Into the Fire (4 page)

She needed to let the past go, which
included being pissed off at Nate. In fact, her little revelation
about extracting a bit of petty revenge seemed to be a capital
idea. She wouldn’t hold onto her anger, but she would give the
asshole some payback for walking out as if she were nobody special.
After all, they were both adults and had enjoyed themselves often
and well all those years ago. She could love ‘em and leave ‘em just
as well as he could.

She grinned as she walked across the
bullpen. They might never return to the intimacy they’d shared all
those years ago, but nothing said she couldn’t have a little fun
with him and enjoy herself in the process. With that thought in
mind, she turned her attention to the job that had sustained and
frustrated her in equal measure over the years.

This morning she would go
over the evidence from the three suspect fires and see if she could
find a lead. The linkage between the fires was already there; she
just needed to tie them to a perp. Her ability to connect the dots
had pleased her precinct captain to no end, since he’d originally
hired her under an archaic affirmative action requirement and
hadn’t really expected a hell of a lot. She’d shown him, and
everyone else, how wrong they were.

She settled down at her desk, her
stained coffee mug at her right elbow full of acidic, burned,
hours-old coffee. She’d found, over the years, that she couldn’t
drink anything caffeinated now unless it had the same acrid taste,
as if her taste buds had changed right along with the rest of
her.

“
Davis, you’ve got a
visitor,” the desk sergeant barked over his shoulder. She glanced
up in response, not so surprised to find Nate on the other side of
the bulletproof glass.

“
Buzz him in,” she replied
and leaned back in her chair. She crossed her arms as she
waited.

Nate strolled through the bullpen, and
for a moment, she was surprised by his comfort level. Then she
remembered what he’d been doing for the last eight years and wasn’t
so shocked after all. A metro police department was nothing
compared to what he’d seen and done.

“
Hey, Charly,” he thumped
into the chair opposite her desk.

“
Nate. What can I do for
you?”

“
I’ve got a general idea of
what an arson investigator does,” he answered easily. “But, I’m
interested in the nitty-gritty details. I’d like to know more about
it.” He held up his hands. “If I’m going to be keeping you from
something, I can bail.”

She considered him for a moment. It
wasn’t against the rules to discuss an ongoing case with
colleagues, including firefighters. The question of the day: Did
she want to?

“
Why are you so
interested?”

“
It’s not like there are a
ton of arson fires on Air Force bases,” he said, his tone and
expression completely professional, completely sincere. “I’d like
to know a bit more about it. Maybe even more on the fire we worked
the other day.”

Charly tilted her head and just looked
at him. Could he really be serious?

“
As a heart attack,” he
answered, as if reading her mind. Hell, maybe he had. They’d been
close enough back in the day. “Maybe arson investigation is what I
want to get into.”

“
I’ll have to run it through
my captain and do a whereabouts check to rule you out as a
potential suspect. Standard procedure.”

“
Works for me.” His reply
was as nonchalant as his attitude, but in his eyes, she could see a
gleam. He really wanted this.

So, she did exactly as she’d said.
Captain Reynolds was fine with it, as long as she performed a
whereabouts inquiry. Nate gave her the information without a pause,
as she’d expected, and left the precinct with the same swagger as
his entrance.

Charly sat back in her chair and
pursed her lips. Was Nate playing her or was he sincere? With a
shrug, she returned to the reports and photographs spread out on
her desk. In the long run, his sincerity didn’t matter; she’d stay
true to what she’d decided just a few hours ago. She’d have her fun
with Nate but she had to keep their relationship casual fun, with
no strings attached and no real feelings involved. Friends with
benefits sounded just about right to her.

Though, being smarter than your
average bear, she planned to get a second opinion. Her best friend
Emma never pulled punches and knew all the intimate details about
Charly’s sex life. Charly might be married to the job, but she’d
realized a long time ago that she needed a shoulder to cry on from
time to time and someone to hear her bitch on occasion. Basically,
Charly had needed a friend, and she’d found that friend in Emma,
who’d been a softball teammate in high school. They had reconnected
after a chance meeting at the supermarket before she and Nate had
even met. Hell, Emma had partied with them more than once over the
course of their relationship; Emma would give it to her
straight.

Charly should have called Emma when
Nate showed up yesterday but had been too damned chicken. After a
night of lamenting, Charly picked up the phone.

* * * *

The waitress served their martinis
with a flourish and left with a flounce. Emma grinned after her. “I
know this is a meat market, but damn, if she gets any more wiggle
in her walk, she’s gonna throw out a hip.”

Charly laughed in response and downed
half of her drink with one swig.

“
Oh hell, girlfriend, you’d
better dish, ‘cause that’s one hell of a hangover you’re working on
straight out of the gate.”

“
Nate’s back.” Charly said
without preamble.

“
I hope the bastard gave a
good excuse for completely screwing you over,” Emma said, her eyes
narrowing ominously. “And then I hope you kneed him in the balls.”
A legendary temper and fierce loyalty were only two hallmarks of
her friend.

“
He joined the Air Force.
Served in combat zones as a firefighter over the course of his
enlistment.” Charly wasn’t trying to make excuses, simply offering
up the facts. Emma would give her a semi-nonbiased
opinion.

Emma took a big swig of her own drink.
“No shit?”

“
No shit. He showed up last
night, said he never even whispered a word about us.”

“
And you believed him?”
Emma’s tone suggested Charly was a colossal dumbass.

“
Actually, I did, after I
thought about it a whole helluva lot.” She raised a hand. “Before
you go on a crusade, he looked totally bewildered, and you know as
well as I do, he could never lie worth a damn.”

Emma looked pensive for a moment. “So
what was his excuse for never even contacting you? It’s not like
you guys necked a few times and called it good. For God’s sakes, he
tied you up.”

