Page 22 of Ink and Ashes
Mom and Dad share a glance across the table, collectivelyhumming.
“So, you like this Holland, hm?” Mom asks.
I shake my head. “God, no. She’s been my biggest headache over the past few weeks.”
Dad’s brows pull together. “More so than the fires?”
“More so than the fires.” I pause. “She’s here to investigate them. Thinks there’smore to the storythan we’re seeing.”
Dad sits up straighter, his brows tight. “Well, is there?”
“No,” Beau, Liv, and I say at once.
“Maybe,” Cass says at the same time, while Dom stares down at the table.
Everyone is silent as we all direct our attention to her.
“What do you meanmaybe?” I ask my sister.
She shrugs, shifting in her seat while avoiding eye contact with me. “I’ve been talking to her a bit. I met her yesterday at the station, and she seemed like she needed a friend, so I gave her my number. We’re going to meet up for coffee later this week.”
“Cassidy…” I say, disappointment laced in my tone. I may not be able to stop the guys at the station from talking to her, but I thought, at the very least, I could count on my sister to listen.
She rolls her eyes in typical Cassidy Caldwell fashion. “Col, you can’t chase away everyone who has a differing opinion from you. And honestly, the stuff she told me at the station yesterday makes sense. You really should hear her out.”
I grit my teeth together. I’m damn wellnotgoing to hear her out, but I’m also not about to curse my sister out at my parents’ dinner table.
“What do you have against her?” Cass asks, sensing my tension.
My brows tighten. “You know what I have against her.”
Cass shakes her head. “We know what you have against the press in general. But not everyone in that field is predatory like the ones who?—”
I cut her off. “I don’t care. She’s sniffing around where she doesn’t belong and it’s only going to get her into trouble.”
“Sweetie, if your sister thinks this Holland woman is ontosomething, it might be worth listening.”
My shoulders fall. “Cass isn’t a firefighter, Mom.”
“I think me not being a firefighter lets me see things more clearly than you do sometimes,” Cass argues, rolling her lips together.
“Do you know her theory, Cass?” I ask, staring at my sister.
“Not fully, but?—”
“Well, I do.” I shake my head. “She thinks it’s arson.”
The room around me falls silent.
I hadn’t told anyone, not even Beau and Dom, about Holland’s theory. After she left yesterday, Ethan and Hayden shared that she told them about it, and they both promised to keep quiet. The last thing we need is for a rumour about arson to start spreading around town. I’m not sure if she spoke to anyone else when she was at the station—aside from Cassidy, apparently—but I haven’t heard anything, so I’m guessing not.
I was trying to keep her theory under wraps. But considering my sister is jumping at the chance to befriend her when she doesn’t even know what she’s here for, I couldn’t keep it from her.
Cassidy has no clue what she’s talking about—just like Holland Rhodes.
“You didn’t tell me that,” Beau says, his brows furrowed.
I swallow. “I was trying to keep it quiet. We all know she’s wrong, and she’ll figure that out soon enough.”
