A Firefighter in the Family

Why was he so hostile? She was the one with that right, not him. “I have to investigate every angle. You know that.”

“Dig to my birth certificate if it makes you happy, but don’t jump to conclusions before you know what you’re talking about,” he said.

Those words sliced at her. She didn’t rush headlong into things anymore. She’d learned her painful lesson.

“Nice to see you’ve matured since I saw you last.” She couldn’t help it. The bitterness just tumbled out. Better to sound bitter than brokenhearted, though.

Four lobster-human hybrids stepped into the bar and eased their sunburned selves into the chairs surrounding a nearby table. A surfer type approached the opposite end of the long bar, and Zac moved away without another word or glance in her direction.

Fine. She knew where to find him.

She noticed his liquor license on the wall. Why on earth was he tending bar instead of fighting fires? Oldham would have her believe Zac had started setting them instead. But no matter how much he’d hurt her, she couldn’t picture him as an arsonist.

Zac’s deep voice drew her attention. He was even sexier than she remembered—and what she’d remembered had been plenty sexy. Alone in her mind, she could admit she was still attracted to him, even if she couldn’t forgive him.

ZAC WATCHED Randi Cooke retrace her steps toward the burned-out condos, her wake sucking him back almost three years.

“Dude, you’re about to pop a blood vessel.”

Zac redirected his gaze to find Adam had sauntered back to the bar and was tapping his temple. “I’m fine.”

“Then I’d hate to see a man on the verge of a stroke.”

Zac turned to throw some empty cartons in the trash so he wouldn’t bite off Adam’s head. His friend had been a beach staple for barely two years, hadn’t been there when all hell broke loose in Zac’s life.

Adam took a drink of his beer as he watched Randi disappear over the dunes. “What’s the story with the babe?”

“No story.”

“Right.”

“We went out a few times, that’s all.” He wasn’t willing to recount all the details, but he’d give Adam enough to get him off his case.

“So, how bad was your argument with Oldham?” Adam asked.

“If you’re going to play cop, you can just go back to the pier.”

Adam raised his hands. “Chill. I’m on your side.”

Zac braced his palms against the top of the cooler. “Sorry. She just raised my hackles.”

Adam nodded but looked like he suspected there was more behind Zac’s reaction. “Understandable. Having the ex interrogate you—not exactly what you expected when you got up this morning.”

Actually, when he’d arrived at work and seen the devastation next door, he’d imagined such an encounter. But he’d figured on one of Randi’s brothers doing the interrogation. He wasn’t sure that wouldn’t have been better. At least he didn’t have any guilt wrapped up in his feelings toward them.

“Anything you want to share in case your Nancy Drew shows up at the pier asking questions?”

Zac shook his head. “There’s nothing to know. Oldham wanted to buy me out, I said no, that was the end of it.”

Adam stared at him for a moment, as if maybe he didn’t believe him. Well, that was Adam’s problem, not his. He was damned tired of explaining himself, especially to people who were supposed to be his friends.

RANDI WALKED out of her hotel room’s bathroom toweling the excess water from her long hair. After a full day of sniffing rubble and accompanying her while she interviewed witnesses, Thor lay stretched out on one of the beds watching the Eukanuba Dog Show on Animal Planet.

“Checking out the babes, huh?”

Thor licked his chops as a female husky strutted her stuff.

“You’re so predictable. It’s always the blue-eyed girls.”

Randi slipped into white cargo pants and an orange tee, thankful to be out of smoky clothes. She propped her pillows behind her against the headboard and pulled out her case notebook.

She scanned through the list of names and didn’t scratch any off, not even eighty-year-old Penelope “Busybody” Jones. Randi couldn’t imagine the woman who looked like Barbara Bush’s twin doddering across Sea Oat Road with a can of gasoline and a box of matches in the middle of the night, but she’d seen stranger things happen.

She leaned back and thought about Zac’s reaction to her questioning. Red-flag city. Her eyes drifted closed as she pictured his tight facial expressions, his tense body language. His finely toned body. She swallowed.

Even though his status as a potential suspect gave her the distance she needed from him, she couldn’t believe he was really guilty. But he didn’t have to know that. The mere thought of someone she’d once cared about, a fellow firefighter, being the culprit sickened her. But he wasn’t a firefighter anymore, was he? Why? After all, he’d once sacrificed friendship and the possibility of something more for the job.

Her cell phone rang, and she answered while making notes for the next morning’s itinerary.

“How’d it go today?” Steve asked.

Did her boss ever take a day off? “I should be asking you the same question. How’s the happy couple?”

“On their way to Cozumel. What have you found out?”

Randy shook her head. If there was one thing that could be said for Steve Preston, it was that he was dedicated to the job. If the entire state of Florida caught fire simultaneously, he’d find a way to have a working knowledge of every single case to which his investigators were assigned.

“Thor’s keeping his reputation intact. I sent a sample off to the lab, but it smelled like gasoline.”

“Suspects?”

“Well, the consensus is that the builder is a jerk and the condo project unpopular. The suspect list is turning into a cast of thousands.”

As soon as she hung up a few minutes later, her cell rang again. “Hello?”

“Hey, sis. Where ya staying?” Eric asked.

“The Coral Inn on Gulf.”

“I see the state is putting you up in the fancy places.”

“Ha-ha.” How good it felt to talk to him. The full impact of how much she missed him and the rest of her family made her suck in a shaky breath.

“Want some dinner?”

“You buying?”

“You’re the one with the cushy state job.”