Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
By that evening, Joe and Kenny had combed the Creative Interiors II fire site yet again.
They’d cooperated with the insurance investigator, who was conducting a simultaneous investigation.
They’d gone back for yet more interviews with all the players and witnesses, including Stella and Gregg, both of whom had been the second to last to leave Creative Interiors II and had been in the warehouse several times in the months leading up to the fire.
Neither of them smoked or had a size eleven-and-a-half boot, or had been in the small bathroom of the store in the hours before the fire, but neither did they have an alibi for the hours after the fire.
The text Summer had received was traced to a burner phone, which made about as much sense as the rest of this whole thing did.
Ashes was asleep in her crate. Feeling stifled at his desk, Joe had spread everything he had on the case out on the floor like a murder board.
It was all scattered out before him, including the original warehouse fire investigation, but he’d found nothing there that stuck out at him.
No size eleven-and-a-half boot with a diagonal tread.
No traces of gasoline found. No cigarette butts.
Not a single shred to suggest the old fire could be connected to two new fires.
So…a terrible coincidence?
Or clever arson? And yet if that was true, then half the possible suspects could be eliminated because they hadn’t been around twelve years ago.
He heard footsteps coming down the hall and knew by their light touch they were female. And still he was surprised when Summer appeared in his doorway. She hoisted a brown bag from which came a delicious scent, making his mouth water.
Or maybe that was just her.
“Hungry?” she asked, and waved the bag. “Low carb, no sugar or fat, I swear.”
Her smile was warm, affectionate, and just unsure enough to have him tossing aside his pencil and notepad. “And here I was hoping for pizza.”
Her light laugh filled him as she came into the room. She wore shorts tonight. Khaki cargo shorts with pockets everywhere, and a snug, thin scoop-neck T-shirt with a smiley face on it that read smile, it confuses people.
“Did you just get back from your day hike?” he asked.
“Yep, I got them halfway to the summit, which was their goal. They want to try again later in the summer. They had a great time. Oh, and I got myself booked for two more hikes next week.” Her smile faltered, and he knew that was because she hadn’t planned on being here that long.
“You could have said no,” he said gently.
“I could have. Didn’t though.” She sat on the floor next to him, hugged her knees close, and smiled at him. “It gives me an excuse to stay.”
“Do you need one?”
“Maybe I once thought I did. I know it doesn’t make much sense to you, but being so far from home for so long was…freeing.”
“You think you’d lose your freedom if you lived here, or used it as your home base?”
Reaching out, she stroked some hair from his forehead. The thick strands immediately fell back again, and she smiled. “I love your hair.”
She sidetracked him like no one else ever had. “Red.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “I don’t know about losing my freedom,” she admitted. “I just know that I love being with you, in a way I’d never imagined. Can’t that be enough for now? For the next few weeks, until I decide what the hell I’m doing?”
The way she looked at him, as if she expected him to push her away, pulled at him hard.
She was struggling to find the path that was right for her, and he had no right, nor a desire, to stand in her way and direct her.
She had a smudge of trail dirt on her jaw, a slight sunburn on her nose, and a wary light in her eyes while she waited for him to respond.
“I promised you one minute at a time,” he said, and traced a finger over her jaw. “I’m trying here, Red.”
She let out a tenuous smile, and as they stared at each other, time seemed to stop. It wasn’t the first time that had happened, and a small part of him hesitated because he knew he was headed for a world of hurt.
“So.” She glanced at all his paperwork scattered in front of them. “Getting anywhere?”
“No.”
“Well, in that case.” She scooted closer and kissed his chin. “Maybe we can get back to that one minute at a time thing.”
Resisting was pointless when he wanted her bad enough to take what he could get. He shoved all the paperwork away and pulled her onto his lap.
Summer moved eagerly into Joe’s arms, thinking he was just what she needed.
He ran a finger down her throat, over her collarbone as she settled in his lap, and at the feel of him hard and muscled beneath her, she all but purred.
“Is that a gun in your pocket, Fire Marshal Walker, or are you just happy to see me?”
“Guess,” he said, and grabbing the hands she’d tried to dip into his Levi’s, he pushed her to the floor, following her down, holding her wrists captive on either side of her head. “Now about that minute…”
“Yes?” she asked breathlessly, looking up into his face.
