Page 5 of Burning for the Truth

“I know, and I know you aren’t fishing for me to say it too. But you should know I feel the same way. I’m not the best at always expressing my feelings with words. I can show you all day long, and FYI, I plan to later tonight.” I smile at him longingly.

He kisses me once more and adds, “I want you to know I love being with you and I hope one day we’ll be so lucky as to achieve what your brother and Tate have. That’s a goal I want to chase with you. And FYI, I can’t wait for you to show me what you’re feeling.”

He winks at me as we’re served our dinner and my parents take their seats at our table across from us. He easily begins conversation with my dad as I watch his handsome profile. I don’t know how I got so lucky to be his girlfriend, but I can certainly say I’m counting my lucky stars.

For the briefest few seconds, my thoughts drift to Dean. I don’t know why because the same thing is as true now as it ever was all those years ago—Dean and I will only ever be friends.As I continue to fall more in love with Drew, I find myself burying any remaining ember of the old crush I used to have. After that summer when he broke my teenaged heart, I didn’t want to still have any reaction to him, but I always have.

That’s why we nitpick each other so much. But moving forward with Drew is making it a lot easier to put the past where it belongs—behind me. It was only ever truly real to me anyway. It was a one-way, forbidden street I should’ve never turned down in the first place. And now, I’m more certain of that and my feelings for Drew than ever.

I’m jarred awake by Drew’s phone ringing on the nightstand by my bed. His bare muscular chest is pressed against my back with his arms wrapped around me protectively. He kisses my neck before turning over to answer his phone. “Hello?” he says in a sleep-laden voice.

Suddenly, he shifts and sits up making me shake off any lingering effects of sleep. In our lines of work, calls in the middle of the night are never good. We’re both first responders…I’m a police officer and he’s a firefighter.

“I’m on my way.” He ends the call and grabs his clothes mixed with mine that we left on the floor earlier. I sit up and bend my knees, rubbing the last bits of sleep from my eyes as he turns on the bedside lamp.

“Is everything okay?” I ask even though I know he wouldn’t be getting a call if it was. This isn’t his shift, so if he’s getting a late-night call, there’s more to it and they’re calling in reinforcements.

“There’s been a fire at Wally’s. It appears to be arson, so Chief wants me and Dean to have a look with him and B shift’s officers.” My heart skips a beat and I grip the sheet to my chest.

“Was anyone hurt?” I ask immediately, fear surging through me.

“No one was there thankfully, but Serena got the call from the alarm company and the fire was put out before it could do a lot of damage,” he answers as he slides on his boots. Now my fear that someone was hurt has turned to anger.

“Why does Chief Holden think it’s arson, Drew?” He switches off the light again and grabs his wallet and keys before walking around to my side of the bed.

He cups my face with his calloused hand. “I don’t know yet, babe. But Chief Holden knows what he’s doing, so I have no doubt he’s probably right.”

I stare at him with worry—worry for him and all the firefighters that will no doubt be on alert now, along with Serena. I don’t understand who would target her or her gym. She doesn’t have the first enemy. Everyone loves her, first responder and civilian alike.

“Don’t worry, Bree. We’ll get to the bottom of it. I promise.” He kisses me on the lips and pulls back. “I have to go. I love you.”

He starts to walk away, and I grab his hand. “Be safe. Promise me. I don’t like this. I don’t like it at all. I’ve got a bad feeling even though I don’t know the first detail. Call it my cop sense or a gut feeling. It simply feels…wrong to me.” I shiver at the thought.

He leans his head to mine. “I’ll call you as soon as I can. It’s going to take a little while to investigate the scene. Who knows, we may end up working together on this one, depending on what we find. And I’ll try my best to be careful…I promise.” He kisses me again before turning to leave.

“Drew.” He stops short of the door and faces me. “I love you.” I smile through the worry now taking residence in my heart.

He winks at me and says, “I love you too, Bree.” And with that, he exits my loft apartment—it’s above the general store downstairs—and leaves me in silence with my thoughts. My mind is already spinning with ideas of how to help investigate this case.

Every first responder and anyone with ties to Serena and her gym are a big family. Serena is the heart of us all, and I know we’ll do everything we can to help close this case and be there for whatever she might need in the meantime.

I only hope I’m overreacting to my cop senses, or whatever you want to call them. I hope this is all an unfortunate accident and nothing more. But even as my heart hopes I’m wrong, my head tells me it’s wishful thinking.

The bad feeling that settled into my stomach after the call from Chief Holden is now locked and loaded in my chest. “What does it mean?” I ask with Chiefs Ryan Holden and Grayson Trudeau, Sterling, Drew, and B shift Lieutenant Slade Gregory and Sergeant Alex Carter standing beside me in our mobile incident command center, provided by our local Emergency Management Agency.

“That’s what I want to know and what we need to find out before something else happens,” Chief Trudeau says immediately. Theitin question is a black metal box left at the entrance to the room we all spar in. The mat room, as we like to call it, is at the heart of the gym, in its center. There’s a weight room, a room with treadmills, ellipticals, stair climbers, and any other workout machine you can think of. Then you have the locker room, the showers, an office, and a room most would consider a break room.

The mat room is where we all either spar or take any available classes we’re interested in. After we checked the metal box with a thermal imaging camera, we donned our gloves and carefully opened the box. Inside was a piece of paper that read“a heart for a heart”which has us all scratching our heads.

Sterling chimes in, “Well, I’ll point out the obvious first…Serena Lawson is the heart of all first responders and this gym is part of her heart. We all know that. More literally, the fire was set in the mat room, which is the heart of this gym. So, is someone going after Serena personally? Or is this something else entirely?” He crosses his arms over his chest with furrowed brows and his lips pressed together.

We hear voices outside the door of the mobile command center before Serena throws the door open, searching each of our faces for answers. Her stare lingers a little longer on Chief Holden than anyone else. He’s about the same age as Serena, maybe a couple years younger, and I’m not going to lie, I’ve always suspected they had feelings for each other. Chief Holden is divorced and has a daughter in college. But it’s none of my business, so I keep those thoughts to myself.

Behind Serena stands Hart Thorne, Sterling’s partner and the only other detective in Greendale Valley. He was recently promoted to detective. He’s a good guy and has proven himself many times before and since making detective. Behind Hart is Jason Prentiss, the EMA director.

“Tell me what you know,” Serena says matter-of-factly before pushing inside, leaving way for Hart and Jason. There’s pain swirling in her eyes even as she tries to mask it…they’re red-rimmed. Wally’s has been here since before her husband passed. It’s like whoever did this is trying to take him away from her again.

Chief Holden speaks this time. “We don’t have any answers right now. But I can promise you we’re going to get to the bottom of this.” He holds her stare before turning to Chief Trudeau. “Grayson, can you assign cars to watch her house until we figure this out?”

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