Murray looked at Higgins and shrugged. He didn’t have an answer for that, but his gut was telling him he had to be careful with this one. Years of studying for his criminal justice degree in college then transferring from the Salt Lake City Police Department to what he would absolutely consider small-town rural USA to keep up with Aslen had manipulated him into thinking he’d see less homicides. Clearly, he couldn’t have been more wrong. The use of accelerant to destroy the body might’ve been a crime of convenience or it could’ve been a premeditated strategy.
Either way, he wasn’t leaving Aslen unprotected while an arsonist roamed the park.
Tendrils of smoke curled into the air and thinned out above him. The wind had kicked most of the smoke west toward the reservoir and would take a few more days to clear out of these canyons, but the stench of smoke and decay clung to his shirt.
He’d already lost his brother to an unknown hiking accident that remained an open missing persons case years ago, then his parents soon afterward when they’d given up hope on finding Jackson. He wasn’t going to lose her too. No matter how much she fought him.
Murray scanned the faces of the bystanders trying to get a better look at the scene from behind the perimeter tape. A couple rangers had taken up the responsibility of acting as scene security, but he’d need to get his own rangers out here. People trained to navigate and investigate and ask the right questions. For now, he studied the onlookers’ faces. Watched what they did with their hands. There was a sexual component to arson most authorities didn’t want to put too much stock in, but the spread of campers didn’t give him any indication the arsonist had returned to the scene. Yet.
“You’re scaring everyone with your resting bitch face.” Aslen barely cast him a glance as she maneuvered to his side.
Her voice soothed the jagged edges of doubt cutting through him. Years of investigation hadn’t affected him nearly as much as finding the body in that shed an hour ago, and there was only one reason he could pin it on: The woman standing next to him. He’d spent the better part of his life protecting her from the violence he saw every day, never once sharing stories about his day-to-day or recalling investigations with her around.
But he couldn’t shield her from this.
Today was the first day she’d witnessed the harsh reality of this life.
A line of soot carved a sharpness into her jaw, as though she’d swiped at her face without realizing. All that dark hair he’d imagined wrapping around his hand while she gazed up at him from between his sheets escaped her ponytail, but Aslen had never been one for perfection. More…functional, and he wanted nothing more than to smooth the frizzed pieces back behind her ear. Exhaustion lined her eyes. It was deep—soul crushing.
Murray forced the tension out of his upper body, dropping his arms to his sides. Always on alert, he’d never let himself be blindsided by a threat, but when she got this close—as close as he allowed her—all that diligence drained. Leaving him boneless and relaxed. “How else am I supposed to exert my dominance?”
“What I wouldn’t give to watch someone knock that ego right out of you.” Her mouth curved at one corner. It wasn’t the gut-punch of a smile she’d slowly lost over the years, but it wrenched his insides into a knot all the same.
A smile he’d helped diminish. Murray didn’t let himself think too hard about that. He could breathe easier with her here, no longer hyperaware of the odor coming from the shed. Instead, sunshine and something floral replaced the bitter, and he breathed in a bit deeper. The tightness in his chest eased until there was nothing but a straight line to her. “Care for a crack at it?”
She jabbed her knuckles into his gut. Faster than he expected. The impact wouldn’t knock him off-balance, but it sure as hell surprised him. Seemed Aslen was good at that. Somehow, over the course of the past few years, she’d left behind that scrawny little kid he’d stood up for in middle school. Now, there was a full-fledged woman standing up for herself. “Come on. The medical examiner just arrived. He’s going to want to get a better look at the body.”
Murray followed on her heels, winding through the areas firefighters had deemed safe toward the maintenance shed. Howmuch longer would she tolerate his overprotective ass before she realized she didn’t need him anymore? What would he do then? He didn’t want to know the answer to that, lowering his attention to the flex of muscles along the backs of her hamstrings as she maneuvered through the brush. Her gear was too big, overwhelming her frame, but warmth seeped into his gut then burrowed lower as images of those thighs draped over his legs every morning filled his head. He instantly forced his attention higher, hands curled into fists to keep himself from reaching out for her. Not happening. Ever.
She wasn’t some badge bunny he could take the edge off with. This was Aslen. His best friend. The girl he’d fought tooth and nail to save from a failing system and a guardian who hadn’t given a crap about her. She was more than temporary. She was his reason for every decision he’d made, every step forward, and he wasn’t going to mess with that.
Aslen rounded alongside the exposed wall of the shed, staring down at the charred, flaking remains of the body as the medical examiner ran through his initial assessment. So out of place in the middle of a crime scene.
“The fire did a good job of destroying fingerprints and DNA.” The medical examiner used the end of his pen to pry the victim’s jaw open. Exposing an empty black cavern. “But whoever left her here removed her teeth.”
“What does that mean?” Aslen’s gaze flicked to his. So brief, he might’ve missed it had he not been waiting for her to succumb to the shock of the day.
Murray tried to keep the frustration from his voice. And failed. “It means we’re not going to be able to get an ID.”
Chapter Five
I want you.
She’d heard those words, right? She hadn’t made them up?
One minute she’d been standing there accepting—once again—that Murray Simpson would never see her as anything more than a friend, and the next she’d gotten everything she’d ever wanted. Pathetic. It took everything she had not to read into that single sentence, but she couldn’t stop the rush of blood into her face at a fantasy come to life.
He wanted her.
Aslen couldn’t stop herself from sneaking glances in his direction as Murray coordinated with Chief Higgins under the temporary command tent. The medical examiner had taken custody of the remains a little more than ten minutes ago, and with the hot spots managed and the rest of the firefighters clearing out, she wasn’t exactly sure what those three little words she’d craved to hear her entire adult life meant.
Danny waved from the passenger seat of one of the rigs brought in to manage the flames as it pulled away. Bringing her outstretched thumb and pinky finger to her ear, she mouthed,Call mea split second before the driver maneuvered back toward Lava Point Road.
Aslen’s nerves tripped as Murray broke off from the chief. She didn’t miss the apologetic look carved into her supervisor’s face despite Murray’s size working to get in the way. In an instant,she knew. The head of the law enforcement division had gotten his way. Again.
Murray didn’t bother looking at her as he pulled his keys from his pocket and headed for his truck parked behind the perimeter tape. The small crowd that’d gathered to watch the firefighters’ attempts to control the blaze—hadn’t her team issued an evacuation order?—had thinned, but for some reason, she felt as though every appraising eye in the state was on him. That shouldn’t make her nauseous, should it? “Let’s go.”
Every cell in her body fought against the compulsion to follow, to earn just a little bit of that affection so many other women had taken for granted over the years by giving in. She wasn’t under any delusions. Murray had always been out of reach. Out of her league. Whatever people called it these days. He wasn’t hers. He’d made that clear too many times to count. This whole day was just another reminder. He outranked her in the hierarchy of the National Park Service, and he had every intention of using it against her. From what she could assume from the chief hightailing it off the scene as fast as his oversized gear allowed, he’d approved her being put on loan to the law enforcement division. She would be expected to follow Murray’s every command. “I’m not a dog to be called, and I’m not law enforcement.”