“
Jesus, Emma. Wanna
broadcast it to a few hundred more people?” Charly hissed, glancing
around at the tables surrounding them. Luckily, the jukebox seemed
to have covered Emma’s comment. “He didn’t say. And I didn’t ask.
Think it would make me vulnerable, much? Let’s be honest. I was a
good fuck for him, and that’s probably the extent of
it.”

Emma considered her friend over the
rim of her glass before signaling the waitress for another round.
“And yet, that’s not what’s bugging you.”

Charly sighed. Sometimes Emma was just
too damned astute. “I’ve been entertaining ideas of fucking him for
the fun of it and then leaving him high and dry.”

“
He was really that good?”
Emma’s elevated eyebrows begged to differ.

“
Yeah, he was. I just made
the mistake of assuming our time together was more than it
was.”

“
Huh,” Emma kept her silence
until their waitress returned with their second round and then
popped the vodka-marinated olive into her mouth. “Then I say go for
it. God knows, it’s not like you’ve been sampling the local
wildlife lately. You’re too young to die on the vine, and if Nate
lights your fires, then go for it.”

“
I hear a ‘but’ in there
somewhere,” Charly said, knowing exactly what her friend would
say.

“
Damned straight. Don’t let
him crap on you again, otherwise I’ll pound the hell out of him,
war hero or not.”

Charly smiled. As always, Emma was
right.

Chapter Four

Nate stood on Charly’s stoop two
nights later, wondering if he was pushing his luck. He sure as hell
hoped not, but his excursion to the PD gave him an ‘in’ beyond his
personal interests. Now, he was off for four more days. Ludington’s
firefighters worked one twenty-four-hour shift, followed by two
days off, and then a second twenty-four-hour rotation followed by
four days off. His schedule would give him plenty of time to woo
the woman he couldn’t get out of his mind.

In one hand, he held a bottle of
Chardonnay, the same brand they’d consumed a few nights ago. In his
pocket were sterling nipple and clit clamps and the silken ties
he’d found at a shop earlier this morning. Everything else he’d
purchased was back at home, and he prayed he’d use them ... soon.
He hadn’t gone looking for them, but as he passed the store, they’d
called to him.

Charly answered the door with a smile
pushing up the corner of her mouth. She didn’t look surprised to
see him at all. In the background, he could hear she was grooving
again to another alternative rock band.

He grinned in return and held up the
bottle of wine, taking a second just to appreciate the view. Long,
toned legs peeked out of the frayed hem of her shorts. It was too
easy to imagine them wrapped around his hips as she urged him on
with breathless little cries and moans.

He shifted his feet, his
quickly hardening cock pressing against the tab of his
jeans. 
Down boy
, he chastised himself. Charly seemed to believe him about
the whole blabbing gig, but she sure as hell didn’t trust him any
further than she could throw him. He couldn’t really blame
her.

“
So did I check out?” He
knew he had; he’d been overseas when the first fire had been
set.

“
Yup,” she opened the door
and waved him inside. “Should I beware of Greeks bearing
gifts?”

“
Always,” he replied easily.
This easy camaraderie was the bedrock of the relationship he wanted
with Charly. He had seen glimpses of the girl she’d been, here and
there, and selfishly, he wanted that girl back. “Especially when
they’re plying you with alcohol.”

She closed the door and hummed in
response before flicking off the stereo with the remote.

“
So,” she turned to face him
fully. “You realize this won’t be like back in school.
Investigating an arson isn’t like the ride-alongs we did.” She
settled onto a low-slung couch and slowly crossed those long,
delectable legs. Nate swallowed hard before dragging his gaze up
her body. The same, inscrutable smile graced her face, and he knew
she was playing him. Then again, was it really such a bad thing? He
wanted to play with her, after all.

Returning her smile, he seated himself
and placed the wine on a side table. “Yeah, I know it’ll be
different. Looking forward to the ... challenge.” There, he
couldn’t drop a broader hint, and from the expression on her face,
she got it. What she did with it was the bigger
question.

“
Hmmm. How about some wine
while we ... discuss ... it?”

Nate leaned back in his chair. Let the
games begin.

*

In the kitchen, Charly spread her
notes and the crime scene photos across the table. “See the
alligatoring here and here?” She traced her finger over the
distinctive patterns, which indicated an accelerant had been
used.

“
That’s pretty damned
obvious, isn’t it?” Nate mused, his voice and expression intent. No
matter how much she suspected he was using the whole arson angle as
a way to get to her, his interest was piqued. “So what did he
use?”

“
Early returns indicate it
was kerosene. Easily obtainable, impossible to trace. He never
leaves a container, so no prints. The points of entry were either
destroyed by the fire or wiped completely clean. This guy knows
what he’s doing.”

“
Firefighter?” Nate asked
and raised his brows.

“
Could be, but I doubt it.
After the Orr debacle back in California, we always look to our own
first. I don’t think this guy’s an actual firefighter, but an
aficionado. A firefighter wannabe, who gets off on the thrill of
watching you guys in action. And watching me flounder around
looking for clues.”

“
So it’s all been retail
spaces, no residences?”

“
Yup, and not one of them
had a camera installed. You’d think everyone would have one, given
how cheap they are these days, but no dice. Again, he knows exactly
what he’s doing, and who he’s targeting.”

Nate leaned back in his chair, brow
furrowed in thought, and Charly allowed herself an uninterrupted
moment to study him. This Nate was new, thoughtful and intense.
He’d retained the intensity of his youth, but now it had been
sharpened, honed by time and experience. A shiver ran through her
at the thought of that new concentration directed at her in a
purely sexual manner.