Crash and Burn (Wildfire Hearts Book 1) Read online

  Sebastian smiled at her when she emerged, though whether it was for reassurance or because he was just happy she hadn’t taken longer she didn't know.

  He motioned down the hallway with one hand. “Should we go sit at the table and talk there?”

  Maggie nodded and led the way down the steps. Even before they hit the dining room, she turned back and said, “We have to call the police.”

  Though he readily agreed, something about the too-quick nod made her wonder. She didn’t have long to wait. He started talking as soon as she was seated.

  “I don't think the footsteps in the garden are the worst of it.”

  Holy crap, she thought. Bracing her hands on the table, Maggie leaned forward and tried to untangle what had happened tonight.

  Despite the fact that he was here at the same time as the prowler, she realized she trusted Sebastian implicitly.

  Reaching out, he took her hand in his, probably offering a gentle kind of comfort. Did he know he sent a bolt of awareness up her arm? She fought the sigh that wanted to go with it.

  “I don't know how to say this Maggie … But I think Kalan might have been right.”

  “What?”

  Her jaw fell open despite the fact that Maggie knew exactly what he meant. She was just so surprised that her reactions were getting away from her. At the time, everyone at the station house had told her Kalan’s idea was nuts. Now, she was more concerned that Sebastian agreed with her.

  Rex had brushed her off each time she asked if it was possible. She’d become convinced she was imagining things and definitely overthinking it. Maybe Rex had just been too busy to pay attention.

  The last thing Maggie needed tonight was to confirm her own deep fears. Why would the box have been hidden unless it was a secret? So at the very least it was contraband of some kind.

  “You really think it's a serial killer?” she blurted the words out, dreading the answer.

  “I don't know about that,” Sebastian replied calmly, as though he knew he was the eye of her hurricane tonight. “But Kalan made a good point. Who would keep such a random assortment of jewelry like that?”

  He’d echoed her thoughts. No woman she knew would hang on to that collection or let it get so tangled.

  “It’s weird, for sure. And it belongs to someone who used to live here.” Sebastian made the statements calmly, still keeping himself together in a way that Maggie envied.

  She was holding on by a thread, but his next words made her breathe easier.

  “The idea that it's a serial killer’s trophies is a bit far-fetched. But, given the oddity of the collection, and the fact that it was shoved under a floorboard—probably with the intention that no one find it—makes me think it was stolen.”

  Maggie nodded. It was probably a stalker, or something one of the boarders had stolen. Maybe shoplifted things they had nowhere else to hide.

  She was just starting to breathe easier when she decided it was time to ask Sebastian a question she probably wouldn’t like the answer to. “Do you think the prowler is related to the jewelry?”

  “I don't know,” he answered with a loose-limbed shrug.

  Maggie liked that about him. Lots of guys felt they had to have an opinion on everything, but Sebastian was more than willing to admit when he didn't. He was confident enough in who he was that he didn’t have to show off.

  But when he spoke again, she realized she was right: she didn’t like his answer.

  “I think the question is, what else might the prowler have been here for?”

  Chapter Eleven

  From the look on her face, Maggie did not like what he’d asked. Well, that made two of them.

  “Oh, hell.” Maggie shook her head as if everything was crazy. “It could be anything! There was so much crap in here that I already cleared out … and I’m nowhere near finished.”

  Sebastian nodded along in an attempt to be reassuring in a shitty situation. “I'm assuming you haven't made an effort to search under the other floorboards?”

  “Oh, dear God, no.” Then she suddenly leaned forward, her rich auburn brows pulled in a tight frown. “Do you think there are more?”

  “I don’t know.” Another crappy answer, and he just wished he had something better to say.

  “If I have to check every squeaky floorboard, it will take years!”

  He’d meant it that he would help. It was five shades of stupid, putting himself in such close proximity with a woman he had an active, serious crush on. But he wasn’t going to leave her alone while someone broke into her house … especially with her in it.

