Page 43 of Light My Fire

“I’m fine.”

“Your knee—”

“I’mfine! Yeah, it hurts, but don’t you get it? Someone I care about is out there with a murderer, and I’m not going to stay put while something horrible happens to her.”

“Like your brother or your mom—”

“Yes!” He didn’t mean his outburst. “Yes. Whatever. I’m responsible for Skye—”

“And I’m responsible for you!”

He recoiled. Stared at her. “No, you’re not.”

“Yes, I am. I dragged you along—”

“Hardly. I didn’t give you a choice.”

She drew in a breath, and then her expression turned so raw, he couldn’t breathe. “I can’t have you getting hurt because of me. Alone is best.”

“What—?”

“Go back, Tuck. Wait for help—” She turned away.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

He closed the gap, grabbed her arm, and whirled her around to face him, maybe a little more forcefully than he intended. But, “Alone is not the best. Believe me, I’ve spent my entire life alone. I used to come home to a cold house every single day, alone. Make myself a pot of macaroni and cheese and eat it, alone. I dated Colleen because of her family—because I didn’t want to be alone. I wanted what they had. Family. And that’s what this team is.” He let her go with a shake of his head. “Alone isnotbest!”

She glared at him. “Alone doesn’t get people hurt. If I hadn’t dated Chad, then my dad wouldn’t be on the run with a killer right now!”

Tucker blinked at her. “Well, that’s a big leap, but—”

“It isn’t. I knew better than to date Chad. I knew…” She sucked back a breath, shook her head. “I knew he was trouble, and I did it anyway.”

For a moment, he had a flashback of Colleen staring up at him, those same words coming out of her mouth. She knew Tucker was trouble—and dated him deliberately to annoy her mother.

“What do you mean?” he said softly, almost an echo of his old disbelief.

“I mean…I was…well, I was this rough-around-the-edges, backwoods girl liked by the best-looking guy in town. I knew he was a Casanova, that he had a string of girlfriends before me, but…I wouldn’t listen. I was always the tough girl. But I wanted to be theprettygirl, the girl Chad took dancing.”

He tried to sort outthisChad from the previous jerk.

“The reason Chad and I were fighting in the parking lot that night wasn’t just because he wouldn’t take no. I was angry because I found out he had a girl on the side.”

Nope, same guy. Tucker shook his head. “Chad was a real piece of work.”

“Yeah, well, if I hadn’t been so needy…”

“It’s not needy to want to be loved.” He touched her arm. “You can’t judge every man by one, Stevie,” he said quietly.

She drew in a breath. “I know—”

“I’m not Chad.”

She nodded then. “I know. You’re not trouble.”

Oh, well. Yes, yes he was. Or had been and might still be, because then he let slip the words he probably shouldn’t have said. The words that made him cut his voice soft. “And, by the way, youarepretty.”

She stared at him. Swallowed, so much emotion in her eyes. She might as well have asked,Am I?

---