A mistake? “You didn’t make a mistake, Sam. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I won’t lower my guard.” Sam’s arm brushed back, revealing the butt of her weapon. “I’ll do my job.”

It was more than just the job. “If you want to talk—”

Sam headed for the door. “I don’t.”

Monica stared after her. Way too soon. Couldn’t Hyde see? Sam was falling apart on the inside. She didn’t need the job right now. She needed to heal.

Luke filled the doorway. His green eyes locked on hers and heated. He stepped inside the room, but he left the door open as he walked toward her.

“I—I’m worried about Sam.” She kept her voice low.

He gave a nod. “Me, too. That’s why I tagged along.” His hand lifted and skimmed lightly down her arm. “One of the reasons.”

An innocent touch. If someone at the station saw it, it could be explained or ignored.

But her blood heated and her breath caught, because there was nothing innocent between them, and there never had been.

“I’m not working this case. I’m not on duty at all,” he told her, and she knew it was because Hyde had rules for them. She and Luke couldn’t be partners, not in the field.

Away from the field, there was no one else she wanted.

“I’ve missed you, baby.” His hand rose to her cheek and brushed back her hair.

She’d missed him.

His head dipped toward hers.

Voices rose from the hallway.

She wanted to rise onto her toes and press her lips against his. Right then, there was nothing Monica wanted more.

But eyes and ears were everywhere.

“Tonight,” she promised him as she put her hand on his chest.

He gave the slightest of nods. “Tonight, you’re mine.”

And he’d be hers.

• • •

Seth MacIntyre shoved open the front door of the station. He glanced around quickly and then his gaze zeroed in on Kenton.

Kenton’s brows climbed as the arson investigator hurried toward him.

“Who’s that?” Sam asked, her voice quiet.

“Arson investigator.” He’d been waiting for Seth to come with his report. “Tell me you’ve got something on that fire.”

But Seth shook his head. “Not damn much. The guy is good.”

They had to be better.

Seth handed Kenton a file. Seth’s long-sleeved shirt was wrinkled and stained with some dark soot. His hair stood up at odd angles, and his eyes were bloodshot. Yeah, it definitely looked like the guy had pulled an all-nighter at the scene. The scent of smoke clung to him as Seth said, “He used gasoline as the accelerant this time.”

So Lora had already told him.

“But I don’t—” Seth broke off, looking at Sam. “Uh, is it okay to talk with—”

“This is Special Agent Samantha Kennedy,” Kenton said with a nod toward her. “From now on, she hears everything about the case. And, Sam, you’re looking at Seth MacIntyre, county arson investigator.”

Seth inclined his head toward her as he cleared his throat. “I just… the way this fire was set… I don’t think the guy was going for a kill.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “This perp knows his fire, knows which accelerants to use, knows how to set the scene for optimum heat burst and explosion. If he’d wanted to burn Lora’s house, he could have poured the gasoline to connect with her gas system or hooked it to spark with the electric line.”

“But he didn’t.” The fire had been circling her house.

“He made a path with the accelerant. One that would burn tight, but not explode.”

Lora had thought that the guy was just playing with her, and Seth was just confirming her theory. One deadly game.

“I’m sorry I don’t have more.” Seth’s shoulders dropped. “No sign of an incendiary device. I’d hoped like hell to find more at the scene.” His lips tightened.

Kenton had been hoping for a lot more, too.

“But—but one of the guys from my team said he read in the paper that you’ve got a witness, right?” Excitement flickered in Seth’s gaze. “Did someone come forward who saw him at one of the scenes? Tell me you’re about to take this bastard down.”

Not quite. “We’re following up on a few leads right now,” Kenton allowed carefully. “We’ve found a connection between the victims.” Kenton figured he could say that much. Now, where was Peter Malone? He needed to talk to the detective ASAP. An officer was supposed to be checking on him, but damn, how long did it take to find one cop?

“A connection?” Seth’s gaze darted between him and Sam. “What kind of connection? I never saw a link. I looked through the victims’ files—”

“This link was a bit harder to find.” But not impossible to discover. At least, not if you knew how to slide into prison files and arrest records on a cyber trail.

And, in the case of Jennifer Langley, not if you could find someone willing to talk about some dark deeds.

“Is Lora connected to them?” Seth ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t believe he went after one of our own!”

“He’s been going after firefighters for a while.” One of our own. The phrase stuck in his head. “Seth, what did you do before you became the arson investigator?”

He straightened a bit. “I was a firefighter at the station on Bringham.”

“With Lora?”

A ghost of a smile lifted his lips. “Uh, yeah. I worked there until I transferred to arson.”

Of course the guy had been a firefighter, but he hadn’t thought the man had worked with Garrison’s current crew. “Why’d you leave?”

The smile faded away. “I couldn’t do the job anymore.” Seth’s gaze fell, and so did Kenton’s.

The limp. Shit. Right.

“You were injured on the job?” The soft question was Sam’s.

Seth exhaled, hard, and the fingers of his right hand went to his long shirt sleeve. He rolled up the material with quick movements of his hand. “You could say that.”

The flesh was smooth, tanned at first. Then…

Rough. Red. Twisted and raised.

He rolled up the other sleeve. That arm was scarred the same way. Christ.

“Got caught in a building collapse. My leg was pinned, broken, the bone breaking out of the skin.” Seth shrugged his shoulders. “My arms really aren’t so bad. My back… it’s much worse.”

“How’d you get out?” Sam asked. She’d barely escaped death herself. Actually, she hadn’t escaped. For a few precious seconds, death had held her in his grasp.