  He was opening his mouth to re-volunteer his home improvement skills when she reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone. Maggie announced, “It's past time to call the police.”

  Sebastian nodded solemnly and watched as she hit buttons. When he realized she was looking up the non-emergency number, he rattled it off for her. At her surprise, he said, “The PD is right next door to the fire house.” As though that explained everything.

  With a smile—finally!—she hit the buttons then paused and looked up at him. “Are you staying?”

  His heart stuttered in his chest.

  “As long as you need me.” Sebastian fought to say the words calmly, though inside he was reminding himself this was about a prowler and not about desire.

  Maggie had already proved she could hold her own the way she’d raced around the house with that bat, ready to take all comers. But no one should be worried about prowlers in the night alone. She’d need time to sleep, and he could help with that.

  She offered him one small nod as she hit the button and he listened to her side of the conversation as she explained her middle-of-the-night adventure in a measured voice.

  One of the upsides of the small town was that the police arrived right away. Sebastian saw the light bobbing through the backyard as one officer headed around the house to check for prints or other evidence. The other had already knocked at the front.

  Maggie opened the heavy wooden door and said, “Hello.”

  He heard the voice before he saw the woman. “I'm officer Marina Balero.” She shook Maggie’s hand in a standard introduction, but turned to him and offered only a tight, “Sebastian.”

  Well, that was embarrassing. From the micro expression that flitted across Maggie's face, she hadn't missed it.

  Marina didn't let any of their history get in her way, though. Typical Marina. “You had a break-in?”

  For the next twenty minutes, they sat at the table and he and Maggie took turns explaining what happened, while Marina took copious notes.

  When it was his turn, Sebastian admitted, “I saw the lights go on, one at a time, all over the house.”

  “And why were you watching her house in the middle of the night?”

  Oh yeah, he’d known this had been coming. It was going to be bad when he explained it, but having his ex doing the questioning? He didn’t even know how or what to tell Maggie. Despite his feelings for her, they weren’t dating, and he suspected that Marina saw right through him.

  The best he could do was not turn an embarrassing shade of red as he explained about the footprints, adding the date and time of day when he’d spotted them.

  Marina next turned to what Maggie had heard from inside the house. He let Maggie explain how they’d swept each of the rooms and found nothing.

  “Is there anything else I should know?” Marina asked, her eyes scanning the two of them as though they should start admitting to an extramarital affair. Neither of them was married, though probably everyone in town knew Maggie was with Rex.

  Taking a deep breath, Sebastian said, “Actually there is.”

  Something about his tone must have grabbed her. Her eyes snapped up to his.

  But this wasn’t his to tell. He hadn’t been here when the box was found. “Maggie?”

  “Follow me.” Maggie stood up and he watched his ex and his current wish head down the hallway to discuss more of the distur
bing events of Maggie’s last week.

  Maggie led the way to the back room, where she opened the closet and pointed up toward the shelf. The box was pushed so far back that even he couldn't see it. Maggie reached up on her tiptoes and pulled it out.

  As she did, his mind put a few pieces of information together. The prowler had opened all the doors downstairs, Maggie said, possibly even this closet. But he hadn’t found the box.

  Sebastian began thinking out loud, narrating for Marina as much as to organize his own thoughts. “If he was looking for this, he would have noticed the floorboard where it was originally hidden is torn up.”

  Maggie still hadn't fixed it. Sebastian made a mental note to get on that right away.

  “You think he was looking for this box?” Marina glanced between the two of them, still a bit in the dark.

  “Who knows?” Maggie held it out, but Marina put a hand up, reached into her back pocket, and pulled out blue nitrile gloves.

  Yeah, Sebastian thought, the police definitely needed to know about this.

  Placing the box on the top of the antique dresser at the side of the room, Marina used a single blue-tipped finger to lift the lid. “Jewelry,” she said, stating the obvious. Then she looked up at Maggie. “Is there anything special about it?”

