The Fire Still Burns (5 page)

Nate shrugged nonchalantly.  “I just came up to see what was keeping Grandma so long.  I had a question about something.”

Brynn peered closer at Nate, studying for signs of anger or curiosity but there were none.  Satisfied he hadn't heard anything about his questionable paternity, she ruffled his hair and ushered him into her room before heading downstairs to get rid of the imminent danger lurking outside.

Adam stood in the yard, half leaning against the hood of his truck.  The Harlow family had a narrow driveway, but Adam had never used it.  Like most visitors, he simply pulled up in the yard and parked under the huge elm which towered over the property.

His arms were folded in front of his broad chest, the muscles bulged beneath the thin navy blue fabric of his T-shirt.  The morning sunlight illuminated the few flicks of golden blond remaining in his hair and caught the shimmer in his eyes, which bore into her with a lethal intensity.

When Brynn first saw him, her mind went back to one of those spring afternoons when she would run outside to find him just like that, waiting on her.  They would always have a plan, whether it would be to catch a movie at the drive-in, head down to the pond or hang out with friends.  But they always ended the nights the same way…with the windows of his truck fogged up and their clothes mostly off.

The pain of regret cut deep inside her, spreading an ache through her chest as she walked down the porch steps toward the older version of Adam, the version that would never touch her like that again.

That way of thinking wasn't going to help her.  It definitely wasn't going to help Nate.  Forcing her bittersweet memories into the back of her mind where they belonged, she squared her shoulders and approached Adam with steely determination, relaxing her features so she would only show a blank face.

“What do you want, Good?  I hadn't planned on starting my day this early and when I do start it, I'll be alone.”

He looked at her, his face as void of expression as hers, as if he had practiced for that moment.  “We're partners, Harlow, whether you like it or not.  Remember?  Besides, it’s well after noon.”

He taunted her.  Great.  Just what she needed.  “I'm not interested in sparring with you today, Adam.  I got the information from your reports, and I viewed the sites with you.  I don't need your assistance.  I can interview some 'spects by myself.”

“Not going to happen.”  He said the words coolly, calmly, as if he were in total control.

“Are we really going through this again?  The chief assigned us both to this case.”

“That's right.  So, both of us will be interviewing suspects.”  He leaned in closer.  “You're not sweeping my case out from right under my feet.”

“Whatever.”  Brynn threw her hands up in defeat.  “You can meet me at Chuck Davis's house in another two hours.  Goodbye.”  She turned to leave, desperately needing to crawl back under her bed sheets and, for at least an hour, pretend the outside world didn't exist.

“Brynn, wait.”

Biting back a curse, she turned to face Adam again, noting that the calm, which had so recently cloaked him, seemed to have fallen away.  The stone-faced expression gone, his eyes were troubled, his mouth turned down in a frown.  “What do you want now?”

“I didn't come here about the case.”

“Then why did you come here?”  She wasn't foolish enough to believe he had come by for a friendly get together.

“About last night…”

Brynn rolled her eyes in irritation and huffed out a breath before speaking.  “I'm not going to stomp through any more damaged buildings, and I swear I didn't do anything to make the farmhouse collapse.”

“That's not what I was referring to.  It's about what you said to me.”

“I said a lot of things, none too pleasant.  You'll have to be more specific.”  She knew she was being bitchy, but she didn't care.  She wanted him gone…

“You said I assaulted you.”

…before he reminded her of that.

“Yeah, and?”  Hell, she didn't want to have this conversation.  He'd treated her just as cheaply as he thought of her.  She had the right to be furious, but to her own chagrin, part of her had heated up inside despite his insult when his lips found hers.

“That wasn't my intention.  I never thought…”  He shrugged, his stiff posture and avoidance to look her in the eye telling how uncomfortable he was with their discussion.  She was glad she wasn't the only one who didn't want to be part of it.  “I never thought you'd think I was forcing myself
¼
I didn't
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aw hell, Brynn.  I didn't mean anything by it. I didn't even think.  I just…”  His voice trailed off as his eyes became permanently fixed on the ground, his thumbs shoved into his belt loops as though he didn’t know where else to put them.

“You just did what you thought I did willingly with anyone and everyone,” Brynn finished for him.

“What?”  Adam finally looked up.  “No, I wasn't thinking like that when it happened.”

“Oh, really?”  She laughed, hating how sad the sound came out.  “Why would you kiss me then?  You obviously hate me.”

He opened his mouth to speak, than snapped it shut.

“Can't deny it, can you?”  She shook her head and turned away, through with the conversation.

“How do you expect me to feel about you, Brynn?  I trusted you and you were screwing my best friend behind my back.”

Brynn ground her teeth together and spun around, then tightened her hands into fists in an effort to keep the angry tears at bay.  “I offered to explain what happened once before, but you wouldn't even listen.”

“I didn't want to hear all the sordid details then and I still don't now.”  His lip curled, blue fire blazing through his eyes.  “But don't worry about me kissing you again, not now that I've been reminded how likely it would be for me to catch something.”

Brynn gasped in outrage and swung her fist toward his face. 

Adam caught her small hand in his much larger one before it hit its mark.  “You did that once already.  It was the only free shot you're going to get.  Understand?”

Brynn looked at the purple and blue bump at Adam's left temple and grinned.  At least she had shown him she wasn't playing with him the day before.  “I don't take orders from you, Adam, and I'm not about to just stand by and let you degrade me every chance you get.”

“Tough,” he released her hand.