Seth swallowed and looked away. He began to tug his left sleeve down, in hard, angry moves. “Carter Creed hauled me out. He found me and pulled me out of there when I figured I was as good as dead. I was screaming and choking on smoke and flames.”

Kenton glanced at Sam and saw her lips tremble.

Seth rolled his shoulders. “Two years later, I’m here, and he’s in the ground. Life can be a real bitch sometimes.” His eyes lifted. “I am working this case. Lora might not think I’m trying but I am. I got my whole department on board with me. We’re not stopping, not until this is over.”

The faint lines around Seth’s eyes tightened as he stared at Kenton. “I meant what I said last night. Carter Creed was a hero. He didn’t deserve to die in that fire, and if it’s the last thing I do, I’m gonna repay my debt to him.”

Carter. “So you’re a fan of his, but not hers.” Seth’s earlier words still rang in his ears. She’s using you, man… She’s done it before. You’re not him.

No, he wasn’t Carter.

“No, that’s not…” Seth shook his head fast. “I saw what she was like, after, and I know her.” His dark stare glittered. “You met her days ago, but I’ve known her for years.”

Kenton knew her, too, inside and out, and he didn’t need this guy telling him about his lover.

He could feel Sam’s stare on him but he didn’t look her way. Not now. He kept Seth pinned with his gaze.

“Lora tries to forget sometimes.” Seth licked his lips. “She hasn’t learned yet that you can’t forget.”

Kenton remembered the first time that he’d had Lora in bed. Look at me. He’d never be a stand-in for a dead man.

No matter how much of a f**king hero the guy was.

“This isn’t—I didn’t come here to—”

“Special Agent Lake!”

He turned at the call and found a nervous-looking cop shouldering across the bullpen.

“I found Detective Malone,” the cop called out. “He’s gone to the Bringham fire station to talk to Garrison.”

“We need to detain him, now.” Kenton’s phone rang, vibrating in his pocket. He yanked it out. “Lake.”

“I thought you’d want to know,” came Jon’s easy voice. “Lora’s on her way to the fire station. The captain called her, and she’s gonna fill in for someone with food poisoning.”

Lora was headed to the station. Malone was there. Shit. “Stay with her, and when you get there, don’t let Detective Malone out of your sight.”

Because all these puzzle pieces were lining up. And right in the middle, like a big giant X, was the fire station on Bringham.

“I’ll meet you in twenty, Jon,” Kenton told him. He spun away from Seth and Sam and hurried toward Captain Lawrence’s office. He knocked first, barely, then pushed inside. “I’m gonna need your personnel reports.”

The captain looked up at him. “The hell you—”

He’d left the door open because he didn’t care who overheard them. Twenty minutes. No time to waste. “You know how the Watchman case ended.” He shook his head. “You really want that same shit on your doorstep?” Kenton’s control was razor thin.

Silence filled the air behind him as those in the bullpen strained to hear.

The captain slowly stood up. “You’re sayin’ my men—”

“We’re checking the firefighters. We’re checking the cops.” Not all of them. But there were some right at the top of the SSD’s list. “And I want to start with Peter Malone.” The detective seemed like a good guy, but appearances could be deceiving.

He knew that too well.

“Starting with him, but there’ll be others.” There always were.

Lawrence gave a jerky nod and walked toward the door. “I—I’ll go to personnel.”

“We’ll go.” He followed right on the captain’s heels. “And we’ll f**king hurry.”

CHAPTER Fifteen

Lora had just stepped into the fire station when she heard Kenton’s voice behind her. She turned around and saw him. The drumming of Lora’s heart echoed in her ears even as she shoved her way past the guys who wanted to make sure she was all right.

“Lora, damn, woman,” Garrison called out, “just slow—”

She almost slammed into Kenton.

He caught her, and his hands rose to lock around her arms. A furrow pulled down his brows. “Lora—”

“We need to talk.” Right then.

But he shook his head. “I’m here to see Malone.”

Malone? Pete?

“He’s not here,” Jon told him. “Garrison said the guy cut out before word came to detain him.”

Lora’s eyes widened. “Why do you want to detain Pete?”

Kenton leveled a stare at Jon. “Malone’s father was a firefighter.”

“Saul Malone wasn’t just a firefighter,” Lora said, blinking. “He was a damn great firefighter. He died in the line of duty while he was saving some kids back in the eighties.”

But Jon’s lips thinned, and his gaze didn’t stray from Kenton. “Was he now?”

“When you call the station, talk to Monica,” Kenton ordered. “Get her to bring you up to speed. And make sure the cops are searching this town for Detective Malone.”

Kenton pushed Lora into the conference room, then slammed the door behind her. The little speech she’d prepared for him flew right out of her mind. “Pete? Are you suggesting Pete had something to do with this? Because, Kent, you’re wrong. He—”

“How well do you know Peter Malone?”

Ah… she licked her lips and managed to hold his stare. “Well enough.”

His eyes bored into hers. The air got real thick. “Shit. You’ve slept with him.” His hand ran through his hair. “That was what Seth meant.”

Seth? Great, so he’d been spreading gossip, but so what? She had a past. Big deal. “Before us, yeah, I did. He’s a good guy.”

“Fuck! Now I understand why you weren’t worried about going over his head. You could do pretty much any damn thing, and he wouldn’t get mad, right?”

She pulled back, stumbling away from him. “Whatever happened between me and Pete, it’s over. I don’t need to explain this to you.”

“Oh, yeah, sweetheart, you do.” He stalked forward. The back of her thighs bumped into the conference table.

Her chin lifted. “Have I asked you for a list of ex-lovers? Huh?”

“My lovers might not be involved in murders. Murders.”

“Pete isn’t involved. He’s the cop investigating the case, for God’s sake. Not some—”