  “Just that it's odd,” Maggie replied. “Who has dime store jewelry and expensive diamonds in the same box?”

  Marina tipped her head as if to agree. Then she pulled a pen from her pocket. Using the tip, she attempted to untangle a few pieces, just as Sebastian had done.

  “I have photos of the pieces,” he volunteered, then immediately spoke again, preempting her because he knew she would ask. “I didn't touch it. I used a pen. But I didn’t get it all untangled, so some of the pictures are a mess of several pieces.”

  “So it's been disturbed?”

  “Well, yes,” he said, but how would it not be? “It was disturbed when Maggie pulled it out from where it was hidden. It was shoved between the boards, sideways, so it wasn't preserved anyway.”

  Marina nodded but kept pushing through the pieces as if inspecting a meal for stray peppers.

  Sebastian pulled up the pictures on his phone just as she scooped her pen under the ankle bracelet and slowly pulled it out.

  Her expression stilled, and even Maggie caught the look. She asked, “What is it?”

  “I can't say for sure,” Marina uttered the words too quickly, tilting the pencil and letting the jewelry slide back into the box. She closed the lid carefully.

  It was clear she wasn't going to tell them. Her jaw clenched a little bit. No one liked having information withheld, but Sebastian understood. Though he wasn't a law enforcement officer, being a firefighter he understood a lot about the privacy clauses that governed both their jobs.

  He wasn't allowed to walk onto a scene and tell the homeowner it was arson, even if it was clearly arson. And Marina wasn't allowed to say anything just because she had a suspicion.

  Marina made it clear she was done as she radioed the other officer for an evidence bag. While she waited, she asked again, “Is there anything else you remember that might be pertinent?”

  They both shook their heads, and he was relieved the long night was coming to an end. Marina bagged the box and carried it gingerly at her side. That worried him. What was so special about that box? But he knew better than to ask.

  Marina thanked them both, and let Maggie know she’d be looking into the break-in. It was standard and trite and he got the impression that Maggie wasn’t expecting much as she walked the two officers down the hall and thanked them.

  But as the officers headed out the front door, Maggie blurted out, “I heard a rumor.”

  Her hands clenched into fists at her sides, worrying Sebastian for the umpteenth time that night. He was learning to read her signals and he didn’t like this one.

  Sure enough, she blurted out, “I heard that the Blue River Killer was active again.”

  Once again Marina Balero went dead still.

  Oh, shit, Sebastian thought. There was no reason for her to react that way, unless …

  Chapter Twelve

  The following morning, Sebastian headed into Spill the Beans for his usual day-off coffee. If he woke up and felt like he needed the activity instead of the sleep, he’d get dressed and walk over.

  Today, he was here because he hadn’t yet been to bed. He’d left Maggie to climb into her own shiny antique bed, but he hadn’t shaken last night off enough to sleep himself.

  Lucille ran the coffee shop, having converted it from a deli when her father passed. Such a small town thing … And Sebastian found himself wondering if Maggie saw it as quaint or backward.

  He’d seen her in here, but that might just be because it was the only coffee shop in town. There were Starbucks’ in Lincoln, and Scooters in Beatrice, but Spill the Beans was the only local option.

  He’d grown up here. This place and the people made sense to him. He’d gone away for college, but not that far. Not any place as big as Los Angeles, and he couldn’t help but wonder what Maggie thought of his small hometown and her intruder.

  Wasn’t that the whole point of moving to a town like this—getting away from “big city crime”? Only, he knew it didn’t work that way, and he hoped Maggie did, too.

  Despite the fact that he opened the door to the shop and immediately spotted her tucked into a back booth with Rex and his daughter, he didn’t want her to move away. She was trying her damndest to establish a business here, but locals weren’t much for trusting newcomers, even if she was Sabbie’s great niece and she’d been here for plenty of summers as a kid. Maggie was still “new,” and trusting her with their wills or divorces would take time for Redemption.

