Chapter 5 #3
“Stop. Don’t get all porcupine-y on me,” Charlie cut him off, unable to hold back an eye roll.
The man truly was a prickly beast. “Of course you didn’t leave the fire station, barricade us inside the coffee shop, set it on fire, return to the fire station, go out on the call, help tear down the barricades, and perform an unnecessary rescue.
You’re one of the few on our ‘Absolutely Could Not Have Participated in This Particular Arson’ list.”
Although he made some token grumbly noises, especially about the “unnecessary” bit, Charlie was pretty sure he was appeased by her reassurance that they didn’t suspect him—for the fire, at least. “So? Did the sheriff or fire chief pinpoint any people of interest?”
“Even if they did, how would I hear about it?” he asked. “Besides, aren’t you here looking for your mom? Why are you looking into the arson?”
“I heard you firefighters were the best at information-passing in the county.” Charlie answered his first question.
“Maybe even the state. Case in point, how you already know the whole deal with my mom. Right now, we’re waiting for her to show up, and I need a distraction so I don’t create my own entertainment. ”
“That never ends well,” Fifi interjected, and Bennett nodded.
Charlie couldn’t really argue with something that true, so she settled on giving the peanut gallery a chilly glance before turning back to Kieran.
“Speaking of, don’t you have a whole ’nother distraction for us to look into?
” When he just glowered at her, she clarified, “Tell us why the sheriff thinks you killed Cobra.”
“I already told you,” he grumped. “It’s because I’m not popular right now.”
Unable to hold back her amusement, Charlie laughed out loud. “If that’s all it takes, I would’ve been arrested for murder every day in high school. There’s got to be more than that. Sheriff Summers seems like a fact-loving person.”
Kieran glowered at her, but eventually gave in and grudgingly admitted, “We might’ve been seen talking.”
That was weirdly vague and didn’t seem very motive-y to Charlie. “Talking?”
“Loudly.”
Ah. “Arguing then. When?”
He scratched the line of his jaw, the rasp of stubble loud in the tiny office. “Right before he disappeared.”
“So you fought, in public, the last time he was seen in a not-murdered state?” Charlie gave him a flat look. “Yeah, I’m sure the reason you’re a suspect is because you’re unpopular.”
The faintest touch of red colored his cheekbones.
“Well?” he demanded as she tried to not find his pouty look unbearably attractive.
She was discovering all sorts of things about herself on this trip to Simpson.
Who knew her type was moody, caffeine-deprived firefighters who might’ve murdered the local militia leader?
Even as she thought it, she mentally shook her head—not at the thought that she found the crabby man attractive, because she definitely did, but at the idea that Kieran was a killer.
Mood-killer, maybe, but unless he glared Cobra to death with his eyeball lasers, Charlie’s instincts were telling her that Kieran wasn’t the murderer.
It took a moment to get her brain back on track enough to answer him. “Well, what?”
“Who do you think killed him?”
“It’s really too bad Clint has an alibi,” Charlie said with a sigh. “He’s the perfect suspect.”
“A good alibi too.” Fifi sounded a bit sour, which was understandable. Clint had tried to kidnap her, after all. “Hard to argue with ‘he was in jail.’”
“Yeah.” Charlie was quiet for a moment, mourning the loss of their perfect suspect. “Who else besides you hated Cobra?”
“I didn’t hate him,” Kieran grumbled.
“Then why’d you scream at him in the middle of Main Street?” Charlie asked.
Looking slightly offended, he corrected her assumption. “It wasn’t in the middle of Main Street.” When Charlie raised her eyebrows and just waited him out, he finally admitted, “It was in the grocery store.”
“That’s so much better.” Her tone was dry enough to draw a snort of amusement from Fifi. “What was your fight about?”
“It wasn’t a…” He must’ve noticed that Charlie was about three seconds away from leaping out of her chair and choking a straight answer out of him, because he cleared his throat and started again. “He was saying rude things to his wife. I told him to knock it off. He didn’t appreciate it much.”
“Gabrielle Jones?” Charlie asked, and Kieran lifted his chin in a tight nod. Hmm…interesting. “If he was abusive to her, that opens up the suspect pool—Gabrielle, her family, friends, any boyfriends or wannabe boyfriends…” She trailed off as an unwelcome thought occurred to her. “Were you one?”
“One what?”
