Page 22 of Lethal Game

"I'm on it."

As he ended the call, he saw Alisa on her phone. "The test was negative?" she asked, then listened for a moment. "Okay, thanks."

"How's your mom?" he asked.

"Her brain scan was normal. But she's sleeping again, and her vitals are still weak. Dr. Grayson will stop by my mother's room in about an hour. Do you think we'll be out of here by then?"

"I think so. Help should be here shortly. It's good that her scan was normal."

"It is. But we still don't know what's wrong with her." She blew out a breath. "At least we've ruled out one more thing. I guess that's something." She looked back at her phone. "I should call Jerry, too, my mom's neighbor." She punched in another number on her phone. "Hello? Jerry? Can you hear me?" She frowned. "Jerry, are you there?" Then she swore. "Damn. The phone just dropped the call."

"You can call him later. There's nothing you can do about the fire now. I'll talk to the fire department and find out what happened. I'm guessing it was arson."

She met his gaze. "Arson? Why? Because…someone just tried to kill me?"

Her shaky voice made him want to give her another hug, but he dug his hands into his pockets to stop that from happening. He didn't need to confuse the situation any further. "Yes, that's why. Someone must have tampered with your car last night, assuming at some point you'd be back to get it. The good news is there are probably cameras in the garage, so maybe we'll be able to see who did it."

"I just don't understand why someone would want to kill me. I'm nobody. I'm just a nurse. I don't have money. I'm not tied to anyone important. I've never broken the law or hurt anyone that I know of. I'm an ordinary, rather boring person." She gave him a baffled look. "Why would someone hate me this much?"

"It's not about hate, Alisa. And there's something about your life that is not as ordinary as you think it is. I suspect your missing father might be in the middle of it all."

"Why?"

"Because of your mother's undiagnosed illness and the two attempts on your life."

"Two?" she echoed. "Right. It wasn't just a carjacking or a kidnapping. They were probably going to kill me. I was right when I thought I might not survive getting in that car."

"Considering what just happened here, I think you made the smart decision last night to fight like your life depended on it, because it did." He felt a wave of anger on her behalf because Alisa seemed like an incredibly nice person, a loyal daughter, a woman who worked at a job caring for others. She didn't deserve any of this.

But a small voice in his head cautioned him not to let his admiration for her cloud his judgment. Maybe she wasn't as innocent as she appeared to be. Perhaps she knew more than she was saying.

But that seemed doubtful. She had very expressive eyes. He didn't think she'd be a good liar. Every emotion she had was revealed in her gaze. He'd seen that firsthand a few minutes ago when her sparks of desire had lit the fire inside him.

The sound of sirens sent both their gazes to the hillside.

"We'll be out of here soon," he said, then paused. "Alisa?—"

"Don't," she said quickly. "We don't need to talk about it."

"Okay, but if that changes…"

"It won't." She smiled at him. "I do want to say, however, that I'm sorry I got you into this. When you were unconscious…" Her smile faded. "I felt a lot of guilt that I might have been responsible for you dying, and I couldn't stand that idea. You were just being kind to me by dealing with my fears and look at what happened."

"I wasn't just being kind. Your series of problems intrigued me, and I started wondering if the kidnapping attempt wasn't as random as I thought it was. I didn't think you should drive because you were shaky, but a part of me also wanted to go with you to see what was going on with the fire at your parents' house. We're going to figure it out, Alisa."

"The FBI will get involved in this?" she asked.

"Yes. We'll see where the investigation leads us."

"Do you think it will lead to the man you were looking for yesterday?"

Her question sent a chill through him. "I hope not because he's a terrible person."

She shivered at his words. "Now I'm sorry I asked."

"I don't want to lie to you, Alisa."

"You shouldn't lie because, clearly, I need to know what's going on before someone tries to do this again. I do not want the third time to be the charm."

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