Page 18 of Inferno

Samantha told them both bye, and she and Romeo headed for their car. It would smell like smoke—and Julio. That was the last thing she needed when her life was a carefully constructed attempt to not be reminded of him…

And everything she’d lost.

“It doesn’t exactly fit a pattern.”

She glanced at Romeo over the hood of the car, the moon low in the sky behind him. “And you’re an expert at arson investigation now?”

“I might be by morning.”

“Thought you were busy trying to find out who my breakfast companion was.”

“You’re gonna kick a heartbroken man when he’s down?” Romeo clutched his chest. “I need something to do to keep my mind from wandering to the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” He paused. “Hey, did she say anything about me after the diner? Did she ask who I was?”

Samantha got in the car, shaking her head. When Romeo slid into the passenger seat, she told him, “If you quit asking about her, I’ll let you drive.”

He made a stabbing motion into his heart with an imaginary knife. “You know how to wound a man. Maybe I know how Julio feels more than I realized.”

Samantha jerked around and pinned him with a stare. “Don’t.”

Tears burned in the back of her eyes.

“Whoa, Sam. I didn’t know.” He reached out but didn’t touch her. “Sorry. I don’t know what I’m talking about.”

“And you feel like you’re stepping in a minefield.”

“Yeah, actually.”

“Then stay out of the field,” she warned. “That way you don’t have to worry about where to step.”

She headed for the station so they could clock out and get home. Today had spiraled in a way neither of them expected, but that was the nature of the job.

“We have plenty of other cases,” she added. “Maybe tomorrow we…”

“See other people?” Romeo shifted in his seat, glancing in the side mirror. “We’re partners. Sorry to break it to you, but you’re stuck with me. And apparently the guy who is following us. He doesn’t know three’s a crowd.”

Samantha gripped the wheel. “There’s traffic out here. No one is following us.”

Still, she drove in circles just to be sure. Looped the block a couple of times. Past the Walmart, and by the library back to the police station downtown—their hub.

But didn’t see anyone tailing them.

SEVEN

Julio sipped on the tea he was going to tellno onehe had in his coffee cup. It tasted slightly of coffee, the way hotel coffeemakers did when someone tried to simply heat water in them. So he was probably getting some coffee molecules. The tea was one his mom had told him would ease his throat.

He’d spent an hour on his day off on video chat with them, while they sat on a bench in the park at the retirement community where they lived in Florida. A place that had full services for deaf residents.

The front doors slid open, and he ducked into the foyer of the Benson Fire Department’s main office, two buildings down from the brick building that housed the PD headquarters with the feds squatting in their lobby. This place was newer and had a lot more cool features. The police department had some kind of old-world flare—now it just looked old.

Julio signed in at reception, went through the scanner, and headed up to the conference room where the meeting would start in a few minutes. Sure, he wasn’t technically supposed to be back on shift until tomorrow. But what harm would there be in getting information? Listening. Finding out what the latest was on the warehouse fire.

It definitely beat sitting at home in his empty house, trying not to think about Samantha.

Not just because the house was supposed to betheirsand she’d never even lived in it.

Julio stepped out of the elevator, spotted the department’s lead arson investigator, and lifted his chin. “Dominic.”

Captain Tennet lifted his chin back at Julio. “Meeting is about to start.”

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