Because she hadn’t wanted to bury another friend, hadn’t wanted to see the dark casket slide into the ground. All the damn flowers surrounding the giant hole in the ground, their scent choking her.
“I’ll tell her.” Silence, then, “Lora? Lora, you still there?”
“I’m here.”
“You did damn good, you hear me? You got him out. You did damn good.”
“Thanks, Chief.” She hung up the phone. Lora stared down at her hands and saw the splatter of teardrops hit her fingers.
“Heard you and Lora are getting… close.”
Seth’s words froze Kenton right in front of the hollowed-out shell of the Randalls’ house on Millway. “And where the hell did you hear that?”
Seth glanced back, his eyes narrowed. “I used to work in that station. I got friends there, and station gossip travels fast.”
And Lora had bold-as-you-please announced to her chief that they were sleeping together. Kenton grunted. “Don’t really see how this is any of your business.”
Two men came out. They pushed a gurney, one carrying a zipped-up black bag. Randall.
That bag sure didn’t look very big.
“Lora and I don’t always see eye to eye.”
Kenton glanced back at him.
“But I respect her, and I respected Carter. I was there that night. When Carter got caught in the flames, I saw her—” His lips pressed into a thin line. “Lora needs to heal. She hasn’t had time to—”
Fuck this. Kenton stepped close to him, toe-to-toe. “Work the case and let me f**king worry about Lora.” Because the last thing he needed was this prick telling him how to handle his woman.
Oh, Christ.
The thought registered two seconds too late.
His.
But she was. Because even in the midst of this hell, he could smell her. Her scent was on him, pushing back the smoke. He could taste her, feel her against him.
“She’s using you, man.” Seth’s hands formed tight fists. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but I know her, and I’m trying to help you.”
Like he needed this shit.
“She’s done it before, Lake. You’re not him. She won’t—”
What the hell? “Work the damn case,” he ordered. Because this guy was pushing, and in another three seconds, Kenton was gonna push back.
Seth whirled around and almost slammed into the guys hauling out a second gurney, one carrying another black bag.
Two? “No one told me there was another body inside.” Monica hadn’t known either. This changed things. Shit.
Seth tossed a fast glance over his shoulder. “Michael Randall started playing with fire when he was six years old, right around the time his mother started burning him with her cigarettes.” Seth’s eyes glittered at him. “Hailey… had a bad problem with booze.”
The gurney rolled past them, the wheels grinding.
“To a screwed-up kid, fire became love.” Seth shook his head. “This time, he showed his mother one hell of a lot of love.”
Hell. “You knew about the second body? Why didn’t you tell us?”
Seth held up his phone. “Got the call on the way here. Haven’t ID’d her yet, won’t, until the dental records come back, but I know Hailey was here. This was her place. Techs say her booze started the fire.”
No, that would have been her son.
Right around the time his mother started burning him with cigarettes. Fuck. Didn’t people understand? Didn’t they get it? Half the bastards he chased, they weren’t evil because of some chemical imbalance. They were twisted because they’d been taught to act that way.
A victim one day, a killer the next. It was the way nature worked.
Kenton felt the same disgust that he saw in Seth’s eyes as they watched the two bags get loaded into the van. Two lives gone. Hauled away like garbage.
“Come on, Special Agent,” Seth said as he grabbed some airtight containers from the back of the vehicle. Evidence collection. “Let’s go work the f**king case.”
Kenton stepped forward, but then the purr of a car’s engine froze him. He glanced up and saw Lora driving up to the scene.
Seth spun away and headed for the house.
Kenton stalked toward Lora. When she parked, he pulled open the car door. “You’re supposed to be resting.”
Her face looked pale and a bit strained. “I need to keep working this case with you.”
He forced his teeth to unlock. He was worried about her, but the damn truth was that he could use her eyes. MacIntyre had missed evidence before. Kenton didn’t want to risk another mistake.
So he stepped back and let Lora exit the car. They walked together toward the blackened entrance of the house. She hesitated near the steps for a long moment. Kenton was reminded of her stumbling out of the burning house again, her hands locked on Wade.
She straightened her shoulders and went inside.
“There are multiple points of origin on this one,” Seth called out.
“There had to be,” Lora said as her gaze drifted around the shell of the house. “When Randall came out, he had lighters in both hands. Liquid accelerant was everywhere, and he was lighting the place up as fast as he could.”
Kenton brushed his fingers down her arm and saw the slight shiver that shook her body. “You okay?”
Her eyes found his. “He almost took out one of my team members last night. Hell, no, I’m not okay.” Her shoulders straightened. “But I’m not broken either.”
No, she wasn’t.
“Got something back here!” Seth’s voice had Kenton tensing. Carefully, they made their way through the small house. Seth was in the back room, crouched low. The room was blackened, charred far worse than many of the other areas.
Seth glanced back at them and grunted. “Another point of origin.” He gestured before him. “The female victim’s remains were found here. Based on the placement, the techs think she was sleeping when the fire started.”
“Any signs she was restrained?” Kenton asked, but the room had been burned to hell and back, so he doubted that any evidence had been left behind.
Seth exhaled on a hard sigh as he sealed one of the containers that he’d carried into the room. “Hailey loved her booze. Odds are good the woman was passed out. If she didn’t try to escape, I doubt she even realized the fire was around her.”
Dead to the world.
“Broken bottles were all around the interior of the house,” Lora said, and her voice was far more subdued than normal. Right, because she’d almost died there the night before. “Looks like Hailey’s alcohol was the accelerant.”