Page 139 of Burning For You

“She could have walked away after the first article,” Keegan said. “And once the guy taunted her.”

“I think there was a part of her that wanted to, but she got the pressure put on her,” he said.

“They pressured her at the department,” Tate said. “My boss too. Everyone wants this person caught, but she’s taking stupid risks. We all know it. No one said she has to go out in the middle of the night for this shit. If she had just said she was done writing the articles. And told the guy not to play games, what is the guy going to do? He’d leave her alone.”

“Maybe not,” Ash said. He’d thought of that also. He ran it all through his mind.

Even talked it out with Clay and Ford.

They were of the belief it wouldn’t stop the fires and might just make it harder to catch the person.

It was best to go in aware.

Didn’t mean he liked it any more than the men around him, but it was the best they could do.

“Isn’t it better knowing that she is looking over her shoulder? That we are all doing it?”

“I’m aging too fast for this shit,” Jim said. “Let’s not talk about it and get to work. Unless anyone has anything else to share that we don’t already know?”

No one did, so they got to work.

It was better that way.

And if there were six men slamming things around harder and faster than normal, no one said a word about that either.

But when three rolled around and his phone went off the same time as Tate’s and Keegan’s, there was a lot of swearing.

“What’s going on?” Corbin asked.

“Skye got another email. She’s on the way to the police station,” he said.

“And we are all going down too,” Jim said.

“No,” Tate said. “I know you want to. I get it. But I can tell you right now, it’s not going to go over well. Not for my boss and not for Skye.”

“The three of us should go,” Keegan said. “We got the texts. She knows we are all together, right, Ash?”

“I’m positive she does. If you don’t mind, I’ll bring her over after. Bring her to the house.”

“I’ll make sure Carrie has dinner ready for everyone. Tell Skye she doesn’t have a choice in this.”

He didn’t think his girlfriend was going to care for those words, but it didn’t matter. He’d bring her to her family home if he had to carry her there kicking and screaming.

They had to stick together.

He left with Tate and Keegan, the three of them pulling out and heading in the same direction.

He hit the dashboard, found Ford’s number and called him.

“What do you have?” Ford asked.

“She got another email. We all just got a text and are heading to the police station now. I’ll keep you posted what it says.”

“I expect you will,” Ford said. “You’re thinking Alan, aren’t you?”

He blew out a breath. “I don’t know what to think. I didn’t tell Skye’s family, but he’s been out of town and he was back yesterday. It seems like a coincidence that the article is posted and nothing and now today.”

“If he had been back yesterday, he could have done it,” Ford argued. “You’re focusing too much on one thing. What did Clay tell you?”