Deadly Heat (Deadly #2)(99)

Sick freak. “Lora’s going to bring the cops. She’ll bring my agents! You’re screwed, man, screwed—”

Laughter. Seth picked up the gas can. “No, she won’t bring anyone. I really do know her pretty well. She won’t risk your life.”

“You don’t know a thing about her!”

Seth’s eyes narrowed. “I know what her face looks like when she breaks. What she looks like when her world burns and she screams and she begs her lover to live.” He used the back of his right hand to swipe the blood from his mouth. “I saw it, saw her, and it was so damn beautiful.” He turned away and murmured, “Maybe I’ll see all that again.”

“No, come back!” Kenton wrenched his arms, nearly breaking his wrists as he struggled. “Come back!” Because he knew what that bastard was doing.

Setting a trap for Lora.

And using him for the bait.


“Lora wasn’t talking to her brother.” Peter slammed the phone back down on his desk, and Monica turned to face him. “Ryan hasn’t heard from her. Now he’s scared and mad as hell and wants answers.”

Why would Lora lie? Monica knew the answer—to protect Kenton.

“She’s got three brothers,” Garrison said, “Maybe one of—”

“Ben and Jake were there.” Peter gave a negative shake of his head. “None of them called her.”

“She lied,” Hyde fired, gritting his back teeth. “Dammit, she had him on the phone.”

“No.” Garrison was adamant. “If Kenton had called—”

“Not Kenton.” Monica spoke quietly, as her gaze rose to meet Luke’s. She saw the understanding in his gaze. “Phoenix.”

“She would have said something.” Sam’s eyes were huge behind her glasses. Her trembling hands sent paper flying across the desk. “She—Lora would have told one of us. If the guy has Kenton—”

“If the guy has Kenton, that’s exactly why she didn’t say a word.” Luke’s watchful gaze shifted to Sam. Monica knew he saw the same thing that she did on Sam’s face—too much fear. She wasn’t ready to be back in the field.

Garrison’s bushy brows rose up as his fist slammed onto the desk. “If Lora’s gone, she’s trying to save him!”

“Yes,” Monica said, because that was the only explanation that made sense.

“No victims have survived so far.” Hyde’s voice flowed flatly.

Sam flinched.

Kenton. A good man. A good agent. He’d always had her back, and she trusted him completely.

Hyde turned to Garrison. “You almost lost two men at the Randall house.”

“Because he sets the fires to trap ’em! Phoenix is—”

“Seth MacIntyre,” Hyde snapped. “No more fancy names. We’re not dealing with a myth. We’re dealing with a man. A f*cked-up, fire-hungry freak who has my agent.”

Garrison’s shoulders fell. “And my firefighter.”

Lora would be walking into a trap and she knew it.

“Lawrence!” Hyde snapped. “Get your men out there! Start canvassing the streets! She’s probably on foot. She’s—”

“In my truck,” Garrison said, voice subdued, and Monica’s gaze flew back to him. Garrison swallowed. “When we came in, she—she had the keys.”

Finally, a break. Monica’s heart slammed into her chest as she called out the order, “Let’s get an APB out on that truck—make, model, tag!”

As they scrambled, Hyde watched them with his hands tight at his sides and said, “And get us hooked up immediately with 911. If a fire call comes in…” His eyes met Monica’s.

When, not if. They both understood, even if the others didn’t.

Hyde cleared his throat. “When that call comes in, we’re going to be ready.”

Hold on, Kenton.





CHAPTER Twenty


Lora slammed the car door behind her and stared up at her house. Still blocked off by yellow police tape, the sides of the once-white house were charred black. Birds chirped from the trees, and heat rose from the sidewalk in waves. The broken windows in the front of the house had been boarded up. Her brothers must have put up the boards, but those damn boards blocked her from seeing what—who—was inside.

And she didn’t see anyone outside, but she was pretty sure that Seth could see her.

She had no weapons. No protective gear if a fire broke out—and it would.

Fear grew in her belly, knotting, tightening her insides, and her breath came far too fast. Kenton was in there. He’d damn well better still be alive.

Lora crept toward the porch. There were no cars around. No one on the street or in the nearby yards. No one to help.

Bring the cops, he dies.

When she stepped onto the porch, the acrid scent burned her nostrils, and her hand rose to cover her nose and mouth instinctively.

Gasoline.

She froze as every muscle in her body tensed. He would have set a trap for her. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what he was doing. Same game, fresh bait—Kenton.

I won’t leave him for the flames.

She wouldn’t leave a stranger, so she sure as hell wouldn’t leave someone she cared about.