Chapter One
The bookstore had goneup in flames easily, maybe too much so.Austin stared at what remained of the building, telling himself not to see ghosts where there weren’t any.It wasn’t easy, though.He’d been a firefighter for a few years now, and he’d seen a lot of things, from accidental fires to arson.He couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but there was something that bothered him about this fire.
He looked around.West was talking to Lisa and Taylor, while Jeremy was tending to one of the people who lived next to the bookstores who’d inhaled a lot of smoke.The owner of the bookstore was staring at what remained of her shop, wringing her hands together as she cried.Austin’s heart hurt for her, especially so because he’d recognized her as a shifter when they’d first arrived on scene.He wasn’t sure what kind, but that didn’t matter.She was part of Austin’s community, and he wished there was more he could do.They hadn’t been able to save the shop, and while Austin was willing to help clean and rebuild, he wasn’t sure she’d want that.
Since everyone else was busy, he moved closer to her.She hadn’t been hurt by the fire, but that didn’t mean she didn’t need assistance.Austin’s job as a firefighter was done, but he wasn’t leaving anytime soon.
“Are you okay?”he asked when he reached her.
She blinked at him as if she hadn’t heard him coming.Since she was a shifter, she would have if she hadn’t been distracted by what was happening in front of her.“I don’t think I am,” she said in a trembling voice.
“I’m really sorry about what happened.”
“I don’t understand.I have—Ihad—everything set up to avoid something like this happening.It shouldn’t have.”
“Accidents happen.”
“Wasit an accident?”
Austin frowned.“Are you telling me that it wasn’t?”
She shook her head.“I don’t know what I’m saying.”She looked around and leaned closer.“But you have to have heard about what’s been happening.You’re a firefighter.”
He was almost afraid to ask.“Can you be more specific?”
“The fires.”
“Ma’am, I see a lot of fires every week.You need to be more specific.”He didn’t want to feed her information.He thought he knew what she was talking about, but he needed to be sure.
She hesitated again.“I know this isn’t the first fire at a shifter-owned business.”Her voice was low, but it didn’t matter.Austin heard her.
He glanced around, too.Taylor was giving orders to start packing up, which meant that Austin didn’t have a lot of time.If he wanted to get something out of this lady, he needed to do so now.“You’re right, it hasn’t been,” he confirmed.“I’m not saying this wasn’t an accident, though.I’m a firefighter, not an investigator.”
“Will you call investigators?”
“That’s not my choice.My captain will decide.”
“Your captain is a shifter?”
Austin shook his head.Taylor was as human as they came.In fact, he didn’t even know that Austin and West were shifters.Sometimes, Austin wished he could tell their team, but other times, he was glad they didn’t know.He was afraid of the way they’d look at him and West if they did.
The woman snorted.“Then he doesn’t know about the string of fires in our businesses.Someone’s trying to run us out of town.”
“Look, I don’t know anything about that, but I can look into it.”
“Will you?”
Austin hesitated.This wasn’t his job, but at the same time, if he and West didn’t look into it, who would?Even if someone was to investigate, if they were human, they wouldn’t be able to connect the dots.That might mean they wouldn’t find the culprit.
Because if there was a string of fires in shifter-owned businesses, it meant that someone was targeting shifters on purpose.Someone knew which shops belonged to shifters and clearly didn’t think anything of hurting them.Hell, they were doing so on purpose.
“Austin?”West called out.
Austin waved at his best friend before turning back to the lady.“Why don’t you give me your name?”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I can’t make promises, but I’ll try to look into this.Give me your phone number, too.”