“One of the hypothetical boyfriends?” When he frowned even harder in confusion, she clarified, “Were you involved with Gabrielle? As a friend, or…romantically?” The thought made her stomach feel squirmy for some reason, but she told herself it was just because Kieran was making himself look more and more like a viable suspect.
“No.” His flat answer rang with honesty, and Charlie’s shoulders dropped a few inches. “Barely know her. Don’t have to be screwing her to step in when her husband’s being an ass.”
Charlie blinked as she absorbed his statement that was strangely honorable in a rough, angry way. “So, Cobra was being nasty to his wife at the grocery store, you stepped in, the two of you argued, and then…?” She rolled her hand in a please-continue gesture.
He shrugged. “Then nothing. They left. I shopped. Everyone else stared like brainless idiots.”
“Not a big fan of humanity in general?” Charlie asked.
“No.”
“Understandable.” Except for her sisters—and recently, their respective men—Charlie wasn’t wild about most people either.
She’d always figured her antisocial bent was because the bounty-hunting thing tended to feature the more unpleasant side of humanity, but Kieran was a firefighter.
He should be surrounded by other disproportionately attractive heroes and adoring groupies, so she wondered what skewed his worldview.
Then she remembered who his dad was, and his crabbiness made more sense.
She met his gaze, feeling a bone-deep curiosity to discover all of this man’s secrets.
“What exactly did the sheriff say?” Fifi asked, bringing Charlie back to the point of this discussion. It was too easy to get distracted while Kieran was filling up all the space in the room.
Kieran’s gaze lingered on Charlie’s for an extra hundredth of a second before moving to Fifi. “What questions did she ask me?”
“Not unless they’re something very different than what we’ve just asked you?
” When Kieran gave a tight shake of his head, Fifi continued.
“Then no. I’m wondering how she left it.
Don’t leave town? We’ll be back later today with an arrest warrant?
We’ll be watching you from the shrubs outside your living room window tonight? ”
Kieran flicked a look over at Charlie before his gaze returned to Fifi, and his almost-smile was back. “Sometimes the family resemblance is obvious.”
Bennett gave a cough that sounded like he was disguising a laugh.
“She just told me she’d be questioning me again later.” The hint of amusement was gone as if it’d never existed. “The don’t-leave-town part was implied.”
It was Charlie’s turn to chuckle. “I know the sound of that.”
“Any alibi?” Bennett asked, his deep voice a surprise after he’d been silent so long. Charlie didn’t think she’d ever not be startled when he spoke.
Kieran didn’t look fazed, however. “Work. Other than that, I was usually home. Alone.”
“Ugh.” Charlie made a face. “That’s a terrible alibi. It just screams, ‘I killed Cobra!’ Too bad you don’t live here. That’d be an excellent alibi to be constantly surrounded by all the cranky, caffeine-deprived hotties milling around out there.” She gestured toward the door.
Kieran’s frown had deepened at the word “hotties,” and he opened his mouth to speak, only to snap it closed as the door swung open.
A ginger-haired firefighter filled the doorway. “What are you doing in here?” His accusing gaze instantly landed on Kieran. “You shouldn’t be in here when the chief’s gone.”
Charlie waited for Kieran to explain that he had Early’s permission, but of course he didn’t.
The contrary man just glared at the redhead for a solid ten seconds before turning his head as if he couldn’t even be bothered to look at the other man anymore.
It was so deliciously cold and cutting that Charlie could barely keep the gleeful grin off her face.
Kieran was constantly, eternally furious, so the fact that he couldn’t be bothered to waste any of his rage on his coworker was a rather glorious insult.
When the ginger’s face turned an unhealthy shade of angry reddish purple, however, she decided to smooth things over before his head exploded.
“It’s all good,” she said. “Early doesn’t mind that we’re in here.”
Somehow, that seemed to enrage the man even more. “I’m texting him.” He released the doorknob so he could tap at his phone more efficiently, and Kieran wasted no time. Reaching in front of the other man, he pulled the door closed with a solid thud and then turned the lock.
The sight of the redhead’s startled, open-mouthed expression before he was shut out of the office struck Charlie as funny, and she muffled her chuckle with her hand. “Can’t believe that some people never grew out of their ten-year-old petty-snitch stage.”
Kieran focused his bitter-cold gaze on her, and those icy-blue eyes warmed to the flickering heat of a Bunsen burner flame. Suddenly, she lost her ability to speak.