His gaze shifted over her head and she could tell by the widening of his eyes something was wrong.  Her heart leapt to her throat as she turned her head and prayed she wouldn't see Nate standing outside in clear view.  Fortunately, it wasn't Nate who had caught Adam's attention, but a plume of black smoke reaching to the heavens.

“That looks like it's coming from the high school area.”  Adam said the words mostly to himself as he turned toward his truck.

“I'm going with you.”  Already dressed and not concerned with hair and makeup considering the circumstances, Brynn rounded the front of the truck.

“Stay here.  We don't know if this is related.”

“We don't know if it's not.”  They stood on opposite sides of the truck, each with one hand on a door handle.  Deciding she'd better get in before he jumped in the truck and peeled out, leaving her in the dust, Brynn jumped in and slammed the door behind her, fastening her seatbelt.

“Dammit.  At least quit slamming my door.”  Adam jumped in and started the engine.

Two minutes later, they found the center of the high school football field fully aflame.  A piece of black fabric hung from a tall wooden stake, which had been pushed into the ground.  Brynn peered closer at it as they approached, recognizing the number 05 printed in white.

“Isn't that your brother's retired football jersey?”

Chapter Four

Adam brought the truck to a screeching halt, cut the engine and jumped out.  Brynn’s hands hit the dashboard hard to protect her head from going through the windshield and unfastened her seatbelt to scramble out after him.

“Dammit, Adam, I'm sure the fire department is on their way…”

“I'm not waiting.”  Adam withdrew a fire extinguisher from the back of the truck and ran toward the flames.  Brynn spotted another extinguisher in the back and grabbed it, figuring she may as well help until the fire trucks came.

Several bales of hay had been piled two high in a circle around the six foot stake the jersey hung from.  The arsonist had apparently doused the bales with gasoline, the sweet smell apparent.

Brynn was convinced the arsonist was retaliating against Zeke Good, whether Adam wanted to face it or not.  He could shrug off the fact Zeke had been murdered in the first fire and that the second property belonged to Zeke's best friend, but this time the arsonist left a clear calling card.  A calling card Brynn realized Adam was rushing toward.

“What the hell are you doing, Adam?”  She watched as he used his extinguisher to clear a path to the stake where Zeke's jersey hung, announcing to the world he was the reason for the fires.  “That's evidence!”

Adam spared her one cold glance over his shoulder, doused the fire on a bale of hay and jumped on top of it. 

She watched in surprise as he moved close enough to use his extinguisher to knock the burning jersey off the stake despite the heat of the fire.  He quickly jumped away, hacking from the large dose of smoke he’d directly inhaled.

Brynn raised her extinguisher in effort to save what was left of the jersey, but Adam roughly grabbed the canister away from her.

“What are you doing?”  She tried to grab the can back from him.

“Leave it!”  His eyes held a raging fire of their own, far hotter than the one burning next to them.

“That's evidence, Adam, and we need to put out this fire.”

He glared at her for a beat before his jaw unclenched and his eyes clouded over with an indefinable emotion.  “Please, just let it burn.  We can put out the fire, but make sure the jersey burns first.”

Sirens wailed through the air, announcing the near arrival of the fire department.  Adam held her gaze, his eyes wide and desperate. 

Brynn's jaw dropped as she realized he actually pleaded with her.  Although she fought hard to avoid it, she found herself pulled into the vulnerability swimming through his sapphire eyes.

Her head warred with her heart, the approaching fire truck urged her to make a quick choice.  She nodded once.  “All right, but you've got some explaining to do, Good.  You've just destroyed evidence in an arson investigation, and I think you know your brother had something to do with this mess.”

Adam nodded grimly and handed her back the extinguisher as the fire truck pulled to a stop on the street.  They concentrated on extinguishing the fire again, Brynn hoped she’d done the right thing as the jersey continued to burn.

~~~

Chief Parker was not happy, his mouth set in a tight frown as he paced back and forth before them.  The fire had been put out quickly by the fire department with barely any property damage to the football field and there were no deaths or injuries to civilians or firefighters.  None of that mattered when Adam reported with Brynn that there were no witnesses to the incident.

“You mean to tell me some nut-job just took the time to stick a six foot stake in the ground, surround it with hay and light it up right in the middle of the friggin' high school football field and not a single person noticed a thing?”  The chief’s arms were stretched wide, his face red with anger.

“It's Sunday,” Adam said in disgust.

He didn't need to elaborate.  Black Bear Gorge was a God-fearing town, and nearly every one of its inhabitants made it to church on Sunday morning where they stayed until well into the afternoon and sometimes evening.  Few businesses opened on Sunday and none of the businesses near the high school had been open when the arsonist struck.  There were only a handful of residences nearby, and nobody had answered when Brynn and Adam knocked on their doors.

“Un-frigging-believable,” Chief Parker bit out as he paced with his fists clenched together.  “At least tell me you know what was on the stake.”

“Sorry, sir, we didn't get here quick enough.”  Adam cast a covert glance toward Brynn, fearful she might contradict him.  So far, she hadn’t told the chief anything that could condemn him.  His gut twisted with guilt, both for lying to the chief and for dragging Brynn into the sticky situation.  “We saw the fabric on the stake but we couldn’t make out what it was.”

He looked at where the burned remains of his brother's old jersey lay, the material completely unrecognizable, and had trouble swallowing past the ball of shame which had lodged itself in his throat.  He didn't dare look at Brynn, not until the chief left and he could talk to her alone, somehow explain what he had done, find a way to justify it and protect his brother.

“Son of a bitch.”  The chief spit and glared at the remains of the fire, his face twisted with frustration.  “We'll get this mess cleaned up.  Ya'll get on out of here and catch this nut before the whole town gets scorched.”