Burned by Desire (Highland County Heroes Book 2) Read online

  Her stomach roiled in protest. It couldn’t be over. Not when it had just begun.

  “I thought you understood that when I told you to go after him. Rule number one, never fuck a guy you actually want to get to know.”

  “I need to go, Livy.” She didn’t have anything else pressing—besides the text from her boss—but she refused to hear that, by trying to fix the mess she’d made of her relationship with Gage, she’d actually destroyed it forever. She couldn’t take hearing another word out of Livy.

  “Okay, I’ll talk to you later. Can I come over this evening?” Livy went on as if her words hadn’t just destroyed Melody.

  “Yeah, but leave the booze at home. We can just sit here and talk for a change.”

  “Oh…” Livy again went silent. “I guess, if that’s what you want. I’ll see you later.”

  “Later.” Melody tossed the phone to the other side of the couch. She’d have to deal with it again soon enough when she had to answer her boss’s text, but first she had to find out if Livy was right.

  Since Gage hadn’t answered her, she grabbed her phone, tossed it into her purse and headed for the scene. Since she hadn’t been allowed to write her own story the first time, she needed to find clues to write her own now. There might be evidence there that Melva would want her to use to write it. It was probably better that Gage not answer her, then he wouldn’t get in the way of Melva’s pen.

  It only took a few minutes to get down to the scene. The now intimately familiar truck sat in front of the house. Just looking at it made her damp, remembering the night before, and a new ache started low. How would he react to seeing her? If Livy was right, he’d be aloof.

  A black Suburban sat right behind Gage’s pickup that she didn’t recognize as local. As she slid from her car, Gage and another man came from inside the house, carrying totes and evidence bags. The other man had on black chinos with an impeccable white shirt and tie. He slid off his protective booties from the scene to reveal bright white sneakers. His dark hair made him look like either the perfect movie FBI agent, or a mob boss.

  If she didn’t go off the handle like she had with Gage the first time, she could get the information she needed to write a basic story. This could be her break. He was here and the other guy was probably Alexander. For once, she was there at the perfect time to get just what she needed and maybe get in a little I told you so, since this was the second fire in the Zone. Melody grabbed her phone and rushed to meet the two men.

  “Gage! What did you find? Any new evidence to support our theory?” Though he had yet to actually adopt her theory, he couldn’t deny she was right anymore.

  Within a moment, the scene changed. Gage went from looking professional to pissed. He yanked the dust mask from his face and pursed his lips. “What are you doing here? This is an investigation, you can’t just barge across the tape.”

  She always had in the past and he hadn’t said a word. “I’m a reporter…this is my job.” Did he really think she would stop chasing the story just because they’d had sex?

  “Did you finally find something linking this fire to DemaCrane? You have to admit, both of these fires were in Devastation Circle. It has to be connected.” She finally felt as if she could talk about her theory out in the open, even with Alexander there, whom she’d never actually contacted. Gage would figure out the whole mess and they could take down the behemoth company together.

  Instead, Gage glared at her and took a step back. “Melody, this is Special Agent Alexander Hernandez from Albuquerque. As I said yesterday, I’ll need you to direct your questions to him. Especially now.”

  Alexander snorted slightly, but continued carrying the big rubber tote, passed her, then went on to his truck.

  She waited until Alexander was busy opening the back of the Suburban, then lowered her voice. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on? You can’t just shut me out like this. I need information for my story. Not much, but enough to keep my boss happy.” If he shut her out, did that mean Livy was right? Was he cutting off all ties with her because of what they’d had together?

  “No, I’m not going to tell you what’s going on. I think you don’t know how to leave well-enough alone.” He used his thumbs to slide off the evidence gloves then shoved them into a plastic bag hanging from his belt.

  “I don’t know enough?” Just like the professor, he was holding his knowledge over her. “Are you really mad at me, or mad at yourself for letting your dick be your brain last night?” Somewhere along the way, she’d forgotten to lower her voice.

  Alexander choked slightly from the back of his truck and Gage narrowed his eyes at her, his hands fisted at his waist. “You will never get another piece of information or anything else from me.” He strode to his truck, got in, and drove off.

  Alexander waited at the back of his Suburban, glancing at her every few seconds through his sunglasses. He didn’t even hide what he was doing and she suspected he could if he wanted to. No, he wanted her to know he was watching her, seeing how uncomfortable he could make her, and it was working. She crossed her arms, feeling as if the entire world was staring at her with her pants at her ankles.

  “That was…enlightening.” He chuckled as he finally closed the hatch and walked toward her.

  Deep breath Melody. “Not really. This is a small town.”

  “I see. So, you’re Melody Redding, the town reporter, looking for information and he’s the guy in your way.”

  It had felt like he was in her way before, but she’d thought they had gotten through that. “I don’t want him to be in my way. I just want to do my job.”