  As he moved forward in line, he hooked his shirt on the edge of the counter and put a small tear in the old white t-shirt. It was wearing thin, the FD logo on the upper left and across the back were severely faded, and he wasn’t quite sure why he’d worn it. Maybe because it was soft and he wasn’t fully in his head today. Maybe being a firefighter was who he was and he needed to remind himself of that.

  He watched as Rex leaned down and said something to Hannah, giving the toddler another toy. Sebastian adored Hannah fiercely, but every time he picked her up he took a fresh jolt to his system. She was exactly the size of the Miller baby. Tyler.

  He stepped forward in line trying to fight off the memories. Hazards of the job, he told himself. Live saves were rare, he told himself as he shoved his hands in his pockets to keep his sudden flash from the past from being obvious.

  He’d be glad when Hannah got bigger and the weight and size of her didn’t remind him of the toddler he’d carried alive out of the house … the same one who’d been gone by the time Sebastian tried to hand him to his mother.

  “Sebastian? Sebastian?”

  He’d been moving forward in line automatically and hadn’t realized he’d reached the front and that Penny had asked him what he wanted. “Oh sorry.”

  After placing his order, he stepped aside and waited.

  “Bas! Bas!” Hannah called out, having spotted him even if Maggie and Rex were too caught up in each other to notice anyone else.

  He would have gone over and said hello. He was okay, really. It was just always that initial jolt when he lifted her. He would get over it. Every one of them had a shitty story like that, and he was no different. But as he turned to offer a wave to the little girl, he saw Maggie’s and Rex’s hands were clasped tightly together.

  Maggie was looking deeply into Rex’s eyes.

  He was the intruder. He waved quickly at Hannah and forced himself to step outside to wait. He didn’t need to see that.

  Or maybe he did.

  Maybe he needed the reminder that Maggie wasn’t his and never would be. Rex was a decent guy, and one of the brotherhood. Though, honestly, it was more like a ‘cousinhood’ until things got rough. He would need Rex at his back one day, and Maggie was severely off-limits.
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  Sebastian couldn’t say he was impressed with the way Rex was handling fatherhood, but having never had a child of his own, Sebastian didn’t think he was one to judge. When he heard his name called, he ducked back in and grabbed his drink from Penny, trying to ignore her over-eager smile.

  Then he headed down the street, forcing himself to not look at Maggie and Rex again. They hadn’t seen him even if he’d needed to see them.

  The problem was, it was barely nine am and he had the whole day in front of him. Six hours ago, he’d been watching Maggie’s house like a lovesick puppy. Five hours ago, Marina’s eyes had gone wide and made him think the jewelry box Maggie had found was maybe a serial killer’s trophies.

  But Maggie had told him to go home and get some sleep. She’d said she was going to bed, exhausted. But now she was in Spill the Beans with Rex.

  He shouldn’t be thinking about her. Sebastian knew that.

  But he also knew he couldn’t stop his own feelings.

  So the question was, did she abandon her inheritance tonight and stay in a hotel? If she did, she would leave the house open to whoever was on the loose. Her prowler could get in and find whatever he was looking for.

  Or did she stay and hold the fort against all comers?

  And if she did, would Sebastian play the lovesick puppy again and stay up all night watching over her?

  Chapter Thirteen

  It had been four days since the break-in. Maggie couldn't say she was sleeping well. She was staying up all night with the baseball bat and then napping her way through the daylight when she could.

  She'd spent too much of the time doing research. She should have been seeing clients and fixing up the house—she was already so far behind.

  She’d seen several clients, though one had insisted on an eight am appointment. The older folks were coming to her, many saying that if Sabbie trusted her, they could, too. But it wouldn’t be enough work to keep her afloat financially.

  The combination of small town life and working in an office from her home was presenting challenges she should have foreseen, but hadn’t. She’d thought it would be an easy commute, a welcome respite from her hours in traffic in LA. And it was that, but there were no boundaries. Work existed every waking moment … or the obvious lack of it.