Page 21 of Inferno

“You look a lot better than the last time we saw you,” Romeo said.

Julio held his hand out, and Romeo shook it. “Thanks. I feel a whole lot better.”

“You really think there’s an arsonist out there?”

“Guess it’s our job to find out. Shut him down.”

Samantha turned, in the hall now. “Like that guy…what was it, twenty years ago? I remember watching a TV special on it.”

He knew exactly what she was talking about. “Wanna meet up later. Compare notes?”

Samantha lifted her chin, just a fraction, but he knew what it meant before she said, “I’m not sure there’s anything to say.”

Romeo wandered off down the hall. Probably sensing the tension in the air and wanting nothing to do with something that had already turned personal.

“Sam—”

She shook her head. “I believe you already made your point loud and clear.”

Then she walked away.

EIGHT

Samantha kept her focus on her computer monitor, even though out the corner of her eye she saw Romeo glance over every now and again. Like he wanted to say something.

But what was there to say?

Julio…

She couldn’t even get into that kiss. What was the point? It wasn’t like anything had changed. Not then, and not now. She wanted to ask him what he was playing at, but this wasn’t about games and he’d never been like that anyway.

Her phone buzzed with another text from her sister, but she ignored it. Kept working.

A cup of coffee was set down in front of her.

She tipped her head to the side and eyed Romeo. “Thanks?”

“Fine. It’s not a peace offering. I want to know.” He circled the end of their desks and sat back down at his, opposite her.

They weren’t the only ones in the office right now. An older detective sat at his desk, headphones on. Probably making notes from a recorded interview. The sergeant was in her office with the door closed.

Even if no one was around to hear, she still didn’t exactly want to talk about it. Far easier to pretend the past hadn’t happened. Social media said to live in the now, sucked into scrolling through other people’s content. Not living her own life in the real world. She liked to disassociate as much as the next person. Sometimes with this job, it was entirely necessary to disappear into funny cat videos and snippets from comedians.

It could save a person’s sanity, in fact.

Pretty much anything was better than getting dragged back into the past, even just in her mind.

“Tell me what happened between you and Julio.”

Samantha held on to her mug, trying to warm her hands. Elbows tight to her sides. She probably looked like a victim, being interviewed after major trauma. “We were together.”

Romeo studied her. “For how long?” he finally asked.

“Years. A lot of years. We met in middle school. We stuck together, because both of us didn’t quite fit in the hearing world and we didn’t really fit in deaf culture either. So we carved out our own subset of each, and we lived there together all through school. I went to college, and he fought wildfires in Alaska for a while. We drifted in different directions and saw other people. I did, anyway. I never asked if he saw someone else. After I’d been a cop for a few months, we bumped into each other on a callout. He was back here, with the fire department in Benson.”

Their relationship had been like a dormant fire that came to life again in a flash.

Ignition.

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