  “And he just wants to do his. Maybe if you both remembered that, you’d get more accomplished. I’d also recommend you both stop sleeping together until the investigation is done. It’ll look bad if it’s discovered. I recommended earlier that he work with you to bring in a suspect. If you don’t stick your foot in your mouth again, you’ll be working together. Also, just as a guy’s perspective, we don’t mix business and pleasure. If you want to keep seeing him, then you’d best stop thinking that he’ll give you information in return for whatever favors you gave him. He might be volunteering to work for the government, but he’s not that jaded.”

  “And you are?” Alexander made her feel like she needed to watch every single word she said.

  He chuckled, “I’m with the government, and I’m here to help. But I don’t get my information the same way politicians do. I don’t figuratively screw people to get what I want.”

  “So you literally do?” Now she felt really exposed. While Special Agent Hernandez was hot, he was no Gage and she wasn’t about to take chances with another guy.

  “No, as I said, I don’t mix business and pleasure.” He pulled out a card and handed it to her. “I’d be happy to give you any information I can when I have it. Gage and I are taking what we found to the lab, but there will be no answers today. Feel free to quote me as saying that the fire does appear to be intentional and we’re using all of our resources to find and capture the individual who set it.”

  “Wait…individual? You think this was just one person?” Could they really think there was no connection? She’d practically laid it out for them.

  “Whether it is a whole group of people, or a lone-wolf, looking for attention, the way these explosions were set would suggest that one person, by his will or not, set that fire.”

  “Wait, what do you mean, by his will or not? If someone set it, they meant it.” She was so tired of the double talk already.

  He flashed her a slight smile. “I mean, it might be someone who is doing this for his own gain, or someone who was already in the employ of a larger group, who is compelling him.”

  “So, you are still looking into the DemaCrane lead? If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have said that.” Maybe Special Agent Hernandez wasn’t so bad after all. At least he was answering her questions.

  “We haven’t eliminated anyone yet, not even you. I have to go meet Gage i
n Albuquerque, you may call me later. Do try to get ahold of Gage later and smooth this all over…for the good of the investigation.”

  After her hasty words in front of his colleague, he probably wouldn’t want to ever talk to her again. It would take a lot of soothing, not smoothing. And, she wasn’t supposed to sleep with him to do it. “I’ll figure something out.” She always did.

  Chapter 13

  Both Gage and Alexander were scheduled to meet at an adjunct lab in Albuquerque where they sent overflow cases. Alexander had to bring the evidence, and Gage agreed to stay and help process it. He’d been sitting outside the lab waiting for ten minutes when Alexander finally drove up.

  He slid his sunglasses on to hide how he felt from the agent. Melody had pissed him off, but he also didn’t like her talking to Alexander. Would she wiggle right up to the agent, use her body to get the answers he’d been unable to give her? Or would she blast the ATF in the newspaper as well? “Did you get everything you needed?”

  Alexander laughed. “I just talked to her for a minute. Gave her enough information to keep her from getting angry, then left. I did tell her to stop screwing with you for information.”

  Damn, now he would look like he’d tried to cover up for his fire house and her poor report, by sleeping with her. “It wasn’t what you think.”

  “I don’t care what you do in your time off. What and who you do is none of my business, but remember that list you’re going to put together? She might be on it. The person you piss off with the stories you’re going to feed her…the stories that are supposed to draw this person out…could be her.”

  “I know it’s possible, yet I also know it’s not. She hates the idea of the resort going in and this is only helping the resort. She’s crazy and everything about her just gets me going, but there’s also something about her…”

  “Opposites do sometimes attract, but keep that until after the investigation. I need your head in the game, all jokes aside.”

  He shook his head and sighed at her dick accusation. He shouldn’t be pissed about that, but he was. The squad were his brothers, and what had been printed under her name had hurt them all. Her flippant remark had been enough to remind him just what had been between them. It was just something she would’ve said before, when she said she was putting on a show for respect.

  “She knows that I told you to work with her. She will be calling you and trying to make it up to you. I’m not your boss, but if her boss doesn’t care if you get hurt, and finds out about you two, it could be the end of your career. Now, let’s go inside. I want to introduce you to Dr. Max Joseph. He’s the chief lab tech here in this office and also the local Medical Examiner.”

  “Ah, so he’s busy all the time.” Gage had been worried about offering to stay and help in the lab, since he hadn’t done a thing like that since college, but they were too short-staffed to do anything with it right away. They had agreed to let him run some basic tests as long as Dr. Joseph was there to oversee what he was doing.

  “Yes, so if you’re not sure about anything you’re doing, don’t do it.” Alexander went to the back of his truck and gathered all the totes and bags full of evidence. “I took the time to photograph everything and catalogue it quickly at the scene. We should be able to turn it back over to the owners now.”

  “That shouldn’t be hard, since they live all the way in Ohio.” While snowbirds were expected in the Southwest, they were also frustrating. There would be no help with the investigation because they weren’t even there yet, wouldn’t be for at least another month.

  “You know what I mean. The cordoned area can be removed and a strip put on the doors to keep people out. There’s nothing there to loot, but hopefully it will keep people from going inside and getting injured by falling.”

  “I’ll do that when I get home this evening.” Along with everything else that had to be done. He had to work the EMT shed the next three days and try to avoid Melody. She’d been so good when work didn’t get in the way. For once they had meshed, totally, and he’d been unable to avoid her invitations.

