“No serial arsonist is running around Williamsport with a vendetta.”
“Are you willing to sit on your ass and wait around until another one of our guys is injured, or worse, killed? Are you ready to live with that on your conscience?”
Even if he was, I sure the fuck wasn’t.
I pressed my palms into his desk and glared at him. “Are you going to be the one to sit in the hospital waiting room of another Rescue Four member and tell their bereaved family member that you could’ve caught the son of a bitch who did this sooner, but you were just too lazy?”
“That’s enough,” he said, rising to his feet. “You have nothing, Alvarez. I investigated. I gathered all the evidence you brought to me and looked into it. There was nothing there, just like there wasn’t anything there on the other fires you claimed this person started. It’s time for you to leave.”
He pointed at the door.
The urge to knock Murray on his ass almost overwhelmed me. I shoved my hands into my jeans to stop me from doing something I’d regret. I forced myself to bite my tongue. I wasn’t about to get through to this guy. Not right then.
“You need more evidence? Fine. I’ll get it.” I left through the door with an immense urge to punch the wall, but I withheld. I could take my frustration out on the punching bag at my local gym.
As Rescue Four’s assigned investigator, it was my duty to make sure shit like this didn’t happen. I was to report any suspicious fires directly to the assigned investigator to aid in streamlining the investigation.
I’d fucked up the night of the fire that injured Corey, and I wanted to beat my own ass for that fuck up. All I had left was to rely on Murray, who was a fucking empty shirt if ever I saw one. I hated myself for the idea that we might never catch the person who did this, and that it would be all my damn fault.
“Don?”
I stopped short at the husky, feminine voice calling my name. I’d been so wrapped up in my disgust with Murray, I’d made it down to the first floor without noticing my surroundings.
Something twisted in my insides as soon as I locked eyes with Jocelyn. As much as I fought not to, I couldn’t stop myself from scanning her face, taking in her smooth brown skin, full lips that even when she wasn’t trying always formed a pout, those unbelievably high cheekbones, and the huge puff she wore her curly, afro hair in.
The memory of that night six months earlier haunted me. I’d come to almost believe that my mind played tricks on me. That she couldn’t possibly be as beautiful as I’d made her out to be in my head, in the months since I’d last seen her. Yet, there she stood, and I doubted even the jaws of life could pull my gaze away.
Whenever I thought about that hug, it was as if I could still feel her in my arms. Like my body believed she always belonged there.
Your best friend’s sister.
My subconscious mind reminded me of who I was thinking about. That reminder was enough to get me to refocus.
“Jocelyn...thinking of becoming a firefighter?” I joked, needing to break the tension that streamed through my veins.
I realized my mistake as soon as she let out that husky laugh of hers. Again, my body responded like a trained dog to a whistle. Or a sailor answering a Siren’s call.
“Yeah, right.” She snorted. “I left one department to venture out on my own. I don’t ever plan on working for someone else again. Especially, not as structured as the one I left.”
A smile played at my lips when I recalled the night, she first mentioned the idea of becoming a PI. We fell silent and I wondered if she remembered that night over three years earlier.
“Their loss,” I replied.
Her smile widened and we stood there, staring at one another. The muscles throughout my body coiled tightly as if preparing to spring out, ready to capture her and keep her close to me.What the hell is going on?I wondered. I’d been with more beautiful women than I could count on both hands and yet Jocelyn Stephens’s mere presence pulled something from deep within me.
Jocelyn was the first to break eye contact, twisting to look over her shoulder.
A wrinkle appeared between her brows. “Were you coming from the investigation department?”
I glanced in the direction she’d turned. “Yeah, I needed to talk with an investigator about something. No big deal. What’re you doing here?”
Her cheeks puffed out as she pushed out a breath. “Uh, I had to pick up some papers from the third floor.”
I cocked my head to the side. “The benefits floor.”
She nodded.
“For Corey?”
