Either way, this is going to end badly.
I’ve seen this pattern before. The three of us and one woman. It worked for a while with Samantha because none of us caught feelings. It was physical. Simple. Clean.
But the way Cole’s been moving since that fire, the way he carried Rachel out of that building like she was made of something precious—that’s not simple. That’s not clean.
And Theo? Theo has never met an emotion he didn’t immediately feel at maximum volume.
Rachel Morgan doesn’t stand a chance.
Neither do they.
Phoebe’s waiting outside the state building with two cups of coffee and her tablet already open.
“You’re late,” she says, handing me the cup.
“Traffic.”
“There’s no traffic in Millbrook Falls. You’re late because you stopped to eat breakfast with your friends instead of meeting me like we planned.”
She’s not wrong, but I don’t admit it. “What did the marshal send over?”
“Three additional fires. All Westlake Properties. All within the past two years.” She swipes through photos on her tablet. “Each one was ruled accidental or inconclusive. But the patterns are identical.”
I study the photos. Same burn signatures. Same point of origin. Same accelerant residue in the preliminary reports.
“Someone’s covering their tracks well.”
“Too well.” Phoebe zooms in on one image. “But they’re getting sloppy. The café fire was rushed. Rachel Morgan interrupted them.”
“She didn’t see anyone.”
“No. But her presence changed the timeline. They had to set it and run instead of making sure it looked accidental.” She looks up at me. “That makes her a witness. Even if she doesn’t know what she witnessed.”
“Or a target,” I say quietly.
Phoebe’s expression shifts. “You think they’ll come after her?”
“I think if she can place someone at that café before the fire, she’s a liability.” I take the tablet from her and scroll through the case files. “We need to find the connection. Who benefits from these fires? Who’s collecting insurance?”
“Already on it. The meeting is in five minutes. The marshal wants to coordinate a joint investigation.”
The meeting takes two hours. By the end, we have authorization to pull financial records for Westlake Properties and their insurance broker. We have a task force. We have a timeline.
What we don’t have is a suspect.
“This could take months,” Phoebe says as we’re walking back to the cars.
“Or days. Depends on what the financials show.” I unlock my truck. “I’m heading back to Millbrook Falls. You good to handle the paperwork here?”
“I’m always good at handling the paperwork.” She grins. “That’s why you keep me around.”
“I keep you around because you’re the only person who tolerates my personality.”
“That too.”
The drive back to Millbrook Falls takes forty minutes, which gives me enough time to think through the case and realize that if Rachel’s a witness—even unknowingly—she needs protection.
Which means I need to talk to Jake. And probably Cole and Theo.
