Page 92 of Burning For You

“I’m not mad. It’s just... just uncomfortable to have so much attention on me. I never wanted this. I don’t like it.”

Ash slung his arm over her shoulder and tugged her closer. “You’ll get used to it.”

“That’s because you always like to be the center of attention.” She wanted to fling his arm off but wouldn’t in front of everyone. His smirk said he knew exactly what she was thinking too.

“I do, but I’m not an ass over it. I’m not reckless with it either.” Ash looked around the room at her family. “It’s better if everyone knows she’s being watched. If someone is going to make a move, there are eyes everywhere on her.”

“But if it’s who I brought up, would it even matter?” she asked.

“Who do you think it is?” Keegan demanded.

“Yeah,” Tate said. “I haven’t heard anything.”

Ash almost snarled next to her.

“I’m sorry,” she said, patting his leg. “I’m going with facts.”

“They are loose facts at that.”

“Someone tell us what is going on,” Keegan said, his voice harsher.

“It doesn’t leave this room,” Ash said. “We don’t need this out and ruining a good man’s name because he was at all of these fires.”

“But it should be looked into,” Tate argued. “You damn well know it. Who is it?”

“Alan Mitchell,” Ash said. “A fellow fireman. And he’s had a good explanation for being at them all and at one he was fighting right there with me when he was called in.”

There was silence in the room to that statement. “Tell us your reasons,” her father said. “Just so we know.”

“I noticed him at the first two fires I was at,” Skye said. “The car fires. He was talking and I went to introduce myself and when he said who he was, I asked him more questions.”

“Did he want to talk about it?” Keegan asked.

She frowned. “No. He said he had no answers. He was almost annoyed over it all happening.”

“That’s right,” Ash said. “Because we know what it means. We are putting our lives on the line every call we get.”

She didn’t need that reminder.

Nor Tate and Keegan nodding their heads because they went through the same.

“Keep going,” her mother said. “Why do you suspect him other than that he’s been there for every fire?”

“That’s really all I’ve got,” she said. “I wasn’t at the first one. I asked Ash to find out if it was Alan’s shift or not because it wasn’t Ash’s.”

“Was it?” Tate asked.

“No. It wasn’t. And I don’t know if he was even at it and I can’t very well ask him or anyone else working that day.”

“No,” Keegan said. “Don’t do it. Did you tell your chief?”

“Nope. Again, I’m not putting the suspicion on someone else. Do you know how many times a firefighter shows up at fires they aren’t fighting? Just to help. It got me thinking and Alan is at a lot of them when he’s not working. His father and his uncle were firemen too. He has a long family history there in the department. I’m not putting a mark on a guy’s name because he’s loyal and wants to help.”

“I don’t think Skye is trying to do that, are you?” her mother asked.

“No. I was asked if I had seen anyone there all the time. Ash asked me and I answered him. No one else has asked me yet.”

“The fire chief and the detective on the case haven’t?” Keegan asked, his head tilted. “That doesn’t seem right.”