Okay. That sounded childish. She would always be grateful for what he’d done. If Murray hadn’t interrupted Brittany Olsen’s determined attempt to reorganize Aslen’s face—and every other body part she owned—she wasn’t sure where she’d be. She owed him more than her thanks. But rescuing her from potentially permanent scars didn’t give him the right to control the rest of her life. She wanted to travel, learn about other cultures, battle fires, make a difference in people’s lives. She couldn’t do that with a 230-pound jackass keeping her on a leash. No matter how handsome he was.
Murray pulled up short, sensing she hadn’t followed. Then again, he always seemed to know where she was at all times. Like he’d cast some invisible thread between them the day he’d rescued her. Sometimes, after her shower, she’d inspect her body for that invisible anchor that seemed to take root in her the moment they’d met in middle school, like a tether between them. It would explain so many things. Like how he’d managed to find her that night she’d left her phone at home and snuck off to the bar in Springdale with Danny, where she’d had one too many drinks. The guy who’d grabbed her backside had managed to only walk away with a swollen face after Murray had finished with him.
The muscles along Murray’s spine rippled as he twisted to face her. His size never intimidated her, but the hard edge to his expression hardly failed to make his displeasure clear. It was the same look he’d given her when she’d told him she’d accepted a job in Zion National Park and was moving to southern Utah without so much as warning him beforehand. She’d hoped to use the opportunity to give him an opening. Beg her to stay with him. Tell her he’d shared her feelings all these years and that he couldn’t live without her.
She hadn’t gotten any of that.
Instead, he’d packed his bag in minutes and shoved himself into her too-small sedan with nothing more than a grunt and an email tendering his resignation from SLCPD. Of course, the law enforcement rangers had hired him immediately with his experience. He’d worked some of the city’s biggest homicide investigations. He’d been a hero. To then give it all up. All because of that stupid promise. What kind of person hung their entire life on something they said when they were fifteen years old?
“Get one of your rangers to help you during this investigation.” Crossing her arms across her chest, Aslen letevery ounce of restrained frustration taint her voice as she faced off with him. “You don’t need me.”
He never had.
Murray closed the distance between them. His hand twitched at his side, as though he intended to reach out and touch her, but he curled his fingers into his palm. “That’s where you’re wrong.”
A shift occurred beneath the stone-cold mask he usually kept in place. It only ever broke around her because she’d been there before he’d felt the need to construct it in the first place. It was all the cases he’d worked, the violence and grief he’d dealt with as a police officer. He’d never talked about any of his cases, especially the more gruesome ones. Some part of him trusted her enough to let the real him show through, though it was usually when they were alone. Not in the middle of the field, and sure as hell not around fellow rangers.
Something had shaken him.
The laceration at the back of her skull pulsed with renewed pain.
“What does that mean?” The words escaped her control as nothing more than a whisper. She couldn’t. She couldn’t let him affect her this way anymore. She’d wasted too many years hoping he got the message without her bashing him over the head with her feelings. There’d been too many nights crying herself to sleep, praying with everything that she had that he would just see her. Want her. Love her. But he’d never once responded or shown evidence of considering her anything but a burden.
“Out of every firefighter the National Park Service has, you’re the one with the most training concerning arsonist motives and behavior.” Lines deepened between his eyebrows as if his answer was the obvious conclusion. “I had Chief Higgins’s photographer take pictures of the crowd because of something you said duringone of your classes about arsonists frequently returning to the scene of their crimes.”
“Oh.” Right. It took a second for Aslen to pull herself out of the depths of misery she’d created to torture herself. Of course, he’d only recruit her into the investigation because of her training. That was their relationship now. Other than that night at the bar, Murray had ensured to keep his distance, not even bothering to sit next to her during mandatory ranger trainings throughout the year. No more movie nights or playing video games until sunrise like they used to as teens. All of that had come to an end when she’d graduated college. And, if she was being honest with herself, it hurt. More than she wanted to admit. She’d made a mistake letting him follow her to Zion. Maybe if she’d held her ground, he could’ve found a way to be happy. Met someone—nope, she was not jealous of the amalgam her brain supplied—stayed with SLCPD where he’d started climbing the ranks to captain and built the family she knew he wanted. Instead, he was going to let himself rot to protect her from invisible threats out of obligation. “I wasn’t sure you were listening.”