“I’m taking one right now. You’re going to let me.”
Her pulse leapt and she wrapped her legs around his hips, arching up, rubbing the hottest, neediest part of her to what she figured was the hottest, neediest part of him, dragging a groan from his throat. He released her hands to shove up her tank and unzip her sports bra.
She opened her mouth to tell him she hadn’t showered, but all that came out was a garbled whimper because he took a breast in his mouth, sucking her nipple in deep, running his tongue over the tip as it hardened for him.
“Joe. I need to take a shower—Ohmigod,” she gasped when he clamped his teeth down lightly and tugged.
“My minute isn’t over.” He surged up, slapped the lock on his office door, then tugged down her shorts and groaned. “You are wearing see-through lace.”
“I told you—” She broke off when he put a big hand on the inside of her thigh and pushed her legs open.
“A minute wasn’t enough. I’m taking another.” He hooked the crotch of her panties with his thumb and slid it aside. “You’re so wet. I have to—” He sank a finger in deep, and with a cry she couldn’t contain, she arched up for more. But even with the locked door, they couldn’t. Shouldn’t…
“Joe.” She had to lick her dry lips, her body quivering with his every touch. “We can’t—”
He circled her nipple with his tongue again and sank a second finger inside her. “Can’t what?” he murmured in a low, thick voice as he brushed his thumb over her center.
“Can’t…uh…” She couldn’t remember.
Another glide of his thumb with the barest of pressures now, and she fisted her hands in his shirt with a helpless moan. “Joe.”
“Look at you,” he murmured as he drove her right to the edge and held her there with the steady pressure and rhythm she needed. Her head fell back while she panted for air. She was close, so terrifyingly close—
“Come for me,” he whispered, his mouth brushing her jaw, beneath her ear. “I want you to.”
She could no more have stopped a train on its tracks as she burst, exploding in a kaleidoscope of lights and sensations, eventually coming back to herself as Joe slowly stroked her down to earth.
He brushed his lips over her damp temple. “Good?”
“Great. More,” she demanded.
“Greedy woman.”
“I have a condom in my purse.”
“Resourceful too.” He blew out a relieved breath. “I like that.” He reached up for her purse just as his radio chirped on his desk. “Damn it.”
“Don’t listen.” She arched her hips. “Inside me. Now.”
He opened her purse but his radio chirped again, and he sagged against her, pressing his forehead to hers.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but I have to get that.
” His body was hard, quivering with it, but on his face was a resigned tension.
And she didn’t believe that tension was all for himself, but for her, too, and right then and there, something deep within her shifted. Softened.
“Hey.” She cupped his face and smiled past the hunger flooding her. “It’s okay, I can wait.”
At that, something seemed to shift within him too, certainly a release of the tension that had gripped him at the sound of his radio, but something more.
Something warm and deep, and maybe not all physical.
He nuzzled close, gave her a quick, hard kiss on the lips, and then pulled back with serious reluctance before answering the radio.
It was dispatch. There’d been a police call at the original Creative Interiors, an intruder, though there was no one at the premises now. Given the arson issues, they’d contacted Joe as a courtesy.
With her stomach clenching, Summer adjusted her clothing and sat up. “I’m coming with you.”
“Red—”
“Look, this is a nightmare, I know. But it’s my nightmare.”
They left his office with Ashes coming along and walked in silence to their cars.
Summer followed Joe to Creative Interiors, trying not to think too hard.
She’d always been able to clear her mind, through good music or breathing techniques, or her soothing crystals and teas, but it wasn’t as easy with so many thoughts swirling in her head she felt as if they were coming out her ears.
In front of Creative Interiors, there was a police car. Joe talked to the cop for a moment, then came over to her. “The alarm went off. A witness said she saw a twenty-something-year-old guy in black from head to toe let himself in with keys, and then back out a moment later.”
She blinked. “Braden?”
“They’re looking for him now. They’ve called your mom and Tina.”
This made even less sense now than it had yesterday.
She went into the store to see if she could tell what might possibly be missing.
Joe came in behind her. She flipped off the alarm and headed toward the back.
The counter looked cleared off as usual.
The cash register would be empty so she didn’t bother to check there.