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“What are you getting at?” West asked, almost shoving Easton to get him to answer quicker. But West and I both knew what Easton was getting at.

“Where’s Rory?” Easton demanded.

“Rory?” Captain Reed snapped his head back, disbelief over what Easton was undoubtedly implying. “Rory is on the crew tonight. She’s here. She couldn’t have?—”

“Maybe not,” Easton started backing away, “but she knew how I lost my parents. She had been doing everything she could to get in between Jesse and me. It's too much of a coincidence”

Without hesitating, I backed up and started looking around for the blonde that had been after Easton for as long as I could remember. It seemed unlikely she would go as far as setting a house on fire, but it was worth it to question her.

With the fire gear on, everyone looked the same, and I was having a hard time distinguishing who was who. But as my eyes scanned the second time, I saw her. She was the only one walking backward, and had pulled her helmet off. Her eyes were wide in disbelief. She looked as though she was on the verge of a panic attack and wasn’t helping with the efforts to get the fire to ebb.

Hoping like hell Easton let me do my job, I started walking her way, trying not to bombard her. She looked as though one false move and she’d run, and the last thing I wanted to do was chase her down.

When she saw me getting closer, our eyes locked and she took a step back, shaking her head as if to tell me, “no.” Then she looked behind me, her cries getting heavier and instead of shaking her head, she began screaming. “No!”

In my periphery, I saw Easton nearly flanking me, with West by his side keeping him in check. Rory saw his face, the ire and distress, and she knew exactly why we were there.

“Rory?” I shouted. “We need to talk.”

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” she yelled. “He said she wasn’t home. He said no one would get hurt.”

He?

Before I could ask her to explain, she was on the ground, the intensity causing her to pass out, and she was immediately surrounded by EMTs. I instructed them to get her to the hospital and for another officer to ride along, keeping a close eye on her until we could question her further.

Then I took a step back and looked up at the stars. West had pulled Easton back a few feet, and he was once again in a catatonic state of disbelief. If something happened to Jesse and Max, he’d never recover. He’d never be okay.

He and Jesse were just getting started, and it was obvious when I saw them together at the festival that they were special. Easton may have been worried she’d push him away for good, but I never doubted that she’d realize when it came to Easton, he’d love her with all his heart. Not just her but her son as well. Easton was one of the good ones.

When I settled back down, I was refocused and was determined to help in any way possible. I may not have been able to fight the fire, but just like the night my parents died, the police were still needed on the scene.

My eyes skimmed over the neighbors that had gathered at the edge. Officers were creating a barrier so they didn’t get too close but everyone was too distraught and there was no need for more officers. The ones there seemed to have control.

So I started to turn and check out the other side of the scene when something, or should I say someone, caught my eye. In the middle of the neighbors, who were crying with fear and terror, aman in a blue polo shirt was looking on. Unlike everyone else, he seemed stoic and aloof.

But it wasn’t his actions that made him stand out, it was his age. The neighborhood where Jesse lived was filled with older residents of Harmony Haven. When West had bought the house, we joked that he couldbuythem all and make it a retirement community. But he had always hoped to revamp and create beautiful homes for the next generation.

And as far as I knew, Jesse was the only person in the neighborhood under the age of sixty. So what was that guy doing there? What made him want to stand by and watch the horror of a house—with two possible victims—burn to the ground?

As if he could sense that I was staring, he turned his head and we locked eyes. Even with it being dark, and even with the distance between us, I recognized him from straight on. He was the man who had been with Rory at the bar the night she was acting so weird. I thought they were on a date, but what if he was the ‘he’ Rory was talking about?

Without another thought, I ran as fast as possible and started yelling for the officers to apprehend the man in the blue shirt. But he had started running the second he saw the realization on my face, and the only hope I had of catching him was if I could run faster.

Chapter Forty

EASTON

The fire had startedto wane, but the smoke still filled the street and the area around the house.

All I could do was lie there, on my back, on the asphalt. I had tried Jesse’s phone until my phone died, leaving her voicemail after voicemail, pleading with her to call me back.

Tears continued to seep from the corner of my eyes, falling onto the street below my head. It was a good thing the road was still closed off, because I’d have laid there in hopes of being hit by a car just to ease the fear and pain inside my chest.

“Miles just took off after someone,” West knelt down next to me. “Maybe he’s figured something out.”

It was enough to get me to sit up, but I didn’t dare stand. If I did, I knew I’d run to the fucking clinic where they took Rory, and strangle her. She’d gone too far. Way past anything that I could have imagined her being capable of.

“He said no one would get hurt.”

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