Hallease sucked her teeth, stood back, and folded her arms. “I knew you would do this with him.”
“Do what?” I asked, looking at her with disbelief.
“Are you serious? You’re freaking out because you realize how much you love him.”
I stood. “Here you go with those romance novel fantasies of yours.”
“It’s not a fantasy. It’s the truth. You love him. You’re too frightened to admit it.”
“I—” I opened my mouth to dispute her, but no words came. “I’m not going to argue about this. We have work to do. We have clients that need servicing.”
Hallease looked as if she wanted to continue driving her point into the ground, but I held up my hand.
“I need to call the restaurant to make sure they hold your coffee and danish to the side so you can pick it up on your lunch hour,” I said as I grabbed my purse from my desk drawer and headed out of my office. “You know what? Better yet, I’ll go pick it up myself.”
I needed the fresh air. Between the pictures, the argument or whatever it was that had happened between Don and me that morning, and breakfast with Marjorie and Hallease’s comments, I needed to get away from people for a minute.
Chapter 32
Don
I slippedinside the apartment door Carter held open for me, after checking over my shoulder. We were entering Kyle Ellis’s apartment. The complex was rundown and didn’t have any cameras, but I wanted to make sure there weren’t any witnesses that saw us go in, in case things got messy.
My veins pulsed with the anger coursing through them. I’d replayed everything in my mind, and it felt more and more likely that Ellis was behind what happened to Corey.
“Wake the fuck up, motherfucker,” I grunted as I tore the blanket and sheets away from Kyle’s body. It was the middle of the day, but his ass slept like a damn baby.
Kyle Rogers had changed his name to Kyle Ellis, going by his father’s last name instead of his uncle's name when he took him in. The head of Carter’s family security had tracked him down for us.
“Wh-what’s happening?” he groaned as he stirred awake.
I grabbed him by his hair, pulling him upright. “It’s time to pay the piper.”
“Get the hell off me—”
I covered his mouth.
“Careful, Don. We want to keep him alive,” Carter reminded me as he stood behind me.
I heard Carter’s words, but at that moment, I didn’t give two shits about keeping him alive. If he was the arsonist, he deserved what he was about to get. That, coupled with the anger coursing through me from the argument with Jocelyn that morning, Ellis was lucky I hadn’t already beat his ass.
The dipshit had moved out of Williamsport almost two years earlier, right after quitting the fire department.
I removed my hand.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“Like you haven’t been expecting us.”
Carter turned on the lamp that sat on his nightstand, allowing him to see us. He’d drawn the blinds in the bedroom closed. Kyle’s pale blue eyes widened before they narrowed.
“You’re from Rescue Four,” he said.
I shook him violently by the handful of hair I still held in my hand.
“And you’re the motherfucker who thought he could get away with trying to take us down.”
“What? No way.” He tried to back away, looking innocent. “I would never. I respect Rescue Four like crazy. Those arsons aren’t on me.”
