

She held Henry tighter. “I didn’t have to get thrown from the second-story window by my dad because it was the only way out.

” A brutal toss that had saved her life but broken both her legs.

She hadn’t been able to run to the neighbor’s house for help.

Her dad had wanted her to get help, but she’d only been able to crawl. To crawl and scream and scream and…

Oh, shit. She’d just said all those words to him.

“Fuck, baby.” He hauled her toward him. Her and Henry because she wasn’t letting go of Henry. And Eb…Eb hugged her. “Baby.”

She shuddered against him. And, over his shoulder, she stared at her darkened house.

No flames erupted. She’d stopped them.

This time.

Another raindrop fell.

And a tear slid down her cheek.