“I listen to everything you say.” He cocked his head to one side like he’d told her this a thousand times before and was waiting for her to finally believe him.
She didn’t know what to say to that. Goose bumps prickled underneath the heavy layer of her jacket despite the heat. The fire-resistant material worked great when confronted with a fire, but the loss of adrenaline, the pain in her skull and Murray’s emotional whiplash dragged on her shoulders.
Aslen directed her attention to the endless acres that’d gone up in literal smoke this morning. She couldn’t partner with him on this investigation. It was grating to be this close and have him look at her as nothing more than a resource. “You have training in motives and criminal behavior, Murray. Whoever set this fireis going to want to get out of the park as soon as possible to avoid suspicion. Just like any other suspect.”
“I’ve already got my rangers posted at the main entrance to the park, out at Kolob Canyons and running campground visitor background checks.” The muscles in his forearm flexed as he clenched his keys. He seemed to have everything handled. There was no reason to drag her into a homicide investigation or a manhunt. “But why this location?”
“What?” Her attention snapped back to him.
“Lava Point isn’t anything special. The only reason people come out here is for the view from the overlook, and most hikers and visitors to the park don’t know it exists.” Murray closed in by another couple inches. Close enough she swore she could smell the spicy scent of his shampoo and conditioner, triggering her insides to melt through her detachment. Damn him. “So why would an arsonist intent on getting rid of a body choose this location? Why Zion at all?”
His gaze locked on hers. The scene, the last of her unit disassembling the command center, the mud clinging to her boots—everything disappeared until it was just the two of them. As it should be. Her mouth dried as the answer solidified and her brain caught up with reality. “Because this place means something to him. The victim… I didn’t see any signs of a struggle or violence on her remains other than her teeth had been removed. No broken bones in the face or hands, which makes me think he might’ve cared about her.”
Murray’s expression didn’t budge, but she was more than aware of what Zion could mean to someone. Especially someone who’d lost as much as he had.
She swallowed through the lump forming at one side of her throat. “It’s possible he came here as a child. Maybe with his victim. He wanted her to die in a place he was comfortable in. I’m sure he knows the area and is familiar with the geographyfrom multiple visits, which means you might be able to narrow down the suspect list to annual passholders.”
The toes of his boots grazed hers as he stared down at her. Too close. Too reachable. “Then let’s get started.”
Chapter Six
He shouldn’t be here.
Murray sank down onto the secondhand couch in Aslen’s living room. The cushions barely supported his weight. It would take a crane to get him out of it.
The house she and Danny shared looked exactly like all the others in the neighborhood with its too-small, L-shaped, closed off layout, but the insides had been renovated in the past few years. Laminate-flooring stretched from one end of the house to the other in a beach sand color that added a lot of light despite the lack of windows. White cabinets in the galley kitchen, white appliances, cheap countertops and little storage. These government projects housed rangers from every department in Zion National Park. They were cheap and barely maintained but provided park employees affordable housing just outside the park’s borders.
Aslen had gotten in his truck and immediately demanded he take her home for a shower and food. The scene was under control, and with the victim’s remains currently stored in the medical examiner’s freezer, there’d been nothing more for them to do in the field.
Didn’t help with the pent-up anxiety crawling beneath his skin. His brain demanded action—to start looking into annual passholders, to get boots on the ground in a search for the arsonist, to question campers near the epicenter of the fire, to dosomething—but it’d taken him years to recognize Aslen required more rest than he did. More alone time, an empty schedule, more sleep, comforting foods. If he wanted her on this case, then he had to go at her pace. After all, she’d spent the morning in the throes of combating one of the most quick-burning, dangerous fires the park had seen. Which meant he would sit here until she’d had her shower and lunch.
