Page 4 of Property of the Hellfire Riders

“I thought you had the night off,” Reynolds asks in a calm voice.

Tensed and on edge, I turn on the balls of my feet, hoping to hide Laina from his direct line of sight, but he’s the lead detective at our police department. There’s little I can do to keep anything from him, so I hope confidence is all I need to play this off. I have no idea how he’d react to knowing I gave a photojournalist unauthorized access to a crime scene.

Laina doesn’t miss a beat, stepping out of the exit before he can even get a good look at her, unless he already had upstairs.

“Didn’t want to miss a case as big as this,” I say. It’s convincing enough. I hope.

His eyes follow mine for a moment, then drop down to my empty hands. He cocks an eyebrow, tilting his head.

“No camera?”

I shake my head.

“Just finished up actually. It’s in my car.”

Before he has time to push the matter further, Officer Maxwell, a rookie cop grabs his shoulder.

“The Hellfire Rid?—“

“I know,” Reynolds cuts him off. He gives me a hard, calculated look. It’s impossible to know what’s going on behind his dark eyes, or if he’s bought my excuse, though none of it really was a lie.

“See you at the office, Isabella,” he says, as he smooths his perfectly pressed dress suit to follow Officer Maxwell, his long coat swishing behind him. I let out a shaky breath as he vanishes into the crowd, becoming just another body in the masses.

I hurry outside into the dark night, searching for Laina. She's waiting by my car, shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot.

“Everything good?” she asks breathlessly, watching me with wide eyes as I whip open my car door.

“If by good you mean that I still have my job? I don’t know.”

“It’ll be fine, Izzy. I promise.”

I give her a half smile.

“Did you get some good pics at least?”

She nods as she gets into the car and buckles her seat... “Hell yeah, I did. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

My foot slams down hard on the gas pedal as we peel out of there.

"That was way too close," I say, biting my lip.

“Don’t worry about Reynolds.”

My fingers tighten around the steering wheel. It’s not Reynolds, I’m worried about. It’s them. Their sharp gazes haunt my mind still, watching me as if at any moment their hungry eyes could completely undress me all with one look. The Hellfire Riders saw us at the crime scene.

I need to be more careful. We both do.

We’re playing with fire now, deadly, terrifying fire and if we continue like this, we might end up more than burned.

2

IZZY

Istare at the coffee maker on my kitchen counter wishing it’d move a bit faster. I hardly slept last night. My mind kept me up for hours, thinking about the Hellfire Riders. Their intensity was almost hypnotizing. I grab a mug off the top shelf and fill it up.

“Good morning.”

I jump at Laina’s voice. I’d almost forgotten she slept in my guest bedroom last night. Neither one of us wanted to be alone after what we saw.

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