Page 29 of Burning For You

Most knew her family history. Her parents were drunks, and even if they worked and there was a roof over their heads, their home life sucked.

After the fire though, that was when Ash changed.

When she moved in with the Lancasters and she had to see him more. See the concern in his eyes when he looked at her.

When he tried to get her to smile or laugh and she’d walk away to her room.

Or when he wanted to be a friend and she only wanted to be alone.

She had some regret about the way she treated him when he was only being nice.

But back then, she barely could function the rest of that school year.

Then, everyone just moved on. Including Ash.

His attention was less on her when he came over. Just a hi or goodbye, and that was it. It was for the best.

“Hey, can I talk to the captain?” she asked one of the officers. “Skye Lancaster, reporting.”

“Tate’s baby sister, right?”

She forced her smile. If it got her closer, she didn’t care.

“That’s me.”

“Hang on, and we’ll get the captain over here for you. Can’t have you crossing the line.”

“No problem.”

She waited when the officer waved the captain over. He knew her now, blew out a breath and prepared himself to start answering her questions.

“Hi, Captain Richards. First question, do you suspect it’s the same person from the two previous fires?”

“We’ll know more after the fire inspector completes his report.”

“But surely you’ve got an idea already?” she asked, her cell phone recording the conversation.

“An idea and facts are two different things. I’m sure you’re aware of that.”

She smiled, tried to keep it friendly. “I know exactly. I’m just trying to get those facts for the people. We all want to know if we’ve got anything to worry about. Like a potential arsonist on the loose.”

“For now, we are treating this like we do any other fire. Nothing will be released just yet. But I’m sure you’ll be the first one to call for that report tomorrow.”

She laughed. “You know it.”

She opened her mouth to ask another question when his radio went off of another car fire. An electric car this time.

That was going to be worse. Much worse and not as easily put out.

“Sorry,” Captain Richards said. “Got to go.” He turned to the officer who had called him over. “Keep the scene closed off until the inspector is here!”

Skye had two choices. She could stay and try to get more information on this, or she could follow the captain to the next fire because, without her scanner, she didn’t know where it was.

Thankfully, she was in sneakers and took off for her car a block over, hoping she could catch up.

And when she did. When she pulled into that blaze in the driveway of a home in a residential area, she knew things were escalating.

This one was different though.