Page 19 of Wild Fires

“Or, hear me out here, we're a town of raven shifters. Ravens have black feathers and one of us is always flying around here. Feathers sometimes come off and fall to the ground. It could still be complete coincidence.”

He side-eyed me, then turned with a cocky grin. “Maybe, but we're keeping an open mind—about everything.”

His eyes darted to my lips and then lower before snapping up to meet mine.

For once in my life, I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just nodded. But when I licked my lips self-consciously, I could have sworn I saw a swirl of green in Ryan's otherwise dark eyes.

“Walk me through what you think happened here,” he surprised me by saying.

“Uh, okay.”

We were in a random field along the side of the highway. It could have just as easily been considered a random incident, a cigarette flicked from a vehicle, or a number of other random possibilities. But no one was buying that. It would be too coincidental, plus there was a lack of key ingredients.

"All fires need three basic things: oxygen, heat, and fuel. There's plenty of oxygen out here. Heat could come from various sources. But there is still no obvious signs of fuel, no gasoline, kerosene, nothing. Plus, it rained three days ago, so just a spark on dry grass was not the case here.”

I spent the next half hour walking through every detail of the case that I could remember, including showing him where we found the match. The match was becoming a telltale sign for me and explained the heat portion of each of the fires.

“You know the match could be his calling instead of the feather,” I said.

“It could be,” he conceded. “Or it could be the combination of the two. I'm just saying to keep an open mind.”

And then he winked at me.

Something told me he was here to play as well. I couldn't allow myself to admit I just might be out of my league with this guy, but I just couldn't back down from a challenge, no matter what.

Ryan

Chapter 7

I walked into my apartment and sank down on the couch. It had been a long day. Gracie and I had visited each site that Clarence thought was connected to the arsonist. They were all in places that could have been just as easily attributed to accidents. With the matchstick and the feather, despite her feelings about it, we had a commonality between the fires. It was certainly a start.

The need for a change of pace had surprised me. I honestly didn't know I needed it before today. But the thrill of a case to solve felt good.

And then there was Gracie. I didn't know what to do about her. My body knew exactly what it wanted to do with her, but I wasn't convinced that would ever happen, or that I truly even wanted it.

Checking the time, I frowned. It was half an hour past my targeted dinnertime. I would have asked Gracie to join me, but after she shot me down for lunch, I wasn't too keen on repeating that.

I should have gotten up and fixed myself something, but I really wasn't feeling up to it. Instead, I did something I never did—I called my sister and asked her to send dinner home with Kim for me.

There had to be some benefit to living next door to her and my brother.

I knew it would be a while before she got off work, so dinner would be a lot later than I was used to. I hated my schedule being disrupted, but if it needed to happen, today was the day for it.

Grabbing the remote, I turned on the television and started a movie. The main character had silky long black hair and I found myself fantasizing about Gracie again. Why couldn’t I just get her out of my mind?

The movie star looked nothing like her, yet it triggered something primal within me. And pretty much every raven shifter had jet black hair. My sister Gia, with her red curls, seemed to be the exception.

Why couldn't I stop thinking about Gracie?

My body was responding uncomfortably every time I even thought her name and was growing hard quickly.

I reached down to readjust myself and damn if I wasn't sporting full wood. I was going to have to do something about this. Just as I started to unbutton my pants, there was a knock at the door.

I sprang up like I'd just touched fire or been caught doing something I shouldn't have. Both scenarios seemed appropriate when it came to Gracie.

For a half a second my heart raced wondering if she was just on the other side of the door. Who else could it be? No one ever visited me.

Fixing my pants, I jumped up and practically ran for the door, but when I swung it open, I was met with disappointment. Elias.

---