  Alexander led him into the four story, glass-front building. They walked to an elevator on the right, then down two floors to the lowest level, ChemPlus Labs. Their motto boasted all sorts of services from soil testing to cadaver drug tests.

  “They run quite the gamut.” Gage pointed at the list while the receptionist took down their information.

  “They have to. Many of the tests they offer are available from labs that are farther away. If someone needs the work done fast, they are willing to pay extra to have it done locally.”

  “So, why do they need me here? If they have the capability to do all these things that I don’t know the first thing about, what can I do to help? If I damage evidence…” He didn’t even want to think about it.

  “I brought the devices from both cases. I’m hoping Dr. Joseph has time to take a look at them.”

  He hadn’t bothered to ask when Alexander had told him it had been set up, but they didn’t have the budget for anything like this through his little department. “Are the feds covering this lab work? I want to catch this guy as much as you do, but my ass is on the line if I spend money we don’t have.”

  “This became a federal case the moment you called me. I’m having you continue to work this with me because I don’t want to have to pull more of my small team from what they’re working on for this.”

  While it put him at ease, it was also daunting. He’d never worked with anyone but the firehouse guys and this case was bigger than anything he’d had to deal with before. “Thanks, I hope I never have to use this again.”

  “I don’t think our guy’s going to stop anytime soon. Just so you know, I’ve also notified the Blackjack department and the Fort Watterson base so if you need helicopters with water tanks, they are available. I let your chief know this morning when I was on my way to meet you. While he seems like he has the situation in hand, I’m not so sure he understands. He wanted nothing to do with help from other jurisdictions.”

  The feds wouldn’t understand that they were dominated by local politics. “It’s all because of taxes. We get money from the city of Santinas and the surrounding rural area. Anything outside of that area, we’re supposed to let it burn unless we’re asked by whoever is covering that area to help. On the other hand, if a situation isn’t handled in our jurisdiction the way the city thinks it should be, we can be penalized. That’s why that article hit so close to home. We’re a low-budget, small local department. If tax payers decide we don’t do our jobs, we lose them.

  “It can be really frustrating. I joined to help people and I thought I’d be helping anyone who called in…that’s just not the case. Chief won’t call in any help that he doesn’t think is good enough or that might get him in trouble from the townsfolk.”

  “Sounds like a lot of red tape.” Alexander waited for the elevator door to open then walked down the corridor.

  Gage snorted once as he followed. “Well, we do like the color red.”

  Alexander pushed the door open to a bright white room where every surface seemed to be illuminated. Even the cabinet doors glared back at him. Dr. Joseph sat on a stool, glancing down into the largest microscope Gage had ever seen. He had dark wavy hair and a long white lab coat that made him almost blend in with the surroundings. He would’ve been completely camouflaged if not for his dark head of hair and hands adjusting the dials.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen. Just a moment and I’ll be with you, if you please.” His slightly Indian accent shortened each syllable.

  Alexander sat on a stool across the table from the doctor and offered Gage one to his left. The room was both silent and oddly loud. There was no music or talking, but the vents in the room made a rumble that seemed loud with no other noise.

  Dr. Joseph sat up from his examination and smiled slightly. “There, now I am able to speak freely. What can I do for you?”

  Since Alexander was now head of the investigatio
n, Gage let him answer.

  “We’ve had two fires recently in the Santinas area and we need to know anything you can tell us about these devices and any other clues you find. Put this guy to work looking for anything we missed: hairs, fibers, anything that didn’t incinerate.”

  Dr. Joseph stood and opened one of the totes. He slipped on a new pair of gloves and lifted out one of the devices. “I was under the impression from the news report that this was a cut and dry case of arson, that there was already a suspect and a motive. Is that not correct?”

  That blasted story had made it farther than Santinas. “That may be what the paper hinted at, but we are by no means sure of anything,” Gage told him. “We need to do our job here to find out what really happened and who’s involved. It could be DemaCrane, looking to fulfil their contract. It could be the actual resort owners, so they won’t get behind schedule. It could be some fool wanting to stir up trouble and make it look like someone else. There are a lot of possibilities. Let’s not rush to one conclusion just because it’s what the newspaper wants us to believe.”

  Alexander nodded and slid his sunglasses up onto his head. “That’s correct. We can’t make any assumptions. That’s why we’re here.”

  Dr. Joseph smiled and nodded to each man. “Well then, shall we get to work?”

  Chapter 14

  The television didn’t offer any hints on how to deal with Gage. She’d messaged Melva earlier and told her a story would be on her desk by Friday, but she still wasn’t sure exactly what it would say. If she hoped to keep any sort of working relationship with Gage, she couldn’t mention him. No matter how much people were probably hoping for a follow-up.

  Livy didn’t bother with knocking anymore. They practically shared her apartment anyway. One moment Melody was alone, the next, her friend landed on the couch next to her.

  “So, what do you want to talk about? Oh, and I ignored your request and brought hard iced tea. You don’t have to have any, but I need them after a day of teaching.”