Page 39 of Fast Kill

In the kitchen she opened a can of vegetable soup with noodles and poured it into her favorite mug to nuke it, then popped a couple pieces of frozen cheese bread into her toaster oven to bake. While it cooked, she carried the soup up to the loft and started the fire she kept laid in the grate.

The crackle and flicker of the flames instantly eased her anxiety level. Curled up on the couch with a throw blanket over her legs and Nimbus purring away in her lap, she ate the soup and set the cup on the coffee table with a relieved sigh. A bubble bath was definitely in order later, but right now she’d just rest her eyes for a few minutes.

Laying her head back on the cushion she wedged against the arm of the couch, she closed her eyes. Nimbus settled deeper into her lap and curled up with his fluffy tail over his nose.

When her eyes snapped open sometime later, the fire had died down to a mere flicker. A grayish haze hung in the air, and the acrid smell of smoke stung her nose.

The cheese toast.“Shit.”

She threw the blanket off her lap. Nimbus leaped down, his ears flattened against his head. Taylor ran past him, down the steps to the main level, and rushed into the kitchen. The smoke hung in a thick layer near the ceiling.

The moment she came in sight of the toaster oven, she saw the flames. “Dammit…”

Yanking the electrical cord out of the socket, she grabbed a pair of tongs from the utensil drawer and gingerly opened the toaster oven door. Two hunks of charred, smoldering toast met her gaze, little flames licking around the edges. She coughed as she hauled the pieces out and dumped the cremated remains in the sink.

God, who knew two little pieces of bread could make so much smoke?

Eyes watering, she pushed open the sliding window above the sink and grabbed a tea towel to flap it around in an attempt to clear the air. Wait, her smoke detector hadn’t gone off as she opened the window? And just how freaking much smoke did there have to be before it registered a problem?

Even more annoyed, she marched into the hallway to stare up at it on the ceiling, then noticed the little green light wasn’t on. Muttering to herself, she first crossed the room to open a few more windows, then grabbed the step ladder from the hall closet and carted it over to the smoke detector.

Flapping her hands around to create a clean pocket of air to work in, she pulled the plastic cover off. And froze.

No batteries.

That just wasn’t possible, because she’d replaced them just after Christmas, something she did every year as a precaution. She lowered the cover to her side and stared up at the unit, thinking fast.

She’d had an electrician in a few weeks ago to fix a faulty breaker and he’d done an inspection for her. Would he have removed the batteries to test it and forgotten to put them back in? Or…

Dillon.

Even as she thought it, she felt terrible. And ridiculous. What, he’d known she would come home tonight and start a fire by burning dinner? If he’d wanted to kill her, smoke inhalation from a freak incident in the kitchen wasn’t probably a top five choice. Unless she was missing something? She had to be missing something.

“God, you’re a hot mess,” she muttered to herself. Her nerves were more shot than she’d realized.

Climbing down, she got some fresh batteries from her kitchen “junk drawer”—a misnomer in her house, because as with everything else, it was neatly organized—and put them in the smoke detector.

The alarm went off within seconds, screeching in her ear.

Problem solved.

It took another twenty minutes for her to create enough human-powered wind with both arms flapping tea towels around to push the smoke out the windows she’d opened. When it was finally safe to breathe, she closed everything back up and cleaned the kitchen.

Since there was no more cheese bread to be had and she wasn’t all that hungry anymore, she poured herself a bubble bath. Soaking in the vanilla-scented water in the dimly-lit bathroom was heaven, and soon she was yawning. Changed into her favorite, ultra soft sleep shirt, she crawled between her cozy, cotton flannel sheets and read for a while.

She checked her phone first, saw Logan had messaged her while she’d been dealing with the smoke, and smiled. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen between them moving forward, but she had no regrets about kissing him last night. In fact, she wanted a whole lot more than just kissing with him. And it touched her that he’d volunteered to stay the night to make sure she was safe.

Hey, hot stuff. You home safe yet?

From anyone else the hot stuff comment would probably have irritated the shit out of her, but from him she didn’t mind. She liked knowing he found her hot.Yes. Nearly started my kitchen on fire by burning dinner, but all is well now.

Ouch! I guess I should never ask you to cook for me then?

She laughed.Probably safer not to. You still at work?

Yes. Just finished a team meeting. Want me to come over when I’m done here?

She hesitated. She had to admit she felt safer with him in the house, but she didn’t want to rush things between them and if he stayed she wasn’t sure if either one of them would be able to put the brakes on.It’s okay. Long day and I’ve got a babysitter watching the house from outside.

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